Do's and Don'ts for Being Hypothesis-Driven at McKinsey

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When problem solving at McKinsey, it's considered best practice to use hypotheses to guide your thinking and work.  Your McKinsey boss will often ask you to be more "hypothesis-driven".  If you are interviewing for a job at McKinsey, your interviewer will expect you to be hypothesis-driven when solving the case interview.  In this post, I'll explain what that means and also provide some tips on what to do and not do when being a hypothesis-driven consultant...

What Does It Mean to be "MECE" at McKinsey?

Working at McKinsey (or for a McKinsey boss) often requires dealing with large amounts of information.  There is a strong preference for organizing that data in a manner that is "MECE".  Your McKinsey boss might also ask you to be "more MECE" in your problem solving approach.  If you're applying for a job at McKinsey, your interviewer will be looking for MECE frameworks during your case interview.  In this post, I'll explain what that means.

Why Doesn't McKinsey Recruit at My School?

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McKinsey sends droves of consultants to the world's best undergrad, MBA, and other programs in search of new talent and future consultants.  It can be frustrating if you're an intelligent, hard-working, high-performing student who does not go to one of those programs.  In this post I'll explain why McKinsey focuses its recruiting efforts at certain schools...

McKinsey Interviews - Not All Advice Is Created Equal

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As McKinsey candidates prepare for interviews, they eagerly seek out information and are often bombarded with advice from a variety of sources.  However, it's important to remember that not all interview prep advice is created equal.  In this post I'll discuss which sources are more or less valuable and why...

McKinsey Interviews - December, 2013 Posts for Aspiring Summer Interns

McKinsey's summer internship recruiting season is right around the corner.  So, in an effort to remain timely and relevant, the posts over the next couple of weeks will focus on networking, resume screen, and interview-related topics.

I will try to consolidate those posts into a short period of time so that a) interview candidates can find them easily and b) others can ignore them easily.

As always, I will post articles as I finish editing them, but they will be dated based on when they were first written.  Apologies for any confusion that causes to folks who subscribe to or follow this blog regularly.

To anyone NOT interviewing with McKinsey:

Apologies if you are already a consultant or looking for tips on how to work with a former McKinsey consultant.  We'll return to the typical mix of content after a couple of weeks.

Top-Down vs. Bottom-Up Problem Solving Approaches at McKinsey

There are typically two primary ways to approach problem-solving - "top-down" and "bottom-up".  In this post I'll explain the differences as well as why the top-down approach is preferred by McKinsey bosses and interviewers...

"Laundry Lists" at McKinsey and 3 Ways to Fix Them

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Your McKinsey boss might give you feedback that your work reads too much like a "laundry list".  This is also a common error during consulting case interviews.  In this post I'll explain what "laundry lists" are and how you can fix them in 3 easy steps...

3 Reasons Why McKinsey Interviews Are NOT So Difficult

McKinsey has consistently topped Glassdoor.com's annual list of Top 25 Most Difficult Companies to Interview.  Although getting into McKinsey and other top management consulting firms is challenging (see the companion piece on "Why McKinsey Interviews Are So Difficult"), you can leverage certain aspects of the interview process and make it less difficult to get a job offer.  In this post I'll discuss a few of those factors...

3 Reasons Why McKinsey Interviews Are So Difficult

McKinsey has consistently topped Glassdoor.com's annual list of Top 25 Most Difficult Companies to Interview.  Getting into McKinsey and other top management consulting firms is certainly challenging, but there are very specific reasons why these interviews are difficult.  In this post I'll discuss a few of those reasons.  You might also be interested in the companion piece on "Why McKinsey Interviews Are NOT So Difficult"...

McKinsey Interviews - 7 Tips for Interview Days

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McKinsey interviews can be challenging and stressful, so here are some tips for the day of your interview that can help you maximize your performance.  Of course, there's no replacement for good personal experience interview (PEI) and case interview prep.

