McKinsey’s assessments of aspiring junior consultants include a “problem-solving” interview that presents candidates with a typical client challenge. This might be how to reallocate and retrain beauty advisers for a cosmetics company, or whether a truckmaker should invest in electric fleets.
“We are trying to mirror the problems they will encounter,” says Marie Christine Padberg, partner of talent attraction at the consultancy.
Since the end of last year, McKinsey has added a new component to the recruitment interviews: the use of AI. It wants candidates to show how they use it to research and analyse data, test and refine their ideas.