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

WHAT IS MBTI?

MBTI is short for the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.  The MBTI reflects your personal preferences along four dimensions.  Each dimension is expressed as one of two choices or dichotomies, so there are 16 possible MBTI types.  Each type is summarized by a combination of 4 letters based on your preferences across the following dichotomies:

• (E) Extraversion vs. (I) Intraversion
• (S) Sensing vs. (N) Intuition
• (T) Thinking vs. (F) Feeling
• (J) Judging vs. (P) Perception

A person's MBTI type consists of one letter for each of the dichotomies (e.g., ENTJ, ISFP).  There is no shortage of great online resources for learning more about MBTI and its roots in Jung's theory of personality types.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

Right or wrong, MBTI is frequently used at McKinsey as a shortcut for understanding and communicating working styles.  The more familiar you are with this alphabet soup, the better equipped you'll be to make the best of it.

Even if you don't know your MBTI type, your McKinsey consultant has already guessed what it might be and is likely adapting their working style accordingly.  It might also influence the type of work they assign to you or how frequently and in what ways they interact with you.  The more you understand your own and your McKinsey colleague's MBTI, the better you can work together.

HOW DO I FIGURE OUT MY MBTI?

There are plenty of great, free, online resources to help with this.  I find this one in particular to be a quick, easy way to get to a preliminary assessment of one's MBTI type.  Before you begin, please consider these...

3 CAVEATS ABOUT YOUR MBTI ASSESSMENT

Please keep in mind that neither I, nor any of my McKinsey colleagues were MBTI experts.  This information is based on my exposure to MBTI at McKinsey, business school, previous employers who also used it, and psychology classes during undergrad.  But based on those experiences, I can offer you some tips about MBTI assessments:

1. Take it with a grain of salt - like anything you find for free, online (like this blog!) consider your results unofficial.  My understanding is that a true MBTI assessment requires an extensive questionnaire followed by an interview with a trained professional.  That said, in general, I've found these results to be directionally accurate.
2. Be honest with yourself - don't answer based on the personality type you aspire to be or think that you should be.  To get the most accurate assessment of your MBTI type, you must answer based on your current, actual self.
3. This is about preferences - for both answering questions and interpreting the results, remember, this is all about what you prefer to do, not necessarily what you do.  So, for example, if a question is about how you spend time by yourself, answer based how you want to spend that time, not necessarily how circumstances are forcing you to.  Similarly, when interpreting your results, remember that MBTI is assessing your preferences.

16 MBTI TYPES, NEATLY SUMMARIZED

One helpful method I've seen help those new to MBTI understand what each type represents is the one-word descriptor.  Here's how each type is often viewed or described:

• ISTJ - Inspector or Detective
• ISFJ - Protector
• INFJ - Counselor
• INTJ - Mastermind
• ISTP - Artisan
• ISFP - Composer or Artist
• INFP - Healer
• INTP - Architect
• ESTP - Dynamo or Doer
• ESFP - Performer
• ENFP - Champion or Inspirer
• ENTP - Visionary or Inventor
• ESTJ - Supervisor
• ESFJ - Caregiver or Provider
• ENFJ - Teacher
• ENTJ - General or Commander

WHAT YOUR RESULTS MEAN

You are a unique, complex, interesting person.  Everything about you is not going to fit neatly into one of 16 MBTI buckets.  But, this could prove to be a helpful tool in helping you understand how to work better with others and how others can work better with you.

In future posts, I'll address:

• How McKinsey teams think about MBTI types
• MBTI types over- and under-represented at McKinsey
• How MBTI types deal with stress differently.

McKinsey case interviews - 6 common math mistakes and how to prevent them

Everyone applying to McKinsey knows case prep, but I’m always surprised to see how poorly some of them prepare to do math during their interviews.  In this post, I’ll go over the six most common quant errors I’ve seen and some tips on how to avoid them

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?

Quantitative skills are table stakes during case interviews – the scoring rubric used to evaluate your interview performance does not allow candidates to “spike” on the case based on math alone.  That means you can’t get passed to the next round or offered a job on the strength of your quant skills alone.  But, you can get dinged if you screw them up. 

