How I cracked my dream Job? | McKinsey Interview Questions | My Mindset & Background

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Most people think that they need to get an MBA from some premiere institute to become a consultant at McKinsey, BCG, and Bain. But this is not the reality. In this video, I shared how I got into McKinsey without an MBA or any other extra qualifications after my graduating from NIT Rourkela with a B.Tech in Metallurgy. If you watched the recent McKinsey John Oliver video then you may think that McKinsey is a coveted club of people coming only from the top institutes and there is no way that someone who didn’t go to a premiere institute can get in. But this is not true. One can get into McKinsey through lateral hiring as well just like me.

So, how hard is it to get into McKinsey? Let’s start with my experience. Before my McKinsey interview, I was working as a data analyst at MuSigma. I was working in their onsite team in the USA. I was working with Microsoft in a contractor role as a data analysis specialist. Everything was good but I did not have a social life. Every friend I knew was on the east coat of the USA and Seattle was on the west coast. I was getting really bored because I didn’t even have a car to roam around by myself. On top of this, the weather in Seattle is not very jolly. Data Analytics is very interesting but the client I was working with was not that aware of Data Analytics. So, I used to take longer to get something done.

So, I applied to 300+ companies on the east coast of the USA. If you give me 2500 likes on this video then I will share that list of 300+ companies in the comments below. I applied to all these companies and most of them didn’t even want to respond. Around 30-40 companies were interested in taking the conversation forward. There was a bank in Richmond that was very interested in my profile. They sponsored my ticket and called me there for an interview but since I didn’t do well, I couldn’t get that job. I did get some offers from small startups but because it would put my Visa in a precarious situation, I didn’t take that up.

After this I got an interview call from McKinsey. After a normal HR call, I was asked to fly to Chicago and do the interview in person. My manager was not giving me leave but I went ahead for the interview anyways. The first round of McKinsey Interview was a data interpretation round. I had applied to other consulting firms like BCG and Bain as well. If you are wondering how to get into consulting then this interview process is pretty similar across MBB Consulting firms. Even if you’re thinking how to get into Bain and Company or how to get into BCG then don’t worry, these consulting interview questions can serve as a good guide for you.

For more technical input on this you can watch any how I got into BCG or how I got into Bain video from other MBB Consultants. But in my opinion, this consulting interview prep guide should alone work for you pretty well.

Since DILR was my strength in CAT, I was able to do very well in this round. Then I was pushed into the second round in which they asked me an open-ended consulting case question. The next question was regarding my data analytics specialty. I finally got into McKinsey after this round and did pretty well thereafter. You can get lucky if you work in domains that can give you high rewards a few years down the line. Hope you find this video valuable, see you in the next one.

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About Me

I publish meaningful and valuable con tent on this channel. My aim is to make business news more accessible and easy to grasp. If you find my videos informative and insightful then make sure to subscribe and leave a comment. I’ll see you in the next video

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Chapters

0:00 - Intro
0:28 - My Background
2:31 - Applying to 300+ Companies
4:34 - McKinsey Interview Call
6:00 - McKinsey Interview Starting Test
6:59 - McKinsey Interview Round 1
7:51 - McKinsey Interview Round 2
9:35 - Build Your Own Luck
11:21 - Outro

[akshaykumarvyas]

Rejected by a not so famous company like capital one for poor performance in the interview but hired by renowned McKinsey. And getting support from the manager of the current company he is working for in finding a job. This is called luck. Rarely happens.

[vjeminem]

Your journey proves Fortune favors the brave. Kudos

[aditichandrasekar]

Excellent, Pavan. There is no such thing as luck, it's what you create. Absolutely right. It reminds me of Swami Vivekananda's powerful quote: You are the creator of your own destiny.
Some people are unwilling to completely own up to the consequences of their actions, especially negative consequences. Therefore, bad luck becomes an easy avenue to pass the buck. The flip side is that this approach is dis-empowering.

[ashwinnema]

You studied at NIT Rourkela despite of not having IIT tag you were very intelligent you can easily crack big companies

[apat]

My manager told me not to go but I still went because Mckinsey paid for a 5 star hotel room 😂😂 thats adorable :)

[bjs]

God blessed you with all the strength to achieve all these many dreaming of. We want to see you in a position where creation of wealth and employment or heading big giants for exponential growth.

[secret_step]

Very good case study sir. We really enjoyed listening to you and learnt a lot from this . Pls share more case studies 🙏

[vimalkartik]

what a wonderful way of describing incidents.

[bhoot]

Hello pavan sir... Can you please make a video on what you used to do as a data analyst and your skillset and what an aspiring data analyst should do to learn data analytics... Like as a Roadmap?
Thank you

[bonniewright]

Kindly mentioned 300+ companies Google drive link.

[devendrakotha]

Companies treat tier 3 college students like shit espically freshers inspite of having good knowledge even HRs don't respond on LinkedIn if we don't have good background in education

[kavitavegad]

Thank you so much, I have a question, if we are working in corporate and with client third party payroll female employees go through many challenges, please help in understanding how to overcome.

[vass_systems]

Hi Pavan,
Please make videos about the Job " Technology Consultant ".
I am a Software Engineer trying to be a Technology consultant. Please suggest some tips.

[likeshsinha]

Hi pavan, you said that one can lucky with the AI, I have watched all your videos, till now you have just recommended courses regarding AI, what other things one can do to become lucky, please specify this like one should do projects, courses or anything else please telll, specially for a non-tech undergrad

[Ayushmohan.]

Hi Sir,
Please do share the Google drive link

[SG]

My comment just disappeared, seriously? Youtube stop censorship.

[harshalshelar]

Hi Pavan, Where is the google link you mentioned ?

[SrinivasReddy-fhog]

great info sir,
can you help me for Singapore/malaysia

[digvijaysinghbaghel]

tell us how to get opportunity at these firms?

[pratikpawar]

Hi Pavan, I have one question hope you will answer. I have 9+ years of experience in Pharma and Healthcare industry in the area of research (4 years)and from last 5 years lead consultant in Genpact ( Top healthcare client in USA). Could you please suggest me how to get into big 4 with such background. THANK YOU IN ADVANCE.🙂