Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad
Hyderabad, Telangana
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McKinsey & CompanyIndian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad Placement Interview Questions
Updated
22 Sep 2024
49 interviews found
I applied via Referral
3 Interview Rounds
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: This was a pure case round I didn’t had any PI. One small question was tell me about yourself and what does my name mean.
Recommended Approach
I started the analysis first with the branch experience. I laid down the steps in detail to identify all possible interfaces with the customers when he enters the branch Access to Branch (Location) >>entering the branch >>waiting/ self-service/no. of counters to attend customer grievances>>availability of the people at the counter/no. of breaks they take>>overall time and efficiency/how friendly the staff is etc.
He looked pretty satisfied with that and asked me if they should have the same branches for HNI as well as the masses. I told that some branches should be there. However, Economies of scale could not be achieved by keeping separate branches. Therefore, I suggested giving the HNI special treatment in the same branches, like a separate lounge to relax while waiting, a dedicated representative when they come to the branch etc. He then asked me how we can do the same kind of discretion in an ATM. I told that when a customer comes to the ATM and enters his ATM, we can use that info to check if the customers are HNI or not. After that the screen experience can be different based on better products offerings, more facilities etc. He seemed to be very impressed by this suggestion. After that talking to him became very easy.
Guesstimate: He asked me to estimate the no. of marriages that will happen in India next year I started by taking India’s population and divided it into rural (70%) and urban (30%) and solved for each individually with similar approach. I will elaborate the general steps ( Assumptions might vary based on your own discretion and also what the interviewer is comfortable with) Population>>potential age group for marrying >>removed the already married people>>filtered the one who want to marry >>filtered who will actually get married with some probability>> finally divided the no. by 2 as it’s a couple affair He seemed satisfied with this as well and said great
Tips: Developing a repo is very important. I was able to do that here. He seemed very interested in talking to me after that. My interview also got extended by 10-15 min because of the same. After this interview , I really had a very positive feeling.
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: This round was with a very senior partner. He started by giving his introduction and told me that he has been with McKinsey almost for 2 decades. However, I was quite scared of him as he never smiled, was always looking into the newspaper. I realized that it would be quite stress full as I was not able to develop any repo with him. He asked me general questions about walk me through resume and a little bit about my work at Deloitte. One strange thing that I thought he asked me was that if my parents have given me enough freedom to travel, and work in a industry like consulting and we had a short discussion around that.
Recommended Approach
I started the analysis by drawing the whole value chain of these spare parts and tried to explore possible reasons at each step Supplier >>Manufacturing >>Dealers>> retailers>>Customers
After further questioning , I figured out that the problem of spare parts is directly originating from the Supplier itself
After that I started exploring the reasons as to why the supplier is not interested in supplying. I listed down the possible reasons 1. They are getting inputs from somewhere else – this cannot be the reason as the same problem would have otherwise occurred when they were supplying for the new vehicles as well
2. Set up time – Spare parts may be required less in no. and therefore, it takes a lot of time to do the whole setting again and again for such small nos. On this he said that’s not the issue. Assume no set up time needed
3. Capacity Issues, as most of the capacity goes in making parts for new vehicles. On this he said capacity is good enough. However, the supplier is just not interested in making just spare parts
4. After this, it clicked me that the supplier might be finding it expensive to just supply the spare parts. Therefore, I started listing down the cost elements
•Cost of raw materials - same as new parts, means parts for new vehicles
•Cost of production - Same as new parts
•Cost of Packaging - Eureka!! (I felt, when he said yes that was significantly different :)
•Cost of transportation also I asked for completeness sake but that was also not the issue
He then asked me to summarize the issue, and suggest a plan of action in 30 seconds as if I were to present the solution to the CEO of the company I told him that the manufacturer is facing this issue because the packaging cost is very high for the supplier in case of spare parts. Therefore, either he can share. those costs as it is important for customer satisfaction. Also, he can consider order pooling by ordering in bulk and keeping extra inventory so that the supplier can also package in bulk.
Tips: Developing a repo is very important. I was a bit stressed in this round as I was not able to. Don’t ask too many questions. Also, majority of the scoping should be done initially itself Even while leaving the room, I was not able to figure out much how have I done as Ramesh still didn’t give me any slightest of the hint of weather he is happy or not. Therefore don’t jump into conclusions if something like this happens. You can still get hired
Round: HR Interview
Experience: This was a pure PI round and was very light and conversational.He was really sweet and kept me at ease for the whole of 20 minutes of our interaction. The only discussion I had with him was about my name, how it came, what’s the meaning, what are my likes, dislikes etc. I think the idea was to understand my communication skills and energy levels
Tips: Energy levels were really important. It became very important for me to be very lively, smiling and keep him interested in what I have to say because there was no case in this round
Round: HR Interview
Experience: This was the deciding round in my case. A mix of a bit of HR as well as a small eco concept.
I was a bit nervous as I also knew that this will be the deciding round. Also, I had read the previous casebooks in which I was really scared with people’s experiences with him. He asked me about all my academic achievement, the meaning of my name. I thought that this was it, when he suddenly said that lets do a case He asked me to draw the average cost curve of any industry. Initially, I was not able to understand what exactly am I supposed to do and asked a lot of questions to understand to that he got a bit annoyed and I thought, now I am gone !. To my surprise later, I had drawn the curve correctly. He said fine and after a while I got the offer .Life at peace. Restlessness over
Tips: I think in this case the make or break was to understand exactly what he wanted even if it meant for me to ask 10 questions and not give up. I think I was being tested on that here
Skills:
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
Experience: This was a pure case round I didn’t had any PI. One small question was tell me about yourself and what does my name mean.
