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Any tips for future batches on the basis of your
experience
Prepare on your CV. You need to have recall value in the eyes of the interviewer. Structure HR answers. But they will sound natural only after practice. It helps if you have 2-3 USPs in your mind. For example, I had quizzing, meditation and a childhood abroad.
Never give up in a case. Keep your cool as people get unsure of simple math during cases and literally end up doing written calculation where mental should have sufficed.
Don’t read too much into the interviewer’s body language (unless he’s giving you hints during a case). Take pauses during cases but don’t let the silence get heavy.
Each interviewer may ask you at the end if you want to ask him something about the company. Don’t do DCP. Ask him genuine questions that you think that a person of his stature and experience can answer better than a younger employee at the firm.
Do not judge your own performance in the interview. You will never know what the interviewer is thinking. You might have been given a tough case just to see your response.
Interview Experience 19
Name: Ishani Roychowdhury
Company: McKinsey & Co.
Name of interviewer
and designation Round 1: Gunjan (Partner) Round 2: Vikas (Partner) Round 3: Navtez (Partner) Round
(First/Second/third) Three rounds in total (third round was purely HR) Brief Profile :
(Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.)
Economics Honours from St. Stephen’s College, 21 months of work experience at Bain Capability Center (BCC)
Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)
Round 1: Tell me about yourself, followed by related
questions on my answer, why consulting. Next 15 minutes was a case. Ended with a brief discussion about the Partner’s
consulting career so far.
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Round 2: Follow-up question on an answer that I had written in the HR form filled a week earlier. This was followed by questions on my work experience and how the BCC model works. This was followed by two quick cases.
Round 3: Pure HR round Narration of the case
interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)
Round 1: This was the first case of the day for the Partner and we spent 12-15 minutes on HR at the beginning. She asked me about myself which I had prepared well. That led to questions around my career decisions, a bit about my work experience and society work at undergrad college. This was followed by the case. She gave me two choices and asked me to pick one. I chose the IT case.
Case statement: I run a software company which sells accounting software in India. Before launching accounting software, I had hired a market research firm who estimated the market at Rs.XY (some figure). However, in spite of having a share of 45%, we have not been able to penetrate the market any further.
The idea was to start with exhaustive qualifying questions that covered competition, region of operation, industry dynamics. I figured that the problem did not lie in the company per se, but in their target customers. They focused mostly on the SMEs who used traditional accounting books rather than accounting software. I was also abruptly stopped in between, after which I quickly synthesized and gave in my recommendations. My recommendations were around creating awareness to migrate more people to online accounting applications
She asked me if I had any questions for her. I asked her a question which extended the discussion for 5-7 more minutes.
Round 2: 2-3 questions on the HR form submitted earlier.
This was followed by a detailed discussion about my work experience, some case examples from my previous work, the BCC model and how it works and why consulting.
Case statement: My friend owns a single theatre in a metro city, has been losing profits steadily. Suggest ways to improve his profitability.
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The case was about generating options and the Partner kept insisting on more suggestions. I looked at the revenue and the cost side separately, divided them into short term and long term plans, and tried to logically structure my suggestions. For the revenue side, I had gone by the customer purchase process approach to ensure nothing is missed.
This was followed by a second case which was a guesstimate:
Another friend of mine wants to sell tennis balls in India.
Estimate the demand. The approach was usual, starting with sources of demand and estimating it using population.
Finally, he asked me if I had any question for him. I had a question and the discussion went on for 5 more minutes.
Round 3: This was the most interesting interview experience of all. I was told it was like a hygiene test before I went in, and I was relaxed yet energetic.
The partner looked at my HR form and asked me similar questions, as in my previous interview. The discussion touched upon various topics- mostly around my work
experience, family, school life and career decisions (it was like a friendly chat after sometime and I had much to talk about).
He also asked me why I would want to join McKinsey. At the end, he said it was a good discussion, that he thought I am fit for consulting and felt no need to give me a case.
What do you think went
right in this interview? In all the rounds, I was energetic, smiling and engaging. The HR questions were extremely crucial which I thought went well.
About the cases, I had thought my first round case wasn’t great- it was my first case of the day and I couldn’t tell
whether she was happy with my recommendations. However, later I heard from others that she was actually happy about it.
The second round cases went well- I managed to generate as many options as he wanted, and did not give up. In fact, I went into lot of details on the guesstimate and he stopped me in between to ask for the final answer.
What do you think went
wrong in this interview? Nothing major, I guess. The idea is not to ‘solve’ the case, but to display your structure and your method of thinking and to engage the interviewer throughout.
Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience
Be calm and enthusiastic throughout. Carry yourself with confidence and smile- that reduces the nervousness too.
Prepare your ‘about me’ well because that feeds into the discussion that follows. Also, the questions on ‘why
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consulting’ and ‘why McKinsey’ are common. Further, it’s very important to structure your HR answers too.
