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!
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