Sunday, November 7, 2010

Interview Updates

Now that everyone is in the middle over interviewing..I had the suggestion that I should open up a new posting because the discussion was taking up so much space on the previous posts that it was getting a little tough to follow. Truthfully, I hadn't really realized that you had all been posting so often....for the sake of making it easy to follow the discussion, please post comments after this post! Thanks and good luck!

76 comments:

  1. Has anyone interviewed with Oliver Wyman? I got an invitation for math test + 2x phone interviews + last round on the site (if I am able to qualify) for Health and Life Sciences practice. Any feedback would be appreciated.

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  2. Got rejected for an McK "specialist" role by London office today. I'm an MD (4th yr post-grad). This was my first ever consulting interview, but I did a fair amount of prep both on my own but also with 3 different good ex-consultants- prob about 10 live cases in all.

    The McK interviewer giving me feedback had three points for me to consider: 1) exhibit more passion 2) think about better examples which show leadership but also may be more entrepreneurial (esp important if you're an APD hire) and therefore come up with a convincing "story" of how you became interested in consulting. 3) be more structured in my thinking: my analytics were strong (I got through all the data they gave me alright and must have done well PST)

    overall they said I had an impressive cv with good credentials, that I was calm under pressure but I was not passed on solely on my performance in the interviews. The general impression seemed to be that the EM giving feedback would have given me a chance to prove myself in the final round but that the other interviewer did not feel I came across well enough.

    They recommended that I keep in touch and apply next year. I said this was my first ever experience of the consulting interview process- and they said "I hear what you're saying" and that I should definitely consider applying in 12 months.

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  3. Being inspired from you, I decided to create a twitter account and share my experience about the transition that I am willing to make from being a scientist to being a consultant. Here is the account:

    http://twitter.com/PhD2Consulting

    please follow me and spread the word! i believe that we can be successful if we do support each other in a collective and collaborative way!

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  4. I did McK 2nd round interview last Tue at Boston. Did anyone hear back?

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  5. I did 2nd round interviews in NY last week as well with two buddies (one interviewed Tuesday, the other Thursday) and they have heard back -no. I have not yet heard back but from what I gather it's totally dependent on who your contacting person is in terms of timing. Any news on your end?

    -JR

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  6. Like the poster at "November 10, 2010 2:14 PM "
    I interviewed 2nd rounds in Boston and haven't hear yet. As I recall we should have word by tomorrow. It's been a long wait though!

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  7. I did 2nd round interviews on the 9th. Aced two of the cases and the PE parts, but absolutely bombed 1 of the 3 cases! I hope I did enough to pass!

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  8. "November 11, 5:35" Where did you interview and what offices are you applying for? I performed exactly as you did. No way to know what we were being assessed on! Good luck to you and let us know if you hear from them! I'm an APD candidate and have not yet heard back and it's been a week now, so get ready to wait!

    Good luck,
    JR

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  9. JR: My 2nd round was in Detroit and my office preferences were pretty open. Really, you have been waiting a week??? Thats is crazy! What was the deadline they said they would get back to you by?

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  10. They said that they'd let us know by two weeks! My guess is it'll come tonight -the person that is supposed to contact me was probably working on site Monday-Thursday and so he should be free to call today is my supposition. How long it takes to contact you I don't believe is a huge tell-tale of how they feel. Will keep the post updated -good luck!

    BTW, I was all NE offices basically -NY, NJ first choices.

    Best,
    JR

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  11. I had my 2nd round in mid Oct. and it also took them more than a week to get back to me. My guess is that it may depend on how far down the list they have to go to match you with an office. I didn't get my top choice for the final round.

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  12. Just heard back, I'm in at my top choice office (NY)! Very excited! Now it's back to my case books...
    Good luck to everyone and I'll post any wisdom I gain from my interview.

    "November 12, 11:55am" How did your third round interview go? Any pointers for the rest of us?

    JR

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  13. JR, congrat on making it to the final round! I actually haven't had my final round yet. It took another week for the office recruiter to contact me to set up the date.

    I did find the feedbacks from my 2nd round interviewers to be very helpful and that is what I am trying to improve on right now.

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  14. Anyone have any experience with final rounds in the DC office?

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  15. Just started my own twitter at twitter.com/MITStanfordAPD, and will be posting about the transition to McKinsey and beyond.

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  16. I just got passed to the third round!!! It took about 3 days

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  17. @10:28 - congrats! where is your final round interview?

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  18. Hey guys,

    Had my interview on 12th with McKinsey. I was rejected. I aced one case, did ok on another, and absolutely bombed a case in which I had no background knowledge of the industry. The cases were not bad and similar to the second round except for the case where I had no knowledge of the industry, which was extremely hard for me. I did well on the personal impact portion.

    Word of advice: even though they say that you do not need background knowledge of any particular industry, I would suggest you read up on the different types of revenue and costs drivers for the industries.

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  19. Nov 13 @ 6:39, sorry to hear about your outcome. Mind sharing which office you interviewed for? And your education background?

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  20. hi,
    i recently had my interview. i was asked how to get certain data sources. what would be an appropriate answer to this ? thanks

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  21. I had my final round in NY office on the 12th and got rejected today without any feedback at all. I was an APD candidate, unfortunately there were just MBAs interviewing with me at the final round.

    I truly hope that somebody would call me during the week to give me feedback as the recruiter said. I would be really disappointed if they didn't call me.
    Good luck everybody else.

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  22. Nov 15 @1:13PM, sorry to hear about the outcome. Could you please share a little bit about your interviewing expeience? what kind of cases did you get? Did the interviewers give you a hard time?

    Thanks a lot!

