Assessment Process for German Offices

APD Permanent and Summer Associates

The German office assessment process will take place over the course of one day and will give you the chance to meet as many McKinsey employees as possible. This allows you to get to know us, as we get to know you, and also provides us with a good basis for our decision. The recruiting day is comprised of individual interviews. Please note that the entire recruiting day is held in German.

The first round is comprised of two one-hour interviews with two different consultants. We will ask you about your resume and your personal and career goals. There are four key areas where we look for you to demonstrate your skills: problem solving, achieving, personal impact and leadership. In both interviews we will present you with a number of case studies taken directly from our day-to-day work at McKinsey and discuss possible solutions with you. This is a chance for you demonstrate your problem solving skills and to show how creative you are. Both interviews will also include an experience interview to test the other skill areas. Our interviewers are trained to examine candidates’ past accomplishments in depth in order to determine if the skills they possess would position themselves well for a successful career at McKinsey. Candidates need to be prepared to discuss their most important past experiences in a very detailed way, focusing on their specific role and describing their actions that were critical to success. You should also use this time to find out whether you would feel at home in our work environment.

At this point in the proceedings you will receive feedback – our first impressions of you.

The second round is comprised of two additional interviews. The first will follow afore mentioned style. The second will give you the chance to meet an experienced McKinsey consultant for a fourth interview, which will include an experience interview but not any new case studies. We take this opportunity to get to know you a little better. You should use this time to discuss in more detail any points on your resume that you consider particularly important, and to explain why you have made the personal and career choices you have made.

If your interview partners, and you yourself, decide that McKinsey is a good fit for you, we will invite you to a final interview with one of our partners – a Principal or Director of the firm .

The Principal or Director’s job in this interview is to decide whether you could make a valuable contribution to our clients in the long term, and also contribute to the future shape of McKinsey. At the interview, you will have the opportunity to ask any remaining questions you may have and to ask the partner about his or her insights into working at McKinsey.

A successful interview will result in an offer on the very same day.