Recommended Approach
I started the analysis first with the branch experience. I laid down the steps in detail to identify all possible interfaces with the customers when he enters the branch Access to Branch (Location) >>entering the branch >>waiting/ self-service/no. of counters to attend customer grievances>>availability of the people at the counter/no. of breaks they take>>overall time and efficiency/how friendly the staff is etc.
He looked pretty satisfied with that and asked me if they should have the same branches for HNI as well as the masses. I told that some branches should be there. However, Economies of scale could not be achieved by keeping separate branches. Therefore, I suggested giving the HNI special treatment in the same branches, like a separate lounge to relax while waiting, a dedicated representative when they come to the branch etc. He then asked me how we can do the same kind of discretion in an ATM. I told that when a customer comes to the ATM and enters his ATM, we can use that info to check if the customers are HNI or not. After that the screen experience can be different based on better products offerings, more facilities etc. He seemed to be very impressed by this suggestion. After that talking to him became very easy.
Guesstimate: He asked me to estimate the no. of marriages that will happen in India next year I started by taking India’s population and divided it into rural (70%) and urban (30%) and solved for each individually with similar approach. I will elaborate the general steps ( Assumptions might vary based on your own discretion and also what the interviewer is comfortable with) Population>>potential age group for marrying >>removed the already married people>>filtered the one who want to marry >>filtered who will actually get married with some probability>> finally divided the no. by 2 as it’s a couple affair He seemed satisfied with this as well and said great
Tips: Developing a repo is very important. I was able to do that here. He seemed very interested in talking to me after that. My interview also got extended by 10-15 min because of the same. After this interview , I really had a very positive feeling.
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: This round was with a very senior partner. He started by giving his introduction and told me that he has been with McKinsey almost for 2 decades. However, I was quite scared of him as he never smiled, was always looking into the newspaper. I realized that it would be quite stress full as I was not able to develop any repo with him. He asked me general questions about walk me through resume and a little bit about my work at Deloitte. One strange thing that I thought he asked me was that if my parents have given me enough freedom to travel, and work in a industry like consulting and we had a short discussion around that.
Recommended Approach
I started the analysis by drawing the whole value chain of these spare parts and tried to explore possible reasons at each step Supplier >>Manufacturing >>Dealers>> retailers>>Customers
After further questioning , I figured out that the problem of spare parts is directly originating from the Supplier itself
After that I started exploring the reasons as to why the supplier is not interested in supplying. I listed down the possible reasons 1. They are getting inputs from somewhere else – this cannot be the reason as the same problem would have otherwise occurred when they were supplying for the new vehicles as well
2. Set up time – Spare parts may be required less in no. and therefore, it takes a lot of time to do the whole setting again and again for such small nos. On this he said that’s not the issue. Assume no set up time needed
3. Capacity Issues, as most of the capacity goes in making parts for new vehicles. On this he said capacity is good enough. However, the supplier is just not interested in making just spare parts
4. After this, it clicked me that the supplier might be finding it expensive to just supply the spare parts. Therefore, I started listing down the cost elements
•Cost of raw materials - same as new parts, means parts for new vehicles
•Cost of production - Same as new parts
•Cost of Packaging - Eureka!! (I felt, when he said yes that was significantly different :)
•Cost of transportation also I asked for completeness sake but that was also not the issue
He then asked me to summarize the issue, and suggest a plan of action in 30 seconds as if I were to present the solution to the CEO of the company I told him that the manufacturer is facing this issue because the packaging cost is very high for the supplier in case of spare parts. Therefore, either he can share. those costs as it is important for customer satisfaction. Also, he can consider order pooling by ordering in bulk and keeping extra inventory so that the supplier can also package in bulk.
Tips: Developing a repo is very important. I was a bit stressed in this round as I was not able to. Don’t ask too many questions. Also, majority of the scoping should be done initially itself Even while leaving the room, I was not able to figure out much how have I done as Ramesh still didn’t give me any slightest of the hint of weather he is happy or not. Therefore don’t jump into conclusions if something like this happens. You can still get hired
Round: HR Interview
Experience: This was a pure PI round and was very light and conversational.He was really sweet and kept me at ease for the whole of 20 minutes of our interaction. The only discussion I had with him was about my name, how it came, what’s the meaning, what are my likes, dislikes etc. I think the idea was to understand my communication skills and energy levels
Tips: Energy levels were really important. It became very important for me to be very lively, smiling and keep him interested in what I have to say because there was no case in this round
Round: HR Interview
Experience: This was the deciding round in my case. A mix of a bit of HR as well as a small eco concept.
I was a bit nervous as I also knew that this will be the deciding round. Also, I had read the previous casebooks in which I was really scared with people’s experiences with him. He asked me about all my academic achievement, the meaning of my name. I thought that this was it, when he suddenly said that lets do a case He asked me to draw the average cost curve of any industry. Initially, I was not able to understand what exactly am I supposed to do and asked a lot of questions to understand to that he got a bit annoyed and I thought, now I am gone !. To my surprise later, I had drawn the curve correctly. He said fine and after a while I got the offer .Life at peace. Restlessness over
Tips: I think in this case the make or break was to understand exactly what he wanted even if it meant for me to ask 10 questions and not give up. I think I was being tested on that here
Skills:
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
I applied via Referral
1 Interview Round
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Mainly PI with a small case let. This was a discussion primarily on technology.
