Get Feedback From Your 1st Round McKinsey Interview - Why It's Important

To get hired by McKinsey, you typically have to pass two rounds of interviews.  McKinsey's feedback-driven culture doesn't just apply to the job, it applies to interviews as well.  It's also possible that former McKinsey consultants will apply this approach when interviewing candidates for non-consulting jobs.  In this post we'll cover why it's important to get feedback from your 1st round interview...


The best football and basketball teams look at their first-half performance with a critical eye and make adjustments at halftime so they can play better in the second half.  Think of 1st round interview feedback as your coach's halftime locker room speech, only much less inspiring.  Just a reminder - because of McKinsey's tendency to focus on negative feedback or "improvement opportunities", you might come away from your 1st round feedback feeling like you're getting routed at halftime rather than up by 10 points.

Can every candidate get 1st round feedback?

Yes, but you might have to ask for it.

After your 1st round interview, one of your McKinsey interviewers will call you with your decision - you'll be offered a 2nd round interview, get dinged, or, least frequently, informed that a decision is pending.  Regardless of the outcome, you have the option of receiving feedback on your 1st round interview performance.  If it's offered to you, take it.  If it's not, ask for it.  I cannot emphasize this enough.  If you pass up the chance to get feedback from any consulting firm on any interview, you're missing a huge opportunity to improve your performance during future interviews.

What can I expect from 1st round feedback?

Every interviewer rated your performance during the case and personal experience interview (tips for doing well on the PEI) along multiple dimensions.  Good interviewers also take notes on specific things you did well or missed during both parts of the interview.  Diligent ones will also compare notes with the other person who interviewed you and can give you feedback that reflects both interviewers' perspectives - those conversations usually inform the post-interview decision meeting where your outcome was determined.

As with any McKinsey feedback, you should be getting feedback that's specific and actionable, even if it's not framed according to the McKinsey feedback model.  At the very least, you can expect directional feedback like "you need to show better structure in the case", "you should consider a different PEI story", or "your public math needs work".

If your interviewer is good and/or you're being offered a 2nd round interview, your feedback is likely to be more detailed and actionable.  In that case, your feedback might sound like these examples: 
"Your initial case framework was good, although you missed a key lever.  But, you made up for it by being creative and thorough when you drilled down into each of the levers you did identify".  Or, "even though you fumbled that one calculation, you caught it yourself, which showed good understanding of the case.  And, because you were walking me through your math, I could see that you have a good grasp of numbers and just misplaced a decimal."

Why is this important to me?

If you got dinged:

Your feedback will be helpful if you have other consulting interviews in your future.  If you were interviewing for a summer internship position, I hope you'll try again next year for a full-time position.  In that case, your feedback will be highly relevant.  If you still have upcoming interviews with other firms, McKinsey feedback can still be helpful to you as you course-correct and prepare for them.

If you were offered a 2nd round interview:

It's critical that you receive and apply 1st round interview feedback prior to your 2nd round interview.  Here are a few reasons why...

1.  Your feedback is meant to help you get a job offer

During "assessment training", McKinsey interviewers are instructed to help each candidate demonstrate their best possible performance (while being fair to other candidates, of course).  That means the person giving you feedback is on your side and wants you to do as well as possible in the next round.  Their feedback is being given with the best intentions - for you to perform even better in the next round and get a job offer.  Whether the feedback is nitpicky or harsh, take it with an open mind and address it.  Your feedback should help you feel more confident about the areas where you did well and help you focus your time and efforts on improving where you did not perform as well.  In this case, nitpicky feedback is a good sign - it means that in the 1st round you did well enough on the big things that your two interviewers had to think pretty hard for things for you to improve.

2.  Your 2nd round interviewers will also see your feedback

Each of your 2nd round interviewers will have seen your interview assessments from the 1st round.  That means if you performed poorly along a particular dimension, at least one of your 2nd round interviewers will be asked to probe or test you further on that dimension.  If you fumbled the math, you'll likely get at least one 2nd round case with a challenging quantitative element.  If you struggled with PEI, you'll be asked more questions on the same PEI topic.  Remember that in the 2nd round the stakes are higher - the result of a "false positive" assessment is a job offer, not just a follow-up interview - so the bar is also higher.

3.  It's your chance to show that you respond well to feedback

McKinsey is all about feedback - a good consultant has to be able to take a lot of negative feedback but also be able to process it and make the necessary improvements.  In addition to seeing your 1st round interview assessments, your 2nd round interviewers also know that you've received feedback on these points.  So, if your performance on those dimensions doesn't improve significantly, it will a) confirm the initial assessment and b) reflect poorly on your willingness or ability to improve based on feedback. 

In some ways, it's almost better to have a minor stumble (that doesn't get you dinged) on a particular dimension in the 1st round only to crush that same dimension in the 2nd round - you'll be seen as a candidate who learns from mistakes, takes feedback well, and is "coachable".  That said, I wouldn't advise that you tempt fate by trying to do this on purpose!  But I hope you find it reassuring if you made a misstep during your 1st round interviews but still got a 2nd round interview offer.

Releasing Your Agenda - What It Means and Why It's Important

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It's likely that, at some point, you'll be asked by your McKinsey boss to "release your agenda".  In this post I'll explain what that means, and why it can be helpful.

