McKinsey Summer Business Analyst Offer

This week is probably one of the longest weeks of my life. Since Audrey's call last Friday, I have my mind set on waiting through this week, for the final results with McKinsey due to come out next Monday.

Little did I know, an unexpected phone call on the afternoon of 4/30 .....

Well, it's Wednesday, 4/30, 5 days earlier than the 'would-be' revelation day. I sat down in my seat and got ready for the afternoon's macroeconomics class. That was when my iPhone buzzed and an unrecognized number displayed on the screen. Now being the interview season, I'd grown accustomed to receiving calls of which numbers I don't recognize, usually from the HR departments of the various firms. However, I did not expect what I'd hear on the other end of the line.

'Hello, Danny? This is Jeffrey'

(Jeffrey? which Jeffrey?) This notion only flashed in my mind before something registered.

''Hello, Danny? can you hear me? It's Jeffrey from McKinsey'

''Congratulations! I want to tell you we're happy to make you an offer to the summer BA program, please contact the recruiting director for details. Ok? We'd be seeing you soon then. Alright, bye bye'!'

Those 20 seconds, are what I'd been waiting for for more than a month. All the way back from the beginning of my application, to round after round of intense interviews.... finally, this call!

It feels so dreamlike, knowing I'd clinched my dream internship position! The thing is, it was completely unexpected, I had no idea why I got this call 5 days earlier to the 'expected' results day! But I am sure as hell happy, and excited....beyond words.

So now, my summer is set. I will be working as a summer business analyst at McKinsey & Company. So, I will be taking that elevator back to the 47th floor of Taipei 101 quite often! 

Yeeeeeeeessssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

I MADE IT !!!!!!!

Pressure - Letting Off Steam

In retrospect, the McKinsey & Company summer BA interviews spanned over a month in total! 

Here's the timeline:

3/6 - Campus recruiting session

3/17 - online application submitted

3/26 - invited to McKinsey problem solving test

3/28 - Took the McKinsey problem solving test

3/29 - McKinsey Case Workshop

4/9 - Case Interview Round 1.1

4/12 - Case Interview Round 1.2

4/22 - Case Interview Round 2.0

4/24 - Case Interview Round 3.0 (Final Round)

5/5 - Results? (still pending)

Over the course of my application, I must admit in the beginning I was still focused on my previous application t Standard Chartered's International Graduate Program. To be frank, I never expected myself to advance so far in McKinsey's interview process. The firm has always been one of those dreams very high up, almost out of reach - I was happy to get the invitation to the written test, and who ever knew the process begins from that point on ...

Right now, having participated in the whole process, I have to say the entire process was both exhausting and very interesting. In terms of exhaustion ~ I didn't even realize that until it was all over.

This saturday (4/26), I found myself feeling sore all over, the kind of feeling I get before catching a major cold or fever. Every muscle on my body felt sore, and my grip was weaker than usual. I thought I was suffering from food poisoning or something....and went to bed early that night.

Waking up, the situation improved, but the sores are still there. Did a lot of stretching over the course of the day to lighten the sores. It wasn't until now did I realize the kind of pressure I'd put myself under over the past month. No, I didn't sleep late often, nor did I feel any physical pressure in any way. But the fact that I placed such a heavy emphasis on this interview process has created, unbeknownst to me, a psychological pressure that clenched me from all sides ~ for over a month!!!!!

In essence, the sores I was experiencing is feeling myself finally relaxing, the fatigue surfacing in form of sores. I'd never felt this way before, even after HSMUN, SITE or FACES ~ one important lesson I learned was - if I do end up interning at McKinsey, I'm sure the work will be hi-pressured as well, so I must find a way to release this pressure on a routine basis, so I don't have to undergo this kind of sore-therapy once a month. Just an interview can mount this kind of pressure, much less the real deal if I get the offer. So it is true pressure-management is important after all.

