Co-Operative Interview Questions and Answers

Round: Interview
Experience: There were four interviews, with a case study and some HR questions in each. 
The first interviewer was an IIT Delhi alumnus and asked me a case on whether a telecom company should go for exploring the 3G license option. He provided me with information as and when I asked for it. Later during the interview, I asked him about his experience with McKinsey. 
The second interview involved a case on acquiring land for a B-School. The case was mainly qualitative and the HR questions were also straightforward. Giving a thought to goals and aspirations helped. 
My third interview was with a partner. Again, standard PI questions: something about yourself, why consulting, what if not McKinsey, important attributes of a good leader, why should we hire you etc. The case was on the design on entry and exit gates for Delhi Metro. 
My final interview was again with a partner and there was no HR part. It started with a case, and then there was nothing else to discuss. Anything and everything that could possibly go wrong did. I did badly in the case and towards the end made errors with simple calculations as well.
Tips: It is important to think on your feet even if you are not able to make much headway with the case. This case had sealed my fate.

General Tips: Most of the times, things go on as they are supposed to, we do what we are assigned, meet deadlines and get it over with. Knowing what to do after four or five years of study at IIT is one of those deciding phases where we have to do something out of routine, think about what we actually want, what we can get from where we are. 
Here is an account of how I went about making my decisions and preparing for it. In one of those routine placement talks, a speaker remarked, ‘there are two ways you can choose a career- by extrapolation from what you have right now and by interpolation from your long term goal’. This helps one realize the importance of identification of long term goal. In my opinion, once a person is convinced about that, it is easy to pull off an interview; more importantly, it is easy to identify which options to prepare for. 
I’d eliminated higher studies at around the middle of fourth year and was convinced to sit for McKinsey and core companies. Resume preparation began at around August with the master resume followed by a resume for core electrical companies which come to campus. Later I made a one page resume for McKinsey. Preparing for McKinsey helped a great deal in preparing for the HR section of the interviews. After McKinsey results, I revised the electrical courses required for the companies which were coming to the campus.
The first day was hectic with a whole lot of companies lined up. One had to be prepared for
all the companies because the shortlist came just the night earlier.
College Name: IIT KANPUR

Round: Test
Experience: McKinsey has an aptitude test, but the test results don't have a significant weight in final decision. 
Resume shortlist for consulting companies is perhaps the most competitive among all firms and therefore,
in the interest of meaningful utilization of time, it's best to start case study preparation only after the shortlist is out. There's typically little more than a month between then and placement day, which is more than enough to prepare for any interview.

General Tips: Application process to all companies starts typically with a resume shortlist and therefore it is of utmost importance to write a good, impressive resume. A lot of people with great credentials fail to make this initial mark because their resume is poorly organized. It's good to have resume points, but it's equally important, if not more, to write them properly. Writing a perfect resume is an art that needs to be learnt
and God bless McKinsey for conducting an amazingly helpful workshop on resume writing.
It's a great idea to attend the workshop even if you are completely sure of never joining McKinsey.

Resume-writing is an iterative and time consuming process. So, best start a fortnight before deadline. Remember that it's a one-time effort. Once a good resume is ready, it can be used throughout the placement season with minor modifications. Do it once and do it correct. It took me about four or five iterations to end up with my final resume. It's a good idea to show the resume to lots of colleagues and seniors and challenge them to tear it down word-by-word.
College Name: IIT MADRAS

Round: HR Interview
Experience: Was asked to stop, look back and formalize everything done and summarize what was done. I related TV advertising rates to a online revenue for ads model I developed in my internship on which a worldwide patent was filed. Any questions? Asked about how an EM chooses whether to become a partner vs becoming a CEO/senior manager at a corporation. Asked if McKinsey had a standard way of solving business problems in engagements and if so how one retained one’s creativity

College Name: IIT KANPUR

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: Build the best resume, for getting shortlisted.
Tips: Your resume is the first impression you make for yourself on the company or the interviewing panel. Most companies have a resume shortlist for their interviews where they reduce the field from roughly 600 applicants to 20-30. So, your resume is of utmost importance.
Different companies look for different things in the resumes of their applicants. 
For example, the consulting firms look for people who are all-rounders and have spikes or achievements across the board. Other firms like people who are strong in the Positions of Responsibility department specially.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Mckinsey & Company had 3 rounds of interviews in total. 
Each interview consisted of a small case followed by a personal interview section. 
The cases that were asked were across the board. 
They varied from pricing new products to helping automobile companies improve their bottom line.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: The personal interview section in Mckinsey I felt was quite important. 
They really wanted to know what my long term and short term plans in life were and how Mckinsey figured in them.

