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McKinsey & Company Consultant Interview Questions, Process, and Tips

Updated 25 Mar 2023

Top McKinsey & Company Consultant Interview Questions and Answers

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McKinsey & Company Consultant Interview Experiences

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Consultant Interview Questions & Answers

user image Srinath Nagarajan

posted on 23 Dec 2015

I applied via Referral

Interview Questionnaire 

3 Questions

  • Q1. Tell me what you did in CRISIL
  • Ans. 

    I worked as a credit analyst at CRISIL, analyzing credit risk of various companies.

    • Conducted financial statement analysis to assess creditworthiness

    • Evaluated industry trends and macroeconomic factors impacting credit risk

    • Prepared credit reports and made recommendations to clients

    • Collaborated with team members to discuss findings and strategies

  • Answered by AI
  • Q2. Tell me about yourself
  • Ans. 

    I am a dedicated and experienced consultant with a strong background in problem-solving and client management.

    • Over 5 years of experience in consulting roles

    • Skilled in analyzing data and providing strategic recommendations

    • Proven track record of successfully managing client relationships

    • Strong communication and presentation skills

    • Certified in relevant consulting methodologies

  • Answered by AI
  • Q3. You have mentioned that you sing on a Band in Bangalore, what do you do here exactly?

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: The interview started with a 'tell me about yourself' for which i had prepared a 1 minute intro highlighting specific aspects about myself that I wanted to bring to his notice . Then he asked me about what i did in CRISIL (my prior workplace) . I explained that I was engaged in assigning Credit Ratings to Corporates under Basel II Regulations.
How would you go about Rating a Company, lets say Bharti Airtel.
Because it was Bharti Airtel I had to give an answer tailored to what the approach would be for a Telecom company would be. While answering I was conscious of 2 things – One, that I have a clear structure to my answers and Two, tried to keep it as simple and jargon free as possible.
(An Offshoot from something I had mentioned in the earlier answer) What are the ratios that you would look at?Here I mentioned the financial ratios that I would look at stating specifically why I would look at each ratio. He probed me on a few ratios here and there. The intention appeared to be more to check my articulation of a financial concept.
Eg: What is a Current Ratio?
I explained the formula. However I did not stop there. I went on to explain that it was used to assess the liquidity position of the company.
Then I went on to explain to the logic behind the usage of the ratio – Simply put, it tells us if there is likely to be sufficient inflows of funds over the next one year to meet the maturing payment obligations. So a current ratio of less than one means the company has more to pay than what is coming in, a liquidity problem. (Based on the approving nods that I was getting, I felt he liked those portions of my answer where I endeavored to de-jargonize or simplify complex concepts)
So Tell me, how would you increase the revenues of Bharti Airtel.
That was my case, it had begun. However, at that point I thought it was just an extension of my previous discussion and I started rambling.
Analysis:
Preliminary questions - We all know Bharti Airtel and the services it offered quite well – So there was no need to ask preliminary questions. Also, since I wasn't aware that I was doing a case I did not have the opportunity to ask preliminary questions.
Structure: The Structure that I used was fairly simple – Increase in Revenues can in Existing markets or through expansion in new markets.
I explored the existing markets first. Here increase in revenues could occur through increased market penetration, increased usage of basic services among current users or increased usage of Value added services among existing customers. He asked me a couple of questions on how these things can be done and I gave him some off the cuff answers.
For the New markets, I suggested that the company could look at inorganic expansion through acquisitions or through establishment of Greenfield operations in new markets with high market potential.
The entire case was more like an informal chat. There were a few follow up questions on some of the options I had generated. The case did not last very long – about 10 minutes at the max.


Tips: Know your Resume well. At no point in the interview should you ramble on. All answers must be natural (ie, must not appear rehearsed), brief, structured and to the point.

Retaining composure through the interview is critical. Mistakes may happen during the interview, but it is important to pick you up and keep at it. People rarely have perfect interviews where everything has gone right and interviewers don‟t expect it either.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Case: I am the manufacturer of Tata Nano. While setting up the plant I expected to have sales of around 5 lac Nanos per annum, but now the number is way below that. Can you help me find out why.
Analysis: Preliminary questions – Since it was Tata Nano, lot of the background questions were not required. I clarified whether the problem was a lack of bookings that they received. He agreed.
Structure: The Structure that I used was not the best but it did get me to the problem. I started off by saying the lack of bookings could be on account of 3 reasons – One, a lack of awareness of the product among the target customers (Marketing problem), Two, Being aware of the product but not being able to place a booking (Distribution problem) or a Three, being aware of the product yet not interested in the product(i called this the product problem). He asked me to ignore the first 2 (he did not seem highly impressed) and explore the 3 rd the product problem.
Here I again broke it up in to 2 further branches – Problems that the Car has by itself (Internal factors) and problems in the external environment mainly competition, etc. I deep delved in to the Internal factors.
Of the internal problems I mentioned, he agreed that the negative publicity from the steering wheel catching fire was an issue and comfort factor was another issue. As and when he acknowledged a problem, I made a separate note of it. Eventually when he asked me to explore the external factors, I used these points to do a quick summary of the key takeaways up to that point.
In the external problem, I divided it into competition from other cars and two wheeler. I asked a few questions here trying to pick up a clue or 2 of how to proceed from there but he just refused to shell out any information. At this point he also took out his Blackberry and acted uncooperative. I went on to analyze for myself that given that the price of the next cheapest car was over a lakh higher than this car the issue lay more with the 2 wheeler. I went on to list factors why people would prefer 2 wheeler to a Tata Nano. Of the factors I listed, he acknowledged that the high running costs and availability of easy financing options seemed like the distinguishing factors. He said I seemed to have arrived at the problem.
He now asked me to tell me how he could provide
financing options for the Nano. This I felt was like a
guess estimate problem. I said I would work backward
to solve the problem. This is how I solved it – I said the average Nano target customer would earn Rs 10000 per month (he had given me that number in an earlier discussion, he liked the fact that I had noted it down and was using it again) I said, given the average savings rate of the country is at 35%-40% (this is from the RBI website I think). That meant a saving of about Rs 4,000 per month. No one would be comfortable giving up their


