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Industry - Management Consulting
Company - McKinsey & Company
Position - Business Analyst
Result - Selected
Management consulting is the practice of helping organizations improve their performance. McKinsey & Company is a global management consulting firm and is currently the leading firm in the sector
This article is the interview experience of a Delhi University alumnus who was hired by McKinsey and Company for the position of Business Analyst. It covers the recruitment process adopted by the organization, details of the interview process, and expert tips on how to prepare for the interview.
All information and insights shared are from the above-mentioned candidate.
Recruitment Process
The first part of the recruitment process is a presentation that allows candidates to interact with people from the firm and understand more about the firm and their work. Then the application process starts, which mainly consists of CV submission. From a total of 80-100 candidates, 10-12 are shortlisted for an interview.
Before interviews, there is a training process which consists of two parts -
Buddy Program - Each shortlisted candidate is allotted 2 buddies from the organization. Their work is to make the candidate familiar with the company's work culture and help them prepare for the interviews.
Case Workshop - The second part consists of a workshop which is conducted 2-3 weeks prior to the interviews. The aim of this workshop is to make the candidates familiar with the case-solving process by solving live cases. The workshop is a blend of candidate training and mock cases.
Post this, the candidates undergo an interview process and a Problem Solving Test.
Interview Process
The interview is a 2-day process. Both days are eliminative.
Day 1 Interviews
Day 1 consists of interviews with Consultants/Engagement Managers from the firm. Each interview is a blend of HR questions, case solving, and technical skills. The interview duration is approximately 40 minutes. Generally, an interview consists of 10-15 minutes of HR questions and 20-25 minutes of case solving. Sometimes, an additional 1-2 HR questions are asked.
The interview can be a mixture of questions from all 3 categories or it can be more inclined towards a specific category. For example, this candidate’s interview consisted of only HR questions for the entire 40 minutes. The questions were tuned to understand the analytical skills of the candidate.
Day 2 Interviews
Each interview lasts for 30-40 minutes. On day 2, the candidates are required to give their interviews to partners of the firm. Day 2 consists of interviews of only those candidates who are shortlisted after day 1 elimination.
Total Number of Interviews
The total number of interviews for each candidate varies. Usually, there are 1-3 interviews per candidate on both days. The number of interviews of a particular candidate depends on whether the interviewers have thoroughly tested the candidate on all grounds. In case an interviewer feels that the candidate is not tested on any specific ground, he/she may further ask a few questions.
Problem Solving Assessment (PST)
For Day 1, usually, a Problem Solving Test (PST) is conducted, which is a basic analytical test. The material for preparation is given before the test and is available on McKinsey’s website. Sometimes, the test is adaptive, but not always. The analytical part consists of quant-type questions. The questions are in the form of a case study and are interdependent.
Tips to crack such an interview
Don’t lie, ever, about anything. Be it regarding something on your CV, or a skill, always be 100% honest.
Accept politely if you don’t know the answer to any question.
Do not beat around the bush, your answers should be very clear. Companies appreciate that.
Always be confident about whatever you say. It reflects a lot about your personality.
Take every interview as an opportunity to hold a genuine conversation with an industry professional.
Make the interview engaging for the interviewer as well.
Interview Preparation
The candidate's preparation consisted of two main parts: HR questions and Case Solving
1. HR interview
For this round, 2-3 days of preparation before the interview day is good enough. Give deep thought to the past 3-4 years of your life and try to recall as much information as possible about everything that you’ve done in those years. Also, be sure that you have ample knowledge of everything that you have mentioned in your CV or resume.
2. Case Solving
The candidate prepared for a month from August to September.
Though some material for preparation is available on Mckinsey’s website, it is not sufficient. Some books and videos that the candidate recommends for preparation are Victor Cheng videos, Case Interviews Cracked (CIC) videos, and CIC case books (for beginners). For advanced case solving, IIT & IIM case books are also available. These casebooks contain compiled experiences of various IIT and IIM alumni.
Some additional points to be kept in mind while preparing for case solving:
Make notes and frameworks and keep updating them on a weekly basis.
Solve cases with buddies from different companies and colleges.
It is more important to learn than to solve.
Always observe things around you and keep calculating the estimate of different things that you see in everyday life. For example, counting the number of benches in your class, the demand for pens in Delhi, the total electricity bill of your college, etc.
Use your free time in solving guesstimate questions.
We thank the candidate for sharing these insights with us that gives us a detailed perspective on both the overall recruitment process and the candidate’s own journey in preparation for the same.
Stay tuned for more such interview experiences.
You can read these articles on the field of management consulting.
In addition, you can refer to these articles for interview preparation and professional CV writing
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