McKinsey & Company Consultant Interview Questions, Process, and 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)

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)

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)

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