Apple蘋果

McKinsey Case Interview Round 3.0 - Final Round

So it all came down to today, the final round of the Mckinsey Summer BA interview process. I can still remember March 27th when I received the written test invitation, my scheduled test date was 3/28. Then there was the case workshop, followed by my first interview - the Doraemon case on 4/9. Three days after that came the second interview with the HSR case on 4/12. Two days of waiting went by before I received the call inviting me back for round 2, and it was another week after that before this Tuesday 4/22 when I returned again to the 47th floor of Taipei 101, this time it was Dr. Tobias Baer with the Bank Merger case. That very same day, I was notified to being selected for the final round of interviews.

So, this fateful day of 4/24, more than a month since the application process began, I'm dressed in my suit, hair swept back as I stepped into the lobby of Taipei 101 for the 6th time. Of course, I was there early, and I simply rehearsed a bit regarding some of my resume based questions. At 3:45, I called the reception desk who authorized a temporary visitor's pass and took the hi speed elevator up. Making sure my appearance is professional one last time in the restroom, I strode in for my final interview.

I was led into the all-but-too-familiar conference room. Water was provided and I was left alone to wait for my interviewer. It is quite cold today, 16 degrees Celsius, and a little cloudy looking out the window. A lot of thoughts went through my mind, to be honest I'd never expected much out of my application when I sent it in more than a month back. McKinsey had always been like a far-out-of-reach dream job to me ever since I entered college when I first heard of the firm. Can't believe it, now, I'm sitting here already in my final round of interviews. Just one last barrier to cross, and my life, my future may very likely change forever. I have heard enough stories of several seniors and friends who are good enough to make it to the final round, but in the end, good simply wasn't enough...they all failed to clinch the summer BA position. Now, the much coveted internship is one interview away, and my interviewer - known for his snappy, impatient, fast-paced demeanor that intimidated most candidates, is minutes away from entering this room, I know I have to give it all I got. I have to forget about the gains and losses and just fight as glorious a fight as I possibly could put up, the bottom line - I don't want to regret not having done my best in retrospect. After all, I've made it as far as some of my outstanding peers had, and I'm damn proud of that ~ it's up to me if I can take that one notch further.

At approximately 4:06, my interviewer - President of McKinsey & Company Taipei Office - Jeffrey Wong entered the room. We exchanged handshakes and he sat down across from me, his face was the expected all-business look. It turned out he remembers me from our short encounter two days ago in the elevator, when Dr. Baer introduced me and complimented me ~ at least we're off to a good start. He asked me to introduce myself, knowing his short temper and patience, I gave him a concise, succinct 1 minute intro, and invited further inquiries on any points of interests. Well, it appears he had none, and he wasn't prepared to let me ask questions either, but rather said outright, 'Alright, let's start with a case'. No way am I going to be intimidated, I've come too far to be scared or nervous, I replied in a calm, enthusiastic voice 'Sure, let's do that!' The case was:

A Taiwanese bank has 100 branches all over Taiwan, they want to know if there are enough branches to serve the entirety of Taiwan's 23,000,000 people?

After some quick clarifying questions, which did yield much useful data at all, I asked for a minute to structure a approach. However, only seconds after I started structuring my approach, Jeffrey cut in and took the paper from me, and started drawing a big rectangle while saying: okay now, imagine this is Taiwan, and here are our client's banks (puts some dots inside the rectangle), so what will you have to know in order to determine if our client have enough branches?

Thinking on the run, I started popping off questions, but apparently most of those weren't what he had in mind, and he either dismissed them by saying, 'that is not the issue of concern', or a slight frown that obviously indicated he wanted me to think harder. Keeping my anxiety in check, I finally said something on target:

'' I think I need to know how many people each of these banks serve, and how big of an area each bank can cover ''

That response was met with Jeffrey saying ,'Very Good, so now how will you estimate the coverage of each bank?''

Again, I started in a loop of providing possible solutions, most of which weren't the correct ones he had in mind, some of my 'attempts' are:

1. Well, maybe I can see how many customers visit each bank per week, to determine if the bank is well positioned ?

2. Okay, I can see how many customers the bank has, and if they are all served?  ~ nope.

but I was able to hit bullseye in the end,

'' Aha, I can do a survey of the banks customers.''

