Hello! Does any one have any insight/advice for a McKinsey interview? I have a call with a McK recruiter next week to discuss my background, which will hopefully lead to official interviews. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, I’m new to exploring the mgmt consulting world.

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Start prepping yesterday. Here’s my crash course.
- Case Interview Secrets (Cheng): Read the Chapter “Issue Tree”. Skim but don’t memorize samples just to get an idea. Don’t bother with the rest.
- Don’t read Case in Point or any of the others.
- Get your hands on a decent MBA Consulting Club casebook (HBS, Kellogg, Wharton, Ross, Booth).
- Dive into live case prep with a Partner. Use your network, this bowl, /r/consulting, Prep Lounge. Plan to do a dozen. The first couple might be TERRIBLE. Rip off the bandaid and persevere.
- Start prepping for PEI. What are the 5-6 high impact career stories you really want to tell? Map those out using SOAR or STAR method against a Googleable list of consulting behavioral interview questions. Focus on your actions, your impact, and be prepared to go DEEP. 90-120 second initial answer and 10-15 minutes of detail for Q&A in each story.
- If you can get access to a couple of the LOMS strong case recordings, it’s helpful just to few the rhythm of a well done case. Not essential though and not worth paying IMO.
- McK typically offers laterals 1-2 phone prep cases. These will be most helpful of you already have a half dozen under your belt.


Good luck

Source: obviously I’m not McK, but I reached final rounds as a very unprepared lateral and then received an offer as an MBA student. I’ve also done hundreds of interviews for BCG.

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Wonderful. Will do. Thank you again for the insight! Really helpful to hear it from someone who’s been there.

Crafting cases was one of the most helpful resources for me. Definitely leverage rocketblocks for drills and peer practice. More than happy to forward you my materials. Feel free to DM me. Disclaimer: I didn’t make it past the final round lol

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That's two different things - the recruiter interview and your "official one".
With the recruiter you wanna show you're both a good option for them and that you're a nice person to work, so your focus should be on the personal level - PEI questions, background, why consulting and why McK specifically.

On the "official interview", if it happens, the fit will be important ofc, but the focus will be on the case peformance. At first, forget about Victor Cheng and Case in Point, they're good for starters but they are not enough for a great interview. Crafting Cases is solid for that, there might be other options that I'm not aware. If you feel a bit lost on crafting cases you can take a step back and look through Victor's Cheng material.

Look through Consulting clubs materials, specially the HBS/LBS, LBS specially I think is one of the most underrated CCs - their materials are gold.

But most importantly, PRACTICE CASE INTERVIEWS if you come to that. In Brazil it's fairly easy to find good people to practice through whatsapp groups and stuff like that, not sure about US but I'd assume it's similar.

Depending on when your interview is scheduled, I can practice with you one or two times. But keep in mind that you need practice to get the right way to crack the case - frameworks, be MECE, how to structure a recommendation, how to develop and test hypothesis and stuff like that.

Good luck!

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Agree with LBS being underrated - really great stuff. Wharton’s case book was solid too (at least in 2008)

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