SIX COMMON MATH MISTAKES AND HOW TO PREVENT THEM

 

1.  Fumbling mathematical calculations

We realize that almost any time you would be asked to do calculations at McKinsey you would have access to Excel and don’t need to do math.  We also know that it’s probably been years since you had to multiply or do long division on paper.  Fair or not, being able to do arithmetic is part of how your quantitative abilities will be assessed during the case interview.  If you've done practice cases, you should know you have to do math - yet every interview cycle, I watch candidates fumble these basic calculations.  One candidate even asked me if he could use a calculator... in case you're wondering, the answer was "no"!

 

How to prevent this mistake:

Now that you know you'll be expected to add, subtract, multiply, and perform long division, you have no excuse to not practice.  Your ability to do math is like a muscle - if you have to exercise it or it will atrophy.

Make sure you can add several numbers together, including reminding yourself how to carry digits.  Practice subtracting and remember how to borrow a one.  Multiply large numbers together.  Practice long division.  Based on my experience, long division is the one that gives candidates the most trouble.  It's obvious to me when I'm interviewing someone who has forgotten how to divide and it's interesting to see what methods they invent on the spot to try to get around it.  Don't be that candidate.  Practice.

 

2.  Descending the Spiral of Death

This sometimes happens after a candidate fumbles a math calculation.  Some candidates who know they've screwed up the math will start to get flustered.  When the next calculation comes up, they want to make up for their earlier mistake, psych themselves out, and make another mistake.  This leads to a vicious cycle and it's not a pretty sight.

 

How to avoid this mistake:

In the event that you make a miscalculation, relax.  One math error will not get you dinged, especially if you have the presence of mind to catch your mistake, ask for a moment to go over your work, find your error, and correct yourself.  Even if you miss your chance to correct yourself, shake it off, and move on to the next part of the case.

3.  Doing math in your head

On its own, doing math in your head is not a mistake.  But if you happen to make a miscalculation, having done the math in your head is a big problem for several reasons.  First, you can't go back and find your mistake because there's no record of your calculations.  Second, we can't help you by letting you know if or where you went off track.  Finally, we can't give you credit for the parts of the calculation you did correctly, because you never showed them.

How to avoid this mistake:

This is probably the easiest of the errors to avoid - show your work.  No one is going to be impressed because you were able to do some calculations in your head - in fact, it might cause us to wonder if you were able to set up the numbers properly or just got lucky.  Do what's called "public math" - explain and write out each and every step of the calculation.  Turn your paper to face your interviewer so he or she can follow along and help you, if necessary.  You'll need to do your public math quickly to avoid running out of time to finish the case, so you should practice this in advance.

 

4.  Losing units

Keeping track of the units of the numbers you're using is important for two reasons.  First, the units make the answer meaningful.  If you ask me how fast I run and I say "6", what does that mean?  Am I fast or slow?  Do I run 6 miles per hour, or do I run a 6-minute mile (10 miles per hour)?  Clearly the units associated with the 6 are important.  Second, working with units can help you realize if you're making a mistake.  If you find yourself multiplying $/unit by miles per hour, chances are you've made an error somewhere along the line. 

 

How to avoid this mistake:

Keeping your public math clearly labeled and well organized will prevent you from losing track of your units.  Make sure each number in your calculation is labeled, then carry or cancel out the units as you work with them.  When you finish your calculation, present your answer with the appropriate units.  Be sure to refer to this post on unit conversions in case studies.

 

5.  Not relating the numbers to the business case

Your McKinsey interviewer is never going to ask you to do math for the sake of doing math.  Calculations performed during a case are always part of solving of business problem.  Unfortunately, many candidates get wrapped up in the math, get an answer, but have no idea what the answer means. 

One practice case I liked to give required candidates to determine the value of a company they were selling.  Once they got the relevant facts and figures from me, they were off to the races, setting up their calculations, doing the math, and telling me they'd sell the company for no less than $50 million.  Unfortunately, the $50 million figure they had calculated was the annual profit from the company's product.  They lost sight of the goal and offered to sell me their company for about 1/10 of its value.

