Master the Personal Fit Interview
The personal fit interview is a very important part of the interview process – not only at MBB firms but also at the Big 4. With our guide, you will be well prepared to ace the personal fit interview. We explain the personal fit part of consulting interviews and address the following topics:
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What is personal fit and why is it important?
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How do consulting firms assess personal fit?
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What are typical questions in interviews?
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How to best prepare for personal fit questions?
To learn more about the overall consulting hiring process, click here. If you are looking for a holistic guide on case interviews, check out our guide.
What is personal fit and why is it important?
A consultant is hired to solve problems. But just as important as your problem-solving ability is the personal fit, which represents the soft-skill component of your toolbox. Yes, you'll be solving problems. But you won't do it all by yourself. You'll always be working in a team. You'll be working alongside client teams. And you'll have to get clients on your side, even if they're not happy about the project. In all these interactions your people skills are on display. Even a junior consultant will frequently have to handle delicate interpersonal situations.
What are examples of interpersonal skills?
What exactly each company is looking for may differ slightly, but there are a few themes that always come up. They are driven by the nature of the consulting job which is why they are quite similar for all companies. Here is a list of exemplary traits and why consulting firms value them:
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Leadership: Consulting is a fast-paced environment and there's often some ambiguity around what needs to be done. Firms don't want people that are simply sitting around and waiting for instructions. Instead they want people that take charge and show drive. People that are willing take responsibility for results, for guiding junior team members, and for taking (sometimes unwilling) clients along. Even if you're not in a formal management position yet, this is highly appreciated.
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Going the extra mile: A senior partner at McKinsey once told us, 'clients don't care about your hard work, they care about great results. But sometimes it's the hard work that is required to get to great results'. Consulting is a service-based business, and it's typically not cheap for clients. For that, they expect exceptional results. Results that they couldn't have achieved by themselves. That's why you don't want people slacking on your consulting team. You want people that are sincerely asking themselves what else they could do to provide value and to better help the client.
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Persuasiveness: Persuasiveness is required at all levels in consulting. A partner needs to convince a CEO to do the project with her, and a junior consultant might need to convince the client's accountant to give him the data he needs for an analysis. And any idea a consultant proposes might require persuasion. You may think that great ideas will automatically be implemented – but then you'd be mistaken. A client organization is not a uniform entity with a single priority. It's a collective of humans with many priorities, which are often competing or even conflicting. Often times employees at clients also resist change, for example, to keep their department more powerful or influential and to avoid additional responsibilities. That's why it's so important that a consultant is able to get people behind his or her ideas, analyses, plans, approaches, or initiatives.
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Empathy: A prerequisite for persuasiveness and for many other qualities is empathy. It's the ability to understand another person's thoughts and feelings in a situation from their point of view, rather than your own. Individual clients often have their own priorities, or a hidden agenda, and it's important to see through that. Sometimes a client may be outright hostile and it's important to understand what's driving him. At other times a client may be sad or anxious - due to the project or for entirely different reasons. And yet another time, a client may be super friendly to your face but are secretly sabotaging you. A consultant needs fine-tuned antennas to understand people's motivations and to choose an appropriate course of action. To give an example: Imagine you're identifying a process simplification that allows a headcount reduction. That might help the bottom line and even the customers (due to faster processes) – but the department head won't appreciate the fact that his department is trimmed down. Considering this client's emotions and motivations is essential when dealing with him.
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Humility: Consultants, especially junior ones, are often hyped about their new role. They were successful all throughout their education and are now part of a respected firm. For some, that's enough to have that get to their head. At the client's offices – where their presence may not be appreciated by all in the first place – they're meeting clients that have completely different priorities in life. These people might be administrators or accountants that have had their same job for the last 20 years. They might not be on a strong career trajectory, and their Excel and PowerPoint game might not be polished. But that doesn't mean that a junior consultant should feel superior. These are people that you may need for your project. And besides, one must never underestimate the experience of these old-timers at the client organization. So there's always something to learn – from anybody. Developing a superiority complex is not appreciated, especially not by a junior consultant. The most well-liked and successful consultants are those that are humble and respectful, even towards the most junior clients.