Having answered correctly, Jeffrey again said, 'Very good, assuming now you conduct this survey, if you're only allowed to ask one question, what will that question be?''

That caught me off guard ~ usually in past cases, I only have to come up with the framework, the idea or a proposal, but not actually the details as to how the plan will actually be carried out. Calming down, I thought to myself, 'okay, I'm conducting the survey, and I can ask one question, and I want to know the coverage of each bank.'' As usual, I started with a barrage of guesses which are incorrect,

ME. Let's see, I can simply ask them if they think the banks are too far away?  

JEF: Not a good question, you'll get a yes or no answer, that isn't very helpful is it?

ME: no, not very helpful indeed. Ahh, I need to know how they get to the bank?

JEF: Okay, assuming all customers come by foot, in other words, they walk.

ME: So, can I ask them how long it takes for them to come to the bank?

JEF: Well, they'll all tell you 5 minutes for the sake of convenience.

ME (thinking hard) : alright, then I can ask them how many times they visit the bank?

JEF: so they tell you 5 times, so what? how will that help you estimate the coverage of a bank?

ME (thinking harder!) : hmm....

JEF: it's a very simple question, what question will give you facts? you need to estimate the scope.

ME (after 30 seconds) : ohhh, I see, facts, okay, I will ask them where do they live?

at that, Jeffrey said, 'Very good, but some of them may come from work...'

ME: uh-huh, so I can ask them where do they come from, in general

Jeffrey, 'Yes, very good. So it's a simple question, now you ask them that and give them a map and you can estimate how far they came from, right?'

Jeffrey: now you have that, what will you need to divide the number of people in your circles by to get coverage?

ME: Taiwan's area?

JEF: no, why would u divide people by area?

ME: oh....then, Taiwan's total population?

JEF: yes, that's right. So your survey tells you your circles covers 18.5 million people, that's a coverage ratio of?

ME: 18.5/23 million, that's almost 87%, pretty high!

JEF: don't worry about how high it is, now your client has 2 million customers, so what's the conversion rate?

ME: Okay, out of 18.5 million people covered, 2 million are customers, so that means approximately 2/18.5, about 12%, so for every 100 people covered the bank can convert 12 into customers.

JEF: correct, so assuming our client is able to cover the remaining 3.5 million, how many of those are potential customers?

ME: well, assuming the hit rate remains constant, 12% of 3.5 million is approx 380,000 customers?

JEF: Okay, good. so if our client doesn't want to add additional branches, how many percent do they have to raise the hit rate in order to get the extra 380,000 customers out of the existing 18.5 million covered? 

ME: Let's see, if the bank acquires all the additional customers, that will be a total of around 2.4 million, and 2.4 million out of a total of 18.5 million....that's about 13%?

JEF: Good, so you have to raise the hit rate by about 1%, so if you are to choose either adding branches or raising the hit rate, what will you consider?

ME: Hm, I would first want to find out how much it will cost to add extra branches,

JEF: right, and compared that cost against?

ME: well, compare that against the cost of raising the hit rate, for example like marketing and advertising costs.

At that, Jeffrey stood up and said: Very good, that's it. That's the end of the case, thank you and we will keep you informed.

ME: Okay, great. Thank you for the interview !

So that was it, a 20 minute short short interview! Jeffrey said this is most likely my final interview unless they cannot clearly decide and have to invite me back for another interview. 

