Through years of interviewing as a McKinsey partner, I’ve seen a lot of people that didn’t make the cut because they did not prepare enough or did not prepare correctly for the PEI interview. In this article, I will discuss a number of common McKinsey PEI questions, how to answer them to demonstrate specific qualities that the interviewer is looking for, and how to avoid mistakes that many candidates make.

As a McKinsey partner, I have done more than a thousand recruiting interviews with candidates throughout my 15+ years at the firm. A surprising number of candidates stumble in the personal impact interview, perhaps because of lack of preparation, but more likely because of having the wrong idea about what was actually looked for in the interview. In this article I will cover three topics:

Through the thousands of interviews that I have done as a McKinsey partner, I have seen very few candidates with a good understanding of what is important in the Personal Experience Interview. I’ve heard a lot of stories about proud moments and great achievements, but few of them came from the heart and truly allowed me to better understand who the person across the table was. In this article, I share examples of good Entrepreneurial Drive stories that I still remember after many years, reflect on why they were memorable, and explain how they addressed the elements that I was looking for as a McKinsey interviewer.

Many candidates ask what is the best way to tackle what I call motivational questions, such as “Why management consulting?”, “Why McKinsey?” and so on. Let me share some of the reflections from many years of interviewing at McKinsey.