McKinsey & Company Business Analyst Interview Questions, Process, and Tips

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: 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: 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: Interview
Experience: Answer 1) I took a really long time to do this one, and I had only got as far as the consumption of vodka by women when the interviewer asked me to stop. She was not exactly encouraging/helpful and I guess that slowed down my responses. When I asked her if I could wrap up the guesstimate, she told me it would not be necessary

Answer 2) There was no real case here. The interviewer was a cheerful man who just wanted me to discuss how to go about starting an airline. He asked me to estimate no. of passengers. I divided the population into urbanrural, business travellers-tourists, etc (in steps of course, but nothing extraordinary). He seemed to be pretty impressed and was generally chatting with me for almost 15 mins about his experiences in McKinsey.

Round: Interview
Experience: I was asked to walk through my resume. Apart from the regular questions about my projects and internships, I was asked the one question which I was expecting since morning: “Why not research?” I was also asked about my Yantriki victory and my tenure as Speakers’ club convener. A large part of the interview was also devoted to “McKinsey vs. its competition”

General Tips: Sleep well, wear comfortable footwear (Girls, please stash away those high heels for post-job treats and NOT interviews, they almost killed me), don’t starve yourself. If you have back-to-back interviews, sit down for a minute between interviews and take deep breaths, it really helps. Now let’s cut the chase and get to preparation

PPT : Attend PPTs of all the companies that you are interested in. It will give you a good idea of the kind of people you’ll work with, apart from the work itself. Stick around after the PPT and talk to your seniors who are working with the company. Wait for the pizza, there’s always enough for everyone.

Resume : Don’t try and squeeze in too much into your resume. Going by the experiences of my batch, I think companies looked for well-rounded individuals and not necessarily DR1’s or managers and CGs. Needless to say, do not lie or exaggerate. It is disgusting, and in most cases, it will be obvious too. 

Interviews: Please don’t prepare answers to the last word, but think about some common questions: strengths/weaknesses (a little introspection never does any harm) and of course, “Why consulting?” (or analytics, etc). Go through your resume and think about what you have learnt from each experience.
College Name: IIT BOMBAY

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: McKinsey looks for a spike in your resume, people who have commendable achievements is their field of choice, academics, extra curriculars or sports. So be sure to make your resume accordingly. McKinsey adds a lot of weight-age to formal awards, scholarships, achievements (like inter-IIT) etc. But if you don't have them (like me) you just have to make extra effort to show that you have equivalent achievements.

Round: Interview
Experience: First, I was asked about myself and mostly my connection to dance and the dance club. (Some interviewers do this to make you comfortable at the same time analyzing your personality). In the first interview I was given an estimation case about the dish TV industry. Here the interviewer was mostly interested in my approach to solving the problem and if applicable my numerical skills. 

The second interview was a pure business case about the printing business. Here my creativity and business sense (read common sense as applicable to a business situation) was put to test.
Tips: McKinsey interviews are mostly case study based. So prepare accordingly. Once you get shortlisted they send you a ton of material, search for a “Vault” case book amongst this pile. Reading that should be enough ;). First read the basic material by you and once you are confident enough make a group of around 3 people and practice case studies.

I guess this job opportunity meant a lot to all of us and it did to me too. I became nervous and that severely affected my performance and moreover I looked under confident. Take on every interview as if that job doesn't mean anything to you.

General Tips: Internship: (attention third year people!)
When it comes to the placement interview, internships play pivotal role. There are rarely any interviews where the interviewee isn't drilled on their internships. So, please don‟t treat an internship as a paid vacation. Good work done during the internship gives one the confidence that can very well bowl the interviewer over (as it did in my case :D). Believe me confidence does much more than get you a job; it determines success and failure in most
undertakings. Internship gives you the first chance to build that up … use it! 

Pre Placement Talks:
Please attend the ppts of at least those companies which fall into your sector of interest. At ppts you get to see a lot more things than the boring presentations and the pay package. Most companies bring along with them alumni who have spent a few years in the company. Observing or interacting with them will give you a good assessment of what you are going to be a few years from now if you join that company. For example I observed that alumni of XYZ Company were not as upbeat and confident as alumni of ABC Company (names have
been hidden on request ;) ) even if XYZ was paying plenty more than ABC. I knew then and there that I would want to join ABC and never applied to XYZ. Be sure to utilize them and be sure to clear all your doubts and conceptions. Once you start attending presentations you will observe junta asking questions just to score brownie points with the speaker. Believe me it won't help one bit in landing them a job!

