What is the McKinsey PEI (Personal Experience Interview)?

Overview of the McKinsey PEI

In this article, we are covering McKinsey PEI (personal experience interview, also called FIT). McKinsey PEI is not very different from FIT (PEI) portions of the interview in other consulting firms like BCG and Bain. However, there are some unique aspects to keep in mind.

We will be covering:

1. Sample PEI questions
2. How is the McKinsey PEI different from other consulting firms
3. Qualities McKinsey is looking for
4. Insights from former McKinsey worldwide strategy practice co-leader and senior partner, Kevin P. Coyne
5. Insights from Ritika Mohan on joining McKinsey Chicago after going through The Consulting Offer V

Common McKinsey PEI questions

One of the most common mistakes candidates make is not giving enough attention and not investing enough time and effort to prepare for the FIT portion of consulting case interviews.

Common McKinsey FIT questions include (and same for other top firms like Boston Consulting Group/BCG, Bain, Deloitte, etc.):

• “Tell me about the thing you are proud of on your resume” (a question Ritika attempts to answer in this episode). Ritika was our The Consulting Offer V participant. After going through TCO she received an offer from McKinsey Chicago. Variations of this question include “What are you most proud of?”, “What is your greatest accomplishment?”, Tell me about an accomplishment that you’re most proud of”, etc.

• Another common question is “Have you had a situation where you had to convince a colleague or a client to adopt a different point of view?” Variations of this question include “Tell me about when you convinced a colleague or a client to adopt a different viewpoint from one they initially held.” Also, “Tell me about a time you had to convince someone to change their mind on something important to them” and “Tell me about a difficult situation where you had to rely on your communication skills.”
• “Tell me about a time you overcame a significant challenge at work.”
• “What is your biggest career achievement so far?” Alternatively, “Tell me about your biggest career achievement you had so far.”
• “Tell me about a time where you resolved an important disagreement with a colleague”
• “Could you speak about a time you led others?” Alternatively, “Tell me about a time when you demonstrated leadership.”
• “Tell me about a time when you were on a team and there was a conflict that kept the team from achieving its objective.”

Qualities McKinsey is looking for

McKinsey posted on their careers page what they are testing during the PEI portion of their interviews.

1st quality McKinsey PEI tests for is Personal Impact

Clients don’t hire consultants to solve simple problems. They hire consultants when they face very challenging problems that they can’t solve internally, which necessitates them a million dollars or more in consulting fees. Consequently, McKinsey needs people who are go-getters, who will figure out how to get things done while maintaining the highest levels of professionalism.

So McKinsey looks for evidence of entrepreneurial drive in your past professional experience, academic life, and/or extracurricular activities. For example, Alice from The Consulting Offer Season 2 was an effective leader of a Yale Consulting Club. Here is how we showcased Alice’s leadership abilities as it relates to her leadership positions while at Yale. You can also view Alice’s full resume.

• 2009-2013   YALE LEADERSHIP POSITIONS                                              New Haven, USA                

Chair of Yale Graduate Student Consulting Club

• 7x increase in offers extended to club members at top 3 consulting firms by launching 2 annual club case competitions, inaugural club casebook, workshops, and one-on-one interview coaching
• Led 4-member executive board in structuring the club into as a non-profit legal entity with positive free cash flow, >$2,000 net asset, >500 members, and established relationships with major firms and clubs

Finance Co-Chair of 2012 Yale Healthcare Conference

• Raised ~$50,000 funding for the conference by contacting Yale Alumni and healthcare related companies, of which 90% converted to long term sponsors supporting 2013 conference

Editor-in-Chief of Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine

• Shortened review time by 50% while increasing the number of first-year-citations by 60% via implementing pre-review protocol with 10-member editorial board and facilitating reviewers-authors communication

Publicity & Promotion Officer of Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine

• Tripled submissions via personalized direct marketing to 100+ research institutes by writing a script to automate a mailing system to create a mass marketing email campaign

As you are trying to figure out which achievements you can showcase on your resume to highlight your leadership abilities think about situations where your absence would have meant a much worse outcome. In other words, where your involvement resulted in significantly better results than would have been achieved if you were not involved in a particular initiative. Once you figure out 1-3 examples, think about which significant challenges you had to overcome to achieve the results you were able to achieve.