What does it mean to release your agenda?

This phrase is typically used regarding client interviews or problem solving sessions with clients or thought leaders.  It's best practice to prepare for these sessions by aligning on goals and proposing an agenda for achieving them.  Ideally, your meeting will be constructive and your agenda acts as a roadmap to getting the information you need.

Sometimes, the conversation will veer off course, but still be productive.  In those cases, it's important to let the discussion run its course, even if it means giving up on your original goals, letting your subject talk about whatever they want, and "releasing your agenda.

Why is this important?

Although releasing your agenda can be frustrating, it's often helpful and can lead to valuable outcomes, even if they're not the ones you were anticipating.

If it's a client interview, your subject might not talk about what you want, but could still provide beneficial information or insights on other matters.  In such cases, it's often more important to keep your subject talking and sharing than it is to get them back on the track you wanted.  You can always circle back later and ask those questions at another time, especially if releasing your agenda and letting your subject talk or vent helps you build a strong working relationship.

Unless you're facing a crucial deadline, any good McKinsey boss will understand that establishing client relationships has long-term value.  That can make releasing your agenda worth the frustration and additional time it might take to revisit the conversation and get the answers you want later.

If the context is a problem-solving session with a subject matter expert who's going off on a tangent, you're still likely to learn something helpful.  While it might not help with the question on the table, it might give you insights on how to solve other elements of your workstream or other, related workstreams.  That said, with a colleague, it's more acceptable to try to keep your conversation on point or to bring it back to your agenda after briefly straying.

80/20 Thinking, 110% Execution - Why McKinsey Decks Are Often Warm

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One of my favorite McKinsey client quotes is "I like McKinsey decks - they're always nice and warm".  The reason McKinsey decks are often warm to the touch is because they're fresh off the printer.  It's common for McKinsey teams to be making edits and adding content until the very last minute, then scrambling to print documents and race to client meetings.  You also might see this behavior if you work with or for a former McKinsey consultant.  Here's why this happens...

Why the last minute rush?

You would think with all the long days and late nights, McKinsey teams would have plenty of time to get their ducks in a row.  But there are a few reasons why McKinsey teams end up working on decks until the very last minute...

1.  Late feedback from leadership

McKinsey Partners, Directors, and Experts often make valuable contributions and suggestions to improve client deliverables.  But, because they split their time between multiple client engagement teams, their input is not always delivered in a timely manner.  Teams still have to reflect these edits in the deck, so there's often a race against the clock to make sure the deck reflects the Firm's best thinking.

One way to mitigate this cause is to schedule problem-solving sessions with your thought leaders before the deadline.  However, this can be difficult because they have such busy schedules - if you don't get everyone together at once, you might get input in series - in the worst case, each contribution conflicts with another - adding more and more churn to the process. 

2.  Endless problem solving

Although McKinsey promotes 80/20 problem solving and a focus on big picture, high level, hypothesis-driven answers, those hypotheses need to be supported by detailed analyses.  Teams are constantly working to improve and refine their analyses to make them bullet-proof.  Since there's no finish line to this process, it can go on as long as you let it.

A good way to limit this type of rework is for the team to agree on a date and time to "freeze" the deck.  After that point, no more edits can be made to the deck and the team moves on to next steps.

3.  Attention to detail

As superficial as it might seem, typos, formatting issues, and other small errors can undermine credibility and reduce the client's confidence in a McKinsey team.  So, while the team's approach should be 80/20, its execution has to be impeccable.  As a result, documents are constantly being proofread and scanned for mistakes - if something is discovered at the last minute, it needs to be corrected, even if it means reprinting an entire stack of decks.

Freezing the deck can also help with this cause as long as the team commits to limiting themselves to minor edits once the deck has been frozen.  Correcting typos and formatting errors are allowed, but revising analyses and adding new content is not.

Why is this important?

If you understand what causes these last-minute scrambles, you can seek to prevent them.  Not only are they incredibly stressful, but for some clients, being late to a meeting can be as damaging to your credibility and working relationship as a half-baked analysis or obvious typo in a critical document.

McKinsey Interviews - 3 Tips For Selecting Your Location Preferences

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Prior to joining McKinsey, you will have 3 major decisions to make - 1) whether or not to apply for a job at the Firm, 2) to which location you'd like to apply, and 3) whether or not to accept your offer.  This post will focus on your location preference decision.


Although McKinsey is a global firm - with thousands of consultants in over a hundred locations spread across more than 50 countries - you'll have to select one location to be your home.  For some people it's an easy decision, for others, it can be more challenging.

Terminology:  Office vs. Location

At McKinsey, Office and Location are not interchangeable terms (even if they sometimes are used that way).  Think of "Location" as a city and "Office" as a region.  For example, the Southern California (SCA), Silicon Valley (SVO), San Francisco (SFO), and Seattle (SEA) comprise the McKinsey West Coast Office (WCO).

How location preferences work:

During the recruiting process, you might be asked several times for your location preferences.  Typically, you'll be asked for your top 3-5 locations, weighted by preference.  The location preferences you provide going into your first-round interview will inform where you end up going for your second-round interview and - if all goes well - ultimately working for McKinsey.