Skills:
College Name: IIM Lucknow

Consultant Interview Questions & Answers

user image Anonymous

posted on 20 Dec 2015

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: PI Questions came after the case. It started with interviewer asking about my prior work experience. All subsequent questions emanated from the first question which was: “Of all your achievements, which one do you think is the most important to you”. This was a classic case of being able to draw the interviewer to where you want to go. I talked about a very tough implementation project that I did at ITC Factory in Munger, Bihar. I said for me an achievement is about 2 things: (1) The Context in which I
achieved it (2) What it meant to me at that stage. In the context part, I talked about managing an un-skilled workforce.
Then he asked me how do you manage such a work force? I said by established an internal connect with them. He asked how do you do that? Went into a couple of instances which made me establish such connections. Although he had asked me to talk about just 1 instance, but seeing that he was impressed, I requested him if I could talk of another different type of incident which is also very close to my heart. He allowed. I talked about selling a extravagant project to the company chairman. It was
about high-end world class patented Audio-Visual systems. interviewer too seemed to have some knowledge about those equipments and thus we had an interesting conversation. The idea was, I could not only show my Project Implementation Abilities
but also talk about Planning and Inter-personal skills.

The case was about a canned juice manufacturing company. Recently they have diversified into different types/more variety of juices. Their profitability has gone down in comparison to their competitors. Need to analyze, identify root causes and advice solutions to the client. I asked a few ‘Start-Up’ question These are standard questions which you would ask for most of the cases. Some of them were: How big is the client? Has been in the business for how long and how and when has their business strategy changed. Who are the major competitors? What are the various revenue streams (different type of juices et al)? He gave
me some info but asked to assume one standard fruit juice for the analysis. Now I approached in the classical Profitability Case. Profit = Revenue – Cost. Problem can be in either of the two factors i.e. Revenue or Cost. I asked him if he wanted to delve into Revenue or Cost first. He advised to go into the cost aspect (we never visited the revenue aspect). Then he asked me about what are the various cost heads in such a business. This was the key!!! Process Value Chain rules I drew the entire value
chain from Agri-sourcing of fruits to In-Bound Logistics to Warehousing to Processing/Manufacturing to Out-Bound Logistics to Retailer to Customer. Started from the Left Side i.e. Sourcing. He asked me what could be reasons for lower profits. This was more of a brainstorming session. Coming from ITC (of e-choupal fame) background, I could talk the possibility of competitors being able to backward integrate and establish a symbiotic relationship with the farmers which allows them to remove the middle-men and thus get cheaper and good quality fruits, whereas our client has not done that. Then came to In-Bound logistics. I
said that juicy fruits being mostly hygroscopic are prone to damage in transit. Talked about the quality of infrastructure en-route to their plants and quality of logistics partner. Then came the crux: Processing/Manufacturing. At first it was qualitative.
I said the client might have a very high Cost/Unit because of excess/high quality infrastructure. Somehow this turned out to be the case. I realized there has been loads of ‘strategy’ based talking and there bound to be some nos. I asked him and he gave me whole lot of nos. about their manufacturing costs as well as the manufacturing costs of competitors. There was Maths involved here as he gave costs and throughputs of different plants of client as well as competition. Had to find out the average cost per unit of juice manufactured by client vs competition. Of course client’s cost of manufacturing was way higher. Talked about some ways as to how can this be brought down. Talked about economies of scale as some of the assets were under-utilized. This would involve launching other related products as well or expanding markets. There were a few more points discussed but this was merely a closure.
Asked him a couple of questions on his area of expertise and how markets were shaping this year.

I believe that your work-experience (which is a huge factor in your being short-listed) must be reflected in the way you approach cases. Sometime we lose sight of that in following standard structures/frameworks etc. At each stage, I could use my FMCG and Manufacturing experience to come up possible reasons. So, your experiences must show in case solving as well and I believe I did that well. One very interesting thing, right at the start which I think worked well for me. When I entered the room, I generally talked about the view being great from the window. Nal generally asked whose room was it. I had not noticed the name-plate while entering which anyways was covered with a McKinsey signage. Looking at the books and brochures in the room, I
made a guess giving the reason of the guess. It was Bang On!!!

Tips: Do not lose sight of Who you are and What have you achieved till date.This should reflect in your interview. Also, be ready to delve into nos. Interviewer also wants to test your analytic ability with nos. as they back/justify your claims, ideas and suggestions. So ask him if he has nos. when he says “Cost is High” or “Profits are Low” etc.


Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Just imagine. It does not get bigger than him. The senior most guy in the panel who is rumored to take the final call on each and every candidate. I was to interview with him in my Round-1. Thought this was the do or die situation. Questions started coming right from my CV. We talked about taking up very good projects additional to normal course curriculum, participation in sports, organizing ILS and some other personal focus areas for the year. Then he asked which one of the 3 academic experiences: School,
Undergrad, ISB was most enriching. I split it into 2: Academic and Over- all. Academic was School and Over-all was Undergrad for me. He asked me the reason. Came from the CV plus how it was important for personality development and so on… Then he asked about my work-experience. Talked about CAPEX for a while. What did I do as Capex Manager etc.

Started off with the standard warm-up questions but somehow warm-up questions and interviewer don’t go too well. I asked him about the background of the company/competition/industry. For each question I was quizzed on why did I think that question was
relevant and how will it help me achieve the final objective i.e. valuation. Some useful information which I could generate was that the ‘patent’ was for cotton farming and would increase the yield of cotton growth. Realizing that it was a valuation case, I proposed following the a combination of 3 approaches -(1) Value Based Costing (2) Competition Based Costing (3) Cost-Up; to come up with a band of prices and then zero-in on the final price based on other factors. He agreed. Started with Value i.e. Willingness to Pay on the part of the customer. The customers would of course be cotton formers. Then he asked what is the value of the patent to them? I told him about it increasing the yield and asked if he could provide some nos. on the same. He said it increases the yield per sq. ft by a factor of 50%. Believing that it would again be a complicated nos. case, I took some time and came up with a complicated structure to calculate the monetary value of this increase in yield. It involved numerous factors such as average land-holing, no. of cotton farmers, current yield, cotton prices in the market etc. etc. But rest-assured interviewer cases would rarely involve complicated calculations. He said he was looking for something very simple and asked me to think about it.

