Just bombed an interview...

I'm interviewing for an experienced hire position at McKinsey and just had the one hour case prep over the phone. And I got fucking destroyed.

A little background... I'm currently an engineer, graduated in 2008, and applied sometime in June. Heard back from a recruiter end of July and had a 30 minute phone screening. Passed that, and she had me schedule an hour case prep, which just happened.

Never been through a case interview, and in the meantime, I bought case in point and watched all the Victor Chen videos. So I have a general idea of frameworks/etc but didn't have a chance to practice outloud with somebody.

Any current consultants or those preping want to help me out? I'm willing to drive my ass down to the city and buy you dinner/whatever.

Any Yale or Brown students on these boards? I'm in the CT area, we could meet up. Skype works too.

Thanks.

 
Best Response

man that sucks.

next time you have a golden opportunity like this (interviewing with a top firm like mck), i'd take more time to be truly prepared. interviewing for consulting is a game. everybody knows the drill, and the firms will expect that you have put in serious effort to prep. do you really expect to receive more interviews after bombing that one? if so, work with other people somehow and do an online search looking for MBA consulting club case interview guides. B-schools keep records of all the questions asked during case interviews, and provide an excellent way to recreate the framework on your own.

 

I jumped into the wrong framework and wasn't able to pull out of it. He tried to clue me towards it, and I just didn't see the direction he wanted me to go. By then, I knew I was doing poorly and started panicking and rattling off a buncha ideas with no structure.

My only hope is that I can schedule the interview as far away as possible. Haha, we'll see how 'non evaluative' the coaching session really is, wouldn't be surprised if they don't even schedule a real case.

Btw, check your email vyger.

 

The case was about a small company that was looking to make an investment in capital and whether they should do it or not.

Monument Man, yeah man, I know what a golden opportunity this is... I just hope I didn't blow it. They say it's non-evaluative, but I wouldn't be surprised if I never hear from them. No emails from HR today.

 

non-evaluative means exactly that. you´ll get a real case interview.

Also, do NOT post any information about interview cases you did on the forums. What you wrote there is vague enough to be ok... but firms don´t like seeing their cases posted by interviewees.

 

I know what you mean.. reading and prepping for it is totally different when you actually do it with someone. Phone interview is esp. stressful for me because of bad connection/ I can't see their face, gestures, how they are reacting from my answers, all that body language, etc. One of my acquaintance at Bain told me that people read cases and prep for it but don't nail it enough to earn them a position:( hope you good luck and post any news for us!

 

Your problem is that you've structured your preparation in such a way that choosing the "right framework" even matters.

If you're a slave to the frameworks you're screwed. Just get a list of things in your head that makes sense for a company in a given situation. Company looking to acquire another company?

-Is the company well positioned? -is the market growing? -can we get economies of scale? -blah blah blah

if you're first move is "Oh is this about Porter's Five Forces?!" you are backing yourself into a corner.

 

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