Resumes:
Making an appealing resume is the single most important step in the placement process and IITK is notorious for its bad resumes, so attend workshops. Like most IITK junta I sucked at making a resume (and still do), but whatever little skill I have, I got through workshops. One workshop I would advise everyone to attend is the resume making workshop of McKinsey. Get your resumes checked and edited by those who have been through placement especially by those from other IITs (I know this will hurt a lot of egos, but IITB's resumes are some of the best. Those dudes have mastered the art of making an impact with whatever little they've got, while we excel at doing exactly the opposite :P). Prepare an impactful resume and don't submit the same resume to every company, make changes based on the profile.
College Name: IIT KANPUR

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: The company looks for exceptional performances in the resumes. They want to have people who are good on all fronts and are exceptional in a few things. So tailor the resume accordingly and bring out all the spikes that you can put forth.
Tips: They usually have a resume making workshop where they tell about their expectations from the resumes. Make full use of that workshop.

Round: Interview
Experience: I appeared for 4 interviews in total. Each interview had case study as well as HR questions. It is very important to engage the interviewer in a conversation and remain confident throughout the interview.
Tips: Show the interviewer that you are really passionate about whatever you have done.

General Tips: Pre-Placement Preparation

1) Selecting sectors or companies
Select your group of target companies and sectors. You should realize what your interests are and what kind of job would suit you, and according to that you should prepare a list of companies that you are going to focus on primarily. This list should not be too narrow that you have too few companies to target and not too broad that you end up sitting for every company visiting the campus.

2) Attending PPTs
The PPTs and the workshops organized by the companies form a key input in the decision process of choosing the companies. Be attentive during the PPTs and note key points mentioned – like the profile, compensation structure and the contacts of the people (especially alumni) in the company. This helps a lot during the preparation for the particular company.

3) Resume
The best way to start the preparation for the interview process is to start by making a list of all things that you have done in your life. This list should contain every small and big thing that you have done. Once the above list is made, make a master resume out of the list by retaining all the important things and putting them into formal language. The smaller works can be kept for narrating during interviews. If your master resume is properly made then preparing company tailored resume becomes very easy. After the master resume is done, it is time to make sector/company specific resumes. Every sector must have different resumes and, if possible, also make the resume specific to every company. Take feedback from your friends and seniors and make necessary adjustments.

4) Communication skills
You can make a GD group and conduct regular GDs to help you prepare for the GDs. In fact, also ask your friends to conduct mock interviews and record these interviews. You will actually come to know what to do and how you react during the interviews.

5) Written Tests
If you are targeting companies that take CAT-like aptitude tests, then prepare for them by solving some CAT papers. These tests just check practice and someone who has been preparing will definitely have an edge over a person who is not in touch.

6) HR Interviews
Make a list of the commonly asked HR questions and then prepare answers for them. Do not learn the answers by heart but make sure you know the important points that you want to mention for each question.

7) Case Interviews
The best way to prepare for a case interview is to form groups and solve case studies interactively as you would do in an interview.

8. CSE Preparation
For the CSE companies, I brushed up basic data structures and algorithms as well as C/C++ and Java. Other than that, I also glanced through Operating Systems, Compilers, Networks and databases. Make sure that you understand the basic concepts behind these things as well as particular details of popular implementations of each of these systems.
College Name: IIT KANPUR

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: Since, first short listing was done on the basis of resumes, so again it’s very important to highlight some spike in your career in the best possible way.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: The interview had 2 rounds initially after which one shortlist was given. In the first one, after asking some questions from my resume, like why consulting, about internship,etc..I was asked a case to estimate the washing machine market of India..I was asked to think and come up with some answer and take as much time as I want. I just focused domestic market but was then asked to look for industries also L...I lost some track here and was not able to clearly see what is the market to washing machines as far as industries are concerned apart from textiles...then I was asked to list out the factors of buying a new washing machine, I said the obvious ones and then was asked to come up with a number depicting the number of machines which will be sold next year..I was not at my best but somehow got some answer which the interviewer said is ok and the interview ended up in 30 minutes.

Round: HR Interview
Experience: Later on, for the second interview, a partner called me in. He asked me about my pre IIT experiences and about my family background. Then he gave me simple case to calculate the number of cricket bats sold per year in India and then the market of this commodity. I did the case quickly and told him the steps and final answer which he said that that looked somewhat on the lower side and then asked me to leave. I asked me some questions and the interview was over in 15 minutes!!! L...shortlist came and I was not there.

College Name: IIT KANPUR

Round: Interview
Experience: My first interview started on the age old note of, “tell me something about yourself.” It proceeded through a few more questions to a case study of estimating the number of marriages in India per year.

Round: Interview
Experience: I fell for THE FRAMEWORK which is not the best thing to happen during a case study but thanks to the interviewer that I recovered and did a satisfactory job. In my second interview it was again some HR questions followed by the case about increasing the viewership of channel V. It being one of the very few channels I ever watched I did good justice to this case.

Round: Interview
Experience: My next interviewer jumped directly to a case which involved the cutting down of time spent in a medical procedure. Here, some of my Robin Cook novels and the series ‘Lost’ came to help and I was able to think in a medical fashion providing suggestions which the interviewer regarded to be good. But well, looks like I was destined to go for more interviews. So, a halfhearted goodbye Mckinsey.

College Name: IIT KANPUR