Interview Experience 20
Name: Mashantha Viswanathan
Company: McKinsey
Name of interviewer and
designation Mr. Anil Sikka – Senior Specialist
Ms. Gunjan Soni – Partner/Senior Partner Ms. Aayushi – Engagement Manager Round
(First/Second/third) Ms. Aayushi - first Mr. Anil Sikka – second Ms. Gunjan Soni - third Brief Profile :
(Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.)
B.Com (Professional); St. Francis College for Women, Hyderabad, Analyst at Ernst and Young Hyderabad for 11 months in the Advisory service line
Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)
Round 1: HR – Tell me about yourself, one wild/fun thing I had done. Guesstimate – If I needed to increase the prevalence (usage) of contraceptives in India by 20%, what sort of a number would I be looking at?
Round 2: HR - Tell me about yourself, Working
individually vis-à-vis working with teams, how have I dealt with people taking credit for work that I do.
Guesstimate – As head of a publishing house, I was asked to estimate the readership for a book that I wanted to publish
Round 3: HR - Tell me about yourself.
Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)
A retail chain wanting to enter India; how would I go about it? Variables and KPIs that I would look at.
Followed a value-chain centric approach; was asked specific questions at each stage such as the kind of metrics I would look at.
What do you think went
right in this interview? 1) Was confident and comfortable; felt more like a conversation rather than an interview (especially the second and third rounds)
2) After a point, we were discussing the solution for the case together (happened in the first round)
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What do you think went
wrong in this interview? 1) Was initially nervous and I guess it showed in my first round
2) Could have been more targeted with my questions Any tips for future batches
on the basis of your experience
1) Don’t get flustered; keeping your cool is very important 2) Try to approach it like you’re going to meet a new
person rather than you’re going to face the most important interview in your life; it helps in being yourself => More confidence => Best performance Interview Experience 21
Name: Pratik Goyal
Company: McKinsey & Co.
Name of interviewer
and designation Suhail (Associate Partner) Naftez (Partner)
Vikash (Partner) Round
(First/Second/third) Total 3 Rounds
Interviewers names in order Brief Profile :
(Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.)
St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata Chartered Accountancy Inter Fresher
Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)
Round 1: 3 structural approaches to solve the problem “ India should win 5 gold medals in 2020 olympics”
Round 2: About yourself not in the CV?
Why consulting?
An estimate of the total number of glucometers sold in India in a year.
Round 3: A cinema hall whose profits are falling - Problem finding and Recommendations. An approach to estimate the revenue of the cinema hall and the cost was also asked.
My leadership roles and why no POR in IIML?
My entrepreneurial venture and the business logic behind it?
Why not Finance as a career choice?
Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)
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What do you think went
right in this interview? The HR part went very well
The idea generation was very important and the initial two levels in the structuring which should have incorporated a MECE.
The ability to communicate what I was thinking was very important in the cases.
What do you think went
wrong in this interview? The nervousness was very high and so required a little time in idea generation in the first round but kept talking to the interviewer so that dint leave much gap and made up for the nervousness.
Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience
Generally the interviews are targeted to test the idea generation ability, comfort level with numbers and the problem solving ability which form the main work of consultants.
In the softer aspects the HR answers are very very important.
Knowing the CV is very important and should be a reason for why u did what u have, and it will generally be a part of all interview rounds.
Interview Experience 22
Name: Shreya Sachdev
Company: McKinsey and Co.
Name of interviewer and
designation R1- Shivanshu (Partner) R2- Vikas (Partner) R3- Gunjan (Partner) R4- Navtez (Partner) Round
(First/Second/third) Round 2
Brief Profile :
(Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.)
B.A. (Hons) English- Lady Shri Ram College for Women-Fresher
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Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)
All three interviews revolved around my educational background (I’m the rare breed of Literature students that occasionally crop up here) and how that fit in with IIM Lucknow and Consulting. I was also asked about my
internship with a Fashion House and my motivation behind taking it up. Finally I got asked about my expectations from a Consulting job.
The interviews ended with me asking each of the partners questions.
Shivanshu was working on a data- heavy project so I asked him about how he dealt with the more mundane aspects of Consulting.
I had a prior interaction with Vikas at the McKinsey dinner and I continued with the same discussion regarding
Entrepreneurship opportunities at McKinsey.
Gunjan and me spoke about opportunities for women at McKinsey and the initiative she had started regarding the same.
Navtez was working on a case in the same sector that my father works in, so we discussed the current challenges faced by that sector.
Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)
“My friend runs a standalone theatre in the heart of Mumbai, but has recently been witnessing declining profits.”
I initially structured it into a regular profit and loss case, but after the first 4-5 minutes (possibly because he gathered that I had no problem structuring the case) he jumped directly to recommendations. The rest of my case focused solely on me shooting options as to how he could possibly increase his profits. The suggestions included the obvious ones such as price of tickets, show timings, staff requirements etc, and then we went on to other areas such as the Food and Beverages counter, Parking and so on.