Phew ~ that was that, the interview process with McKinsey is finally over! I survived! now I  can just wait for the results, and I'm waiting for the Morgan Stanley results too! haha ~ it feels good to finish all the interviews. The best thing is, I felt I gave it all that I've got, I did my best, and I don't regret a thing, there is nothing I could have done more, so if they still don't want me, then so be it. The matter is out of my hands now, and now I just hope for the best, and prepare for the worst. To be honest, I think I have a fair chance of getting hired, after all, Jeffrey - the 'intimidating' interviewer commented 'Very Good' several times throughout the interview, and I'm pretty sure I didn't appear nervous or edgy at all. I held my composure and was calm and solid. Yeah, I didn't get the key questions right the first time, but at least in the end I managed to come up with the right points and right answers, and I think he's satisfied if not impressed. So, with the interview process behind me, it's time to shift my focus back to school work, whether I get the internship or not, there are still a lot of projects and reports between me and the summer! Better start working!

By the way, Jeffrey didn't offer me a business card, so I couldn't write him a thank you email. I emailed the receptionist Audrey who called each time about the interviews and asked if she can give me his email so I can write the letter, do u think this is appropriate? I also thanked Audrey and Shu-Ling, the recruiting coordinator who arranging all the interviews over the month long process. 

That's it ~ I'd done my best. Hopefully the next time I write, it will still be good news.

McKinsey Case Interview Round 2.0

It's been more than a week since my last interview with McKinsey & Company. Today, is finally the day of my round 2 interview. Before telling you more about the details, I'm also excited to inform you that another department of Morgan Stanley called to arrange an interview with me tomorrow (Wednesday). I have applied to all 4 departments, and right now I am offered an interview opportunity by 2 of them, they are: Consolidated Equity, and Operations. I will be attending these two interviews consecutively tomorrow afternoon.

In the meantime, I spent the past weekend preparing for my McKinsey interviews and my Financial Institutions midterm exam simultaneously. Took the midterm this morning, it was okay, I think I did well on the test. Afterwards, spent an hour getting ready and then took the bus to Taipei 101, arriving half an hour ahead of my appointment time as usual. 

This is my fifth time heading up to the 47th floor of the 101 office building. In the elevator on my way up, I silently said to myself: Whether or not this will be my last trip to the 47th floor will depend on what happens in the next hour! Go fight! 

The McKinsey office was quiet as usual, having arrived early I was led to the small conference room where I waited for my interviewer. As it turned out, my interviewer is German, his name is Dr. Tobias Baer. He's an associate - principle level expert consultant currently based in the Taipei Office, specializing in risk management. At that, I couldn't help but quip, 'Wow, risk management, in fact, I just took a midterm on that topic this morning!!!' 

He seemed particularly interested that I spent time in Saudi Arabia. He said as a consultant, he actually did a project that brought him to both Riyadh and Jeddah! He even asked me for a hypothesis as to why when women debtors are typically of lower risk, it is the contrary in Saudi Arabia ? I gave him some examples by stating how women enjoy far less rights in Saudi Arabia, the fact that they cannot work may lead to their inability to repay their loans if economic support from their husbands are lost. He seemed quite interested and satisfied with my quick answer.

As for the case itself, it was about 2 big Chinese banks who recently merged into one, and I have to analyze and recommend to the senior management of the now merged bank, how many branches should be closed, since branch offices of 2 originally different banks are now under the same name, some might be too close to the others in terms of profit maximization. I started out by listing some of the factors that might influence the decision on whether or not to close down any existing branches at all - 

- costs incurred, including employee compensation and sunken cost of capital if closing an existing branch.

- Do the two banks originally serve distinct customer groups? Offer unique products in niche markets?

- What might be the social norm, public reaction to closing a branch and laying off all its workers?

- What is the profit maximizing number of branch offices? 

After asking questions and following hints from Dr. Baer, the case gravitated toward the profit equation. It all boils down to whether or not closing or leaving existing branches open will be beneficial to the firm's profits. In analyzing that, I further listed out the bank's sources of revenue, and the different costs it incurs. What followed was more detailed analysis in revenues vs. costs generated by additional customers, social reaction to the firm's brand image, logistic, IT, and human resource management, and also branch synergy. 

