Hi, I have an upcoming interview with McK for an internship and would like to know what some of the typical personal fit questions are? Thanks
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What are some typical personal fit questions in a McKinsey interview?
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Hi Anonymous,
I agree with Guennael on the importance of the fit part; as additional details, the most likely fit questions and topics you will find are:
- Tell me about yourself (personal overview)
- Why consulting (motivational)
- Why McK (motivational)
- Give me an example when you led a team (leadership)
- Tell me about a time when you had to convince someone not agreeing with you (impact)
- What has been your major achievement so far (drive)
- Why should we hire you (motivational)
In general, you should always cover, the key areas of leadership, impact and drive for a McKinsey interview.
The best way to prepare is to complete the following checklist:
- Understand the difference between, leadership, impact and drive areas. You can find a link with their differences here: https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/mckinsey-pei-difference-drive-and-personal-impact-918#a1780
- Identify good stories for each area. Ideally you want to have at least two stories for each area. Three would be even better.
- Use a structure for your story. I would suggest to use the STARR model (Situation, Task, Action, Rational for Action, Results)
- Identify for each story one sentence clarifying what the story is about and start with it. Think of it as the title of a journal article.
- Practice live, collect feedback from people listening to you, reiterate until when you get fluent and convincing
Best,
Francesco
Why consulting
Why McK
What do you think the biggest challenge will be when you join
Tell me a time you had no idea what you were doing
Tell me a time you failed
Tell me a project you lead that you are most proud of
...
To prepare, I suggest you put things down on paper at first; once you have a good idea of what you'll want to say, start saying it to someone else, outloud. One more thing: Yes, the case interview part is the most important; do not overlook the fit though, I am constantly shocked at how bad some of the candidates' answers are. It isn't complicated, but you still need to work at it and prepare a little bit.
Good luck -
Related BootCamp article(s)
Personal Fit
Besides being great at case cracking you also need to convince the interviewer that your personality fits into a case team or in the company as a whole
Interviewer-Led vs Candidate-Led cases
Case Interviews can be led by the candidate or by the interviewer: In Candidate-led cases the main challenge is the structure. In Interviewer-led cases the main challenge is to adapt quickly
Getting Up to Speed
In order to repeatedly demonstrate prerequisite skills under the pressure of a real case interview, you need to learn the basics and practice cases.
Related case(s)
Tell me of a situation where you had an opinion and no one seemed to agree with you. What was your goal when you decided to join university / work / clubs / a sports team? Did you have a goal that you were not able to reach? What did you do? What do you want to be remembered for and how are you a ... Open whole case
What arouses your interest when you are working / studying / doing another activity (from the CV)? Tell me of a time where you had no idea what you were doing. When did you use an uncommon approach to do something? Have you ever had responsibility for other people? Tell me of a situation where y ... Open whole case
Tell me about a difficult situation you had to cope with. Tell me of a task which you didn’t like doing and explain why you performed it nevertheless. Why do you do things? What do you like doing most / What is your favorite hobby? Walk me through a situation where you showed leadership skills. Open whole case
Questions Tell me something about your background. Why should we hire you? Describe a difficult situation and how you handled it? What did your boss or colleagues criticize about you? Do you rather work in a team or independently? Open whole case
What books/films have you enjoyed recently and why? What is the worst thing that you have ever gotten away with? How do you define and evaluate successful work? Do you fear anything? How would you rate me as your interviewer? Open whole case
