I applied online. I interviewed at McKinsey & Company (Washington, DC) in Apr 2021
Interview
I applied online and was contacted by a recruiter via email to schedule a time to go over my background, resume, and career goals. During this interview, the recruiter mentioned that he saw that I listed how I was fluent in my mother tongue on my resume. He proceeded to say that I "sounded VERY American" for someone that can speak another language fluently. This was already a red flag but I continued with the interview process anyways.
I was scheduled to have my preliminary phone case interview with a McKinsey alumni a few weeks later. I thought it went well enough, but the recruiter contacted me later to say I didn't do well enough to move onto the next round. He asked to schedule a call to provide me with feedback, but I never heard back from him again via email or phone.
I heard from other candidates that they were paired with interview coaches to be set up for success, but I wasn't offered this. I was only provided with a few of the prep sessions that had well over 150+ attendees and wasn't very helpful overall.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Resume screen, preliminary phone case interview, "Were you born in the U.S. or did you immigrate here? You sound VERY American"
I applied through university. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at McKinsey & Company in Oct 2021
Interview
I applied via MBA recruiting. There was no differentiation between interviewing for the regular Associate vs. Implementation Associate. I had two first round interviews with Associates in random offices - standard PEI then case. Not too difficult, but nothing to shrug off. I had three second round interviews with partners. These were as you'd expect - a bit more casual and free-flowing but still PEI and case.
The process seemed a bit unorganized. I was handed off from one recruiter to the next without any warning. I was supposed to have two first round and two second round interviews, but the US didn't accept that my first rounds were done by associates in European offices, so they made me do an extra second round interview. They also didn't work with me very much on scheduling - my interviews were evening my time (understandable for the time difference) but spread out. My last interview was rescheduled at the last minute to 9pm my time, so I was probably not operating at peak performance :)
Overall decent experience, but the organization and preparation could have been better on their end.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
One PEI question per interview. One case per interview.
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 3 months. I interviewed at McKinsey & Company (The Colony, TX) in Mar 2021
Interview
My McKinsey experience was 6 months of time that I learned a lot from, but time that I’ll never get back. I was approached on LinkedIn and then agreed to join the recruitment process. I would say all in all I had 6 calls with a recruiter, 3 practice cases, 4 learning webinars, and 2 rounds of examined cases (5 cases total). There is a huge gap in how they grade between round 1 case and the final round of 4 cases. I was told after the 4 final round interviews that my math ability was not good enough. They truly want you to be able to do complex equations in your head. That’s fine, except I did better in the final round than I did in the first case round. Logic would tell you that I probably shouldn’t have passed the first round of cases if that was the case. You’ll notice that McKinsey literally tells you exactly what is coming during the process and it feels very helpful, but in reality it’s because they have such a low pass rate that it really won’t matter if you know what to expect or not. To me, it was clear that despite putting my best foot forward in front of 4 partners in the final round, I did not fit the mold they were looking for. I am fine with not receiving an offer, but to drag me along for 6 months just to tell me my mental computing skills were not good enough was really frustrating. They could easily weed out subpar math candidates in the first week of the process.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
There are 4 case final interviews that are each combined with a 15 minute story session to discuss personal experiences.