General Gyan:
1. Resume: I do not come from a stellar pedigree (read ‘no IIT’), do not have a brand name company, do not have a stellar CGPA (above average). I still got a shortlist. I believe what matters is the way you show your accomplishments. Spikes are good to have definitely. At the same time, if you are showing consistently good work throughout your time till ISB, that will also work. You need to work hard on showcasing them on the resume. RESUME preparation is critical. Make sure to spend sufficient time (start 4th term onwards). show it to alums who are in these firms. Use the alums who come on campus to get reviewed. They are extremely helpful. (It also helps you establish a rapport). At the same time, no need to try and become best friends with the alums who keep visiting. They cant help you on interview day (thats my opinion). Only your performance will.
2. Case Prep: For these top 2-3 firms, you will get close to 4-6 weeks of time to prep. You can quickly glance through the Case in Point book in 3-4 days but don't spend too much time solving those cases. Start case solving with ISB casebooks. They are available all the way from 2005. I would suggest solving the later years while reading through the earlier years just to make sure you have covered most topics. One thing I did was focus on MCK cases only (only shortlist) as interview date approached. Try to form more than one group (3 people is sufficient per group) preferably after short-lists are out (otherwise incentives are misaligned). More than one group allows you to cover more case types, prevent lack of preparation due to time conflicts among members, etc. Try to understand the frameworks and use your own structure. This gives originality. Mock cases and buddy sessions are important. Use them as an opportunity to iron out your case solving abilities. get the buddy to have PI session also.
3. Interview: While cases are very important, the PI interviews made the difference. Cases could have been handled by any of the shortlists. the shortlist to conversion could be any where between 2:1 to 3:1. It is this discussion that will set you apart. If you are able to engage the interviewer in an intelligent manner, you are through. Read up on your area of expertise. Use opportunities to draw the interviewer to topics of your interest. Be thorough with material on your resume. Put a lot of thought into the PI qs and maybe try saying it out loud to one of your study mates. This will allow you to get a reaction, understand the time you are taking and give you better clarity. Finally, I think you should not be too rigid. Be calm, have fun, add humour if you see fit. Good Luck and feel free to reach out to me if you need any guidance.
Tips: I had met Somnath(Interviewer) during the dinner and had had a good conversation on the Internet of Things phenomenon. He remembered that and we were able to continue that conversation. This was more of a fit interview and whether I can hold my ground on technology discussions. It helped that Somnath also had a 2-yr old kid (like me) which allowed us to discuss non-work related concerns about consulting also.
DOs:
Be relaxed and have fun during this kind of an interview. As soon as you perceive it to be a generic discussion, I would suggest be confident and bold. Have strong opinions with sufficient backing (examples, data, experience, etc).
Skills:
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
Experience: Mainly PI with a small case let. This was a discussion primarily on technology.
General Gyan:
1. Resume: I do not come from a stellar pedigree (read ‘no IIT’), do not have a brand name company, do not have a stellar CGPA (above average). I still got a shortlist. I believe what matters is the way you show your accomplishments. Spikes are good to have definitely. At the same time, if you are showing consistently good work throughout your time till ISB, that will also work. You need to work hard on showcasing them on the resume. RESUME preparation is critical. Make sure to spend sufficient time (start 4th term onwards). show it to alums who are in these firms. Use the alums who come on campus to get reviewed. They are extremely helpful. (It also helps you establish a rapport). At the same time, no need to try and become best friends with the alums who keep visiting. They cant help you on interview day (thats my opinion). Only your performance will.
2. Case Prep: For these top 2-3 firms, you will get close to 4-6 weeks of time to prep. You can quickly glance through the Case in Point book in 3-4 days but don't spend too much time solving those cases. Start case solving with ISB casebooks. They are available all the way from 2005. I would suggest solving the later years while reading through the earlier years just to make sure you have covered most topics. One thing I did was focus on MCK cases only (only shortlist) as interview date approached. Try to form more than one group (3 people is sufficient per group) preferably after short-lists are out (otherwise incentives are misaligned). More than one group allows you to cover more case types, prevent lack of preparation due to time conflicts among members, etc. Try to understand the frameworks and use your own structure. This gives originality. Mock cases and buddy sessions are important. Use them as an opportunity to iron out your case solving abilities. get the buddy to have PI session also.
3. Interview: While cases are very important, the PI interviews made the difference. Cases could have been handled by any of the shortlists. the shortlist to conversion could be any where between 2:1 to 3:1. It is this discussion that will set you apart. If you are able to engage the interviewer in an intelligent manner, you are through. Read up on your area of expertise. Use opportunities to draw the interviewer to topics of your interest. Be thorough with material on your resume. Put a lot of thought into the PI qs and maybe try saying it out loud to one of your study mates. This will allow you to get a reaction, understand the time you are taking and give you better clarity. Finally, I think you should not be too rigid. Be calm, have fun, add humour if you see fit. Good Luck and feel free to reach out to me if you need any guidance.
Tips: I had met Somnath(Interviewer) during the dinner and had had a good conversation on the Internet of Things phenomenon. He remembered that and we were able to continue that conversation. This was more of a fit interview and whether I can hold my ground on technology discussions. It helped that Somnath also had a 2-yr old kid (like me) which allowed us to discuss non-work related concerns about consulting also.
DOs:
Be relaxed and have fun during this kind of an interview. As soon as you perceive it to be a generic discussion, I would suggest be confident and bold. Have strong opinions with sufficient backing (examples, data, experience, etc).
Skills:
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
I applied via Referral
1 Interview Round
Interview Questions
- Q1. Can you calculate the number of auto-rickshaws in any city of your choice?