At the end of my case, he said I did very well, had a clear and healthy structure in coming to my recommendation, and said he was impressed by some of the creative points and insights I'd came up with in the process. Most of all, he liked the way I involved him in the entire process, asking questions and asking for opinions ~ solving the case as a team, rather than a interviewee - interviewer perspective. After the case, I also asked him many questions concerning the consulting industry, and being a consultant in general. Questions include - 

- since you specialize in an industry, isn't there the chance where you will be working for competing clients? 

- How long do entry level consultants get before having to specialize into a specific industry?

When I left the office, the receptionist Audrey said she will contact me regarding the results, since she need to wait on Dr. Baer's decision. Just as I was about to leave, Dr. Baer appeared again, and I was surprised to find Jeffery Wong, the president of Taipei office, right there with him as well. It turned out they were heading out for coffee, and Dr. Baer introduced me to Jeffery, he even commented in front of the president, quote: 'If you have any bank merger problems in the future, this fellow here just showed he can handle the problem very well.' Ha, I will take that as a compliment. Dr. Baer also told me I have one last interview in the application process, that round 2 actually has 2 interviews, but the second one is reserved for candidates who are deemed 'unclear' and need further clarification to determine whether or not they pass, but he said I will most likely take the shortcut and advance directly to the final round!

All in all, I think I did pretty well, having had good rapport with my interviewer and impressed him with my analytical skills in the process. I just finished and sent out the 'thank you' email, thanking him for interviewing me and answering my questions. This diary is supposed to end with, 'now I am anxiously waiting for the results, and will let you know on any new developments' . However, moments before I started writing this email, I received a call from McKinsey & Company, telling me I excelled at the interview and is invited to go back for the final round! It is scheduled for this Thursday afternoon at 4pm, and it is the final round of the process, an interview with Jeffery Wong, the president of Taipei office. I hope the brief contact at the elevator this afternoon left a good impression! Very happy to be in the final round, so close! Now just one last step to go! In the end it all boils down to Thursday! 

Recent Update 04/16/2008

The keyboard of my macbook suddenly became unresponsive last Sunday.....

Took it to the authorized servicing center, the tech used an external hard drive and booted from another volume disk. The keyboard worked fine in the external disk....

So, knowing it's a software rather than a hardware problem, I re-installed my entire OS X system. Thanks to the trusty Time Machine backup, I was able to get most of my data and settings back in no time. (I'm still searching for iMovie though.....)

Almost lost my MacBook today.... left it on a seat next to me on the bus. Thankfully, I immediately realized it seconds after getting off, and was able to chase down the bus and reclaim my prized possession. I swear, when I got on the bus and left my macbook to the side, the scenario of getting off without it occurred to me....kind of like a premonition, but I'm just thankful I did not really lose it. Shall me a lot more careful!

Yeserday, 4/15, McKinsey & Company called saying I'd passed the first round of interviews, and scheduled my round 2 for next Tuesday! Man, it's the same day as my midterms for financial institutions!!!! Well, one step at a time, I am just happy to keep working toward my dream.

McKinsey Case Interview Round 1.2

Woke up at 6:30 this morning to get ready for the 2nd case of my McKinsey round 1 interviews. Arrived at the Taipei 101 office building at 8:20, half an hour before my 8:50 interview appointment. Audrey the receptionist led me to a meeting room where I waited for my interviewer.

My interviewer's name is Wayne Chen, and he appears to be a ABC too, speaking fluent English. So, I guess I can't impress with my language skills this time. Unlike Wednesday's interview, he started me off with the case question instead of resume based inquiries or a self introduction. My case was on Taiwan's High Speed Rail. In essence, I am to look into why the HSR's revenues hasn't picked up after 6 months in operation. I took a minute to draft up a structure which consisted of price and quantity. Throughout the interview, there was a lot of interaction with my interviewer, who guided me through the cases, giving hints as to where he want me to further explore. In the end, I summed my suggestion up into a 2 minute recommendation statement, and he wanted me to pretend I was presenting it to the CEO of HSR. 

