Questions in the 'McKinsey Consulting Group' Interview?

Question

I want to know what 'problem solving' questions they ask in the interview to join McKinsey Consulting (or Boston Consulting, or similar). I've heard the one about calculating petrol stations and the one about how many rubber gloves are used in a year. Does anyone know of any other questions they use?

Answer 1

They don't have a set book of questions.  If the person who is interviewing you has been working for a project to determine if a new coal mine should be built then you might find yourself with a coal mine question.

The fact McKinsey, BCG, Bain and the others don't really care about what you think when you answer those questions.  Those questions give them two types of feedback... 1. You pass it if you don't give some completely stupid answer.... 2. You pass it if you come across as someone they find interesting and wouldn't mind being stuck with for a few weeks.

This mean if you are an ugly or fat woman your chances are slim to none of getting past the interview... I wish it were true but that's the sad fact of management consultants.

The other thing that truly matters is what college and graduate school you went to.... some of the consulting firms are notoriously s****. and going to the wrong school is the kiss of death.  

While I understand you may be drawn to consulting for the big salary... you should realize that to people with a clue in a business, consultants are over rated and quite frankly a joke.  A typical scenario is to have a team fo McKinsey folks go to a company in an industry from which they know nothing... to poke around and then create some slick presentation that simply restates the obvious.  But hey... if you have student debt I can see the reason for doing it... just don't forget that even the great Michael Porter's Monitor gave some pretty stupid advice that did major damage to some big companies like Sears and AmEx... both of which were in better shape prior to following his advice.

Answer 2

You cannot memorise all the questions. what is needed is the presence of mind and some quick math. If you improve these skills you can outperform any interviewer. Good Luck