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Partner had been told to test me on case. During Q&A, I asked him about how Mckinsey treats innovation (since I come from an R&D background). He found the Q different. Was able to engage with him on that and had a healthy chat. My second Q completely resonated with him. I asked him how Mckinsey treated candidates with above avg exp. To that he talked about his own story (had joined consulting after 10 yrs industry exp.) and how it just changes the ramp rate. This question set up a good rapport between us and I could sense some good vibes at the end.
Recommended Approach
I took my time to come up with a structure. Start with population of city, segment it into 2 parts working professionals and non-working people (housewives, students,etc) I suggested I would estimate the # of people in each segment and then estimate the total # of rides they would take and based on the average time taken for an auto ride, I will find the total # of autos in the city. Sameer was OK with this plan. I started with Mumbai and said Sion and ahead autos were not allowed. So I suggested we should use only 50% of the population (around 7.5 million) to estimate # of autos. He was pleased that I used some practical knowledge also. From there on it was relatively straightforward. One place I made an assumption that 15% of working professional would use an auto. He wanted to know how I made this assumption. I realised that was a mistake on my part to make such an assumption. I then split the working professional segment to different income classes and then put a % for each to figure out how many from each sub-segment would take an auto.
The final # for working prof segment came around 50000 autos (assuming around 30min for a one-way ride, and on average 50% of autos have a single passenger and 50% have 2 passengers). He told me to double it to include the other segment. He asked whether this 100K was a reasonable estimate and what single question I would ask to see if this was reasonable. I was suggesting Qs which would not directly answer and more elaborate. Finally I suggested we could look at # of taxis in the city to get a comparable. He wanted one more question. At this point I was drained out. He helped me arrived at the question. (look at another city with comparable population) In retrospect these look trivial but I was unable to think so simple.
Tips: DONTs: Do not make assumption without any reasoning behind it. Don't think complicated. Keep your though process simple. Most of the times the interviewer is asking for fundamental stuff, nothing complicated
DOs: Lay out the structure especially in guestimate with as much detailed layering as possible before you crunch the #s. The interviewer will tell you how much detail he wants you to focus on. Engage the interviewer in the discussion as at every point he might give you some data to simplify your calculations.
Skills:
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
Experience: Partner had been told to test me on case. During Q&A, I asked him about how Mckinsey treats innovation (since I come from an R&D background). He found the Q different. Was able to engage with him on that and had a healthy chat. My second Q completely resonated with him. I asked him how Mckinsey treated candidates with above avg exp. To that he talked about his own story (had joined consulting after 10 yrs industry exp.) and how it just changes the ramp rate. This question set up a good rapport between us and I could sense some good vibes at the end.
Recommended Approach
I took my time to come up with a structure. Start with population of city, segment it into 2 parts working professionals and non-working people (housewives, students,etc) I suggested I would estimate the # of people in each segment and then estimate the total # of rides they would take and based on the average time taken for an auto ride, I will find the total # of autos in the city. Sameer was OK with this plan. I started with Mumbai and said Sion and ahead autos were not allowed. So I suggested we should use only 50% of the population (around 7.5 million) to estimate # of autos. He was pleased that I used some practical knowledge also. From there on it was relatively straightforward. One place I made an assumption that 15% of working professional would use an auto. He wanted to know how I made this assumption. I realised that was a mistake on my part to make such an assumption. I then split the working professional segment to different income classes and then put a % for each to figure out how many from each sub-segment would take an auto.
The final # for working prof segment came around 50000 autos (assuming around 30min for a one-way ride, and on average 50% of autos have a single passenger and 50% have 2 passengers). He told me to double it to include the other segment. He asked whether this 100K was a reasonable estimate and what single question I would ask to see if this was reasonable. I was suggesting Qs which would not directly answer and more elaborate. Finally I suggested we could look at # of taxis in the city to get a comparable. He wanted one more question. At this point I was drained out. He helped me arrived at the question. (look at another city with comparable population) In retrospect these look trivial but I was unable to think so simple.
Tips: DONTs: Do not make assumption without any reasoning behind it. Don't think complicated. Keep your though process simple. Most of the times the interviewer is asking for fundamental stuff, nothing complicated
DOs: Lay out the structure especially in guestimate with as much detailed layering as possible before you crunch the #s. The interviewer will tell you how much detail he wants you to focus on. Engage the interviewer in the discussion as at every point he might give you some data to simplify your calculations.
Skills:
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
I applied via Referral
1 Interview Round
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Case Narration
Client is planning a new city on the outskirts of an existing city in the Middle East and planning the water utilities is one aspect of this plan. 1.What are the different aspects you would need to consider while deciding whether to have the water utilities as a private/public/partnership? 2. Estimate the demand for the water utilities if we know that 10 years from now there will be 70000 jobs in the city. 3. If the utilities owner has the option to charge a fixed monthly bill or a variable bill based on usage plus a fixed services bill, how much would the variable rate be? 4. What are the advantages/disadvantages of the above options?
Overall, I felt I had performed barely OK. But I suppose Rahul felt otherwise. He was very encouraging and preferred that I engage him in the analysis. He was looking for more of a discussion rather than an answer and that I believe is true for consulting interviews in general. Be ready to engage the interviewer even when you are tired and are ready to give up. Secondly, I dint use any specific framework as such. Not to discourage you from using one, but it is better to use the structure u learn from FW rather than the actual FW itself. At the end of the day, if a particular interviewer interviews, say, 5-6 candidates with the same/similar case, I guarantee you would be better off by using a custom structure than a typical ISB casebook FW.