After the case, he asked me like 1 or 2 questions regarding my resume. Again, the 'can you read and write Chinese' question came up. This time, I simply replied, "oh, I got the highest score in my Chinese class last semester". That, I think speaks for itself. Then, as expected he asked if I had any questions regarding consulting. I started by fishing a question from my prepared list, then, following a different tactic, I listened carefully to his answer and asked follow up questions on things within his answer. The Q&A session went on for approximately 15 minutes, and I found out a lot about what being a consultant is like, some of its perks and what the summer BA program is about. Here's the list:

1. McKinsey typically treats summer BAs like full time BAs. They get assigned to project teams responsible for different studies with clients. I didn't ask about the pay, but I guess it won't be too shabby for a company like McKinsey.

2. If a consultant is assigned on a project abroad, McKinsey provides him/her a ticket to fly back to their home office every Friday. (Wow)

3. If a consultant is assigned on a project abroad, McKinsey provides him/her tickets to fly his/her family to their current location every other weekend. (Wow)

4. The length of projects can go from 4 weeks up to a full 6 months. It's a tradeoff between depth and scope.

5. McKinsey project teams are usually involved with the client during the engagement period, the actual implementation of the strategy is usually seen through by the client themselves.

There are many other facts that I found out during our QA session. When the time was up, he asked me one final question:

Interviewer: Did you practice for the case questions?

Me: Yes.

Interviewer: How long did you practice?

Me: Since I found out about the interview a week and a half ago, I practiced 3 hours per day with my friends. 

He then asked with whom and how I practiced. He looked quite impressed that I spent so much time preparing for the interview. His ending remarks were: I'm impressed to see the amount of effort you'd put forth. My past experience with undergrad students was they never practice. 

I guess that was a good sign! Audrey told me they will notify me of the results sometime next week (most likely Monday or Tuesday). In the meantime, I have no idea if I made it into round 2 of the case interviews. Though I think I did really well on both cases. The first consultant obviously took a liking in me, the one today seemed pretty impressed, I had a good session with him. I am also satisfied with myself for my own performance. If all goes well, I think I probably passed into round 2. Guess we'll wait and see!

P.S. - my first interviewer - Robert Yao, I thought he was a funny and nice guy. I mean, he gave me suggestions, and we chatted casually. However, I found out from Alex that another of the interviewee also got Robert, and the same Doraemon case, but was turned down on the spot!!! According to others, Robert was perceived as 'not-excessively-friendly', and the fact he turned down an interviewee in round 1.1 surprised me!!!! They all said I must've been a special case for Robert to like me the way I described it. That is a plus for me by all means !!!

Can't wait to know the results, there still seem to be a long way. Can't believe so much effort must go into securing a summer internship!!!! But, like I said, it's McKinsey, and it's all worth it.

McKinsey Case Interview Round 1.1

In any case, the actual interview itself, aside from being postponed to this Wednesday (yesterday), we were further notified that the interview process is now broken down into three sections. In essence, I will be attending stage 1 on Wed, and if successful pass onto stage 2...so on and so forth. 

 

So, yesterday was the big day I'd prepared for. Aside the case question, I'd also spent time to practice how to introduce myself to the interviewer and leave a quick first impression, I even prepared a short '2 minute' intro and a long '10 minute' version, pending on what is asked of me. Other than that, took time to structure my responses to the following questions as well:

 

1. What is your greatest achievement to date?

2. Tell us about your weaknesses?

3. Why consulting?

4. Why McKinsey?

5. Give me a leadership example, and what are some problems you faced?

 

Questions like these need careful answering, and can easily catch an unprepared candidate off guard. Thanks to the complete case interview guide available through NTU's online database, I'd prepared myself to the fullest extent possible.

 

Alright, so now comes in real deal. I showered, shaved and changed into my business suit, combed my hair into a professional make, and took the bus to Taipei 101. Arrived half an hour ahead of my scheduled 8:00pm interview time, but the receptionist from McKinsey was already in the lobby waiting for me. The McKinsey office was literally empty (later I found out from my interviewer that most of the BAs are staffed with clients on their individual projects). I was led to a small meeting room, and told to wait for my interviewer.