Typically, at our core business schools - places like Harvard, Wharton, and Kellogg, your first-round interviewers will be from the Office complex that best matches your preferences.  (CAVEAT - this post is for US b-schools and US McKinsey locations - interviews for international Locations are handled differently and the process varies by which international Office is involved)  Based on Office and Location needs and number of applicants preferencing Locations, your interviewers might be from the Office of your 2nd, 3rd, or 4th Location preference, but the Firm typically tries to match you with your top choice.

If you pass your first-round interview, you will then be flown to a specific Location (hopefully your top or second preference) for your second/final round of interviews.  Any job offer would be from the Location of your second-round interview.

I have seen some rare cases of horse trading occur during first-round decision meetings.  Depending on Location needs and preferences of passing candidates, there's sometimes a need to adjust second-round interview Locations.

Three tips for making your location preference decisions

1.  The bar doesn't get lower

One of the guiding principles of interviewing is that McKinsey never "lowers the bar" - that is to say that we always maintain the same high standards for passing a candidate on to the next round or making them a job offer.  That means no matter what Office or Location is doing the interviewing, you still have to exceed a Firm-wide performance standard.

However, the bar can get higher if there are a lot of qualified candidates vying for a small number of slots.  This is why the summer internship interviews are viewed as a more rigorous and selective than full-time interviews.  Also, if a particular Location is over-subscribed - more candidates have preferenced it and passed to the next round than there are openings - the bar might go up.  This is when some of those candidate who clear the Firm's bar might be offered 2nd round interviews in other, preferenced Locations.

2.  You can't "game" the system

Every recruiting season there are candidates who think it might be easier to get into certain Locations than others - unfortunately, this is not true.  For some reason, it seems that the Cleveland Location is one that's often cited by McKinsey consultants who tell candidates that there are no easier paths into the Firm, as in "it's not like you can apply to Cleveland and have a better chance to get an offer because no one else is applying there".  The best you could hope to do would be to avoid the locations where the bar might get raised.

As we covered in the first point on this list, the bar for passing to the next round or getting an offer isn't lower in any of our Locations.  The other reason you can't game the system is because, as a candidate, there's no way to predict the following:  1) what a particular Location's needs will be, 2) how many other candidates will preference that Location, and 3) how those candidates will do in their interviews.  When you add in other factors like the supply and demand dynamics for other Locations on your preference list and the lists of other candidates, it becomes impossible to predict where your chances might be best.  Better to save your mental energy for case prep and thinking about PEI.

3.  Know yourself and what you want

The more you understand and can be honest with yourself about what you want, the better your location preference decisions will be.  There are three primary reasons to preference one Location over any others.  

• Where you want to live:  Even though McKinsey consultants travel a lot, you'll still be spending a lot of time in your home city, including most weekends and several months at a time if you get staffed locally.  If you don't mind traveling, you can do client work in other cities if your Location doesn't serve the industry or clients you want. 

 

• What work you want to do:  The leadership in an Office and Location can provide you better opportunities to work with certain clients or industries.  McKinsey consultants can't discuss clients with you, but you should know what industries are around a given Location.  If you also considering the Firm serves most of the Fortune 100, you can guess what companies near 

• Who makes you feel most comfortable:  If you get an offer, make sure you attend the cultivation weekend so you can get to know people from the Location.  Also, get to know your fellow offerees since many of them will be in your incoming class and a significant part of your McKinsey experience.

Cover Letters for non-Consulting jobs - 4 common mistakes

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As I mentioned in a previous post about consulting resume screens, cover letters are not critical when applying for a job at McKinsey.  However, in my pre- and post-McKinsey experience, I've found that non-consulting hiring managers rely heavily on cover letters to differentiate between candidates with similarly impressive resumes.  In this post I'll discuss the most common cover letter mistakes I've seen from candidates for non-Consulting jobs...

Why cover letters don't matter for Consulting resume screens

At McKinsey, there were a couple of factors that allowed us to make our interview invitation decisions without cover letters.  First, we sent an army of consultants to interview at our core schools so we had enough interview slots to invite most of the candidates with compelling resumes.  Second, we had a resume scoring methodology that we felt enabled us to make good assessments of candidates without cover letters.  Finally, we didn't really filter for interest in management consulting or McKinsey.  There was an underlying assumption - right or wrong - that if a candidate was willing to go through the case prep and interview process, that they would seriously considering accepting a job offer from us.

The only exception to this might be for the few "experienced hires" - candidates with significant industry experience who are not applying out of business school, JD, MD, or PhD program.  In those cases, a cover letter would help us assess why you want to go into consulting and what specific skills and expertise you could bring to the Firm.

 

Why cover letters DO matter for non-Consulting resume screens

For most job postings, a hiring manager is reviewing dozens of resumes.  This is especially true during interview season at a top business school.  Some of the resumes are, in McKinsey terms,  "clear turndowns" or "clear passes" - it's easy to see from just the resume that a particular candidate is one of the best or worst applicants.  That leaves a big pile of resumes left that often have similarly impressive credentials.  Cover letters can help candidates stand out as hiring managers try to differentiate between those remaining candidates.

The stakes are higher for the non-consulting resume screen because those companies usually have fewer interview slots available to offer.  A "false positive" (a candidate we think is great but turns out to be a dud) represents proportionally greater opportunity cost for a non-consulting company with 14 interview slots than it would for a consulting firm with hundreds of interview slots.  Furthermore, many non-consulting companies want to know how interested candidates are in their industry or company, something that's usually not readily apparent from just a resume.