Now was the moment of surprise. While I was thinking, he asked me to pause. He said “Oh you have worked in Capex right? How would you reduce Capex Cost in a Power Plant?” I was really surprised. I started off by giving him a ‘structure’ (yeah right!!!) which we need to put in place to identify the scope of reduction in Capex. I came up with various stages involved in setting up and commissioning a power plant which would be:
Engineering Design > Construction of Infrastructure > Procurement of equipments > Electricity Generation > Electricity Distribution & Transmission
Told him we need to look into Capex requirement at each of stage and started off with Engineering Design. Just I as started, he asked me to go back to the Patent Case (strange!!!!)

He wanted a simplified model to calculate the value. After some discussion, we have me the annual turnover of cotton in India and the average price per ton. From this I calculate the value of the higher yield that all Indian farmers could get.

He asked apart from increasing revenue, how else the patent could benefit the farmers. Now with revenue there has to be cost!!! I said the new technology could lead to reduction in costs. Was asked to brainstorm on the costs involved. I told land, water for irrigation etc. Yes the patent reduced irrigation requirements. So I talked about reducing water consumption, associated energy costs as well as the psychological costs and risks associated with reliance on monsoons which could now be mitigated. He asked what else? Very happily I told him that now lesser seeds may be required. He said “The patent is a variety of seeds only”. I realized I had forgotten to ask him what does the ‘patent’ entail….in one of the professor’s language, “is it a bird or a plane”. Should have asked it upfront.

Anyways recovered. Had already found out of the increase in revenue (was asked to neglect decrease in costs) . Told him this would be the maximum willingness to pay and thus the upper end of the price band. He agreed. Asked him the cost of Research and Development. He asked why? Told him this would be the lower end of the price band unless the focus was not profitability but social upliftment. He said the focus was completely profitability and gave me a Net Present Value (assume N). Could not understand it immediately but realized that it is Revenue net the costs. Thus, the price band for the patent (in NPV terms) would be between Rs. 0 to N. He agreed and asked me to zero down on a value. Told him we need to look at similar launches in the past to capture some trend (and therefore arrive at a value in the middle) but he cut me short and said that no need to look at past records and
you would price it at less than N as we need to incentive the farmers to overcome their switching costs by passing on some benefit to them. Now this is what I eventually wanted to say but could not.

Firstly it seemed that Nothing went right. I wasn’t confident interviewing with him. Missed basic pointers and took time to identify the ‘simple’ model he was looking for. And of course couldn’t conclude well. But, later I was told, what went right was the CAPEX piece He wanted to test how good I was with my basics while I was caught up doing something else. Can’t expect this from anyone but him. The framework was bang on!!!

Got a bit psyched. Could not structure the Patent Case well and it was more of bouncing off ideas. But was later told this is what happens with everyone when they interview with him



Tips: Can’t emphasize more the need to be thorough with your work-ex and reflect your experience in the case. And if can, be confident no matter whosoever is interviewing you. Please remember, you know stuff much better than the interviewer. You have slogged your back while working. Who else would know about it better?


Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: I was told that he was very keen to meet me because of my Operations background and was especially interested in my CAPEX experience. I was told that he wanted to know more about what I had done during that stint. So I went in with the frame of mind that I have to maximize on that aspect of my profile. As expected, he asked me thread bare on what all I did in that stint. He did try to intimidate me by passing a few sarcastic remarks but I seemed to enjoy it and gave him appropriate responses. Then he asked a very interesting “What do I expect to hear if I were to go out and ask people randomly what they thought about you?” Now
McKinsey allows you to be innovative, frank and candid in such questions. But these need to be backed by some logic. Told him that different people are entitle to have different opinions about a person and how my different types of interactions i.e. in class, in events, in sports would result in varied responses. Also, talked about the situational aspect of it being 1st Day of placements and how that could influence the responses. Then came up with a few candid ones. You can call me to
find those out

Was told this is a short case and we need to wrap up the case fast. Without asking too many ‘Start-Up’ questions, came to the 3 dimensional approach of (1) Value to Customer (Willingness to Pay) (2) Competition (3) Cost-up. Started with Value. Was asked to brainstorm on how could this service be valuable to the customers? Talked about the qualitative aspects of Mumbai traffic having various tangible and in-tangible costs. Tangible benefits could be saving of time, fuel and fare. Intangible benefits could be alleviation of psychological costs like being stuck in traffic and getting to spend less valuable time at work and office. But he said that fare is something we need to find outThen moved to the 2nd aspect of competition. Asked him what were the other modes of transport available to the public? He said two alternatives existed- Road (Taxi) and Rail (Train). Asked him information on Time and Cost. Don’t remember the exact nos. so will use indicative figures. By Taxi you took 45 minutes and incurred costs (all inclusive- tangible + intangible) of Rs. 250. By train you took 30 minutes and incurred costs of Rs. 50. Now asked him the time supposed to be taken by Hovercraft and how many of them were there. He said that a hovercraft would take 20 minutes to cover the distance. The company was planning to start off with just 1 hovercraft. Asked him it’s capacity and he gave a figure of 100 people. In a flash of rushing ideas, I just said that then there would be a capacity constraint or atleast the hovercraft would always be full as the no. of travelers would far exceed 100 in a busy place like Mumbai. Although at that stage I didn’t know how this was important in the context of the case but he liked it Ok, coming back. Hovercraft saves 25 minutes over Taxi and 10 minutes
over Train. So though would try and valuate in monetary terms this saving of 25 minutes and 10 minutes. But point to note is that cost of Train is much lower than cost of Taxi. So, value based approach if applied on both the modes would result in two different nos. poles apart. He quizzed me how to proceed and after some discussion, I concluded that it made no business sense for the Hovercraft company to compete with the Train and thus focus on competing with the Taxi only. Plus, with only 100 seats, there would be no issue of in-sufficient traffic. Now this is where the earlier remark on capacity made sense At this stage he asked me to synthesize by giving an elevator pitch to the client CEO, asked me to fit it in 1 minute and started looking at his watch saying I was being evaluated for brevity. To wrap up, knowing that he Head the Ops practice, I asked him a question on benchmarking in operations and whether Indian firms are at a stage where they can be set as international benchmarks. Surprisingly,
he asked me why I wanted to know about it. Now this was strange as I had never ever heard of an interviewer asking the interviewee a counter question on the closing question. I told him how we had to benchmark many of our expansion/ up gradation projects with Japanese firms and wanted a view from someone who has been exposed to such facilities across the world. He was satisfied and then answered the question.