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Integrity: Consulting is a profession in which you'll be involved in sensitive matters, and in situations with far-reaching implications. This could be in securing a government contract, in talking to important clients, in talking about a client to someone else, in dealing with client data, and in dealing with interpersonal relationships with team members and clients. Some recent high-profile cases, whether all justified or not, showcase what happens if standards are not upheld in the consulting industry. Sooner or later, dishonest behavior will come back to bite the firm. That's why consulting firms are looking for candidates with integrity and those who won't cut corners unfairly. An honest and upright consultant is a huge asset, a dishonest crook is a liability.
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Humor: At the end of the day, we're all human. However professional and upright we are, we all need fun. Especially in an environment with high pressure and long hours, a good sense of humor is invaluable for a team. Whether it's to lighten the mood, to get the creative juices flowing, or to bond with team members – some good jokes and team-room banter make the job infinitely easier. That's why it's so highly appreciated to have good-natured, witty, and humorous people on your team and in your firm.
So you see that there's a lot more to consulting than being structured and analytical, or being an Excel-god. It's an intense people-business and firms need to be extremely mindful as to who joins their organization. That's why they're testing "personal fit".
The other interpretation of "personal fit"
There's another interpretation of "personal fit" that we don't want to ignore. It's the truest sense of the "personal fit" concept, where a consulting firm might ask itself:
"How well does this individual candidate fit to the particular culture of our firm?"
In our opinion, this interpretation of "personal fit" is almost irrelevant. Yes, different consulting firms have different cultures. But these differences are a bit overblown. In fact, the variance in how teams operate can be enormous, even for an individual firm, and in an individual country. Some firms, like McKinsey, institute strong values and a very uniform culture globally. But it's not like the McKinsey culture is the polar opposite to the culture at Bain or BCG. Here's a statement that will certainly NEVER be uttered in any of the MBB firms:
"Yes, this candidate is great: Strong analytics and interpersonal skills, highly intelligent, personable, humble, and with a great track record so far ... but we're kinda looking for a less entrepreneurial type and a bit more of an academic type – since that's who we are!"
If someone brings all the right qualities and wants to work at a firm that's hiring, then the firm will hire that candidate without batting an eye. No way in hell are they going to reject such a candidate for some arbitrary concept of culture that is ill-defined anyways. That's why you as a candidate should always strive to develop the qualities described above – as they will be highly appreciated by any consulting firm, and will serve you well in any other job too.
How do consulting firms assess personal fit?
The official part
Part of your personal fit is already apparent from your application. Whether you have leadership skills, or whether you're willing to go the extra mile – to a certain extent the recruiters can gauge how well you'd fit in consulting. So, even your application should consider this and be tailored to give firms confidence that there is personal fit – since this is the basis for getting interview invites.
Your personal fit is primarily assessed in the consulting interviews. Most companies will not do this in a super structured way. Interviewers may ask whatever they feel is right, and then give an overall assessment for the candidate. In the most extreme cases, this assessment is based solely on the interviewer's gut feeling. As a rule of thumb, the smaller and more local the firm, the less developed their recruiting processes are, and the more likely you'll find such an approach. At the other extreme is McKinsey, where the personal fit portion is highly predictable. It will take around 20 minutes of the interview as you can see below. Even the exact questions are specified, as is the grading scheme.
The unofficial part
Outside of any formalized processes or predetermined questions, interviewers will take notice of your conduct all the time. It's about manners, it's about etiquette, it's about following the customs of your environment. In typical Western culture, for example, that starts with proper eye contact, a firm handshake, and a positive attitude. It's about how you ask questions. Are you nice and friendly or abrupt and abrasive? So, it affects the case interview portion of the interview as well. Also part of that is being able to establish rapport with the interviewer during the introduction, and the ability to engage in at least a little bit of small talk. As a consultant you'll have to work with clients a lot, and the ability to break the ice and establish a connection quickly is critical. Being disinterested or behaving like an aloof robot is not what anyone wants to see on their team.
