McKinsey Forum

[Anonymous User]

Anyone here got a first-round invite with McKinsey? Any idea how selective is the first round and what are the odds of getting an offer if one's been invited to a first round?

*I'm at 2L at a T14, applied for a summer associate position. Got invited to a first round interview and am wondering whether it's worth the time/committment to go for it.

[Anonymous User]

I don't know if the steps are the same for summer associate positions, but I went through the APD application process at McKinsey for an analyst position this fall. For us, the first round consisted mainly of a timed, multiple choice test, as well as a couple of 'non-evaluative' (yeah right) case interviews. Most people made it to the second round, which consisted of three case interviews and three personality interviews. I didn't make it to the final round of interviews, and I heard through the grapevine that the only person who did happened to have 4-5 years of consulting experience before returning to grad school. Unless McKinsey has greatly revised their hiring needs in the last 4 months (and the market does look quite different now), I think hiring will continue to be tough for those without previous consulting experience.

[Anonymous User]

Thanks for the response. It seems like my interview process is the same as yours. According to the email I got, the first round consists of a multiple choice test and several "breakout" sessions. Those who perform well on the test move on to the second round. Then there is a final round in your preferred office.

If I pursue this, I'll have to miss a day of classes for the first round, and then likely will have to spend considerable time preparing for the second round. As an unemployed 2L, my GPA is still pretty important.

I'm having a hard time deciding whether to go to the interview; it seems like a lot of effort and committment for a very slim shot. I have no consulting or business background. I think I got the first round invite solely based on my educational background and standardized testing scores. Perhaps my time would be better spent pulling up my GPA and sending out more govt/PI job applications?

[Anonymous User]

Yeah, I had the same experience as the other poster. McKinsey likes name schools and will interview (almost?) anyone attending their typical target schools for the first round. They were interviewing Ph.D. students at my school and I'm pretty sure most people who went to round 1 (the "diagnostic test" and breakout sessions) were invited for 2nd round. I got cut at the 2nd round and I don't know what percentage made it to the third round.

However the slim chances were, I did find the experience useful in that McKinsey was willing to provide pointed feedback after the interview. (I also asked for and received feedback after the breakout session.) Not many places are willing to do that.

I learned in my feedback after the 2nd round that they really wanted consultants who "project confidence." By that, they meant that when they asked me how I would respond if a client asked me to explain the situations in which my calculation would be off, they wanted to hear "I'm completely confident in this estimate." They did NOT want to hear what I said, which was along the lines of what most cautious scientists would say, "well, this estimate depends on __, and if this factor is lower than I estimated, then the estimate would be higher because ___."

Although I decided that it wouldn't have been my cup of tea anyway, I respected their candidness and I felt that I learned a lot from that interview experience.

[Anonymous User]

It's odd because practically every top law school student thinks that working at McKinsey as a management consultant is an alternative path that they can pursue if they don't make it into a firm when the reality is that McKinsey is really tough to get into from a top MBA program and nearly impossible as a JD (they hire a very, very small number of law students to begin with and around a handful from CCN at best). The reality is that the "business" part of the employment stats you saw on your school's brochure meant jobs such as mopping jizz off the floor in porn preview jerk off booths (although admittedly the number of people employed is such "business" positions at top schools were quite small prior to the recession).

[los blancos]

It's odd because practically every top law school student thinks that working at McKinsey as a management consultant is an alternative path that they can pursue if they don't make it into a firm when the reality is that McKinsey is really tough to get into from a top MBA program and nearly impossible as a JD (they hire a very, very small number of law students to begin with and around a handful from CCN at best). The reality is that the "business" part of the employment stats you saw on your school's brochure meant jobs such as mopping jizz off the floor in porn preview jerk off booths (although admittedly the number of people employed is such "business" positions at top schools were quite small prior to the recession).

Yeah, this is definitely true.

I'm a senior in UG. McKinsey was my absolute dream job, as it was for most of my classmates (I think it's usually on par with GS for college student dream job factor, or at least it is at my school). To make a long story short, I made it all the way to the final round, only to get railroaded by one partner who didn't like me for whatever reason. Around 1% of the people who send a resume to McKinsey end up getting an offer, I was one of the .3% that made it to the final round and didn't get an offer.

Oh, and the part about the criticism is somewhat true, too. One of the partners I talked to after basically told me that law school wouldn't be a bad idea for me since it might help me structure my thinking (they like big-picture thinking whereas I tend to be very detail-oriented). Although I really want BigLaw, mgmt consulting will definitely be another thing I look for if I end up going to law school next year. Given the people I met during OCR last year, I probably have a good shot at getting a summer 1L job with McK or BCG. They DID tell me that the entry level can be a higher bar to crack because they're always nervous about putting kids who just graduated from college in front a major client.


If anyone has any questions on what the interviews or the PST are like, shoot me a PM as I went through the whole thing. FWIW my second and final rounds were held with MBA candidates and even a HLS 2L who was interviewing for a summer job. I doubt their interviews were all that different than mine, though the bar for MBA candidates is probably highest and from my experience with Bain samples, the MBA case studies are far more mathematically intensive.

[Anonymous User]

so the first round interview invite...is that something that anyone at a top law school with a high SAT score can get? does anyone at a T-10 with a 1400+ SAT score NOT get a first rounder?