Tips: DOs: Use your experience to personalise the discussion. That is the only way the interviewer is going to remember you at the end of the day. It could be during the case, initial questions or Q&A. Make sure you stamp your identity somewhere.
DONT: Do not have memorised answers for the standard questions. You need to have the structure thought out but it needs to flow spontaneously
Skills:
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
Experience: Case Narration
Client is planning a new city on the outskirts of an existing city in the Middle East and planning the water utilities is one aspect of this plan. 1.What are the different aspects you would need to consider while deciding whether to have the water utilities as a private/public/partnership? 2. Estimate the demand for the water utilities if we know that 10 years from now there will be 70000 jobs in the city. 3. If the utilities owner has the option to charge a fixed monthly bill or a variable bill based on usage plus a fixed services bill, how much would the variable rate be? 4. What are the advantages/disadvantages of the above options?
Overall, I felt I had performed barely OK. But I suppose Rahul felt otherwise. He was very encouraging and preferred that I engage him in the analysis. He was looking for more of a discussion rather than an answer and that I believe is true for consulting interviews in general. Be ready to engage the interviewer even when you are tired and are ready to give up. Secondly, I dint use any specific framework as such. Not to discourage you from using one, but it is better to use the structure u learn from FW rather than the actual FW itself. At the end of the day, if a particular interviewer interviews, say, 5-6 candidates with the same/similar case, I guarantee you would be better off by using a custom structure than a typical ISB casebook FW.
Tips: DOs: Use your experience to personalise the discussion. That is the only way the interviewer is going to remember you at the end of the day. It could be during the case, initial questions or Q&A. Make sure you stamp your identity somewhere.
DONT: Do not have memorised answers for the standard questions. You need to have the structure thought out but it needs to flow spontaneously
Skills:
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
I applied via Referral
3 Interview Rounds
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: HR Interview
Experience: I was asked very few PI questions in this round. Some questions around what my company exactly was, my role etc. In the first interview, I was asked a lot of PI questions which actually make me comfortable. Dearth of PI in this interview did not go well and I guess it reflected in my case as well.
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Recommended Approach - I could not think of any set framework and hence decided to list parameters on which I would take the decision. I listed a few parameters – Eg: Customer satisfaction, execution ease, profitability etc. I made a table which looked something like this
Parameters Online Brick and Mortar
Parameter 1 Yes No
Parameter 2 No Yes
Parameter 3 Yes No
One of these parameters was profitability and in the middle of the case, I realized that all the other parameters impacted profitability ie the parameters were not exactly independent of each other.
I discusses the same with Renny and he subtly asked me to move away from this approach.
He then asked me to dive deep into the customer satisfaction issue. I told him that customer satisfaction would depend on the type of customers the bank serves. The discussion now primarily revolved around the segmentation criteria – Income level/age/literacy etc.
We debated on each and finally Renny told me that he was running out of time and he ended the interview.
Tips: It was the second interview of the first round and I was fairly confident since my first interview went very well. Think I got a bit casual and somehow I was not able to build any connect with Renny. The interview did not go particularly well and I thought my chances were almost over. But luckily I was called for the second round primarily because of my first interview.
Skills: Problem Solving Abilties, Number Crunching, 1)communication, Personality
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
Experience: I was asked very few PI questions in this round. Some questions around what my company exactly was, my role etc. In the first interview, I was asked a lot of PI questions which actually make me comfortable. Dearth of PI in this interview did not go well and I guess it reflected in my case as well.
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Recommended Approach - I could not think of any set framework and hence decided to list parameters on which I would take the decision. I listed a few parameters – Eg: Customer satisfaction, execution ease, profitability etc. I made a table which looked something like this
Parameters Online Brick and Mortar
Parameter 1 Yes No
Parameter 2 No Yes
Parameter 3 Yes No
One of these parameters was profitability and in the middle of the case, I realized that all the other parameters impacted profitability ie the parameters were not exactly independent of each other.
I discusses the same with Renny and he subtly asked me to move away from this approach.
He then asked me to dive deep into the customer satisfaction issue. I told him that customer satisfaction would depend on the type of customers the bank serves. The discussion now primarily revolved around the segmentation criteria – Income level/age/literacy etc.
We debated on each and finally Renny told me that he was running out of time and he ended the interview.
Tips: It was the second interview of the first round and I was fairly confident since my first interview went very well. Think I got a bit casual and somehow I was not able to build any connect with Renny. The interview did not go particularly well and I thought my chances were almost over. But luckily I was called for the second round primarily because of my first interview.
Skills: Problem Solving Abilties, Number Crunching, 1)communication, Personality
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
I applied via Referral
3 Interview Rounds
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: HR Interview
Experience: He recognized me from our interaction at the McKinsey dinner. So, he didn’t really introduce himself. He further asked me about my background and then the work experience at ITC. He went in depth to discuss about the projects I had worked on and practically left no stone unturned.
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Case narration - The client is a Projects based company that takes up contracts to layout power lines in India. They have been facing profitability issues.
Recommended Approach -Take out the famous profitability framework from your armor and begin to dissect the problem. I went into revenues and costs.
List down all the costs for e.g., Fixed and Variable (e.g. Raw Materials, Labouretc.) and check whether any item has higher costs than that of the competitor or the client’s initial costing for the project. You would find that the costing for each item would be still the same. (
At this point I was given a hint - what is the most crucial thing in a project? You have worked on many of them).