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  23. 1:13

    Did u interview at the jersey city conference center or in new York proper

    D

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  24. Ok, nov.15 @1:41pm this is my story:
    The final round was very similar to the 2nd in my experience, the cases were a little harder but similar in structure. It is true though that the interviewers are tougher: in the sense that they asked me to justify everything I was saying and they asked for more detailed answers in the PI.

    Honestly, I heard all sort of stories about the final round, so at the end of the day I think it varies a lot and it depends on the seniority of the interviewers you get: mine were quite young and mainly AP so they were still pretty structured during the cases.

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  25. @ 4:34 - I'm sorry to hear about the outcome, and thank you for the information.

    What's your APD background? And when you say that there were just other MBA candidates interviewing at your location, could you provide a little more detail? Where there a lot of candidates there at the same time? And did they do anything different, that they told you, because you were an APD candidate?

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  26. I just got a call from the interviewer! It took 2 weeks to listen that I pass to the third round. He said he doesn't know where and when I will have the interview tho.

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  27. @9:15 - where was your second round interview?

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  28. Anybody has any experience with a "leadership case" at McKinsey final rounds? What should one expect? How can one prepare? Thanks!

    Pasting the description I got:

    "It is designed to give you a greater insight into the interpersonal aspects of our work, and to help us gain an additional understanding of your Leadership and Personal Impact abilities. In this "Leadership Case", you will be presented with some challenging situations involving other individuals or groups, and you will be asked how you would respond to those situations."

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  29. My second interview was at Boston.

    - November 15, 2010 9:15 PM

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  30. I did the leadership case about a month ago in my final rounds....not much you can do to prepare and its pretty tough. But, I would say focus during the case on keeping your answers structured, and to prep really think about the challenges consultants face within their teams and the client teams they work with, and what one can do to best meet those challenges.

    Just a point of perspective, I thought I did well on the leadership case but certainly didnt feel like I aced it, and I still got an offer.

    Hope that helps!

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  31. Be prepared to justify having little or no business experience if you're interviewing in China. http://www.twitter.com/MITStanfordAPD

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  32. After you send out thank you letters to your interviewers, and he/she responds "it was nice meeting you as well. best of luck." etc.....does that usually mean you got dinged?

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  33. not necessarily. I got that same phrasing in a bcg first round and got passed on.

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  34. In my own experience, reply of my thank u email from one of the interviewer has always been a goo sign!

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  35. I don't think there is any significance to the response. I got pretty similar responses, i.e., "good luck with your search, nice meeting you" at both McK and BCG. I did not receive an offer from McK, but did receive one from BCG.

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  36. hey guys! have there been many instances where a positive reply from the final round McK interview came after the day of the interview? i had mine on Friday, thought I did pretty good, but no word yet :(

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  37. I had interview Friday morning with McKinsey, received an offer by Phone mid-day Monday. I'm an Associate hire. I think the 'always same-day if it is an offer' rule is a myth.

    Perhaps supported by a response bias in how receiving an offer or rejection same-day increases the likelihood of posting (given the heightened emotional response), while there are so many rejections (and rejections are so likely to post) that even receiving word on a later day leads to posting by those who were rejected.

    Or simply a product of over-nervous candidates, a lack of information, and the extreme unreliability of anecdotal evidence.

    Either way, don't spend time worrying about it, it is perfectly likely to receive offers on a later day.

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  38. Anyone know the starting salary for associates at MCK?

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  39. Hey, I interviewed in Boston on 11/4 and only heard that I got passed to the Final Round on Monday. I am interviewing with 4 people in the Atlanta office. Any new advice?

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  40. @ 7:59 - congrats! I had two interviews in the Atlanta office, one with an AP, and they were all really nice and easy going.

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  41. @7:59 - When are you interviewing in the ATL office for the final round? I'm interviewing on 12/3 morning.

    @11:26 - Thanks! Are you an MBA or APD? Was one of your two interviews in ATL the final round?

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  42. @ 11:02. I did my my first two rounds in ATL, final round is in a different office, and I'm an APD. How about yourself?

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  43. @6:39 I am an APD as well. I did my first and second round in ATL too. Did you get an offer after final round?

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  44. @8:25 - haven't had my final round interview yet. Have you already had yours?

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  45. @10:00 - me neither. Mine is the coming Friday.

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  46. Same here - where is your final office? Any interest in emailing and talking some prep strategies?

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  47. Sure, no problem, my email is yxj02ster at gmail dot com

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  48. Off topic a bit but have any of the APDs who are starting early (Jan-Jul 2011) heard when the January mini-MBA is held?

    Just wondering if anyone has heard, I haven't and I am getting worried.

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  49. Why not just send an email to your recruiter? My recruiter knows all about this.

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  50. They keep telling me for a few weeks now that they'll let me know "next week"... Trying to schedule my life/travels/location for the next few months but I guess I should just stop being so anxious. Starting January, I'll only have a few days to plan any travels anyhow :)

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  51. Sorry, just getting back here (11/25 7:59). I am also interviewing the morning of 12/3 in ATL. Sounds like I will see you there!

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  52. Interviewed this morning, haven't heard back yet (bad sign?). Anyone who interviewed today heard back yet?

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  53. Maybe that's a good sign. I heard back but it's bad news. Good luck to you.

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  54. @11:24 - thanks. Where was your final interview?

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  55. Interviewed in ATL on Friday. Still waiting to hear... I think they wrapped up around 6pm on Friday though, so not that surprised. Anyone else?

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  56. Interviewed in NJ on Friday morning. Still waiting as well...

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  57. Got the offer! Totally shocked.

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  58. Also offered for ATL! Fun day.

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