My McKinsey experience was 6 months of time that I learned a lot from, but time that I’ll never get back. I was approached on LinkedIn and then agreed to join the recruitment process. I would say all in all I had 6 calls with a recruiter, 3 practice cases, 4 learning webinars, and 2 rounds of examined cases (5 cases total). There is a huge gap in how they grade between round 1 case and the final round of 4 cases. I was told after the 4 final round interviews that my math ability was not good enough. They truly want you to be able to do complex equations in your head. That’s fine, except I did better in the final round than I did in the first case round. Logic would tell you that I probably shouldn’t have passed the first round of cases if that was the case. You’ll notice that McKinsey literally tells you exactly what is coming during the process and it feels very helpful, but in reality it’s because they have such a low pass rate that it really won’t matter if you know what to expect or not. To me, it was clear that despite putting my best foot forward in front of 4 partners in the final round, I did not fit the mold they were looking for. I am fine with not receiving an offer, but to drag me along for 6 months just to tell me my mental computing skills were not good enough was really frustrating. They could easily weed out subpar math candidates in the first week of the process.

I applied via MBA recruiting. There was no differentiation between interviewing for the regular Associate vs. Implementation Associate. I had two first round interviews with Associates in random offices - standard PEI then case. Not too difficult, but nothing to shrug off. I had three second round interviews with partners. These were as you'd expect - a bit more casual and free-flowing but still PEI and case. The process seemed a bit unorganized. I was handed off from one recruiter to the next without any warning. I was supposed to have two first round and two second round interviews, but the US didn't accept that my first rounds were done by associates in European offices, so they made me do an extra second round interview. They also didn't work with me very much on scheduling - my interviews were evening my time (understandable for the time difference) but spread out. My last interview was rescheduled at the last minute to 9pm my time, so I was probably not operating at peak performance :) Overall decent experience, but the organization and preparation could have been better on their end.