Four common cover letter mistakes

1.  Not submitting a cover letter

Without a cover letter, your hiring manager has no way of putting your resume into context.  That might be fine if your academic, volunteer, and/or professional background are tied to the job for which you're applying.  Otherwise, you need a cover letter to help your hiring manager understand why you're a good fit for the job.  If you have an opportunity to submit a cover letter for a non-consulting resume screen, DO IT, especially if you're a career-switcher or you've bounced around between multiple industries.  Unless you do so, you're relying on your resume to tell your entire story.

Many companies use scoring rubrics to assess resumes.  The more information you can convey to the resume screener(s), the greater the likelihood you'll address what they're looking for, and the more opportunities you give them to increase your resume screen score.

Failing to submit a cover letter also forces your resume reviewer to wonder why you didn't while other candidates did.  Even if a cover letter is "optional", you should submit a cover letter.  Otherwise, it might come across like you couldn't be bothered to put one together while your competitors did.  My omission, you will have chosen the option of seeming less interested in the job than other applicants, which brings us to the second point...

2.  Not conveying genuine interest in the job

The hiring manager's goal is to fill open job postings.  The last thing a company wants to do is go through the effort of screening resumes, interviewing candidates (often at great expense), and make an offer, only to have that offer declined.  Therefore, many companies want to understand how likely you might be to accept a job offer, which is hard to tell from just a resume.  At the non-consulting companies where I've worked, we look for genuine interest in the industry, company, and location.

In order to do this well, it's critical to research the company and industry well enough to articulate your interest.  At the very least, this will show your hiring manager that you're diligent and are interested enough in the job to do your homework.  Communicating how excited you are about a job opportunity can help set you apart from other, similarly qualified candidates.  

Hiring managers for very attractive jobs are flooded with applications so any means of differentiation is helpful.  They also want to know that you actually want to do the job, not just something prestigious on your resume.  Hiring managers for less attractive jobs might want to know that you're not just using them as a back-up plan or the professional version of a "safety school".  Other hiring managers might be concerned that candidates aren't interested in working in a certain geography or a specific role.  For example, if you've always lived and worked big, coastal cities, you might want to let the hiring manager for that job in an industrial town in the midwest know why you're truly open to moving there.

3.  Insufficiently customizing your form letter

Hiring managers are not naive - we understand that you're applying for a lot of jobs.  It's also inefficient to write a letter from scratch for every potential interview, and efficiency is something we like in our employees.  That said, there are plenty of things you can do that don't take that much time or effort to make your form letter feel less generic.

The worst-disguised form letters are the "insert company name here" variety.  Nothing about the letter is specific to the job other than the company name.  The second least-disguised form letters are those with the "company specific paragraph".  It's very apparent when one paragraph is highly specific to the job and everything else is completely generic.

The letters that come across best, from the perspective of feeling company-specific, are those where the customization is peppered throughout the document.  This is especially powerful when it's done in parts of the cover letter where most candidates cut-and-paste.  A good example is the bullet point list of relevant skills or experiences that many candidates use.  These are often highly applicable across a number of jobs, so it makes sense to recycle this text.  However, candidates who explain how each item relates to the specific company or job might stand out as having tailored their cover letters.

When I was applying for jobs, I did this by having several different cover letters and resumes, with a boilerplate set written specifically for each industry I was considering.  Then, I would heavily customize for each company and job.  I felt it gave me the right balance of being customized and efficient.

4.  Poor attention to detail

Your cover letter and resume are often the first impression you make on a company, so the stakes are high.  If you can't be bothered to get the details right on such important documents, your hiring manager will have to wonder how much attention to detail you'll exhibit once you're in the job.  You have plenty of time to get your cover letter and resume right - if you screw that up, what will your hiring manager think of your ability to execute on last-minute issues or against tight deadlines?

Common mistakes here include:

• Wrong company name
• Typos
• Misspellings - especially of the company or your interviewer's name
• Addressing to the wrong gender

Proofread with these things in mind.  Better yet, get someone else to do it for you.  If you're the right kind of candidate, it's likely you've been writing and refining your cover letter and resume countless times.

This recruiting season, a candidate emailed us a resume and cover letter that was addressed to the wrong company.  We thought about forwarding the email and attachments to the other company with a note saying "we think this meant for you" and cc'ing the candidate, but decided to not torpedo the candidate's chances at a second company.  But not all hiring managers will be so forgiving!

McKinsey Presentations: The Page Pull Deck and How to Build One

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There are many types of PowerPoint decks that your McKinsey boss might ask for.  One that is relatively common and easy to prepare is the "page pull" deck.  In this post I'll cover what it is, and how it's used...

What is a page pull deck?

A "deck" is consulting-speak for a Microsoft PowerPoint (PPT) presentation, or collection of PPT pages.  A "page pull" is when you use an existing page that has already been created, usually by your team, the Firm, or your client.  A "page pull deck" is, therefore, an entire presentation created by cobbling together pages from other, preexisting presentations.  Think of it as forming a poker hand by picking and choosing the specific cards you want.

How should I assemble a page pull deck?

