Last Friday I went to interview at McKinsey in Stockholm. McKinsey is one of the most reputable consulting companies including strategy and operations management. They have large customers in virtually all industries, including public sector and IT / Telecom. McKinsey is truly one of the companies where I could see myself working and so it was fun to come up with an interview and see a bit how it looks. I thought to share some of my experiences and tips with you out there who are sitting in the same situation as I did last Friday. Hopefully it increases your chances of not being completely overwhelmed by their questions. I was poorly prepared for the interview, perhaps because I thought I would fix it anyway, or maybe because I was too lazy to find out more. So I was not offered a job with them so I'm still free / it's just to look further!

Disposition

Before the interview, I thought a lot about who I am and went through some common interview questions:

• tell me about yourself.
• What are your strengths?
• What are your weaknesses?
• ...

There are probably a lot to gain by doing this. In retrospect, I believe, however, that traditional interview questions just to throw in the garbage. To be successful at the interview, I would have more plugs on McKinsey's interview technique. The interview with McKinsey's about three hours long and consists of three delintervjuer. Each delintervju consisting of:

1. Preliminary description of yourself - Figure out what makes you unique and exotic, and what interests you, but maybe a little extra pressure on what you have done that make you suitable for the position you seek.
2. Talk about one of McKinsey's four core values
3. Solution of a case study by McKinsey met in real life

McKinsey Interview

McKinsey has four core values, human impact, leadership, achievement and problem solving. Problem solution is tested for each delintervju in that it solves a case study. The other core values ​​are the one and discussed one by one during the three interviews. I'll try to tell a little about each core value and what issues / challenges that may face you. What you should consider is that this is no ordinary interview, but questions will exclusively deal with situations and examples of when you are performing below their respective core value.

Staff Impact: Describe a situation in your life where you believe someone

This question put me completely because I had somehow thought that human impact is inherent how good you are to socialize and find people. So it is perhaps but the question I had was in all cases to describe a situation where I convinced anyone to change their opinion. Think about this before, it is difficult to think of something good once in place. I convince daily people that I'm right, but perhaps not particularly relevant and valuable substances. It was at this point that I screwed up my interview The key is to give very specific examples and they will constantly interrupt you and remind you until you do. The level of the example is, in principle:

- I said, I think we should have a white background on powerpointen.

- X said: I think it should be black.

- I said: The benefits of being white is ... Think about how much return on investment it will bring.

...

The point is that McKinsey themselves in situations every day where they have to convince their clients to make the right decision so they want to see that you are a person who can do it.

Leadership: Tell me about yourself in a situation that illustrates your leadership and lagegenskaper

This question is about giving example and go in depth into how to lead and work in groups. Suffice it probably is not to say you believe in the team in front of the individual or that diversity is a strength as enables idéexplosioner. No, this is about to go into detail about how you took hold of the problem and led a group entitled to a difficult problem.

Achievement: Go and give examples of your drive

McKinsey has offices in the World Trade Center Stockholm

What is it that drives you? What motivates you? What are you doing in five years? Give examples of your drive. Many balls in the air and catch phrases is not a sufficient answer to this question. Nor that I have the highest grades in all subjects: It's whatever. Question is why you have received it and what it is that drives you. Hopefully it is something other than mom and dad.

Some final advice

McKinsey and other consultants in the category to see the beautiful individuals that they dare to throw out in front of a client on the middle management level. Therefore, please respond to this requirement.

• Va yourself and be sure to be sure you posses.
• Take your time and guide the discussion by asking questions.
• Do not be nervous, take your time when you write and structure the issues. Do not think that I believe it is negative it is slow and you write beautifully, I think it just shows signs that it is good and professional.
• Do not hesitate once you decide you want but when you come to a conclusion, ask yourself the question (high) if the result may be reasonable

Finally, I would say: do not lie but was also not self-critical. I believe in honesty first, but I think I may have over analyzed myself and was too honest. I told him the truth, I'm not the best person in the field of leadership, but I'm working on this. I said I am a very strong individual who has been poor on conflict resolution and teamwork, but in the last 2-3 years, worked very much to strengthen that side of me. Example ... However, I think I said it too many times so that they really began to think I was an unsecured card. This was also part of the feedback I got.

Reflection

McKinsey may not be for me? 60 hours work a week for 45 000 SEK is perhaps not reasonable when you can work 40 hours per week and receive 30 000 SEK in an ordinary workplace. But the fact is that McKinsey works with interesting work where I feel I have the skills to contribute which was one reason why I searched for them and also will try with any competitor. Before I do my next interview, I will do some more. Above all the case reports (case) and the detailed examples and situations where I have acted right.

An interview I was able to recently, however, for my thesis. It will be done on the topic charging stations in Zurich, which I look forward to! Electric car market and its infrastructure, the next "disruptive" technology in society and I will be an expert in the field this summer.

