Unusual Questions

Good question. It's actually really hard to give general advice on. Again, a bit like going on a date - how can I make sure he/she likes me?

All social rules and norms apply -- what kind of candidate would you like if you were the interviewer? Seriously: Not being socially awkward is already a plus ;)

And you ask -- "How can I ensure that the interviewer is having fun (...)?" Easiest answer to this is, did you have fun? If yes, chances are high the interviewer had, too. In all of my best interviews I had a laugh together with the candidate.

Few concrete tips:

• Connect over something. In most firms, you get a short bio about the interviewer prior to the interviews. Read it, and remember just 1 thing you two have in common. (Same university? Playing tennis? Same home town? whatever it is) Bring it up at the right time. The interviewer will try doing the same.
• Listen. I hate to even write it here because you will have heard it so many times already, but an interview is such a high-stress situation, most people forget. If the candidate is not listening, there is zero engagement from my side as it's pointless. As an example, if your interviewer says something about your case structure or any feedback at all means she wants to help you. Tough luck if you don't notice. Answering the damn question is the same category. I ask "name 3 points about ...", and get 2 or 5 points back from the candidate. "Give me 1 sentence", I get a 2 min monologue back. Or 1 sentence and a long explanation. All the time :)
• Name the elephant in the room. Less obvious, but extremely powerful. You know your weaknesses, and chances are your interviewer will find out about them after 5 mins (if it takes that long). Addressing them directly and honestly is a power move and makes you super likeable. Example: I once had a candidate who seemed extremely shy, to the point where I was even unsure how to do a full interview with her. Pretty early on, I asked some question about her strengths, she said "attention to details, working under extreme stress, and being underestimated all the time because I seem so shy". Another time, I had a super arrogant guy who I immediately disliked (there are these people). Asking about something related to weaknesses, he mentioned that he is quite insecure, and while trying overcome it, people now see him as arrogant. As an interviewer I cannot dislike someone who just "confessed" and is committed to working on these issues (game over without the latter part). Another word of caution: Faking it will backfire ;)
• Ask questions. At the end of every interview, there is a chance to ask questions. I can't think of anyone we ever hired who had no questions. Ask questions that make the interviewer look good. Ask interesting questions to stand out. Examples I personally dislike: "How does this international exchange program work that your firm offers?" (frankly, I never really knew about all of these programs, they change constantly, so your question makes me look bad). Also, I didn't really like the work-life-balance questions I got all the time. Not because I think it's not an issue, but my opinion is that you should figure that out before you apply. Good questions I remember were "If you would be CEO of BCG, what would you do different?" and "If you weren't a consultant, what would you be doing if money was no issue"? But again, this is highly subjective; other interviewers may hate them. "What was your most exciting project" is overused, but a safe bet.

Hope this helps - good luck with your interviews!

Your framework is a good one but I would add a few things.

1. Make sure you are conversational: Don’t be rote in your response. Make sure that when telling your story, you are really “telling a story” that makes the interviewer feel like they can visualize what was really going on.
2. Use unique stories: Remember that the interviewer is likely interviewing 7-8 candidates that day and maybe 14-16 candidates over 2 days. You need to make your story memorable. Many candidates may have a leadership story about how they led a team to achieve a goal at a previous job or how they led a volunteer effort. However, a more memorable leadership story could be starting a Horse Riding Club at a University or organizing a day-long ventriloquist festival.
3. Try to add humor where possible: Interviewers love candidates that break the monotony of interviewing with entertaining stories and humor can go a long way. A senior partner once came into a decision meeting and said he barely got to the case interview because he asked the candidate about his hobby of being a stand-up comedian. For a large portion of the 45 minutes, the candidate shared some of his stand-up material. He got an offer.

It’s also important to know what the interviewer assessing during the McKinsey PEI portion of the interview. There are 3 components:

• Confidence / presence: Asserts self-confidence outside areas of expertise in the face of change; would be comfortable putting the candidate in front of senior-level clients
• Listening: Accurately understands meaning of what is said or implied and responds by adapting own content and style to reflect understanding
• Influencing: Accurately anticipates or reacts to the need for various influencing tactics and deploys them appropriately

Hi Sandra,

great question, that’s actually something many candidates confuse. I have provided a description of the different areas below, together with what to focus on:

1) Personal Impact is mainly based on persuading someone about doing/not doing something. Questions include:

1. Tell me about a time that you persuaded your boss to go along with an idea you had.
2. Tell me about a difficult situation where you had to rely on your communication skills. 


Here you want to emphasize your influence on someone else, usually in disagreement with you.

2) Entrepreneurial Drive is about implementing something overcoming major difficulties. Examples include:

1. What was a situation where you set a major goal and been able to achieve it?
2. What has been your major accomplishment so far?

Here you want to emphasize the achievement you reached and the process that led you there.