Discussion on Work-ex. Taking the sarcastic remarks in the right way and not getting intimidated. Again reflecting the learning from the work- experience in the case.

The synthesis could have been better. His staring at the watch for an accurate 1 min pitch intimidated me a bit. My bad. Otherwise nothing much was wrong here.


Tips: Again, work-ex thoroughness is imperative. Think through carefully the closing questions that the interviewer offers to answer at the end of the interview. The questions need to make sense in the backdrop of your profile, experiences and those of the interviewer.


Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: PI came after a couple of cases. This PI for this interview too was Work- Ex centric. Noshir asked me about the two most important leadership instances in me work life. Again my idea here was to use these 2 instances to reflect upon 2 different sides of my profile. First example was of course on leading one very tough project in a logistically challenging location. The other was captaining my ex-company’s cricket team which comprised of my bosses and super-bosses, and the leadership tools that you need to put into use in such situations.

This 11th interview of the day and for sure the final/most critical interview for McKinsey. When I was given the first case on Tata Nano, he could figure out looking at the time of the day as well as the previous few interviews that all he wanted was a structured brain-storming output on strategic cost management. So, I did not spend any time on asking clarifications/start-up questions and got down to business. As there wasn’t any readymade framework/structure for this, I imagined myself a part of the Nano team and thought through the sequence in which the material design and procurement process would unfold (of course, again, my experiences at work came in very handy). After a minute of thought, I started off by saying that this was a huge cut- down on costs (by almost 75%) thus process improvements won’t suffice and that it called for radical changes in the design and sourcing
processes. I then recommended that we should first identify the various steps that are involved in the material procurement process and see how we can cut costs in each one of them. The sequence I gave was as
follows: Technical Specifications of the car and individual parts and sub- assemblies > Preparing the Bill of Materials (BOM) > Identification and Selection of Vendors > Negotiations > Logistics- Freight, Duties, Insurance, Taxes etc.
I asked interviewer for his approval which he promptly gave. Then I brain- stormed various ways of cutting costs as each step. Car & Parts Specifications: Car to adhere to the bare minimum specifications that are needed to be adhered to by Indian Rules n Regulations (E.g. no need to Euro N+1 of Euro N compliance required in India) but without compromise on the safety of the passenger which is very important. Technical Specifications of the parts and sub-assemblies to the at Minimum Technical Standard (MTS) i.e. the specs need to be just right to meet the requirements. Bill of Materials (BOM): Talked about how big companies being risk averse always order and add extra quantity of material in everything. E.g. if 90 kgs steel is required, they would order 100 kgs and end up putting 95 kgs. So optimal safety margins need to defined and be adhered to.

Identification and Selection of Vendors: Said for experience that big companies chose their trusted and loyal vendors, and are inclined to have single vendors/point of contact for a plethora of related/unrelated materials. This way, the vendors make unnecessary money. Thus, to manufacture the lowest car in the world, we need to rationally evaluate vendors outside our ‘Zone of Comfort’ and their scope of supplies. Talked for Chinese manufacturers that give both cost and quality advantage. Gave examples of some proposals of Chinese manufacturers that I had evaluated at work.

Negotiations: Then, negotiate hard. Tata can use their buyer power (multiple businesses and product lines) to fleece suppliers but showing them possible opportunities in near future.

Logistics- Freight, Clearance etc.: This was a pure brainstorming session with ideas like bulk shipments through sea (no part shipments, air freights etc.). Centralized insurance and clearance agents. Managing road taxes etc.

Finally, something which is typically talked of in manufacturing: INNOVATION. Although setting Indica as an anchor and working backwards is a possible way, big companies like Tata Motors which have presence in the foreign markets (talked of JLR) and access to the modern technology, must mobilize their R&D department to come up with revolutionary car design. Some cutting-edge innovation like a new cost effective fuel injection system etc.

Whoa…I spoke for 20 minutes continuously non-stop. Did not find the need to. Interviewer was constantly smiling and acknowledging.

Then straight away came the second case on IT. Now that’s his area of expertise and he wanted to check if I could talk about an industry I had no prior exposure to. I came to know later that this case was in some past year’s case-book and he had written a paper on that. Anyways, I had missed both

Again I gave the initial questions a pass and asked for a minute to think. Exhausted after so many cases, I was not able to recollect any jazzy structure and thus stuck to the basics. I proposed looking at 2 types of factors/aspects which need to looked at by the IT giants of the country:

(1) Internal Factors (2) External Factors
Told him that I am a firm believer that any individual/organization should first have an internal introspection and then start looking at the world outside. Thus would recommend starting off with the Internal Factors. He smiled and said go-ahead. Internal factors meant how the company needs to improve and uplift it-self internally. Said the biggest assets for IT firms were its people and it boiled down to (a) Productivity (b) Innovation. (a) Productivity: Here, I used Productivity = f(Efficiency, Effectiveness) .
Explained the difference between the two and gave some ideas on how IT industries could do that. We could see Microsoft from one of the windows so pointed out and shared some experiences I had while I was visiting an old friend there. (b) Innovation: This is always a safe point to say. No one will challenge Innovation as an improvement measure . Talked a bit about Google
and how it fostered a culture of innovation. This again translated to sound people practices. (2) External Factors: Here I used the 3 Us framework in disguise- Users, Uses, Usage. Users: Talked about IT firms expanding their user base in India and un-explored markets abroad. Once, once you get an organization on-board, need to penetrate to all departments. Uses: Used some SAIT funds to discuss codability and measurability. How certain key process where still handled by companies internally (gave example
from work) as they were highly strategic in nature. Here, IT firms could built enhance their credibility and build stronger partnerships with the clients. Usage: Discussed growth through service provisions like AMCs etc. And then of course, Mergers and Acquisition abroad. Talk of more and more Indian firm’s expanding outside India through this medium and how biggies like Infosys, TCS etc. could continue this trend. This was followed by PI (explained above). Asked him a couple of questions on increasing role of consultants in assisting implementation and talked about the trend at McKinsey.