College Name: IIT MADRAS

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: CASE 1:
I started by trying to get the prerequisites of going global demand, type and size of market, capital, project differentiation, management, logistics. My major mistake was delving too much into depth.

CASE 2:
He asked how you increased revenues?
I said....Everything depends on the elasticity of demand. You might want to increase sales or increase prices and reduce sales. Then he said, we increase prices or demand and assume the other to be constant.

How do you increase prices?
I said you just quote a higher price. Then he said that there are different seats in an airplane. That kind of tinkering you can always do even if you want to keep the revenues same
Tips: 1.In the about yourself questions you can either give an overview of your resume or tell them something more general.
2.You will be asked about your biggest academic achievment.
3.Don't be so cool to the extent of being casual.
4.Don't prepare answers.

General Tips: 1.Attend PPTs and listen very carefully.
2.Be sure to find out what you will be doing in the company.
3.Don't try and squeeze too much in your resume.
Skill Tips: 1. For case studies thereis a lot of stuff on the LAN and on the internet.
2. It's better to do these in groups.
College Name: IIT BOMBAY

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: CASE 1:
I took a long time to do this one. The interviewer was not helpful and that slowed down my response. I had only discussed the consumption of vodka by women when she asked me to stop.

CASE 2:
There was no real case here. The interviewer wanted me to discuss how to go about starting an airline.He asked me to estimate the no. of passengers.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: 1. Questions regarding my projects and internships were asked.
2. A large part of the interview was devoted to "McKinsey vs its competition.

Skill Tips: 1.Attend PPTs of all the companies that you are interested in.
2.Don't exaggerate in your resume.
3.Case studies is a must for consultancies.
College Name: IIT BOMBAY

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: a) I put a lot of thought into it. A LOT. I started top-down. In a sense, I always knew I was gonna target only 2 types of companies: Consulting and Banking. So made my 2 resumes accordingly. Basically I conveyed what needed to be conveyed. For this, I talked to a lot of people in Oct/Nov and researched a bit from previous editions of BePrepared. Being a DD helped. And then I spent a lot of time thinking how best to convey it. For example, I knew that my success in strategy competitions was crucial for Consulting Firms, hence I put those above my projects/extracurrics. b) Sent it to many people for feedback. Some of the points were accepted, some not. Its always our call in the end. But more often than not, external views make up the MOST important part of Resume Making. Advice: Make a rough copy first and then start thinking. If you think without it, it will take up a lot of time. DON’T LIE – IT WONT HELP YOU IN THE INTERVIEW. Be very serious in your resume. Avoid any kind of humor. Also don’t try to squeeze in too much.. you wont be coherent. Know what you want to convey and convey exactly that. At the end of it.. Look at your resume page by page. And see what it conveys at a VERY MACRO level. For ex: In my resume, Page 1 conveyed Decent Acads with Success in Strategy Competitions and Page 2 conveyed A lot of positions of responsibility with decent results and excellence in dramatics. I attended some of PPTs. Basically, from the beginning my focus was only on Consulting and Banking companies. In all I attended about 6 PPTs. But they do help. I know some of them are more than 90 minutes long. But its worth it in the end. There are some 5-6 important lines in every PPT and a wasted 90 minutes is worth those lines. Do catch the opportunity to talk to the presenters after the PPT informally. I found it to be quite valuable. Ofcourse, this meant less pizza consumed by me. But that’s okay.