 

It turned out, my interviewer's name was Robert, and he's a double E major from NTU, who earned a PhD at CalTech and just joined McKinsey as an Associate a yaear and a half back. After a brief self introduction - I think my fluent English caught him off guard, when he found out I studied in the US before, he asked me if I'm still able to read and write Chinese? Even asked me to write my own name in Chinese just to make sure. So, when I told him I'm fluent and can read & write in both English and Mandarin, I can tell he looked impressed. 

 

Then came the case question - 

 

A startup in Japan named Doraemon Corp has a new invention - a door that can take people to anywhere in the world in 6 hrs. Please estimate the market size of this product, and whether you will market it as a service or product?

 

At first I thought it was just any ordinary market sizing/ business strategy question....on second thought, I was surprised in realizing that 'Doraemon' and the 'Door' .... isn't this ..... 小叮噹 and 任意門 ！？

 

So, jokingly I asked my interviewer whether this is the comic character, I told him it's my favorite comic - to my surprise, he happily said yes and that it was his favorite comic too ..... totally unexpected, I found a mutual link with my interviewer by such chance! 

 

Off to a good start, the atmosphere was light and enjoyable, knowing we took common interest in the topic, I was able to really engage myself in the case. I won't go into the details of my analysis, but two of the potential customer groups I came up with surprised and pleased my interviewer:

 

For this new invention, I said there could be the following customers:

1) Business people 

2) Traveling for Leisure

 

My interviewer initially thought these two groups were about it, so when I told him there are also:

 

3) Government - might be interested in deploying troops quickly at times of war, emergency or a rescue mission?

4) Commercial - FedEx, UPS can make 6 hr. delivery around the world by using this door.

 

What followed was more detailed analysis of pricing, promotion and positioning of this product. When I was finished with the case, my interviewer looked very pleased and told me I did 'Very Well'. He asked me if I had any further questions, (ha, I was ready for this too, I didn't want to be taken off guard by this, so I'd prepared up to 10 questions for my interviewer just in case, and it worked). I asked 4 questions from my prepared list about consulting, how it may affect family life, is it interesting? and all that stuff. We had a nice chat and he seemed very pleased that I involved him during the entire process.

 

Of course, he told the secretary responsible for recruiting that I passed (on the phone), so my next interview could be arranged. I initially chose 5:00pm this Saturday, but my interviewer muted the telephone and told me in private that 'earlier the better', that way your next interviewer will have no benchmark to compare you, since they have to decide you pass or not on the spot, the earlier is more advantageous. Thanks to the hint, I rescheduled my interview to 9:00am this Saturday. He also told me in private that I actually didn't score to standard on the quantitative written test : Test Score Below Par. But for some reason (I think my resume spoke for itself) McKinsey decided to offer me a chance at the interview anyway. As it turned out, he said that decision was a good one. 

 

Felt really good to have aced my first stage interview, and now onto stage 2. If all goes well, I might be able to clinch a summer BA spot..... something I'd never even dreamed about ..... I still got 2 days, and I'm going to continue preparing ~ as my consultant said in his final advice before I left, 'In the end, what really mattered is not how well you did on the case, but whether your interviewer had a good impression of you when you leave the room, whether or not they'd want to spend a night at the airport with you when trapped in a snowstorm....impress, impress and impress.'

McKinsey Case Interview Workshop

My posts are getting out of order again, this actually took place last Saturday on 3/29....

After successfully passing the written test, I was invited back to the 47th floor McKinsey office at Taipei 101 for an afternoon of case interview workshop.

There were lots of food available, which kind of made me regret having ate lunch prior to coming. Vincent (both Vincent Chou and Lee) are there. Actually, I don't know many of the other potential competitors? In any case, the workshop started with a powerpoint briefing, which talked about the theoretical side of McKinsey's unique 'Case Interview' Process. Here's what I learned:

The McKinsey Case Interview:

The consulting business places heavy emphasis on logical thinking and solving a client's problem. So McKinsey (and several other consulting firms) use case interviews to see if a potential candidate can think logically, use a framework, and come to a conclusion regarding a business strategy question. 