3) Just to complete the analysis: Leadership is about leading a whole team in challenging situation and team management skills. Questions include:

1. Give me three examples of a time that you lead a group. 

2. What are some key lessons you have learned about motivating people? 


Here you want to emphasize how you overcome a difficult situation leading a team (not necessarily as the official leader).

Many candidates tend actually to confuse leadership and personal impact. In both you deal with people, but while in the first you are leading a team, in the second you are actually influencing someone else (not necessarily a team). In the first case you then end with a team result, in the second with your own specific result.

Hope this helps,

Francesco

Hi,

Here are the skills that I value particularly as interviewer. Most candidates have some of them, but the difficulty here is to combine them :

• Hard solving skills

1. Structuring : ​building a clear, simple and easy to understand approach that cover the key dimensions of the main issue, in 2 minutes is really challenging and in my experience few candidates got it perfectly
2. insights generation : while performing maths, you should focus on the "so what" not on computing the numbers correctly. Most candidate do it right but then forget about deriving an insight. If you do it immediately on your own it's excellent
3. Judgement : When formulating a final reco. it sometimes requires to step back and try to see the big picture to make a strong recommandation, instead of jumping into what seems immediately obvious

• Soft Skills

1. ​​behaviour : project confidence without being arrogant
2. Leadership (BCG style) : take the lead on the case resolution, acting like you are consultant and the interviewer is client
3. active listening : take into account what have been said, and if necessary adapt you reasonning on the fly

This is obviously not exhaustive, and I am sure other coach will add more dimensions important to them.

Best
Benjamin

I would recommend spending about 1 - 2 minutes on each question. You have a lot to get to in the interview. Less than a minute will make you seem rehearsed and shallow and more than 2 minutes for each will take up too much of the interview time.

WHY MBB?

For the “Why consulting” question, interviewers ask this question to make sure that you really want to be a consultant and all that comes with it. There are two types of firm recruiters - consultants and non-consultants. The recruiting consultant leaders are everyday partners that also have responsibility for overseeing different aspects of recruiting (e.g., Leader of Harvard Business School Recruiting, Leader of Paris Office Recruiting, Leader of Operations Practice Experienced Hire Recruiting). These leaders have 2 goals.

1. Meet the needs of their constituents (i.e., the hiring demands of the office / practice)
2. Hire candidates that have the potential to become a Partner in the Firm

By asking “Why consulting”, the interviewer can get a sense of whether you are in consulting for the long haul or just to get a stamp on your resume and then parlay the name brand into another job after two years. There are many ways to answer this question depending on your particular situation but here are a few.

• I want to work in an environment where I receive a great deal of mentorship and feedback on a regular basis
• I want to be exposed to work in a number of different industries and across a number of different functions
• From speaking to other current consultants, the mix of client interaction, team problem solving, partner mentoring and analytics is something that excites me
• I’m looking to learn in an environment where my skills are developed more rapidly (in “dog years”) than in other environments
• I want to work in an environment where I am constantly challenged by new types of problems
• I have spoken to other consulting partners and the type of day-to-day work they do (e.g., client work, consultant training, internal knowledge development, practice leadership, etc..) sounds very enticing

WHY MBB?

Recruiting leaders do a lot of post-recruiting analysis and the “accept rate” gains a lot of attention. Therefore, the interviewers are keen on knowing why you want to join their specific firm. Have you done research? Have you talked to the recruiters? Have you attended events? Have you spoken to firm members? Do you have friends at the firm?

This is your chance to show off all of the hard work you have put in learning about the specific firm. Interviewers are a little smug at times and are SURE that their firm is the BEST and they like to hear it. They even like to hear their firm contrasted to others, but don’t overdo it. Here are a few examples.

• Unlike X, Y has 3x more global offices and I would like to consider moving internationally at some point later in my career
• I like the innovation focus of BCG, evidenced by your launch of BCG Digital Ventures
• From my conversations with current consultants and Bain, BCG and McKinsey, consultants at X seem to enjoy their experience more and have much more diverse problems and clients, which is attractive to me
• While I don’t want to go into Private Equity, I am interested in X because of the significant amount of PE due diligence and 100-day plan work you do
• I really want to join X because of your emphais on business research
• During my conversations about culture with current Bain, BCG and McKinsey, consultants, I find that X consultants describe the culture at X to be closer to one that I am seeking than Y and Z

There are certain things that you should NOT say when answering “Why MBB?”, including:

• Your firm has a great brand name, which is attractive to me
  • Tells interviewer you are going to use the firms brand as a resume enhancer
• X is known for dealing with the C-Suite and in particular, CEOs, which is where I want to gain experience
  • That’s true and not true of all 3 MBB firms. And, very, very few Associates or Managers talk to CEOs or any CxOs. That’s a myth. This tells the interviewer you are going to be high maintenance and is an almost immediate ding
• I really like the young, laid back culture of firm Y
  • Tells the interviewer you are less than serious and want to have a good time