By this time, I was a robot. This was the best interview of the day for me.

Tips: If you can’t immediately think of established structures, just think-through the logical sequence of events. If you were there in that situation then how would things unfold stepwise? Then within each step, mini- structures/frameworks would readily fit. Again, give examples from work- ex and life beyond work. If you have seen something happen, it has to be true. Also, industry awareness is important to some extent. Reading a Financial Daily for 2 months before the interviews if enough.


Skills:
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)

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Consultant Interview Questions & Answers

user image Anonymous

posted on 22 Dec 2015

Interview Questionnaire 

8 Questions

  • Q1. PI questions: A lot of questions about Google
  • Q2. What it is like to work there?
  • Q3. How Google maintains market share
  • Ans. 

    Google maintains market share through continuous innovation, strategic acquisitions, and strong brand recognition.

    • Google invests heavily in research and development to constantly improve its products and services.

    • Google strategically acquires companies that complement its existing offerings, such as YouTube and Android.

    • Google has a strong brand recognition and reputation for providing high-quality search results and us...

  • Answered by AI
  • Q4. How Google suggest works?
  • Ans. 

    Google Suggest is a feature that provides search suggestions as users type their queries.

    • Google Suggest uses a combination of algorithms and user data to generate suggestions.

    • It takes into account factors like popularity, relevance, and user search history.

    • Suggestions are based on real-time data and can vary depending on location and language.

    • Google Suggest aims to improve search efficiency and provide relevant suggest

  • Answered by AI
  • Q5. Case Questions: A pineapple juice manufacturer. Calculate the capacity that would be required for the plant
  • Ans. 

    To calculate the required capacity for a pineapple juice plant, factors such as production volume, processing time, and equipment efficiency need to be considered.

    • Determine the expected production volume of pineapple juice per day or per hour

    • Calculate the processing time required to convert pineapples into juice

    • Consider the efficiency of the equipment used in the production process

    • Factor in any potential growth or expa...

  • Answered by AI
  • Q6. PI questions: Background at Google
  • Q7. What impact my projects(Orkut, Gmail) had and working at Google
  • Ans. 

    My projects at Google, such as Orkut and Gmail, had a significant impact on the company and its users.

    • Orkut was one of the first social networking sites and helped Google establish a presence in the social media space.

    • Gmail revolutionized email with its large storage capacity, search functionality, and user-friendly interface.

    • Working at Google allowed me to collaborate with talented individuals and work on cutting-edge...

  • Answered by AI
  • Q8. Case Questions: What should Infosys do today to move up the value chain?

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: In PI, we discussed the scale and infrastructure that Google has and how it’s gaining competitive advantage from it.
I told him searching porn well is very important for a search engine entering a new market, and from there we went into market entry strategies for the search engines.

The PI went on for 20-25 minutes, at which point he realized he had to ask me a case. He asked me a really simple case which got over in 5 minutes

The case was very trivial. It was just multiplying a bunch of numbers together. Less than 5 minutes.




Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Interviewer also works in IT, so he wanted to discuss what Infosys should do next. We talked about their business model, about billing rates and how they can leverage their assets. I brought up the point of “Centers of Excellence” and how they don’t really work in IT services. He asked why, then asked me to come up with alternatives to the model. I talked a while about a skunk-works type project team that they should set up. We discussed the future of the market etc…

The interview was very conversational. No case really, more of a discussion around what I thought of the IT industry and where I see the future of the industry.


Round: personal interview
Experience: This interview was about 20 minutes long, and it was all PI. He asked about why I did an MBA, what I liked/disliked about working at a place like Google. This interview was very different from the traditional case interviews. He asked me “What would people on the campus say about Aditya Kulkarni?”, “Why consulting when you’re doing so well in Google?” etc… I was very honest with my answers, and didn’t use any of the canned responses. I even said that I’m quite lazy and don’t like doing hard work.
We even discussed strategies to do well at exams without studying for them.

I was very honest and upfront about what I wanted from McKinsey. I didn’t use any of the “prepped” answers, and just told him what I thought. I even told him that I was undecided about joining McKinsey (if they made an offer), and he seemed OK with that.


Skills:
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)

Consultant Interview Questions & Answers

user image Chitra Raghunath

posted on 22 Dec 2015

I applied via Walk-in

Interview Questionnaire 

1 Question

  • Q1. The CEO of a chain of private hospitals wants to reduce attrition among senior doctors. This is a serious issue because when senior doctors leave they take along patients as well as junior staff.

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Case Structure Looked at aspects of
• Motivation
• Compensation
• Opportunities for Growth Solutions structured as short term vs. long term and economic vs. soft factors. I gave many solutions, some which he said they had also thought of, some which he critiqued and some others which he found interesting. He was looking more for ideas than approach – what was being tested was creativity and perspective in tailoring practical solutions. Some of the key points were that you needed to tie the patients/junior staff to hospital and not to doctor – e.g. through brand building, patient management systems, soft loans to junior staff, facilities for families etc. For doctors we could look at involving them in administrative activities, making the hospital an avenue for conferences, publishing papers, involving family etc.
Tips: It pays to be nice to your interviewer and appear interested in the case even if it is from an industry/function that is completely different from your background. Sometimes there is no need to structure cases because the interviewer is more interested in how creative and innovative you can be in deriving solutions.