1.  Understand the request

The first thing you'll want to do is understand what your McKinsey boss wants to accomplish with the deck.  You need to know the topic so you can reference the right materials.  You need to know how the deck will be used to understand which pages to pull and how much material you need.

Often, you'll be asked for page pulls because your McKinsey boss doesn't want you to over-invest time in creating new materials or revising existing materials.  But, it's worth asking in advance what the expectations are for how polished the final product needs to be.

2.  Gather the source material

To create a page pull deck, you need PPT documents from which to pull.  Make sure you have all of the relevant source material available - all of the PPT decks that might contain useful information or analyses.  Don't limit your scope to pages you or your team created.  If you're not at McKinsey, think about decks from colleagues, other departments, old documents in your own department, or decks created by consultants.  If you are at McKinsey, remember to check Know for relevant Practice Documents (PDs), ask the appropriate McKinsey Practice for relevant decks, reach out to other teams, Partners, Firm experts, and don't forget about your clients - they often have treasure troves of material.  Remember to ask your McKinsey boss if there are specific documents that should be included in your search.

3.  Select the appropriate pages

As you assemble the source material, familiarize yourself with the contents - it helps to have a sense of what you have before you start pulling specific pages.  Once you start pulling pages, it's better to err on the side of pulling too many pages.  It's easier to cut from your page pull deck than it is to have to hunt through the source material for a page you later realized you should have pulled.  It's also helpful to record the source document on each page you pull for future reference.

4.  Make edits as needed

Usually, when you're asked for a page pull deck, your McKinsey boss just wants a collection of pages.  This is often the case when the deck is for internal, team problem solving or to understand what information the team has on a specific issue.  If this is the case, congratulations, you're done!

However, sometimes there's a need for the pulled pages to be assembled into a storyline.  If that's the case, you'll want to rearrange the sequence of pages and revise the leads (the titles or headlines of each page) to tell the right story.  It will also become apparent where your storyline is missing pages - this is a great way to understand what new material you and your team need to create to fill in the holes in the storyline.

How page pull decks are used

Usually, page pull decks are created for internal, team uses because the intent is to minimize any additional work that needs to be done.  However, under the right circumstances - and with a little extra work - they are sometimes presented to clients.  Here are the most common uses for page pull decks:

1.  Internal problem-solving

Time with McKinsey partners or your former McKinsey boss might be hard to come by.  So, when you have a chance to pick their brain on a topic, you want to make the most of the opportunity to problem solve with them.  It's much easier and constructive if you can put materials in front of them that capture what you know and don't know about the problem you're trying to solve.

However, no one wants you over-investing time on putting together a document for an internal meeting.  One way to balance getting the right information together to put your question into context and saving time is to rely on page pulls.

2.  Identifying workstream needs

If you have a client deliverable to prepare, using page pulls can help you storyline the presentation.  Figure out the story you want to tell the client, then start assembling page pulls to populate the narrative.  As you go through the process, you'll find that you can't find pages to pull for the entire story you want to tell.  Whenever that happens, create a placeholder page - a blank page that has just a lead and/or headline and perhaps some notes on the content you'd need to continue advancing the story.

Once you complete the storyline deck, you can use the placeholder pages to define the additional work that needs to be done.  You might also find that some of the pulled pages need additional work, too like updating old data, refreshing some analyses, or wordsmithing leads, headlines, or takeaways.

3.  Presenting a subset of existing client materials

Often, after presenting materials to a client, there will be a need to present subsets of those materials to specific client groups.    When that happens, it doesn't make sense to build each audience-specific deck from scratch when there's a larger, "master" document available for page pulls.  In addition to making life easier of you and your team, it also ensures that each audience is getting materials and messages that are consistent with the master document. 

For example, suppose your team prepared an enterprise-wide strategy that your client presented to the Board of Directors.  Now, your client needs to give presentations to the leaders of each Department in the company, but a) you won't have time to go through the entire master document with each Department and b) not all of the master is relevant to every Department.  Rather than create brand new decks for each Department, your team can pull relevant pages from the master document.  In this case, you might pull the intro chapter, the Department-specific chapter, and any other relevant pages from other Department chapters.

T-shaped Problem-Solving at McKinsey and 3 Reasons Why It's Preferred

At McKinsey, there's a strong preference for T-shaped problem solving - making sure you've considered all of the applicable topics before going too deep on any of them.  This applies to problem solving a client engagement, case interviews, and working for a former McKinsey boss.

What is T-shaped problem solving?

Business is usually more about identifying better answers than finding a single, "right" answer.  So, it pays to make sure you've considered a wide range of solutions when problem-solving.

The universe of potential answers can typically be organized as topics or "buckets" of more detailed ideas or options.  Think of BREADTH as considering multiple topics and DEPTH as going into greater detail on specific topics.

T-shaped problem solving requires being diligent and exhaustive across all relevant topics BEFORE going deep and committing to going into detail on a specific topic.

Why is that the preferred approach?

1.  It has structure

The T-shaped approach provides a clear, logical means for looking for the best answers and is superior to any UNSTRUCTURED response.  You will get almost on credit for a "laundry list" of answers, even if they are among the best answers because a) there's no way to know if the list is thorough, b) you might over-invest time pursuing suboptimal answers, and c) you lack the ability to walk clients through the logic used to get to the answers helps increases your credibility and client buy-in to the answers.