McKinsey Interviews - What Happens on Final-Round Interview "Batch" Days

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Final-round interview (or "Batch") days at McKinsey are, in many ways, very similar to first-round interviews.  This post is a companion piece to an earlier one on what happens on early-round interview days.  Rather than rehash those details, I'll focus on the differences between first-round and final-round interview days.

McKinsey Interviews - What Happens on First-Round Interview Days

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Interviewing for any job is stressful, and McKinsey and other consulting firms have some of the toughest interviews you'll ever face.  However, understanding what will happen on your interview day can help you prepare, relax, and improve your performance.  In this post I'll describe how a typical early-round interview day is structured so you'll know what to expect.

I will follow-up this post with two posts - one on what happens on second-round interview days and another with suggestions for how to make the most of your interview days.

McKinsey Interviews - What is a McKinsey Case Interview and Why Is It Important?

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If you've done any research into getting a job in consulting, you'll know that the case interview is a critical component of the interview process at McKinsey and other top management consulting firms.  Case interviews are also become more common in non-consulting job interviews, especially for Strategy roles and/or positions reporting to former consultants.

If you're just starting your research or it's not yet clear to you what, exactly, a case interview is, in this post I will answer:

• What is a case interview?
• Will it be a brain teaser?
• Why are case interviews important?

McKinsey Interviews - Roadmap to a McKinsey Job and 3 Things to Consider

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The cooler weather and changing leaves don't just signal the beginning of autumn.  We have now entered recruiting season for full-time McKinsey hiring and summer internship hiring is not far behind.  In this post I'll explain how the McKinsey interview process is structured and a few things to consider as you dive in.  The process similar for full-time and summer hiring.

McKinsey Interviews - October, 2013 Posts for Aspiring Consultants

To anyone NOT interviewing with McKinsey:

With apologies to folks who are already consultants or looking for tips on how to work with a current or former McKinsey consultant, the posts for the next couple of weeks will focus on getting into the Firm.  But we'll get right back to our regularly scheduled mix of programming after that!

To those of you who ARE interviewing with McKinsey:

For those of you who are Aspiring Consultants, the posts over the next couple of weeks will help you understand what to expect as you pursue a job at McKinsey and/or other top management consulting firms.

I'll try to coordinate the content across posts so I might delay putting content on the blog until other posts are completed.  But I will schedule them so they appear on the day they were originally written.  Apologies if that gets confusing for those of you who subscribe or follow this blog regularly.

Extra Miles and Points - How Far Some McKinsey Consultants Will Go to Earn Them

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A previous post covered why airline miles and hotel points are so important to many McKinsey consultants.  In this post we'll go a bit deeper on the topic and look at the extent to which some current and former consultants will go to earn more of these miles and points.

Why McKinsey Consultants Are Whores... For Hotel Points and Airline Miles

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There are many things about working at McKinsey that are challenging, including the travel.   Some of the upsides of travel include the opportunity to earn many airline miles and hotel points.  In this post I'll discuss the relationship current and former consultants have with these loyalty programs...

How the McKinsey Resume / CV Screening Process Works

McKinsey's success is built on its reputation and people.  To maintain a sufficient supply of the latter, every year McKinsey reviews thousands of resumes from the top undergrad and MBA programs around the world.  As a result, the Firm has gotten quite good at making a highly qualitative process more objective and consistent.  In this post I'll explain the resume review process...

McKinsey is a Pie-Eating Contest and the Prize is More Pie

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This is one of my favorite phrases about life at McKinsey.  In this post I'll explain why "working at McKinsey is a pie-eating contest and the prize is more pie"...

5 Traits of Client-Ready Decks (PowerPoint Presentations)

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Just as there are "client-ready" consultants, there are client-ready PowerPoint presentations.  In this post, I'll briefly cover what it means for a McKinsey deck to be client ready and 5 traits that client-ready decks share...