Round: Interview
Experience: 2+ 2 rounds of interview after resume short-listing. Total 22, After 2 rounds: 6 Final Offer: 3 (out of which 2 accepted). My McK interviews were scheduled immediately after my 2 BCG interviews. So I was not tense going into them. Round 1: It started off with general HR. Which is how all interviews typically are. This is to make the interviewee comfortable. I was asked about my dramatics and my economics project. He was looking for short, precise answers. Then came the case: I was asked my sport of preference. I said Football. He asked me to Guesstimate (Guess + Estimate) the number of footballs in Europe. (For those of you who are not familiar with guesstimates: It basically involves coming to a number logically. You can either approach it from the supply side (involves estimating the total capacity and multiplying with a capacity utilization kind of a thing.) or the demand side (estimating the number of users and then multiplying by the frequency of use). I told him about how I can approach from the demand and the supply side. I said I would like to use the demand side as I thought it was easier. He asked me to instead use the supply side. This came as a shock as I had hardly practiced anything from the supply side (Lesson: Be prepared to think about novel problems – which you have never practiced). I made a hash of this one. I made a lot of mistakes. But the good thing was I was speaking aloud whatever was going inside my mind. So if I said: “costs at all London shops will be the same”, my interviewer would interject and ask “Would they”.. after thinking for a bit I would realize that they wont be since the transportation costs are different for different shops (unless they are competing) . I think he got impressed by my ability to recognize that I have made a mistake and the ability to rectify it. After this he asked me if I had any questions about McK. I had a few and asked him the same. .
Tips: Lesson Learnt: Don’t have any conceived notion of an interview. You can be asked anything. Go with an open mind. For Cases, Speak aloud. Don’t be stubborn on your findings. You could be wrong.

Round: Interview
Experience: Immediately after round 1, I was whisked away for the round 2. This was a senior partner. He grilled me about how my CPI was low (8.48) . He asked me whether I was against McKinsey taking up govt. studies. I said No and explained him the reason. He was happy. Quite literally. After that came the case: “A and B are the two top Cement manufacturers in India. A foreign cement behemoth C has bought both of them. C is now wondering how to integrate the HR of the two purchasing departments of A and B. What are the possible options? What should it do?” The case was 2-pronged. I had to identify the possible options first and then suggest one. An important learning was that I established the various “parameters” on the basis of which C must decide which one is the best first. I thought I did pretty well with this. The interviewer seemed very happy. After the 2 rounds, I was called by McK people for feedback. I was told that sometime I come across as too Assertive and that should be avoided. I found this feedback very helpful. And later on I realized that a consultant is typically a quiet, analytical, serious character and not a bubbly, flamboyant one.
Tips: Lesson Learnt: Don’t be overtly aggressive against some of the firm policies (govt. work in this case)

Round: Interview
Experience: It Was with a partner, again. I was told in this interview that my temperament and way of speaking was to b observed. He asked if I wanted some tea since I looked tired. I said yes. He jumped straight to the case. “A boiler co. wants to go global. Advice.” I didn't have much information about the boiler industry and hence clarified a few doubts. Every second I nagged myself to be less assertive and be more open and unbiased to information. He didn't let me solve it completely. Stopped in between and said I did okay. Ambiguous statements, very typical of consultants. :)
Tips: Lesson Learnt: Respect the client (in this case the interviewer). He knows much much more than you do.

Round: Interview
Experience: Was with a German partner. As I entered the room he said how everyone is very keen on me.. but then said he was not sure and had to see for himself. There was no case in this interview. It was mostly fit. We talked about cars and football. I have never had so much fun in an interview. It was awesome. In the end we agreed that Germany played some kick ass football in the world cup and deserved to at-least reach the final. I was told in the interview that I would be made an offer.
Tips: There are no ready-made formula. However, to get shortlisted he/she must have spikes in his/her resume/CV. The person should be hyper-analytic, open to ambiguity, a person who never gives up and above all should be able to communicate well. You need to also present yourself very professionally in front of this company. It tolerates no informality. Know why you want McKinsey/Consulting etc. Prepare case-studies well. Don’t over-prepare. And you definitely need some luck. Looking back, you realize its only one or two statements that you make which makes you unique.

General Tips: I think the biggest learning was the fact that each company has a different work culture. You should do some research on this also before. I hadn't done much research on UBS and it showed. You will also need to prepare the “Why XYZ?” type of questions from the bottom of your heart. You cant fool the interviewer. Also, always always respect the interviewer. I was down in energy later on. One should have a proper meal before coming for placements. Always be in touch with your seniors (wherever they may be). They can really throw gems of advice at the important instances. Do not worry about your interviews. Its futile. I think overall, I could have researched a bit more on the company cultures. Carry Red-Bull if you have more than 4 interviews. Also keep a sophie/thirdie always at your disposal. Switch off your cell phones when inside. I would prefer that you wear a suit. It gives a good impression. Don’t wear it for the first time on that day itself though. Do check if its good morning/good afternoon/good evening.
College Name: IIT BOMBAY