2.  It enables collaborative problem solving

The T-shaped approach requires building and considering a list of all of the potentially relevant topics or buckets of answers.  This allows others to help you consider a) is your list comprehensive and b) are you choosing the right topics to investigate further?

3.  It focuses your time and resources on the most promising areas

Going deep on a particular topic or bucket of potential answers takes a lot of time and effort.  By being thoughtful about where to go deep, you can prioritize and apply your resources more wisely.  Not doing this and trying to go deep everywhere is viewed negatively and referred to as "boiling the ocean".  Even worse is going deep in the wrong places.  When your time is precious, there's nothing worse than exhausting an avenue of thought only to find nothing of value at the end.

 

What's wrong with I-shaped problem solving?

The alternative to T-shaped problem solving is an I-shaped approach.  This is when you begin by going deep on one or two topics.  The concern with I-shaped problem solving is that it's inferior to the T-shaped approach on each of the 3 points listed above.

1. It's only structured vertically - your sub-list(s) of details might be structured and thorough, but your list of topics is not.
2. It only allows vertical collaboration - others can see and understand your approach to building your sub-list(s) of details, but it's too late for them to contribute to choosing on which topics you go deep
3. You might waste a lot of time and effort - If you've selected the wrong topics on which to go deep, you won't get the right answers and will have to start again elsewhere.  Even worse, you might not realize that you missed an important area of investigation and deliver poor solutions.

Why is this important to me?

Whether you're a) on a McKinsey team, b) working for a former McKinsey consultant, or c) are being interviewed by a current or former consultant, structured problem solving is critical to success.  T-shaped problem solving can help ensure that the structured approach you use is a good one.

Caveat

As far as I know, the term "T-shaped problem solving" isn't an established term, but it's how I like to describe it.  My apologies if this terminology already exists - I'm not trying to take credit for someone else's framework or phrase.  My internet search for the term did turn up references to T-shaped careers and expertise, but not to T-shaped problem solving.

Interviewing with former McKinsey consultants - 5 tips for case-type questions

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Even if you're interviewing for a non-consulting job, there's a chance you'll be asked case questions similar to those used in consulting interviews.  In this post I'll share some tips on how to do well on those case-type questions...

WHY SHOULD I CARE ABOUT CASE INTERVIEWS?

There are many former McKinsey (and other) consultants in management and executive roles who are accustomed to using case interviews to evaluate job candidates.  Doing well on case interviews usually requires the "consulting toolkit" that many employers value.  You'll often be competing with former consultants - who know how to do well on case interviews - for jobs so preparing for case-type interviews can help level the playing field.

WHAT ARE NON-CONSULTING, CASE-TYPE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS LIKE?

Non-consulting case interviews (I'll refer to them as "case-type" interviews) are similar to consulting case interviews in that they're used to assess a candidate's ability to think through and solve a business problem.  Typically, you'll be presented with a business situation and asked how you would deal with certain issues or answer specific questions related to the case.

EXAMPLES OF NON-CONSULTING, CASE-TYPE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

• Suppose we're considering launching a loyalty card program - what are some of the things we should think about as we make the decision?
• Suppose we find that our employee turnover has suddenly increased during the past year - how would you go about figuring out how to reverse the trend?
• Suppose we have the opportunity to acquire our largest competitor - what would you want to know before going through with the transaction?

HOW TO PREPARE FOR NON-CONSULTING, CASE-TYPE INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

1.  Know your interviewer's business

Consulting case interviews assume that you have no knowledge of the case topic.  In fact, if I saw that a McKinsey candidate had professional or personal experience with the case topic, I would switch to my back-up case on a completely different industry.  That was to make the process fair to both a) other candidates who didn't have similar familiarity and b) the candidate who might try to apply incorrect, external information, assumptions, or knowledge to the case.  In consulting, we were testing candidates' ability to reason through business problems, not their knowledge of the subject matter.

Non-consulting interviews apply cases differently.  In these, in addition to seeing how you think through a business problem, the interviewer usually wants to see that you a) have a working knowledge of their industry or company and b) are passionate about or at least interested in what they do.  So, make sure you:

• Understand the company's business model and what they do
• Familiarize yourself with your interviewers' area(s) of responsibility
• Acquaint yourself with their competitive landscape and current events in their industry

2.  Be aware of general business issues and trends

On the one hand, McKinsey cases take place in self-contained universes.  For the most part, all of the information you need to solve the case is given to you verbally or in exhibits like tables or graphs.  In general, consulting case interviews focus on how you work with the information you're given - while you're expected to know and apply consulting frameworks, creative problem solving, and general business dynamics, there's no expectation that you apply extraneous facts or knowledge to a case.  If you do apply them, you would typically do so as additional thoughts, next steps, or caveats to your primary answer.

On the other hand, non-consulting, case-type interviewers will expect you to put your answers into the context of the current business envinronment.  If there are macro issues that will impact your answer, you'll be expected to understand and explain those implications.  Examples that might be applicable to some cases would include: the state of the US or global economy, unrest in certain international markets, the cost of fuel or natural resources, and the increasing use of mobile devices.

3.  Answer the question that's asked

This is important for any interview question - case or otherwise - but seems to be especially challenging during case interviews.  Candidates get so wrapped up in trying to solve a particular part of the case that they'll deliver an answer that doesn't directly address the question asked.  A helpful suggestion is to write down the question.  Then, as you work through the case, take a peek at the question and make sure that your response is going to answer it.