I immediately realized that this was about the timelines. Ask, are they overshooting the timelines defined in their costing? – Yes, the client was overshooting their project timelines leading to higher fixed costs incurred per project. Then, you dive into revenues and first understand the process of taking up each order and how the payments are made. I recommend making a whole cycle (or diagram) of the process. It helps you visualize better. You will realize that government projects are given through a lowest bid tendering process. One potential problem that you immediately state is that probably the client is not adopting a sound bidding strategy thereby bidding too low in order to get a project. Second thing that you will realize is that the payments may be getting delayed. This will lead to a higher working capital.
Tips: I couldn’t reach the point that payments maybe getting delayed. I was given a hint that “the working capital is increasing? Why do you think that could be?”. I just couldn’t write the formula for the working capital. Finally, after a while, I caught the hint and realized that the payments were getting delayed. Overall, I could feel that the interview went well except for the minor blip in the end. Things that worked for me: 1. Always keep smiling and be confident. PI is 50% of the whole game. If you do that well, you are well placed. Be very confident, open and genuine in the PI. Let the interviewer see through who you really are as a person. 2. Never lose your cool. If you’re stuck, just say that I think I have hit a dead end, let me start from the top and see what I could’ve missed. The interviewer is out there to help! 3. Make a good conversation. I spoke to Shirish about the restaurants he has invested in.
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Case Narration- I was just reading through the newspaper today, and I found this article. It says that India needs nearly 500 million skills by 2022. What do you think about this?
Recommended Approach
Task at hand is to estimate the number of unemployed people in the country by 2022. So, first estimate the current unemployed number of people in India. And then also add a growth percentage to it to say, how many people will get added every year.
Split the population first by age above 18 and then into urban and rural. Then split further into income groups followed by gender. Then, put an estimated percentage of unemployment for each category. This way you will find the current number of unemployed population. Then add a growth percentage of population of nearly 1.5% and add it for years from 2015 to 2022. The number came to $480 million for me and thus justified the $500 M in the newspaper statement.. So, the interviewer stopped me there.
Tips: After the case, the interviewer asked me about my previous interview and which case had I got. He told me that the previous interviewer had asked him to test me on the numbers. Thus, the bizzare case. Things that worked: 1. While we were discussing the case given to me in the first interview, I started to discuss on how does McKinsey fair in government projects and tenders. We had a good discussion that made a positive impact. 2. I didn’t panic after listening to the case. It was an arbitrary case, but I knew that in such cases, the interviewer will be more than willing to help you break down the case. So, I just continued having a conversation about the statement in the newspaper till the time I could understand exactly what the interviewer wanted me to do in the case.
Skills:
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
Experience: He recognized me from our interaction at the McKinsey dinner. So, he didn’t really introduce himself. He further asked me about my background and then the work experience at ITC. He went in depth to discuss about the projects I had worked on and practically left no stone unturned.
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Case narration - The client is a Projects based company that takes up contracts to layout power lines in India. They have been facing profitability issues.
Recommended Approach -Take out the famous profitability framework from your armor and begin to dissect the problem. I went into revenues and costs.
List down all the costs for e.g., Fixed and Variable (e.g. Raw Materials, Labouretc.) and check whether any item has higher costs than that of the competitor or the client’s initial costing for the project. You would find that the costing for each item would be still the same. (
At this point I was given a hint - what is the most crucial thing in a project? You have worked on many of them).
I immediately realized that this was about the timelines. Ask, are they overshooting the timelines defined in their costing? – Yes, the client was overshooting their project timelines leading to higher fixed costs incurred per project. Then, you dive into revenues and first understand the process of taking up each order and how the payments are made. I recommend making a whole cycle (or diagram) of the process. It helps you visualize better. You will realize that government projects are given through a lowest bid tendering process. One potential problem that you immediately state is that probably the client is not adopting a sound bidding strategy thereby bidding too low in order to get a project. Second thing that you will realize is that the payments may be getting delayed. This will lead to a higher working capital.
Tips: I couldn’t reach the point that payments maybe getting delayed. I was given a hint that “the working capital is increasing? Why do you think that could be?”. I just couldn’t write the formula for the working capital. Finally, after a while, I caught the hint and realized that the payments were getting delayed. Overall, I could feel that the interview went well except for the minor blip in the end. Things that worked for me: 1. Always keep smiling and be confident. PI is 50% of the whole game. If you do that well, you are well placed. Be very confident, open and genuine in the PI. Let the interviewer see through who you really are as a person. 2. Never lose your cool. If you’re stuck, just say that I think I have hit a dead end, let me start from the top and see what I could’ve missed. The interviewer is out there to help! 3. Make a good conversation. I spoke to Shirish about the restaurants he has invested in.
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Case Narration- I was just reading through the newspaper today, and I found this article. It says that India needs nearly 500 million skills by 2022. What do you think about this?
Recommended Approach
Task at hand is to estimate the number of unemployed people in the country by 2022. So, first estimate the current unemployed number of people in India. And then also add a growth percentage to it to say, how many people will get added every year.
Split the population first by age above 18 and then into urban and rural. Then split further into income groups followed by gender. Then, put an estimated percentage of unemployment for each category. This way you will find the current number of unemployed population. Then add a growth percentage of population of nearly 1.5% and add it for years from 2015 to 2022. The number came to $480 million for me and thus justified the $500 M in the newspaper statement.. So, the interviewer stopped me there.
Tips: After the case, the interviewer asked me about my previous interview and which case had I got. He told me that the previous interviewer had asked him to test me on the numbers. Thus, the bizzare case. Things that worked: 1. While we were discussing the case given to me in the first interview, I started to discuss on how does McKinsey fair in government projects and tenders. We had a good discussion that made a positive impact. 2. I didn’t panic after listening to the case. It was an arbitrary case, but I knew that in such cases, the interviewer will be more than willing to help you break down the case. So, I just continued having a conversation about the statement in the newspaper till the time I could understand exactly what the interviewer wanted me to do in the case.
