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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 3040 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 openended 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