4.  Demonstrate structured problem-solving

Often, the case interview is less about getting the right answer than it is about letting your interviewer see that you're able to tackle problems in a thoughtful, logical, structured way.  To be clear, "structured" doesn't mean that you're expected to memorize and apply canned business frameworks.  It means that your problem-solving approach is organized, thorough, and easy-to-follow.  Adopting a T-shaped approach - making sure you've gone broadly across relevant topics before going deep on one or two - is a good way to do this.  Both during and after my time at McKinsey, I'm much more impressed with candidates who can set up and explain a thoughtful approach to solving a problem that gets to an "incorrect" (I like to think of it as "different from what I was expecting") answer than someone who guesses or happens to have extraneous knowledge, and just blurts out the "correct" answer.

5.  Cover the basics of consulting case prep

Ultimately, a case-type interview is still a case interview, so you should understand the basics of consulting case prep.  There are plenty of online resources - including this blog - that can help.  If you're in business school you can also leverage your consulting club - many have tutorials, case books, and other useful resources - or ask your consulting classmates for help and advice.  If you're not currently in school, find friends, colleagues, and people in your network with consulting experience and ask for their help.  In particular, look for cases that have lots of exhibits - graphs, tables, and data - to interpret since it's likely that your ability to draw conclusions from them will be evaluated.

Although it's far less common in non-consulting interviews, your case might require math - and most interviewers will not let you use a calculator.  So, just in case, brush up on your arithmetic, practice doing public math (working through calculations on paper and explaining the steps you're taking out loud), and avoid common case math errors.

Finally, be prepared to synthesize your answer in a clear, concise manner, similar to how you would deliver a 30-second elevator pitch.

McKinsey Case Interviews and Unit Conversions - An Easy, 3-step Method

One of the most common causes of math errors during case interviews is unit conversions.  Here's a method I learned as an engineering undergrad that helped me get through all of my case prep and interviews without making any unit conversion errors.  I've also used this method countless times at McKinsey and even after leaving the Firm...



There are three critical elements for getting your unit conversions right during case interviews.  The method I'm suggesting to make unit conversions foolproof will be introduced in Step 2, with visual examples.

STEP 1 - Gather all of the relevant information

The "quant" part of any case test both a) your ability to perform mathematical calculations and b) understanding the implications of the numbers on the case.

Let's suppose this case interview is about agriculture and you're being asked "how much revenue can be generated by Supplier X's average seed?"  During the interview, you ask the right questions and have the following information:

• For every 10 seeds planted, 3 plants typically grow  (Fact A)
• It typically takes 14 plants to produce 1 pound of fruit  (Fact B)
• For every 100 pounds of fruit, 10 pounds are usually not suitable for sale  (Fact C)
• Every pound of fruit can be sold for $7  (Fact D)

Keep in mind that you might get some extraneous data.  If you find that you're missing a piece of data, you can always ask questions to get it.  Just don't ask something like "do I have everything I need to know?" because figuring that out is part of your job.

STEP 2 - Set up the calculation

As you can see from this example, even if each piece of data is straightforward, how to manipulate them to get to the final answer can be challenging.  The technique I'm recommending is powerful because it makes it easy to organize your information and clarifies how to apply each number (e.g., should you be multiplying or dividing?).

First, set up what looks like a "+" sign that has a longer horizontal line.  In the top left, enter in your starting point.  In this case, "1" and the units, "seed"

Then, to the right of the vertical line, start adding the data elements that will help you cancel out the "seed" unit and get you closer to the desired "$" unit.  Thinking about your unit cancellation goals will help you see which numbers go above or below the line.

 

 

 

STEP 3 - Cancel units and do the math

After you've set up the problem, cancel out the units one at a time.  When you finish, the remaining unit(s) should align with the the answer you're seeking - in this case, "$" (of revenue per seed purchased).  If the units don't cancel out the way you intended, you've either made an error in the set-up or are missing information.  In either case, you've laid out your thinking clearly so you and your interviewer can discuss next steps.

Now, you can begin reducing to make the math easier.  Look for numbers above the line that are easily divide into numbers below the line.  Often, cases are designed so that the arithmetic becomes easy - we're looking for problem-solvers who are comfortable with numbers, not human calculators.




Finally, multiply the numerators, multiply the denominators, and divide.  You now have a numerical answer in the correct units.

 

 

 

 

Throughout the case math, keep these additional tips from a previous post in mind.

 

 

REMEMBER - It's not just about getting the right number

I've seen plenty of candidates forget about the implications of the final answer.  They're so amped up about the case and relieved that they got the calculation right, that they don't think about what this number might mean to the case.  Always remember the context - that's why I encourage people I case coach to write the question down at the top of the paper.

In this example, you now know that the average seed from Supplier X will yield about 13.5 cents of revenue.  Can you tie that to other facts you might know about the case?

For example, on the one hand, suppose you learned earlier that your client is a farming cooperative and Supplier X wants to charge $200 for every 1,000 seeds, or 20 cents per seed.  At this point you might mention that each seed generates less revenue than it costs to buy the seed.