Skills:
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
I applied via Referral
3 Interview Rounds
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Case narration - McKinsey is faced with a live situation. After the split of Andhra Pradesh, the state is looking to set up a new capital city. The Government wants to know how much land should they acquire from farmers to set the city up. How would you approach the problem?
Suggested considering five broad areas
1. Business
2. Government offices
3. Social enterprises like schools hospitals
4. Residential
5. Public utilities
Consider land required for these. Was asked how you would determine. Mentioned that we could look at comparative cities around which you would like to model the city. We could also consider the population that could migrate and plan space accordingly. What metrics would you consider while determining the population? Population density per sq. km Are there any other metrics you could consider Maybe GDP per capita of the city Then Sasi went into some detail of other things to consider like smart city aspects and the case ended.
Tips: Recommended Approach - No framework could be applied. Think logically.
Skills:
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
Experience: Case narration - McKinsey is faced with a live situation. After the split of Andhra Pradesh, the state is looking to set up a new capital city. The Government wants to know how much land should they acquire from farmers to set the city up. How would you approach the problem?
Suggested considering five broad areas
1. Business
2. Government offices
3. Social enterprises like schools hospitals
4. Residential
5. Public utilities
Consider land required for these. Was asked how you would determine. Mentioned that we could look at comparative cities around which you would like to model the city. We could also consider the population that could migrate and plan space accordingly. What metrics would you consider while determining the population? Population density per sq. km Are there any other metrics you could consider Maybe GDP per capita of the city Then Sasi went into some detail of other things to consider like smart city aspects and the case ended.
Tips: Recommended Approach - No framework could be applied. Think logically.
Skills:
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
I applied via Referral
3 Interview Rounds
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Case narration -A real estate developer is setting up a township in the middle of the desert. A PE has also invested in it. Currently they are deciding whom to contract with to set up the water supply system, i.e. whether to use a private company or to use a public company. What are the factors to be considered? The initial part involved determining the cost structure and the total costs involved with the help of the total costs and the number of connections and average usage per household. One the numbers were out of the way, I was required to determine the profit considering the pricing of the nearest township. Then considering the two pricing methods mentioned below determine the variable price per unit in each given the fixed connection price. The key was determining which was better and the answer the interviewer was looking for was primarily variability. The fixed price ensured some amount of predictability whereas only variable led to greater standard deviation.
Tips: Consider the motive and then follow the direction that the interviewer leads. In this case I found that the interviewer was ok leading I just had to pick up the hints.
Skills:
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
Experience: Case narration -A real estate developer is setting up a township in the middle of the desert. A PE has also invested in it. Currently they are deciding whom to contract with to set up the water supply system, i.e. whether to use a private company or to use a public company. What are the factors to be considered? The initial part involved determining the cost structure and the total costs involved with the help of the total costs and the number of connections and average usage per household. One the numbers were out of the way, I was required to determine the profit considering the pricing of the nearest township. Then considering the two pricing methods mentioned below determine the variable price per unit in each given the fixed connection price. The key was determining which was better and the answer the interviewer was looking for was primarily variability. The fixed price ensured some amount of predictability whereas only variable led to greater standard deviation.
Tips: Consider the motive and then follow the direction that the interviewer leads. In this case I found that the interviewer was ok leading I just had to pick up the hints.
Skills:
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
I applied via Referral
3 Interview Rounds
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: HR Interview
Experience: Typical PI about what all have I done in my life so far. Why do I want to be in consulting? What am I looking forward to in Mckinsey? Who all are there in my family? It was a very informal chit chat.
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: A short case- More of a concept.Shirish asked me if I knew anything about cost curves. I told him about a downward sloping average fixed cost curve, U-shaped average cost curve and marginal cost curve cutting the average cost at its minimum. Then he asked me about average cost curve of a mining firm. I talked about the nature of heavy upfront investment required. Then he said lets draw the cost curve of mining industry as a whole. I was a bit confused at this point as I thought he is talking about average cost. But he was basically hinting at the marginal cost curve and supply curve of the industry. So it would be an upward sloping curve representing the supply. Then he asked me if I faced a downward sloping demand curve and my firm wanted to expand, then where would I like to operate on this supply curve? I talked about the equilibrium being where demand meets the supply, and as supply shows marginal cost, so I would like to operate towards the left of equilibrium, where my MCTips: This short discussion gave a great insight and I was very happy. Sirish congratulated me and told me that we are making you an offer and you would get to learn a lot more interesting things while you are at Mckinsey. I had interviews scheduled with four companies for day 1. I finished all my round one interviews by 12:30/1pm and then I could calmly wait for my results and stay where odds were in my favor. I think staying calm and just being yourself helps the most. :)
Skills:
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
Experience: Typical PI about what all have I done in my life so far. Why do I want to be in consulting? What am I looking forward to in Mckinsey? Who all are there in my family? It was a very informal chit chat.