So, even if it's not something that an interviewer officially judges, it will affect your overall interview performance. Interviewers (like clients) are human, and they are subject to the 'halo' effect that you establish. With a great attitude, your actions, answers, and overall performance may be perceived significantly more favorably. Conversely, if you conduct yourself terribly, it will almost inevitably cost you the interview. So take it seriously, you will be judged. And we know this is difficult, given that an interview is a high-pressure affair and you'll be nervous. But being friendly and open shouldn't be to hard – and that's a great start already.
What are typical personal fit questions in interviews?
Interviewers may use all sorts of questions to assess personal fit. Here we'll talk about the main categories of questions that you'll encounter.
Classic HR questions
Here are the classic questions that have been asked for decades, for example:
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Tell us about yourself
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Why do you want to work in consulting?
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Why do you want to work for us?
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What are your biggest strengths? What are your biggest weaknesses?
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Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
At the top firms, you won't get too many of these questions, but you should be prepared for them. At least for the most important ones. If a company asks 'what animal you'd be, if you were an animal', you may want to ask yourself it that's a company you want to work for.
Behavioral questions
More commonly, interviewers may ask candidates how they'd react in a specific hypothetical scenario, for example:
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How are you dealing with a difficult co-worker?
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How do you prioritize different tasks in a stressful environment?
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How are you dealing with setbacks at work?
This is already going more in the direction of how your personal style would fit in with consulting. The best way to prepare for these questions is to answer them with concrete examples from your past where you've handled such situations well. In effect, you'd turn them into experience interview questions. More on that below.
Experience interview questions
This is the most common types of questions. In fact, it's less questions, and more prompts to share stories from your past. The basic idea is that the best predictor of a candidate's future behavior is his or her behavior in the past. More and more firms, even outside consulting, have become attuned to that. Here are a few examples of such prompts:
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Tell me about a time when you had a challenging leadership situation
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Tell me about a time when you had to convince someone of your idea
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Tell me about a time when you absolutely exceeded everyone's expectations at work
These are not prompts that you can answer in a hypothetical way. The only way to nail these questions is to come up with actual stories from your past where you exhibited whatever quality the firm is looking for.
How to best prepare for personal fit questions?
How to prepare for the classic questions
Search online for a list of typical interview questions and see if you could answer them off-the-cuff. Note down those questions that seem relevant to you and that you have difficulty answering and prepare them specifically. In particular, it's the following 3 questions that you have to nail:
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Tell us about yourself
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Why do you want to work in consulting?
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Why do you want to work for us?
Formulate the perfect answer for these questions, and do this in writing. Even if your interview is coming up soon, take at least a little bit of time to work on them, because there's no excuse for fumbling here. Also, practice delivering them verbally. That'll help you make all your strong points in a concise manner while still coming across as natural.
Telling the interviewer about yourself is easy. Simply talk about the main turning points of your CV and highlight those things that are relevant, and your strong points. There's not much to it, but you should be ready to deliver that in a one-minute canned speech. You don't want to lose yourself in details and be interrupted by the interviewer after 3 minutes of talking, in the middle of your remarks. That's why you need to practice.
Explaining why you want to work in consulting is also not too hard. We've listed many arguments in the "Why to join consulting" section and you can also check out our blog further insights. You can talk about exciting projects, ambitious and interesting colleagues, and a steep learning curve. Ideally, you have an actual experience that convinced you, such as a student consulting project, or an interaction with a consultant in a prior job or internship. What you want to avoid is talking about the salary and the exit opportunities, because that may come across as you having the wrong motives. Yes, the compensation is attractive, but if you're not excited about the job itself, that won't motivate you for long. And you also don't want to tell a company that you're looking for an exit before you've even managed an entry. Companies don't want to be seen as a stepping-stone for your career (even if everyone knows that you're most likely not going to retire at the firm). Again, make sure that you have a canned speech ready.