At that point, after we had exhausted all avenues he asked me to come up with out-of-the-box solutions, and we spent the rest of the interview solely on idea generation.
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What do you think went
right in this interview? I was smiling and confident throughout the interview even though I was convinced that I had quite possibly tanked the case interview before this.
I could bring myself to look outside my structure and give him solutions over and above the ones
What do you think went
wrong in this interview? I didn’t ask for numbers, possibly because numbers were where I had messed up in the last case. If I had gotten over the phobia in time the case solutions I presented would have had more of an impact.
Any tips for future batches on the basis of your
experience
Reading the cues and expressions of the interviewer always help.
Apart from that don’t make the mistake of getting trapped by your structures because McKinsey partners usually tend towards unorthodox case interviews.
Summer Internship Experiences 2012
Boston Consulting Group Interview Experience 1
Name: Mohit Agarwal
Company: Boston Consulting Group Name of interviewer
and designation Navneet Vashisht, Partner
Round 3 Rounds
Brief Profile Chartered Accountant, Graduate from SRCC; Prior work experience -22 months as Associate in BMR (tax consultant) and Ernst & Young (Transaction Advisory Services)
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Interview questions Round 1:
Some basic questions like Why consulting and why BCG.
Case on acquisition strategy of a large Indian conglomerate looking for diversifying into IT services.
I took a complete background check with regard to the motivation behind diversifying into IT sector. Also, what kind of IT businesses it wanted to diversify.
The interviewer suggested that they want to achieve revenue of USD 5Bn from current USD 4Bn. Also, they want a margin of 12-15% from this new business. Also, the major consumer of IT services are Europe and US.
So, I divided the problem into two parts – 1. Whether IT business would serve them the purpose for achieving desired revenue. 2. If yes, then what would be the strategy for entering into IT services?
I started off with the projected revenue estimates for all types of IT services. However, the interviewer changed the problem statement (due to paucity of time I suppose).
He asked what would be the basis for selecting companies from an acquisition standpoint from an initial pool of companies across the globe.
I came up with two matrix table wherein I stated what the Indian conglomerate wants from the acquisition (ie Need) and what it can offer to the target company (ie want of target) and tried to match it.
The interviewer informed that the Indian conglomerate was cash rich company, stands on its values and has strong client relationship with manufacturing sectors / vendors.
So I started linking all of them –
funding – requirement for cash strapped companies
Reputation – It can offer brand value to companies not well known
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Client relation to leverage – Companies not present in manufacturing IT services.
Also, during discussion, I linked the problem practically to how Mahindra went on to acquire Satyam and what factors it looked before bidding. I think the interviewer was
impressed with the linking to case to practical situation.
However, I think the interview did not go so well. However, I knew I would be given another chance to perform.
The interview ended on brief chat with Hindi literature on poetry and short stories.
Round 2:
The interview was taken by Principal in BCG. Problem Statement – An Indian Cement market share is declining.
MA: Define market share?
Interviewer: Market share is defined by quantity and sales value.
MA: There could be 3 possible scenarios: Market stagnant, we are losing out to competitors; Market growing but we are not growing as fast as market; market shrinking but we are losing more than our competitors.
Interviewer: Second scenario MA: Major customers
Interviewer: Real estate companies
After a brief background question, I started off with the problem analysis.
I broke the problem into Demand and Supply side.
Under demand side, I mapped the consumer behaviour analysis of buyer and brought out several points. However, the interviewer was interested in delving into supply side.
Anyways, he told me to analyze demand side.
Based on our discussion, we realized that pricing and timely delivery was an issue. Pricing is based on cost plus pricing.
Cost includes transportation cost which was significantly
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higher than industry standards. High transportation cost stems from the fact that the factory was located far away from the market. Also, acquisition of lime stone has been a challenge for the company.
I think the interviewer was impressed from the fact that the problem was solved from the demand side. Also, I quickly suggested 2 solutions to the problem:
Short term – Reduce prices and take a hit on profit to regain market share
Medium term – Follow hub and spoke model to reduce delay in delivery time
Long term – Acquire a source (may be mine or long term supplier) for lime stone
The interview ended with HR questions as to – why MBA after CA, why consulting, why BCG and why not industry after CA.
Round 3:
The third round was a very brief round. The problem statement was – Whether Uninor bid for the next spectrum auction?
I took background questions regarding in which circle it operates and its vision in India.
I suggested that I would do a Net Present Value analysis and would bench mark against return expected by Norway Head Office. We went into revenue stream like voice and data.
Cost included operating, spectrum, license fee etc.
He seemed to be satisfied with the response. Also, he asked me why AT&T is not bidding for the spectrum. I explained that Uninor has invested time, effort in understanding Indian market which AT&T has not. I drew learning curve of both Uninor and AT&T. He seemed impressed.
At this stage, the Partner made an offer and I accepted it.
Narration of the case
interview Explained above
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