How to avoid this mistake:

The key here is to remember the significance of the numbers you're calculating in the context of the business case you're discussing.  One tactical way to do this is to write the question being asked at the top of your sheet of paper.  As you go through your math and as you prepare to present your solution, continue to remind yourself of the question at hand and ask yourself if you're answering it.  Then when you present your answer, do so in a way that shows you understand what your number means.  One way to do this is to explain the implications of the answer on the case you're cracking.

6.  Giving an incorrect answer that makes no sense

As I mentioned before, it's perfectly acceptable to make a math error.  What's not acceptable is to not catch your math error even though the answer you got makes no sense in the context of the case.  Now you've added poor judgment to your miscalculation.

One example of this is the candidate who told me, during an education case, that in this district, there were 30 classrooms per student.  Clearly, this candidate lost track of units - the correct answer was 30 students per classroom.  It didn't matter to me that the math had been done right - any candidate who thought 30 classrooms per student was a reasonable answer was either not paying enough attention to detail or lacked common sense.

How to avoid this mistake:

Every time you reach the end of a calculation, perform a "sense test" or "sniff test".  This means taking a moment to ask yourself:  "does this answer make sense?"

Some examples of questions you might want to ask yourself, depending on the nature of the question:  Is it the right order of magnitude given the other numbers and facts in the case?  Should it be positive or negative?  Should a ratio be greater than or less than one?  Should a cash flow be positive or negative?

3 questions your McKinsey interviewers are asking themselves

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If you're being interviewed by someone from McKinsey - even if they've an ex-consultant who has already left the Firm - it's likely that they're asking themselves 3 questions about you.  In this post I'll explain what those questions are, whey they're important, and what you can do to address them

IT'S NOT JUST ABOUT THE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

Your answers to the personal experience interview (PEI) and case questions are not the only things your McKinsey interviewer is learning about you.  Intentionally or not, consciously or not, they're also getting an overall impression of you that's informing their opinion of you as a potential colleague.  Everything from how you carry yourself, your greeting, your handshake, eye contact, the small talk on the way to the interview room, your final Q&A, and more all inform your interviewers assessment of you.

THREE QUESTIONS YOUR INTERVIEWERS ARE ASKING THEMSELVES

1.  DO I WANT TO SPEND TIME WITH THIS PERSON?

McKinsey teams spend a lot of time with each other during client engagements.  Typical days are long, often extending late into the night and much of that time is spent together in cramped team rooms at client sites.  The lifestyle of a management consultant is tough enough - it's even harder if you don't like the people you work with.  No one wants to work that closely with someone who's arrogant, obnoxious, or boring.  Fortunately, the interview process must be successfully screening for those traits because nearly everyone I worked with on my McKinsey teams was down-to-Earth, interesting, and fun.

2.  WOULD I STAFF THIS PERSON?

Even though each consultant is responsible for their individual workstream(s), the team is ultimately judged on its collective performance.  If one person drops the ball, it's likely that the entire team will feel the pain in the form of extra work, unhappy clients, or upset McKinsey leadership.  So, interviewers will be wondering if you'll be able to carry your weight or if you'll be creating headaches and inconveniencing the team.

The more senior your interviewer, the more important this question is.  During the 1st round, about half of your interviewers might be Engagement Mangers.  Once you advance to the 2nd round, all of your interviewers will be Engagement Managers or higher, often Associate Principals, Principals, and Directors.  These more senior consultants are held directly accountable for the success of each engagement by the client and the Firm.  So, if you screw something up, you're not just inconveniencing them, you're potentially impacting their performance reviews and careers.

3.  CAN I PUT THIS PERSON IN FRONT OF A CLIENT?

There's never enough time in the day for McKinsey teams to accomplish everything on their to do lists.  That means your Engagement Manager has to trust every Associate and Business Analyst to get things done on their own.  Often, that means early tenure consultants are entrusted with client relationships.  Sometimes it's building relationships with client analysts to find the right data.  Other times it's working with line employees to understand the work being done in the trenches.  Often, it's presenting elements of your workstream to very senior clients.

Regardless of the context, your team has to trust that you won't embarrass yourself, the team, or the Firm in front of the client.  There's no shortage of things that can go wrong in a client meeting so this is a difficult question to answer, especially after only an hour of interviewing.  So, your interviewer will be looking for red flags like poor judgment, lack of professionalism, poor social skills, arrogance, and lack of self-confidence.

