The Consulting Offer Season 2 Part 2
Watch Kevin P.Coyne, ex-McKinsey Director and Worldwide Strategy Practice Co-Leader, mentor and train Alice Qinhua Zhou and Michael Klein for their McKinsey and BCG case interviews. Alice successfully joined McKinsey NYC at the conclusion of the program.
Kevin P. Coyne was a director and co-leader of both McKinsey’s Worldwide Strategy Practice and CEO Transitions Practice. At the time, he was the youngest associate at the firm and one of the youngest Principals appointed. He was the only person ever admitted directly into the Harvard Business School from his junior year of college, Rice University, which he attended by special permission before graduating from high school. Kevin has co-written 6 Harvard Business Review articles, 12 McKinsey Quarterly articles, 2 bestselling business books and articles across influential business publications. He spent time in the Federal Government as an Executive Assistant and sole policy advisor to the Deputy Secretary of the United States Treasury in the Reagan Administration.
Alice Qinhua Zhou is a 26 year-old candidate from Yale University. She attended Fudan University where she graduated 1st in her class. Alice has a strong track record of leadership at Yale, having served as President of the consulting club and editor-in-chief of a peer-reviewed journal. Alice has no full-time work experience. Coming off a McKinsey internship decline and unsuccessful Bain internship, Alice is interested in both McKinsey and BCG for a full-time associate position in NYC.
Michael E. Klein is a 30 year-old candidate from McGill and Brown University. Michael has a very strong analytic profile balanced by an equally artistic side: he was a candidate for ‘Canada’s Got Talent’ where he sang Prince lyrics accompanied by a harpist. Michael has limited work experience as a business journalist. Going into his very first interviews, Michael will have to prove he can use his technical skills to seamlessly understand and solve business issues, while demonstrating his leadership acumen in the fit interviews.
Kevin is quick to put the candidates at ease, but they consistently answer why they are leaving their current roles versus answering the question posed to them.
The candidates are politely taken back to the original question to see if they have sincere and personal reasons for pursuing careers at McKinsey and BCG.
Alice discusses her experiences at Bain, the challenges she faced integrating to the culture, the assumptions about her skill levels and how this impacted her internship.
Michael is able to build a rapport with Kevin on a topic in the arts. The discussion is sincere and is appropriate for the lighter conversations required at closed-list dinners.
Although Alice is charming, she struggles to take the lead in building off Michael’s story by discussing her own hobbies. Kevin tries to open up a discussion by drawing her in.
With Michael’s confidence building, he becomes better at working his interests into the conversation and is able to elaborate on other areas Kevin wants to discuss.
Alice uses Astrology to read Kevin’s personality-type. This gets his attention and she starts the discussion well, but struggles to build out this contrasting conversation.
The overall interview process for the day is discussed. Kevin also explains how TCOII helps McKinsey and viewers, and why it is important to watch before interviews.
Kevin explains that the The Consulting Offer is better at preparing candidates than the on-campus case interview preparation run by McKinsey, Bain and BCG.
While Kevin tries to shift the conversation to an easier topic, he is still checking to see how the candidates communicate, synthesize issues and interact with senior executives.
In discussing the case interviews ahead, Kevin provides important advice about understanding the material presented and how McKinsey selects the cases.
Kevin discusses how the office size and location can impact the perceived camaraderie of a McKinsey office.
The relative size of the client tends to have a greater impact on access to the CEO, and this is also influences the relative size of the supporting McKinsey office.
Kevin discusses the reasons he advises CEOs and the type of relationship he prefers to maintain. He discusses the relative limitations of advising lower-level executives.
Two things immediately jump out to Kevin, which he outlines, along with two additional things partners look for in the closed-list dinner.
Kevin discusses the formulaic nature of both candidates’ answers, what are acceptable answers, signals sent via weaker body language and Alice’s interest in Private Equity.
Kevin advises Alice and Michael on bringing out the “real you,” the amount of discussion needed on personal experiences and how to develop a 2-way conversation with a partner.
The close-listed dinner is important since partners are actively determining a candidate’s fit and reasoning. Formal feedback is captured on the candidates’ performance. Kevin leads the dinner by asking very careful questions to test Alice and Michael’s commitment to consulting, reasons for switc...