I have been a quickie in Stockholm after applying for a scholarship at the Boston Consulting Group. I was then called a week ago and was told that I was in the "final". Me and a few other students from Chalmers would be telephone interviewed and a winner was chosen for the scholarship of 25,000 SEK which BCG offers an ambitious student who will study abroad. The interview went very badly and I remember that I started answering the question who I am with "yes, they are not so much to tell ...". I did however say that I am an ambitious student, with great ratings that make classic, hunting, playing golf and so on.

My girlfriend Sofia was also one of the candidates who went to the finals of the girls' scholarship. We sat on the train to Stockholm tense with anticipation the day before May Day. We had been told that there were three boys and three girls competing for Chalmers scholarships. The chance was 1/3 for me to get to 5/9 that I or Sophia would have.

The night was really great. It began with a presentation on BCG's office next to the castle, which explained the BCG was, a company that helps decision makers to make difficult decisions, which of course is that to charge a lot for. One of the latest projects that were declared were stretegin for next year's Volvo Ocean Race. Much of what will change, I think made sense, except that it will set an age limit for the contestants since the elderly are more expensive for the teams. For me, it takes away some of the charm of the sport.

After the presentation, where there was champagne, we jumped on a big special chartered boat against Lidingö. On the boat were treated to champagne and also at the forefront of the restaurant drinks. The dinner consisted of a starter, including scallops, a main course of pheasant and morels, and a dessert with any cocoa thing. Afterwards there was free at the bar and the evening ended for those who wanted to Stureplan.

The business idea for a managementkonsultfrima

The big question I asked myself during the evening was how these consultants worked to become so terribly well paid. How do you make your customers happy? The answer is that they provide independent thoughts from extremely well educated and sympathetic people who will hopefully solve customer problems. To me that reads Industrial Economics and is currently the Software Engineering will then a corollary question. For IT projects, it is delivered to the customer okonkret (U.S. intangible). If a customer orders a program, it is very difficult to say what will be delivered in terms of reliability, performance, design and so on. All of this is subjective and it can not really say how much resources should be spent to make the customer happy. Two software engineers often perform very different results and solutions to the same problem. How do you know what is the best solution? Within the software engineering work with the standard processes of development and detailed specification for solving this problem.Trots this fails over 50% of all IT projects and 80% go over budget. A statistics remained relatively constant since the first transistor came out of production.

How then does a consulting firm BCG, which I believe are facing the same problem with clients to control their projects and to define the outcome with the customer? According to my research among the consultants, I do not you think so hard about this (please let me know if I'm wrong here). There exist no standardized processes but the project leader who has much experience is the governing each individual project with his gut feeling. Of course this can work if the project is right and competent, but what happens when the consulting firm grows so large that you can not control how each individual is? People do not want to work will always happen in my business, whether they are consultants with extreme admission requirements. There is a problem! Another problem is that clients (CEOs) often give the consultants an extremely free hand and, in my hypothesis for the poor to make demands. Often they just tosses out a few million and pray consulting work until they are final and then present the solution. But when we know that the solution is reached? Is it always a link between earnings and money invested in the project? How can you actually recoup a management consulting job? In my opinion, it is difficult to know what would happen if no solution is presented and thus have nothing to compare with in order to ensure that the investment is wisely made.

Paradox are plenty, but somehow it is better than ever for our consulting firms. BCG hires despite the financial crisis. Maybe this is just another fuel. The only question is when the consultant's financial crisis comes. When policy-makers will think for themselves and make reasonable demands?

Another paradox is the consultants' informal recruitment policy that is about to find people more ability to solve problems. This can be expressed consist of composers, engineers, economists or doctors. To have a theoretical background does not seem to be the determining factor only personality is enough "konsultig". I can partly agree with this in view of much of what is being taught yet forgotten. However, it is basically a very strange recruitment strategy if there is any rationality in the education system.

The constant number two

How did it go for me the scholarship? As the title suggests, it was not as I had hoped and wanted to believe. As usual, I fell at the finish line and saw two classmates to receive all the applause. None of them was Sophia, which was not made things more fun. The immediate thought was to say goodbye to the consultants and go home. I was stopped, however, of Sofia, and my question about the management consultant's business, which at that time has not yet been answered.

Despite my very good grades, work experience (at ABB, Ica and of a Chalmersproffessor), involvement in Intize, care management experience and classic results (for 23 hours), I was once again runner-up. I have always been second in terms of grants and not actually received any of those I sought. To become more attractive in the future, it is not grades or work that I must improve my CV. Travel experience is very important, making my exchange year in Australia to a strategic gem.

To end this post there, I would say that the runner always learn something and become even more motivated to continue. I go stronger from this and hopefully better from me at the next trial. Now I know how consultants work and is not nervous about it! Future consulting company, if I ever get to decide, have a clearer business model. Thanks to me.