What are some typical personal fit questions in a McKinsey interview?

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:

1. 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
2. Identify good stories for each area. Ideally you want to have at least two stories for each area. Three would be even better.
3. Use a structure for your story. I would suggest to use the STARR model (Situation, Task, Action, Rational for Action, Results)
4. 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.
5. Practice live, collect feedback from people listening to you, reiterate until when you get fluent and convincing

Best,

Francesco

Dear A,

The fit questions in these interviews are really about story telling. Of course, you will get the typical questions like: Why do you want to be a consultant? Why do you want to work at this firm?

The part the differentiates you will be the “tell me about a time” questions that inevitably take up a large portion of the interviews at these firms. The better you are at telling your stories, the better off you’ll be. And I recommend to make these stories both work related and lifestyle in order to show your skills of being a leader, team player and problem solving person.

Just remember that answering to any questions like this is your chance to shine and prove your leadership skills. Actually, any stories that you mention in your answer can highlight your best abilities. For that you can follow common framework in answering any questions. It consists of 5 parts:


1. Situation

2. Problem

3. Solution

4. Results

5. Your learnings

Hope, it helps.

Best,
André

Hello!

On top of the insights already shared in the post, next week will be pusblished in PrepLounge´s Shop material related.

In concrete, the "Integrated FIT guide for MBB". It provides an end-to-end preparation for all three MBB interviews, tackling each firms particularities and combining key concepts review and a hands-on methodology. Following the book, the candidate will prepare his/her stories by practicing with over 50 real questions and leveraging special frameworks and worksheets that guide step-by-step, developed by the author and her experience as a Master in Management professor and coach. Finally, as further guidance, the guide encompasses over 20 examples from real candidates.

Hope you find it useful!

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 -