WHY ARE THESE QUESTIONS IMPORTANT?

Not only are your interviewers asking themselves these questions, but the same questions are often asked during the decision meeting.  When interviewers have a "split read" (one pass, one turndown) - or a "flat read" (average performance with a weak spike) on a candidate, it's common for these questions to be asked of the interviewers.  If the interviewers cannot answer "yes" to the question "would you staff this candidate?", the outcome will be a turndown.  Sometimes, during first-round interviews, an interviewer will feel very strongly that the answer to these questions is "yes" and go to bat for a split read or flat read candidate, passing them to the next round with the understanding that interviewer will help coach the candidate to improve. 

WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT

Be aware of what your interviewers are looking for and put your best foot forward.  Make sure the aspects of your personality that make you someone people want to work with, McKinsey leadership can rely on, and clients can trust shine through during your interviews.

Ultimately, you should be yourself.  If you have to adopt a completely different personality during the interview to get past these 3 questions, consider how happy you can be keeping that act up for your entire career at McKinsey.

McKinsey interviews: PEI and 5 tips for doing well - it matters as much as the case interview!

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McKinsey interviews consist of two components, and most people focus on preparing for the case interview.  In this post I'll provide tips on how to do well on the personal experience interview (PEI) and explain why it's risky to neglect preparing for it.  This will be useful to candidates applying for jobs with McKinsey and potentially helpful if you're interviewing for a job with a former McKinsey consultant

WHAT IS THE PEI?

The McKinsey personal experience interview (PEI) is similar to what other companies might call a fit interview.  You'll be asked to talk about an experience that reflects how you demonstrate a particular trait, like leadership.  The format of the PEI question is usually something like "please tell me about a time you exhibited X" where X is the trait the interview is probing for.

WHY IS THE PEI IMPORTANT?

There is a scoring rubric used during McKinsey interviews that allows us to calibrate and hold many  candidates to the same standard.  Your PEI assessment gets roughly equal weight as the case interview evaluation during decision meetings.  The Problem Solving Test (PST) plays an important, but secondary role in the process - one that I'll discuss in a future post.

If you bomb either the PEI or the case, you will not get a "pass" to a 2nd round interview or job offer.  Nor will you get a pass if your performance is adequate on both.  A "clear pass" aces both the case and the PEI, and other candidates who pass are adequate in one and shows a "spike" or clear strength in the other.  As you can see, you need to do well on PEI to have a chance of passing, so being distinctive on PEI is a big advantage.

FIVE TIPS FOR DOING WELL ON PEI

As is the case for resume screens, I know enough about the evaluation criteria that I can help anyone spike on the PEI, but I won't do that for two reasons - (a) quality - I want the Firm to pass the best possible candidates and (b) fairness - I don't want someone to get a resume just because they read a blog post.  However, in this post I will share some PEI tips that are either generally accepted knowledge, common sense, or freely shared by McKinsey with potential applicants.

1.  FOCUS ON THE TRAITS MCKINSEY LOOKS FOR

McKinsey wants you to perform as well as possible during your interview.  They are transparent about what they look for in candidates - you can find the list of what McKinsey looks for on their website.

• Problem solving
• Achieving
• Personal impact
• Leadership

It is critical that you familiarize yourself with these traits your interviewers are looking for and make sure you can demonstrate that you possess these qualities.  The case interview will address problem solving, so you can focus your PEI prep on the other traits.

2.  DEMONSTRATE WHAT MAKES YOU EXCEPTIONAL

Your interviewers are evaluating you against a very high bar, and you need to stand out among a large number of your highly qualified, exceptionally impressive classmates.  On a typical interview day, each McKinsey consultant will see 8 candidates and first-round decision meetings usually review over 30 candidates.  Think about how to make your stories strong enough to be memorable at the end of a long day of interviews.

It's imperative that each PEI response conveys what makes you distinctive in achieving, personal impact, or leadership.  This is not the time to be humble - but be careful that you do not come across as arrogant or self-centered.  You should highlight the traits and contributions you made that others in the same situation could not.  Make sure it's clear when and how you were personally driving progress and impact - for example, don't just tell us you exhibited leadership, give us specific examples and evidence that show us you're a leader.