On the other hand, suppose you were told previously that your client is Supplier X and they are thinking about selling every 1,000 seeds for $70, or 7 cents per seed.  You might want to mention that farmers are going to generate a lot more revenue (13.5 cents) than they're paying per seed (7 cents) so there might be opportunity for Supplier X to raise the price.  You would get bonus points if you added the caveat that your simple calculation has not yet taken into account costs - other than seeds - that farmers might incur (e.g., planting, growing, harvesting) that would be taken out of the revenue, impacting how much more Supplier X might be able to charge for their seeds.

 

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT:

While this method can't protect you from errors in arithmetic, it will reduce the likelihood that you'll make a math mistake by:

• Increasing the likelihood of setting up the calculations correctly
• Ensuring your answer is in the correct units
• Simplifying the arithmetic by giving you chances to reduce some of the numbers

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

CAVEAT

As in many of my posts, I'm going to make some broad generalizations, but they are based on behaviors I've seen across many consultants and partners on many client engagement teams.  Not everyone at McKinsey thinks this way about MBTI or uses the framework in this way, but these tendencies are certainly not rare.

McKinsey consultants will also talk in terms of being "a strong X" or "barely Y" where X and Y are MBTI preference like I, E, N, S, T, F, J, or P, often based on their MBTI scores (e.g., "I'm a strong E", "I'm a slight F").  However, this, also, is not necessarily an appropriate application of the framework.

MBTI and the Team Kickoff or "Team Ready" meetings

Many McKinsey teams will start a client engagement by having a meeting to discuss how everyone prefers to work and align on what the team's working style will be.  At these kickoff, or "Team Ready" meetings, each of the team members will typically share what their strengths are, what opportunity areas they're working on, what their working style preferences are, and their MBTI personality type.  The MBTI personality types are used as a shortcut to understand how team members like to work and how they can best work with each other.

How some people and teams interpret MBTI preferences...

1.  N vs. S

Consultants with a preference for iNtuition are often considered more strategic, "big picture" problem solvers who are able to "think 80/20".  This is generally perceived to be a positive trait at a firm where we work on a lot of top-down, strategic issues.  It is sometimes assumed that Ns are better at pattern recognition, out-of-the-box thinking, and drawing conclusions from larges sets of information.  The downside is that someone who is a "strong N" might be thought of as being too far removed from the critical nuts and bolts of a problem or lacking attention to detail.

Those with a preference for Sensing are in the opposite situation.  Teams will assume great attention to detail - as a result, a "strong S" is more likely to be trusted to own the primary Excel model for a client engagement.  Common negative perceptions of the "strong S" are that they think too tactically, can't see the forest for the trees, and miss "big picture" connections and solutions.

2.  T vs. F

McKinsey consultants overindex on the preference for Thinking.  This makes sense for a Firm that encourages logical thinking and structured problem-solving.  As a result, many Ts will assume they will get along better and can rely more on other Ts.

However, Ts are also assumed to be more transactional, less tactful, and less thoughtful of the feelings of others.  As a result, many McKinsey consultants believe there is value in having at least one F around to "keep the team honest" when it comes to interpersonal interactions, especially with clients.  If you are an F, it might help you to understand that McKinsey colleagues might value or even rely on your gentle reminders to consider the feelings of others.  Examples of how Fs can contribute to teams include:

• Engage with others before getting down to business (e.g., ask about someone's weekend before asking them for some data)
• Be genuine with engaging with others (e.g., avoid coming across like you're "checking the box" when you ask about someone's weekend)
• Consider how your audience will react to information (e.g., think about how to word bad news to make it more palatable)
• Give positive feedback, especially to clients (e.g., give a client credit for a great analysis in front of their boss) because not everyone is used to a steady diet of negative feedback
• Remember that not everyone works for McKinsey (e.g., don't expect a client to work over the weekend)

 

3.  J vs. P

People with a Judging preference are assume to be more organized and better at planning both in their personal and professional lives.  If you have a clean desk and keep your notes and files well-organized, your team will assume you're a J.  Because of these associations, Js are assumed to be superior to Ps when it comes to process and structured problem solving.  Conversely, Ps are assumed to be less organized and structured.  As a result, Js will be more trusted when it comes to tasks like workplanning.

Unfortunately, there are plenty of negative connotations that come with a preference for Perceiving.  Ps are assumed to be messy, disorganized, and unstructured.  I also can't come up with any positive assumptions McKinsey teams make about Ps.  If you're a P, at best, rather than getting angry with you when you forget to do something, your teammates will simply chalk it up to your Perceiving nature.  The good news is that your team will be less likely to ask you to make dinner reservations, call in the team's lunch order, or organize team events.

This brings to mind an infamous quote regarding Ps.  Supposedly, a female McKinsey Partner once told an especially sloppy, disorganized male Business Associate that "your P-ness is really starting to become a problem for me."  Apparently it took her a few beats to realize how that sounded!

WHY THESE PERCEPTIONS ARE IMPORTANT

The better you understand how McKinsey consultants view your MBTI personality type, the more effectively you can work with them.  If you know they're inclined to trust you more with certain types of work, you can leverage that into more opportunities or responsibilities.  If you understand what reservations they might have about your abilities, you can proactively address their concerns and show them that they can rely on you.

To learn more about your own MBTI personality type and MBTI in general, please see my earlier post on the topic