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: A short case- More of a concept.Shirish asked me if I knew anything about cost curves. I told him about a downward sloping average fixed cost curve, U-shaped average cost curve and marginal cost curve cutting the average cost at its minimum. Then he asked me about average cost curve of a mining firm. I talked about the nature of heavy upfront investment required. Then he said lets draw the cost curve of mining industry as a whole. I was a bit confused at this point as I thought he is talking about average cost. But he was basically hinting at the marginal cost curve and supply curve of the industry. So it would be an upward sloping curve representing the supply. Then he asked me if I faced a downward sloping demand curve and my firm wanted to expand, then where would I like to operate on this supply curve? I talked about the equilibrium being where demand meets the supply, and as supply shows marginal cost, so I would like to operate towards the left of equilibrium, where my MC
Skills:
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
I applied via Referral
1 Interview Round
Interview Questions
- Q1. Estimate the number of aircrafts taking off from Delhi airport in a day. (Case Type- Estimation case)
- Q2. Our client is an LIC firm and productivity of its agents is going down. Please help the client to figure out the reasons for the same.(Case type -Profitability/...read more
Interview Preparation Tips
Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Peeyush(interviewer) gave a 2 min introduction about him and then jumped directly to the case without wasting time.
Case 1. I started the case by mentioning 3 approaches by which I could estimate the number of aircrafts:
1. Supply side- in terms of capacity of the airport
2. Supply side- in terms of the number of carriers and their flights on domestic and international routes
3. Demand side- Demand for flight seats and then using the average capacity utilization and average fleet aircraft size. Peeyush asked me to go ahead with the first approach. I asked him a few questions about the number of runways Delhi airport has, the average operational hours in a day, the time it takes for a flight to land/ take off and the time gap between two take offs or landings. At this point Peeyush seemed impressed and told me that you have cracked this case. Let’s moved ahead to some other case.
Case 2. Productivity= Policies sold per annum/ person So I began the discussion by staking that this metric could be worse off for two reasons, firstly if my agents are incapable of selling policies and there is some issue with respect to their efforts or secondly, if I am employing excessive employees in my organization. I wanted to go ahead with the first one.
I first talked about how the process works when an agent approaches a client to sell the policy. I drew a funnel and explained that leads keep dropping out of the process and only a few buy the policy finally and to know why our agents are unable to sell policies, we need to look at each step in this chain.
Peeyush seemed satisfied with this approach and asked me to go ahead with it. I listed down the following process:
1. Identifying the leads
Here I talked about identification of right set of people whom our agents should target based on the nature of our
product and income class and needs of the clients
2. Our agents approaching the leads and informing them about the product. I listed a number of factors play an important
role at this step:
a) Skills of our agents Skills could be in terms of the educational qualifications of our agents, their knowledge about the
product, communication skills, and marketing skills. Peeyush hinted that it was a key problem. I suggested that this
problem could be resolved by making our hiring policies more robust, providing proper training to our incoming
employees and allocating agents to areas based on their background and demographics of people residing there.
b) Brand of our firm- This was another issue, though Peeyush didn’t want me to elaborate on that.
c) Competitor’s products
d) Terms and conditions of our product
3. Follow up by agents
4. Processing of the policy by our back office
5. After-sale follow up (impact on referrals and brand
Case was mostly done when I identified the agent side and brand issue, however Peeyush was just patiently listening to me and waiting for me to finish. He seemed satisfied with both the cases and their outcomes. I asked him about what career option could have given him the same degree of satisfaction as consulting and Mckinsey. Here he mainly talked about how much he liked consulting and what other options he had faced and evaluated over the course of his life.
Skills:
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
Experience: Peeyush(interviewer) gave a 2 min introduction about him and then jumped directly to the case without wasting time.
Case 1. I started the case by mentioning 3 approaches by which I could estimate the number of aircrafts:
1. Supply side- in terms of capacity of the airport
2. Supply side- in terms of the number of carriers and their flights on domestic and international routes
3. Demand side- Demand for flight seats and then using the average capacity utilization and average fleet aircraft size. Peeyush asked me to go ahead with the first approach. I asked him a few questions about the number of runways Delhi airport has, the average operational hours in a day, the time it takes for a flight to land/ take off and the time gap between two take offs or landings. At this point Peeyush seemed impressed and told me that you have cracked this case. Let’s moved ahead to some other case.
Case 2. Productivity= Policies sold per annum/ person So I began the discussion by staking that this metric could be worse off for two reasons, firstly if my agents are incapable of selling policies and there is some issue with respect to their efforts or secondly, if I am employing excessive employees in my organization. I wanted to go ahead with the first one.
I first talked about how the process works when an agent approaches a client to sell the policy. I drew a funnel and explained that leads keep dropping out of the process and only a few buy the policy finally and to know why our agents are unable to sell policies, we need to look at each step in this chain.
Peeyush seemed satisfied with this approach and asked me to go ahead with it. I listed down the following process:
1. Identifying the leads
Here I talked about identification of right set of people whom our agents should target based on the nature of our
product and income class and needs of the clients
2. Our agents approaching the leads and informing them about the product. I listed a number of factors play an important
role at this step:
a) Skills of our agents Skills could be in terms of the educational qualifications of our agents, their knowledge about the
product, communication skills, and marketing skills. Peeyush hinted that it was a key problem. I suggested that this
problem could be resolved by making our hiring policies more robust, providing proper training to our incoming
employees and allocating agents to areas based on their background and demographics of people residing there.
b) Brand of our firm- This was another issue, though Peeyush didn’t want me to elaborate on that.
c) Competitor’s products
d) Terms and conditions of our product
3. Follow up by agents
4. Processing of the policy by our back office
5. After-sale follow up (impact on referrals and brand
Case was mostly done when I identified the agent side and brand issue, however Peeyush was just patiently listening to me and waiting for me to finish. He seemed satisfied with both the cases and their outcomes. I asked him about what career option could have given him the same degree of satisfaction as consulting and Mckinsey. Here he mainly talked about how much he liked consulting and what other options he had faced and evaluated over the course of his life.
Skills:
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)
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