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.
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