Skills: Case Solving Ability
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)

McKinsey & Company interview questions for designations

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 (4)

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 Implementation Consultant

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Consultant Interview Questions & Answers

user image Manik Gupta

posted on 22 Dec 2015

I applied via Walk-in

Interview Questionnaire 

2 Questions

  • Q1. Our client is a hospital based in Delhi and wants to figure out whether they should expand beyond Delhi.
  • Q2. Evaluate the Indian IT majors like TCS, Wipro, Infosys: Strategically what changes should they make in next 5 years to stay competitive?

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: • I started by asking what kind of hospital it is? It is a hospital focused on tertiary care: cardiac & neurology
• Then I proposed a structure: o Customers & Market o Company o Competitors o Regulation
• Was asked to focus on customers & market • Started segmenting the market – city dwellers, towns, villages
• Wanted to match the offering of the hospital with which customer would need it most and is able and willing to pay
• So tried to setup a matrix of ailments on one side and customer profiles on the other axis.
• Realized that cardiac ailments are more common in cities hence people there are better targets.
• For neurology, understood that it is very expensive hence setting up a hospital in smaller towns may not work well as hard to recover the money. Alternatives exist for towns where they either go locally or come to cities for treatment – its not an emergency treatment so people can plan it.
• At this time the partner stopped the case
Tips: Don’t be daunted if your first interview itself is with a Partner – usually these guys are more relaxed (but that’s just my take)

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: • This case started out very strangely. It felt just like a question and I suddenly realized I was in a case!
• So I evaluated this from two factors: o Services turnover (attrition, falling $) o Scale
• I also talked about who these guys want to compete with – answer HP, IBM, Accenture
• Then I did a comparison between the Indian IT majors and the likes of HP and one thing that came about was lack of products in IT majors. Also, with Accenture the ability to sign consulting deals and not just services.
• Hence, we started talking about what these companies can do from the perspective of: o Hiring o Acquisitions of products / technologies o Target customer profile o Focus on local players in India that have global ambition like ICICI and take their successes to the world
• At this time the case stopped.
Tips: Be relaxed. Sometimes the interviewer won’t even tell you this is a case. So it’s fine to go with the style of the interviewer and make it conversational.

Skills: Case Analysis, Case Solving Ability
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)

Get interview-ready with Top McKinsey & Company Interview Questions

Consultant Interview Questions & Answers

user image Neha Mittal

posted on 22 Dec 2015

I applied via Walk-in

Interview Questionnaire 

3 Questions

  • Q1. An incumbent retail bank’s profits had been hit by competition as the competition had started building ATMs. They wanted to develop an ATM strategy.
  • Ans. 

    The incumbent retail bank needs to develop an ATM strategy to counter competition.

    • Analyze the competition's ATM strategy and identify their strengths and weaknesses.

    • Assess the current market demand for ATMs and identify potential opportunities for the bank.

    • Evaluate the bank's existing infrastructure and resources to determine the feasibility of implementing an ATM strategy.

    • Consider the cost implications of developing a...

  • Answered by AI
  • Q2. The client is a insurance company that offers life insurance to its customers through a sales force. It wants to know whether it can also offer product insurance in order to improve profitability
  • Ans. 

    Yes, the insurance company can offer product insurance to improve profitability.

    • Product insurance can provide an additional revenue stream for the insurance company.

    • It can attract new customers who are interested in protecting their valuable possessions.

    • Product insurance can also enhance customer loyalty and retention.

    • Examples of product insurance include coverage for electronic devices, appliances, jewelry, and other ...

  • Answered by AI
  • Q3. There was a steel making company on the west coast (say Surat) that wanted to determine of it should start a new plant in West Bengal
  • Ans. 

    The steel making company in Surat is considering starting a new plant in West Bengal.

    • Evaluate the market demand for steel in West Bengal

    • Assess the availability and cost of raw materials in West Bengal

    • Analyze the competition in the steel industry in West Bengal

    • Consider the infrastructure and logistics for setting up a new plant

    • Evaluate the potential profitability and return on investment

  • Answered by AI

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: First thing to ask is why are they being hit if others are building ATMS? He answered that the client does not have ATMs while now competition does. This is making people shift their bank accounts form us to the competition. Then I asked him what ATM strategy mean in this context? He quizzed me back as to what I think it meant. To which, I replied that there could be the following sub questions we could be asking: ( I used the 4W and one H way of dealing with vague questions!) 1. Where we want to establish the ATMs? 2. What technology /interface we want to use? 3. What is the time frame of the ATM roll out? 4. How do we plan to fund this roll out? 5. To whom do we cater to through this ? I told him that we needed to prioritize these questions according to their importance in order to begin building the strategy. He told me that where to establish was the main question to answer. I began by asking him whether we were looking at specific locations or just geographies. He told me that we were looking at both. Hence, I said that I would start with narrowing down to specific geographies and then talk about specific locations in those geographies. He also told me that we wanted to roll out as soon as possible. I asked him where all we are located geographically to which he responded that we had a pan India presence. With this, I said that I would first look at the factors that affect the choice of a geography. Since the best strategy would be to attract the maximum customers per new ATM– I listed the following: 1. Income level of customers ( Assumption: Since ATMs would be used by people who had more money) 2. Density of customers (Assumption: Only customers would use our ATM service) I asked him if these factors covered or was there something that I was missing? He said this was fine but what I meant by geographies. I specified that what would be looking at is City/town wise data. He also asked me what would be the cut off level of income that I would be looking at? He said that lets assume that with this info we located the Mumbai region to be the highest on the priority list. Now he wanted to know how I would decide on a location. I said I would again look at data inside Mumbai to again prioritise areas with the above two factors.He asked me if there was anything else I would like to look at? He asked me to come out of frameworks and think about the original question. I told him that as per my understanding the locations should be one with high footfalls specifically offices, markets and hospitals etc. He asked me how I would find out where all to put ? All hospitals? Remember we need to roll out as soon as possible.. Finally he told me we could look at ATM locations of competitors and atleast put an ATM wherever they are located.
Tips: Make sure that the personal interview goes well as it sets the btone for the case as well.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Firstly, I clarified what product insurance meant. It was more to satisfy my curiosity and to better understand the context. He told me that it was the insurance on consumer products like electrical goods etc. I said I would first like to understand the whole value chain to better understand the role of the sales force before laying down my approach. He said there was nothing much to it as basically the company was an intermediary between an bank and the customer. It just sent out the sales force and got customers. I asked him what exactly was the structure of the products. He said although it was not relevant to the discussion, I could assume that the premiums were paid each year and the policy lasted for a fixed time (say 30 years). I now asked him who the customer was and how did the salesperson approach the customer. He said that the customer was anyone on the street (think of LIC). Then I asked him that I would like to analyse the question in two ways, qualitative and quantitative. On the quantitative side, I would like to see whether the sales force had the time to devote for the new product. On the qualitative side I would like to see whether they had the skills and knowledge of these products. To answer the first question, we analysed the total idle time per sales person. Then, we would have to see how selling an additional product would affect the time the sales person spends with the customer. This would then determine if the sales person could cover the same number of customers or would that number drop. In the latter scenario, I told him that we would have to see what the tradeoffs were and then decide whether we would want to target lesser number of customers who would have higher value in terms of buying the two products. On the qualitative side, we looked at what capabilities were required for selling the new products. We classified these as already present and new. We found that most of the capabilities like customer lists, getting time from customers to make a call, general selling expertise was already there. What was needed was product information and knowledge. This we concluded could be built through training. He asked me if I was missing something. After a quick summary, I realized that I had not touched the new “capability” of additional budget for higher salaries. (sinece the sales persons were going to be spending their idle time as well, and earning more for the company, they would have to be compensated additionally. We tried to toy with some pay out (pay versus policies sold per quarter) to see what could work best I concluded (we did some number crunching on idle hours etc) that we could use the same sales force but mentioned the additional capabilities like training and revised pay outs.
Tips: On the final day, try and keep your energy levels up as much as possible. One good idea is to carry some energy food (granola bars, chocolate bars or even fruit juice or glucose).

