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.

What It Means to be "Down In the Weeds" at McKinsey

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If you've worked in the food service industry - or watched Top Chef - you're probably familiar with the term "in the weeds".  But that means something very different than the term "down in the weeds" which not a McKinsey-specific term, but one I heard used frequently at the Firm.  In this post I'll explain the difference and what you should do if your McKinsey boss asks you to not be so down in the weeds...

It's also worth nothing that McKinsey interviewers also view being down in the weeds negatively, so aspiring consultants should also be mindful of not getting down in the weeds during interviews, especially when breaking down the case.

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...

MBTI - 3 ways McKinsey teams think about and (mis)use personality types

McKinsey teams use MBTI personality types as a short-hand for understanding individual preferences and team dynamics.  In this post I'll review a few ways McKinsey consultant typically think about MBTI.  These are not necessarily how an expert on MBTI would apply this framework, but the McKinsey person in your life still might think in some of these ways

MBTI - How your McKinsey colleague thinks of you in 4 letters (an introduction)

McKinsey consultants change teams frequently and must quickly understand new colleagues' and clients' personalities, working styles, and preferences.  MBTI is a 4-letter shortcut that the McKinsey consultant in your life uses to do just that.

In this post I'll give you a brief overview of how to figure out your own MBTI type and understand what they're talking about

How to impress your McKinsey boss - Consulting rock stars are five-tool players

In this post I'll review the five consulting skills we look for and provide examples of how to demonstrate excellence in each of them.  The best consultants are good at all five and are distinctive, or "have a spike" in at least one.

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Knowing what a McKinsey person is looking for can help you make the right impression on your former McKinsey boss, your current Engagement Manager, or the management consultant who is interviewing you for a job.

This post is about the abilities of a great management consultant.  To learn more about the behaviors of a great consultant (or direct report to a former consultant), check out this earlier post on the 3 things you can do to keep your McKinsey boss happy.

How to give McKinsey-style feedback: The McKinsey Feedback Model

McKinsey is a feedback-driven culture.  It's used to develop better consultants and make sure we're always pushing toward greater client impact.  There's also an expectation that less tenured consultants also provide frequent, upward feedback to their leadership.  Unfortunately, there's a also a tendency for McKinsey feedback to focus on "development opportunities", resulting in predominantly negative feedback that I address in a related post.

As with most things in consulting, McKinsey has developed a framework for delivering structured feedback and it's called "the McKinsey feedback model".

In this post I'll go over...

• Explanation of the McKinsey feedback model
• Format recommended by the Firm for giving feedback
• Explanation of why that format is used
• Examples of what the McKinsey feedback model in practice

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Feedback overload - now my McKinsey boss wants my "360" feedback!

A CULTURE THAT VALUES FEEDBACK

Giving and receiving feedback is an integral part of the McKinsey experience - it's what drives our development by letting us know if we're on the right track and how we can improve.  At McKinsey, feedback is meant to be constructive, not punitive, even if does feel harsh at times.  It's also part of our culture for McKinsey leadership to value upward feedback from their teams.

In this post I'll discuss the frequency of feedback and our openness to giving and receiving upward (aka "360") feedback.  There's also a link to another post on McKinsey feedback model.