In general, the entire interview process for a BA position or a summer BA position is the same. There will be 3 rounds of interviews, each with 1 or 2 full length cases plus a short session of experience interview. 

If one interview is 45 minutes, approximately 10 minutes will be allocated to the more personal part. This is when you're asked about your resume, past leadership experience, character etc. The remaining 35 minutes or so revolves around a business case scenario, where the candidate must analyze and gather data through asking the right questions. In the end, sum up your findings to a make-believe client. The key point of the case interview was for the interviewer to see how the candidate thinks, how he/she breaks down the problem, analyze the data, and come up with a valid conclusion, and suggestion as to how the problem might be solved.

Here are the four steps McKinsey suggests in dealing with a case:

1. Clarify - don't dive in yet, ask questions to clarify the scope of your case.

2. Structure - it's hard to tackle a behemoth, break it down to pieces.

3. Analyze - gather and analyze data through questions and interaction!

4. Conclusion - sum up your findings in a 2 minute summary and suggestion!

After the powerpoint presentation, we were divided into groups of 4~5, each group led by a business analyst. Sitting around a table inside a small conference room, we began a round of mock interviews, to give us a feel at how the real deal will be like next week. When the BA in our group, Michael, asked who'd like to be the interviewee, I took the chance when everyone else is looking at everyone else and raised my hand. After all, being invited to the written test itself was a surprise, passing it was even more beyond my expectations. But now I'm here, and I have no previous case interview experience, the more practice, the better.

Michael started out by asking me what I like to do during my leisure time, and I told him sports, like volleyball. From there, he threw me my mock case question:

So, Danny, estimate for me how many volleyballs are sold in a year?

This is a market estimation question (guesstimation), and I've heard to classic examples in the past like:

a. Estimate the number of taxis in Taipei city

b. How many cups of coffee does one Starbucks store sell on a weekday?

Having no prior experience at all, I started hesitantly on the four suggested steps:

Clairfy - Does beach volleyball count? Are we looking at Taipei or Taiwan? ...etc

Structure - okay, let's break down Taiwan's population into age brackets.... etc

Analyze - So, let's say the there are xxx colleges, each with xxx department teams, ... etc

Conclusion - from the above assumptions, I think xxx volleyballs are sold a year.

The above steps may look simple, but the actual analysis is far from 'simple'. It involves assuming a lot of numbers, and explaining the rationale behind those assumptions. I also learned to keep my numbers simple, for the ease of calculation. I learned to interact with my interviewer, and that keeping silent at times is not a bad thing. Just make sure you're not silent for the majority of your interview! 

After the mock session, I've had a pretty good idea what the case interview would be like. All the candidates are led back to the rest area, and Jerry, the associate principle gave closing remarks. He said in the past, if you didn't familiarize yourself with at least 20 cases, practicing with your friends, than don't even bother come back for the interview, you won't pass. 

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT.

The workshop being over, me, Vincent Lee, Vincent Chou and Alex went to get some food. We sat and chatted as we ate the delicious fries. To be honest, out of the initial 600 applicants, only 80 or so are invited to the written test, and out of those 40 made it to today's case workshop. I've heard in the past how rigorous McKinsey's interview process is, how many either failed the initial interviews, or made it to the final stage but ultimately failed. Right now, having passed the written test, I am beginning to feel the wait of expectation falling upon me. My self expectation, and the desire to get this summer BA job. Yet it seem so close - just a couple of interviews away, and so far - just a couple of interviews away, at the same time.

Our group decided to use the week that we have until the interviews, and practice our asses off. Jerry made it clear, practice makes perfect. We are going to get together every night next week, and practice mock interviews. I have no idea how much help that would be for the actual thing, but what else can I do. I'd always envied working for McKinsey, I'd always wanted to be in that winner circle, and now given the chance, you bet I'm gonna fight for it with all that I've got.