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: First, I clarified some background information like if there were any more steel plants that the company owned? He said no there were none. Then I asked him at what capacity was the steel plant running. He said it was nowhere close to 100%. I asked him how was our profs in the last few years? He said that they had declined. Then, I began the revenue and cost route. It turned out that revenues had not declined as quantity and price (steel is a commodity so they cant do anything with price anyway) had stayed the same. In costs however, after going through all the components, I found that the raw material costs had increased. The main raw material is iron ore, and that is where the problem was. Then I asked him if we knew why the costs for iron ore had increased. He told me that the iron ore mines were located in West Bengal and there had been some regulation that made it more expensive to transport steel out of the state. Then it started making sense to put up a plant in WB.! But I though not to jump to conclusions and we deliberated more. I told him that there were four options available to us.—run only one of the two lpants, run both or shut both. (helps to be MECE!) I sad that in order to figure out what we should do , we should look at the NPV of all four options. Then we went on to do some calculations into which I will not get into here. Finally, as per our discussions it turned out that we should keep both the plants running. We could purchase iron ore cheaper due to presence of a plant in WB but at the same time it would become cheaper to produce steal at Surat. Since there was a demand shortage in this industry we could increase production in total.
Tips: Do read the profiles of the interviewers before the D day. It helps in making conversation once you are in front of them. And you could also prepare for questions on your previous work experience that is similar to theirs. Also it is important to ask why a certain situation is in the way it is. This sometimes gives important leads into the case. Synthesis should be short ant to the point. Even in the middle of the discussion, if you are asked to give your opinion on something in the case, it should be firm and backed by sound logic.

Skills: Case Solving Ability, Case Analysis
College Name: Indian School Of Business (ISB)

Consultant Interview Questions & Answers

user image Aman Bhatnagar

posted on 23 Dec 2015

I applied via Referral

Interview Questionnaire 

4 Questions

  • Q1. Tell me about yourself
  • Ans. 

    I am a dedicated and experienced consultant with a strong background in problem-solving and client management.

    • Over 5 years of experience in consulting roles

    • Skilled in analyzing data and providing strategic recommendations

    • Proven track record of successfully managing client relationships

    • Strong communication and presentation skills

    • Certified in relevant consulting methodologies

  • Answered by AI
  • Q2. Where do you see yourself in McKinsey?
  • Ans. 

    I see myself in McKinsey as a dedicated consultant working on impactful projects and contributing to the growth of the firm.

    • Continuously learning and growing through exposure to diverse industries and challenges

    • Building strong relationships with clients and colleagues to drive successful outcomes

    • Taking on leadership roles within project teams to drive innovation and excellence

  • Answered by AI
  • Q3. What are your career goals?
  • Ans. 

    My career goal is to become a respected consultant in my field, continuously expanding my knowledge and expertise.

    • Continuously seek opportunities for professional development and growth

    • Build a strong network of industry contacts and mentors

    • Work on challenging projects to enhance skills and experience

  • Answered by AI
  • Q4. Where do you see yourself in 10-15 years down the line?
  • Ans. 

    In 10-15 years, I see myself as a seasoned consultant leading a team of experts, making a significant impact in the industry.

    • Leading a team of consultants

    • Establishing myself as an industry expert

    • Contributing to major projects and initiatives

    • Mentoring and developing junior consultants

  • Answered by AI

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: The first round was based on solely the personal interview questions, No case was given to solve.
In the second round again there was no case to be solved. I talked about TED talks ( one of my interests) . Then we discussed about my venture and how i started it and its evolution and future plans. I told him about a question the previous interviewer had asked and discussed it for a bit. And then went on discuss about my other offeres, shortlists and interest in finance etc.
Questions about BCG vs McKinsey, detailed discussion on Collaborative team spirit, Evaluation patterns, presence in almost all sectors where other firms are next to absent e.g. Healthcare, Impact in terms of setting up organizations like the ISB, PHFI, dealing in a scale which others could never hope to achieve, always being the innovators, the trailblazers as well as facts about compensation.
Tips: Relax. Be yourself. Talk like you would to a senior colleague at a swanky restaurant when it‟s his treat.

