Business Analyst Interview Experience

Interview process

The process was structured and fairly demanding. After the initial application, I completed the Solve assessment and then had two rounds of interviews. Each interview had two main parts: a Personal Experience Interview (PEI), where the interviewer went deep into a specific leadership/impact experience, and a case interview based on a client problem. The cases tested structuring, quantitative analysis, interpreting exhibits, brainstorming and synthesizing a recommendation. The final round followed a similar format but was with more senior interviewers and felt a bit more conversational and open-ended. What went well was that the process was very consistent with the preparation materials McKinsey provides, and the interviewers were engaging and gave me room to explain my thinking. I also received useful feedback between rounds. The biggest challenge was the intensity of the PEI — interviewers go much deeper into one story than in a typical behavioral interview — and some of the cases were less standard than the ones I had practiced. Overall, though, I thought the process was well organized and gave a good sense of the actual problem-solving style at McKinsey.