Sample McKinsey PEI Questions:

• Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a very difficult problem.
• Did you ever have a situation where you were not able to achieve a desired outcome? What did you do?

3rd quality McKinsey PEI tests for is Problem Solving Skills

“Helping clients solve tough problems and implement solutions requires strong intellectual abilities and rigor as well as a practical sense of what works and what does not.”

Why McKinsey PEI tests for Problem Solving Skills?

As a management consultant clients will come to you to solve their most challenging problems. They will not pay very high McKinsey fees if it was an easy problem they could solve internally. Therefore, problem solving skills are crucial to be an effective McKinsey consultant.

This skill, of course, is tested during the case portion of McKinsey interviews. However, it is also tested during PEI. When you are demonstrating your ability to solve problems during PEI portion of your case interviews, ensure you also showcase your ability to influence others (see personal impact section above).

4th quality McKinsey PEI tests for is Leadership Abilities

Insights from former McKinsey worldwide strategy practice co-leader and senior partner, Kevin P. Coyne

Kevin P. Coyne (former McKinsey worldwide strategy practice co-leader) is the host of The Consulting Offer II (our in depth consulting case interview preparation program). If you would like to see Kevin Coyne teaching students to apply this strong values-based model of thinking to obtain offers at BCG and McKinsey, you can do so today by becoming a Premium member.

As we constantly teach all our clients, having strong values can create a significant career competitive advantage. Kevin Coyne is a co-founder of the Coyne Partnership, and a former director and co-leader of both McKinsey’s worldwide strategy practice and CEO transitions practice.

Insights from Ritika Mohan on joining McKinsey Chicago after going through The Consulting Offer V

It is always very helpful to get a chance to listen to someone who successfully went through McKinsey PEI and case portion rounds of interviews and obtained an offer. Here we shared with the broader FC community the last episode from TCO V with Ritika, where Ritika speaks about going through the process, lessons learned, and receiving McKinsey offer.

If you want to see samples of our advanced training materials go to FIRMSconsulting.com/promo and sign up for free to receive sample materials.

Related content:

• McKinsey BTO vs. McKinsey Strategy
• McKinsey Associate Mistake
• McKinsey Digital
• McKinsey Solutions and McKinsey Analytics
• McKinsey Principal
• FIT/PEI
• Rules for FIT & PEI Case Interview Questions
• The “So-What” rule for FIT & Writing

RECOMMENDED BOOKS:

When people think about the business strategy we often think about the field of strategy consulting/management consulting and firms like McKinsey, BCG, et al. If you are interested in learning how to conduct a management consulting engagement, you will likely enjoy this book. Succeeding as a Management Consultant is a book set in the Brazilian interior. This book follows an engagement team as they assist Goldy, a large Brazilian gold miner, in diagnosing and fixing deep and persistent organizational issues. This book follows an engagement team over an 8-week assignment and explains how they successfully navigate a challenging client environment, develop hypotheses, build the analyses, and provide the final recommendations. It is written so the reader may understand, follow, and replicate the process. It is the only book laying out a consulting assignment step-by-step.

Marketing Saves the World, Bill Matassoni’s Memoir 

Bill Matassoni’s (Ex-McKinsey and Ex-BCG Senior Partner) Marketing Saves The World is a truly unique book. Never before has a McKinsey partner published his memoir publicly. This book is a rare opportunity – a true exclusive – to see what shapes the thought process of a partner and learn about marketing and strategy. The memoir essentially lays out McKinsey’s competitive advantage and explains how it can be neutralized.

Turquoise Eyes: A Novel about Problem Solving & Critical Thinking

Turquoise Eyes started off the groundbreaking new genre developed by FIRMSconsulting that combines compelling narrative while teaching problem solving and critical thinking skills. Set after a bank begins implementing a new retail banking strategy, we follow Teresa García Ramírez de Arroyo, a director-general in the Mexican government, who has received some disturbing news. A whistleblower has emailed Teresa with troubling news about a mistake in the loan default calculations and reserve ratios. The numbers do not add up. The book loosely uses the logic and financial analyses in A Typical McKinsey Engagement, >270 videos.

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