What can I possibly score points with in the interview, apart from cases?

Question

Hi, my question is straightforward: What can I use to score points in interviews, apart from cases, to possibly compensate for them?

I was contacted by a McKinsey recruiter via LinkedIn a few weeks ago and simply applied for an analyst position. After successfully passing Solve as well as the first round, I am now going to the final interviews. I still don't know how I got through the first round, as I totally failed the case, but have now got through. Are there any “tips” I can use to compensate a “bad” case? Cases are a real weakness of mine. Of course I keep practicing, but I usually fail in such situations because I am super nervous etc.
Or is it just the mix that makes the difference in the end? Personality paired with a willingness to learn etc.?

Answer 1

Q: How to score points in an interview apart from cases?

Hi, Max,

First, congrats on advancing to the final round. If you did it, it means you demonstrated the intrinsics that the interviewers were looking for in a candidate so keep yourself confident!

I like this question very much because I personally relate to that. A big part of me getting my offer was due to these extra points that I gained in my final round, since I later found out that my interviewer at that time was typically very tough with candidates.

To address your question, I suggest 5 dimensions to improve your performance on the interview, apart from the case:

1. First impression – this might sound cliché but is actually key! A neat, clean appearance, with an honest smile, a firm handshake and a confident voice make not only the interviewer but yourself too want to pay attention to what you are about to say or do.

2. Overall posture – showing to be happy and sincerely enjoying being there, confidently communicating with open gestures and voice, demonstrating good listening when reacting to the interviewer’s comment, staying calm when pressed to hurry up.

3. FIT stories – delivering thoughtful FIT stories, with interesting plot twists, the right amount of details, even a dose of humor if applicable can be as important as the case in my opinion. This is because in the final round the partner is looking for motivation and confidence above hard skills – since you already have been tested for that in the first round.

4. Questions to the interviewer – thoughtful questions for things that you cannot find on the internet. This is another opportunity to make the interviewer remember the interview as an interesting exchange. In my case, I had to come up with 5 questions since I had solved the case quickly.

If you need extra tips or practice on any of those topics, please reach out.

Good luck!

Answer 2

Dear Max,

Your question and situation is fairly unusual, and quite interesting!
Might I suggest that you are in a much stronger position than you give yourself credit for? When building my team at McKinsey, I would ask my recruiter to personally message people in LinkedIn only when they had a very strong, unique and needed experience and skillset. So you did not get here by mistake.

Then, if you did pass the first round, it means you did not fail the case. You might have received mostly 2s on the case, but you did not get any 1s or 0s. Otherwise you wouldn’t have passed. I’ve been in your shoes before, feeling like I bombed it when actually it was ok and I got called back for another round - you might just have imposter syndrome like myself ?

Lastly, there is no real way to “make up” for a failed case (meaning a case where you get more than one 1 or at least one 0). As all things in life, true objectivity does not exist so overall presence, enthusiasm etc. go a long way, but the McKinsey interview process aims to be as objective as possible. Therefore, it is highly quantitative and you get rated on TEI/PEI and case. So if you fail one of those two components, it won’t go well. You can perform average (ie 2s without any 3s) on the case and still pass if you get 3s in the PEI/TEI.

Sorry if this is not the answer you were looking for, but I’d rather be transparent.☺️

Happy to chat live if helpful!

Answer 3

Hello,

First off, congratulations on advancing to the final round of interviews, and best of luck with your preparation.

I concur with the insights shared previously and would like to expand on them with some transparency about the evaluation process.

Specifically, at McKinsey given you are probably interviewing for a Digital role you would be assessed on two fronts: case performance and Technical experience interview (TEI). These are the areas where you receive explicit scores based on various dimensions of your performance. While strong presence and communication can earn you extra points, these qualities are generally encapsulated within the scoring criteria for case and TEI performance. Please note that TEI interviews are different from PEI interviews in the sense that while both require you to talk about specific experiences, TEI also evaluates your technical savviness in addition to your soft skills.

If a job at McKinsey is important for you I would strongly encourage you to work on your casing skills. There is no substitute for doing well on cases to get a final offer from McKinsey. Considering McKinsey's proactive outreach and your progress despite an average case performance, it's clear they see potential in you (I am guessing you have strong prior technical experience in a field that is important to them (e.g., digital transformations). If you are new to cases I also suggest that you buy yourself more time. Try to push out your interviews to at least 4-6 weeks from now. McKinsey is typically accommodating of such requests since they prefer well-prepared candidates, understanding that thorough preparation enhances the interview's value for both parties. Be transparent with them about your current situation, your aspirations of working at McKInsey and your determination to put your best foot forward. Assuming you get this time focus on becoming a distinctive case performer by:

Creating a plan of attack - work backwards from your interview date and think about what you would cover each week and day
Mastering each element of the case interview - systematically improve on all case interview elements—structuring, data interpretation, quant skills, and brainstorming. Prioritize areas that you deem to be your weakest
Crafting well thought through TEI stories/experiences - this is the low hanging fruit. Excelling in TEI is more straightforward than mastering case interviews because you can control the narrative and delivery of your stories. However, it requires deep reflection, especially since McKinsey’s TEI demands detailed responses. Please demonstrate your technical expertise, business acumen and soft skills which are instrumental in performing well in a digital role at McKinsey

Hope this helps and please feel free to reach out in case you have follow up questions about how to become a distinctive case performer or how to craft impactful TEI stories.

Thanks

Nilay

Answer 4

Hi,

Congrats on making it through to the final round.

I think at this point its useful to understand how the interview evaluation process works, and i'll share based on my experience as a BCG interviewer.

The interviewer has to fill up a scoring form/matrix after each interview. Firms will have their variances in how they choose to breakdown or group the criteria, but in essence on the highest level it will always be a function of 1) your case performance and 2) your behavioural stories.

The case performance is more heavily weighted than the behavioural stories, but this is not to say that your behavioural doesn't matter.

So the official points that the interviewer is going to score you on are on those 2 aspects of the case.

I recall one candidate that I interviewed, and the other interviewer also had a similar evaluation on that candidate. The candidate was super personable, super likeable had a great attitude and experience, but just could not crack the case and we could not pass that candidate to the next round.

The best you can do is to try and build a good rapport with the interviewer which may help influence the subjective assessment of you, but this is only marginal in my opinion.

Answer 5

Hi Max,

Two things:

1. You cannot balance a weak problem-solving performance with a strong PEI and vice versa over time. Both are equally important and if you performance is weak across on of the two, you would not get the final offer. Hence, it is now even more important for you to ace the final round cases!

2. The case dimensions looked at are much more granular than just the case as an aggregate evaluation. There are things such as problem-solving, analytics, communication, etc. You need to create the right profile here where in some areas you can okay, but in other areas you need to demonstrate clear performance spikes. Think for yourself where you stand across the evaluation dimensions and plan strategically where to improve the quickest.

Reach out for a feedback sheet to become more familiar with the evaluation!

Cheers and all the best,

Florian

Answer 6

Hi Max,

First of all, congratulations on the progress in the application process with McKinsey thus far!

I would be happy to share my thoughts on your situation:

First of all, your performance on the case study in the first interview round wasn't that bad because you can't make up for it and you wouldn't have passed otherwise.
Moreover, I would highly advise you to just keep practicing case studies and consider working with an experienced coach like myself to understand the terms of the partner case studies as they can be very different.

You can find more on this topic here: How to succeed in the final interview round.

If you would like a more detailed discussion on how to best prepare for your upcoming final round interviews, please don't hesitate to contact me directly.

Best,

Hagen