The first step towards becoming a consultant at McKinsey is your written application. On the basis of your documentation, we decide whether we would like to get to know you better. If so, we will invite you for a number of consecutive, one-on-one interviews with various consultants. All of your discussion partners will have a broad range of project experience.

We do not require you to take intelligence or personality tests. Rather, we have a practical selection process. In each interview you will be asked to solve a case study. This may be a business case or a very general conceptual problem.

After three interviews and a problem solving test the interviewing team will discuss its impressions of you, and will decide how to proceed. If we conclude that the first round was successful, you will be offered the opportunity to attend two further interviews.

During the interview we will try to form an opinion about the following characteristics:
Structured and analytical thinking
Ability with figures
Entrepreneurial thinking and interest in business
Ability to excel in a team environment
Personal initiative
Communication skills
Inquisitiveness
Creativity

We will not expect applicants without a background in economics to be able to apply business concepts, but we will expect them to demonstrate a feeling for entrepreneurial issues.