General Tips: Be confident and at ease during the interview.
Make a list of questions for the interviewer in case they want you to ask them any. Be prepared.
Try to lead the interview by asking questions to the interviewer.

Skills:
College Name: IIM Lucknow

Consultant Interview Questions & Answers

user image Tejas Choudhari

posted on 23 Dec 2015

I applied via Referral

Interview Questionnaire 

2 Questions

  • Q1. Tell me about yourself
  • Ans. 

    I am a dedicated and experienced consultant with a strong background in problem-solving and client management.

    • Over 5 years of experience in consulting roles

    • Skilled in analyzing data and providing strategic recommendations

    • Proven track record of successfully managing client relationships

    • Strong communication and presentation skills

    • Certified in relevant consulting methodologies

  • Answered by AI
  • Q2. What was my role in my entrepreneurial venture?
  • Ans. 

    I was responsible for developing the business plan, securing funding, and overseeing day-to-day operations.

    • Developed the business plan for the venture

    • Secured funding from investors or lenders

    • Oversaw day-to-day operations of the business

    • Made strategic decisions to drive growth and profitability

  • Answered by AI

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Case: how we could estimate cricket ball sales in the country for one year. ( this question popped out from something we were previously talking about. I was telling him about cricket and he put up this guesstimate question for me).
Analysis:First, I confirmed whether he was talking about leather cricket ball. Thereafter, I started talking about where a cricket ball will be used and who will buy a cricket ball. At each juncture, I kept on checking with Mr. Sikka so as I'm not deviating from the solution. Then I told him that I would estimate sales of cricket balls for Mumbai and then extrapolate it to the whole country.
I calculated number of matches played in one day by estimating number of grounds in Mumbai (having played on most of the grounds, it was easy for me). Then I separated one day matches and 20-20 matches as one day match requires 2 balls and 20-20 requires 4 balls(As two 20-20 matches are possible on a single pitch in one day).
Also, considering that each ground hosts practice session 2 times a day and this will also contribute towards the sales. Then he stopped me and said fine. He did not go into depth of the guesstimate as it could have got complicated with other parts of the country to be considered for contribution towards the sales of cricket balls.

Tips: Please practice your cases as well as guesstimates. Also, know your CV in and out. Always connect with the interviewer.


General Tips: Try to connect with the interviewer.
Skills:
College Name: IIM Lucknow

Consultant Interview Questions & Answers

user image Amit Deshpande

posted on 23 Dec 2015

I applied via Referral

Interview Questionnaire 

1 Question

  • Q1. Tell me something about yourself.
  • Ans. 

    I am a highly experienced consultant with a strong background in problem-solving and strategic planning.

    • Over 10 years of experience in consulting for various industries

    • Expertise in analyzing complex business challenges and developing effective solutions

    • Proven track record of successfully implementing strategies to improve efficiency and profitability

    • Strong communication and interpersonal skills, able to build rapport w...

  • Answered by AI

Interview Preparation Tips

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: We started the interview by talking about the video conferencing facilities in IIM L, since there was a VC setup in the interview room. We talked about it for a while and then we started the interview. He asked the most standard question: tell me something about yourself. I gave him a long and descriptive answer since he wasn't engaging me much. We ended up talking about badminton since both of us were badminton players.
Since I am passionate about badminton, he asked me to estimate the no. of badminton courts in India. I started off by dividing India into rural and urban areas, and confirmed with him that I can ignore the rural areas for this guesstimation. I divided the urban areas further into tier 1 and tier 2 cities, and started with Mumbai as an average for tier 1 cities. The rest of the case was pretty straightforward, since I took an average number of people per badminton court and multiplied it by the population. I took a percentage of the number in case of tier 2 cities to arrive at the total number.

Tips: Draw out an MECE structure before starting analysis of the case. Reality checks are essential.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: The interviewer was extremely informal. He was talking how weird the interview process is these days, as compared to the process in his days. We talked about how big the interview room was and how difficult it is to focus while sitting in a comfy couch! He didn't ask me any personal questions since he said he had already been through my CV a million times. The case was about a fertilizer manufacturing company based out of the US which was receiving complaints regarding its poor customer service. I started by asking details about the company, its operations, its customers, the competitors and the market in general (barriers, trends etc.). After the initial questions, I realized that the problem was in the supply of fertilizers to the customers (which were 5 major distributors across the US). So, I broke down the case into the supply value chain, i.e., raw materials (procurement and transportation), manufacturing process and inventory handling. This led me to the problem which was their inventory handling methods. Specifically, the demand estimation was way off; they estimated demand on an annual basis and it was a word of-mouth contract with the customers. Besides, despite geographical variations within the US, the demand was estimated by one sales team centrally. This was the key issue and I got to it pretty quickly.
The pace of the interview was very fast and the interviewer did not let me talk for long periods of time; basically he was testing me on my speed of option generation. I thought I did pretty well and suggested seasonal demand estimation based on geography and that the contracts with customers should be on paper.


Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Very serious interview. He was completely straight faced right from the word goes. Immediately asked me to tell him something about myself. After hearing me
out, he asked me to tell him something about my work experience at the Bain Capability Centre. This part went pretty well.
He didn‟t really give me a case. He asked me which sector I followed in India, to which I replied the retail sector. We then entered into a discussion into the retail sector in India. I had very little sector knowledge and retail was my best bet. SO after giving him some facts that I had read, , he asked me what a retail company think should about while entering the Indian market, i.e., the key success factors. . I told him that we should consider the target customer segment, the product offerings, the retail format and the locations. The interview was pretty OK till this point. . However, then he started getting into details. He asked me what a company should do to compete with the huge unorganized sector, and wasn't convinced with my answer. I knew that I‟d blown it.
Finally he ended the case and asked me if I had any other shortlists before I left.

Tips: Please prepare one sector thoroughly, not just facts, but to have a business opinion about it.

Skills:
College Name: IIM Lucknow

Consultant Interview Questions & Answers

user image Anonymous

posted on 4 Feb 2015

Interview Preparation Tips

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

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