3.  REMEMBER THE DETAILS

It's likely that you'll be asked for many specific details about your story, like what exact words were spoken or the thought processes you used when making certain decisions.  It's not because we're testing you or doubt your story.  We do this because we want to have a thorough understanding of the context and the specific role you played in your story.  We're also trying to understand how you think through tough issues and challenging situations.

Make sure you've thought through your stories so you can recall these details easily during your PEI interview.

4.  PRACTICE WHAT YOU WILL SAY

It takes time and can feel awkward to practice telling these stories aloud, but it's well worth the investment.  It's easy to underestimate how hard it is to recall details, tell the story without stumbling, and highlighting your distinctiveness without coming across as arrogant unless you actually say the words out loud.

5.  PREPARE AN INVENTORY OF STORIES

One of my business school marketing professors gave us some great advice for preparing for fit interviews.  She suggested we create a table with career stages on one axis and typical questions on the other.  Career stages might include undergrad, job 1, job 2, volunteer work, b-school, b-school clubs, etc.  Typical questions for McKinsey can be replaced with the traits McKinsey is looking for.  Fill in as many parts of the table as you can with relevant stories you can use during interviews

This way you'll be prepared with multiple responses for the questions you're most likely to be asked.  Since your McKinsey interviews will be in pairs (or more for later rounds), you'll want to have more than one answer ready for each topic.  When your interviewers compare notes and realize you used the same story twice, they'll wonder "is that all this candidate has to offer?"  It's also helpful to have some variety in case you're asked something unexpected or in an unexpected way so you can be ready with a story that's relevant and answers the question that was asked.  It's obvious to us when a candidate is trying to shoe horn a story to fit a question - sometimes they pull it off, but more often than not, it leaves us (a) questioning their judgment and/or (b) wondering why they couldn't come up with a better example.

McKinsey's culture of negative feedback - you're probably not performing as badly as you think

Are you getting a lot of negative feedback and constructive criticism from your McKinsey boss?  Is it making you feel like you're underperforming and disappointing your supervisor?

In this post I'll explain the culture of frequent and often negative feedback at McKinsey and why you're probably not performing as poorly as you think

CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM VS. NEGATIVE FEEDBACK

McKinsey views feedback as a critical tool for professional development and performance improvement.  Our consultants get a lot of it and there is a tremendous emphasis on pointing out "development opportunities".  Unfortunately, what is meant to be constructive criticism can get lost in all the negative feedback.  Since McKinsey consultants are constantly being reminded of how they could be performing better, all of these development opportunities - taken as a whole - can feel overwhelmingly negative.

DON'T EXPECT A PAT ON THE BACK - HIGH PERFORMANCE IS TABLE STAKES

While McKinsey consultants receive plenty of constructive criticism, it is less common to receive any positive feedback.  If it happens, it's going to be specific and actionable, in accordance with the McKinsey feedback model.  As a result, it's uncommon to get unprompted, positive recognition like "you're doing a great job on this project" or "I really appreciate having you on the team" from McKinsey leadership.  Your McKinsey boss probably thinks you're doing great and does value your work, and hopefully they're not ungrateful.  It's just that they're coming from a culture where excellent day-to-day performance is expected, not celebrated.

RATIO OF POSITIVE TO NEGATIVE FEEDBACK

There is an interesting Harvard Business Review article that cites research suggesting that higher performing teams have a significantly higher ratio of positive to negative feedback (5.6 : 1) than their lower performing counterparts.  Based on personal experience and anecdotal evidence, I'd say the ratio at McKinsey is reversed.  Most consultants probably receive 5 to 6 pieces of negative feedback for each positive one.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOU

I hope this post has been able to shed some light on why you might feel bombarded by constructive criticism and negative feedback.  Your McKinsey boss is probably either unaware this is an issue or has the best intentions and is trying to develop you develop and improve.  You can either try to recalibrate and try to take the criticism as coaching or give your supervisor some upward feedback - something that is accepted and encouraged at McKinsey