| Topic Name: |
Hindsight |
| Message Name: |
Part 2 |
| Date Posted: |
02/21/2006 |
| In Reply To: |
I??ve just received an offer and would like give back a bit by sharing what I??ve learned over the last 3 months of applying to consulting firms. I am posting this message in multiple parts due to the character limit.
I??d first like to thank everyone who posts on this message board as many of these comments served to educate me on the Firm and its hiring processes and/or entertain me when I was tired of doing practices cases and PEI work.
Specifically thanks to: ex-EM, HBS2003, SmartElec, APD_05, outlier_APD, and euc for all the advice on the Firm and applying, and to whartonkid for giving me the majority of the entertainment portion I mentioned.
I began my consulting application process applying to the big three and a few smaller firms I was interested in. As luck had it my application to McK had some routing troubles (I finished from an Ivy school in June ??05 but am working in TX presently) and I was pushed to the later hiring cycle for McKinsey.
Originally this pissed me off a good bit but turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The case/interview practice I gained with the other firms proved to be very valuable in my McK process.
Here??s what I experienced as an APD:
The first round consisted of a test and 2 group cases. David Ohrvall??s Crack the Case is very good prep for the APD test as his book really gets you used to the charts and math that I found in the test. The group cases aren??t difficult but be prepared to be very creative in your answers and look at every side of the possible solution.
The second round consisted of 3 case interviews and 2 PEI??s. McK??s HR process really starts to kick into overdrive after you make it past the first round and is frankly much more impressive than anything I saw at any of the other firms. You??ll have been assigned a ??buddy?? who will answer questions you may have about the Firm etc. I suggest that you collect a few names and emails from the other candidates in round 1 and practice as many cases as you can. I was doing practices cases a few times a week with two other individuals and we all ended up getting offers.
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Also, McK??s webpage lets you look at other candidates and offerees. If you??re out of school like I was this will be very useful. I was able to find individuals I knew back at school who were also applying or had received offers and tap them for advice.
When you make it past the second round HR will discuss with you your office preferences which you submitted during the second round interviews. Because I interviewed towards the end of the normal hiring cycle I don??t know how much a difference my office preference sheet made. I was presented with two offices which I knew in round 1 had expressed interest and a third office that I had not listed on my pref sheet. I picked my office and the HR staff at that office set up my final interview.
The third round consisted of 2 more cases/PEIs and an interview with a Director who pretty much did whatever she wanted (mostly PEI but one quick math/concept question). My office also gave another test this round which I found much more difficult than the test first round.
General Advice:
First, by-and-large one can not afford any serious mistakes on the cases. I studied physics and math in undergrad but still found if very helpful to talk the math out and work as much as possible on paper. The interviewer may or may not give you an indication that your math is incorrect. On one case specifically I noticed a better way to solve the problem (it was a complicated problem with materials and different suppliers) about 30 seconds after the case had formally finished and I was asking questions. My previous answer wasn??t incorrect but it certainly wasn??t the best possible answer. I said to the interviewer ??something??s just struck me about this case?? and we jumped back into it. The interviewer??s mood totally changed and it was obvious that this was the answer that he had been looking for ?? I did the case for about five more minutes, redid some math and tweaked the conclusion.
Also, I think especially at McKinsey the interviewer will push you to be creative in your solution. One interviewer asked me to come up with 10 ways to increase profits at a gas station in a minute ?? no other details were given. I saw this sort of thing happening in almost all of my cases.
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