And finally, the question 'why you want to work for that particular firm'. Of the 3 questions described here, it's arguably the most challenging. You've most likely applied at a number of firms, and all the firms are recruiting from the same pool. You may be able to highlight the firms strengths, evidenced by some industry ranking. Or you may point to an interesting report that the company published. All of that is not super strong. But in fact, you even see recruiting directors of consulting firms struggle when explaining how they're different from all the other firms. Especially when they point to cultural aspects, like a "collaborative atmosphere", or "fun environment". Are you convinced that other firms don't have that? So you, in an interview, will get away with that. What's much better, though, is if you can point to a concrete policy that impressed you about the company. Such as a particular project staffing model, or a particular policy around training. And the best case scenario is if you know someone who's at the firm, like a friend of yours (note: networking pays off). Or at least you interacted with some consultants from that firm at a recruiting event and you can convincingly say that you liked the event or that the people were cool.
How to develop stories for experience interviews
For the behavioral and experience questions you need to have a few stories from your past ready to share. These stories should highlight some of the qualities described above and portray you in a good light. Ideally, you get these stories from past work experience. Also valuable are stories from extracurricular activities, such as sports or charitable work. Stories from university, especially if its just group work for a class, are really just emergency stories. The stakes here are typically quite low and every interviewer has heard such stories countless of times. Who hasn't had a report that seemed impossible, and then submitted it at the very last second?
It's important that you have a number of stories ready, maybe even a few backup stories. A lot of the stories will highlight multiple qualities and you can use them interchangeably. If you're asked about a time when you had to convince a teammate of your idea, you may repurpose your leadership story for that. Because it's quite likely that your leadership story involved you convincing somebody of something. And then you may not want to use that story if the interviewer asks you about a leadership experience. Even if it's another interviewer on that same day you may want to have a different story – since interviewers talk to each other.
For all those stories you must highlight your contribution. It doesn't matter if you were in the same room when interesting things happened. You need to be driving the outcome. What specifically did you do, why did you do it, and how did it affect the situation? That's what matters.
How to tell your stories
Once you know what stories to tell and how they highlight your best qualities, it's wise to invest in telling it well. There are different approaches such as the PARADE method and the STAR method. These are acronyms that'll help you in structure your story. Choose whatever method works for you. Below we're explaining the STAR method:
With the STAR method you first describe the situation (S), then the task (T), then actions you took (A), and finally, the result (R) of your actions.
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Situation: The situation is simply a brief description of the environment. Was it in an internship, was it at a prior job, was it at an event? Who were the key people involved? Was the company or the department that you're talking about in trouble? Or were they trying to launch a new product? What was the major problem?
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Task: The task is a description of what you were asked to do, and maybe what the other people relevant to your story had to do. What task? What made it difficult? What were the complications?
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Action: The action describes what you did to resolve the situation or to achieve a positive outcome. What exactly did you do? What were you thinking? What were your options? How did you come to a decision? Who did you involve? Who did you have to convince? What did you produce?
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Result: The result describes the outcome of the story, ideally with a tangible or even measurable impact. What happened in the end? Was it a complete success? By how much did you reduce costs, or increase profits? How much of the new product was sold?
If you prepare your stories in that way, you'll be able to crush personal fit interviews. With a 2-3 minute story you can concisely and convincingly explain why you'd make a great consultant, as evidenced by your past experience. Among all the firms, McKinsey is the one for which you need to prepare these stories even better. In the personal fit portion of the interview, each interviewer will only ask you one (!) question. That means, 20 minutes of the interview may be dedicated to a single story. So you might have to tell that story in a way that it fills 10 minutes and still remains interesting and relevant. And in addition to that, the interviewer may interrupt you repeatedly to ask something specific. And there may be plenty of follow-up questions and a discussion around that situation. To prepare the stories at such depth, the frameworks are extremely helpful.
Of course, all of this is much easier if you have good stories in the first place. But frameworks will help you structure your story and make sure that all the important elements are there. Much like in Hollywood movies, or in old Greek epics, a good story has a narrative arc. That means there's an interesting setting, a conflict, a hero (i.e., you), a buildup, a boss fight, and a happy ending. If you can make the interviewer pull out the popcorn, you did well.