A Project Manager at McKinsey & plays a pivotal role in bridging the gap between high-level strategic vision and flawless execution. Unlike traditional consulting roles that focus primarily on advisory work, a Project Manager—particularly within specialized practices like Delivery Assurance—is directly responsible for driving execution, managing complex workstreams, and ensuring that strategic recommendations translate into sustainable, real-world impact for clients. This role is crucial to the firm's ability to deliver long-term value and maintain its reputation as a trusted partner for global organizations.

In this position, you will manage multi-disciplinary teams, coordinate closely with client leadership, and oversee the delivery of high-stakes initiatives. Whether you are leading a digital transformation, optimizing supply chain operations, or managing a large-scale organizational restructuring, your work will directly influence the success of major corporate transitions. The complexity of the projects requires a unique combination of rigorous analytical problem-solving, structured project management methodologies, and exceptional stakeholder management skills.

Working as a Project Manager at McKinsey & offers an unparalleled opportunity to tackle some of the world's most challenging business problems. You will operate in a fast-paced, high-performance environment where you are expected to bring order to ambiguity, mobilize diverse teams, and deliver measurable results. It is a highly collaborative and intellectually stimulating role that demands both strategic foresight and tactical execution.

The questions you will encounter during the McKinsey & interview process are highly structured and designed to evaluate your problem-solving capabilities, leadership experience, and delivery expertise. These representative questions, drawn from real interview experiences, highlight the patterns and themes you should expect.

Personal Experience Interview (PEI) & Leadership

These questions evaluate your personal impact, leadership capabilities, and how you navigate challenging interpersonal dynamics.

• Describe a time when you had to lead a team through a significant period of change or ambiguity. What was your approach, and what was the outcome?
• Tell me about a situation where you had to influence a senior stakeholder who initially disagreed with your recommendation.

Preparing for a Project Manager interview at McKinsey & requires a dual focus on structured case study preparation and deep behavioral reflection. You must demonstrate that you are not only a highly organized execution specialist but also a strategic thinker who can operate at the highest levels of business.

Problem-Solving Ability – This is the core of the McKinsey & evaluation. You must demonstrate a structured, logical approach to breaking down ambiguous business problems. Interviewers want to see that you can formulate clear hypotheses, prioritize the most impactful issues, and use data to drive your conclusions.

Personal Impact & Leadership – Through the Personal Experience Interview (PEI) format, you must show your ability to lead, inspire, and influence others. You should prepare detailed, highly specific stories that highlight your individual actions, decision-making processes, and the ultimate impact you achieved.

Delivery & Execution Excellence – You must prove your capability to manage complex, multi-layered projects. This involves demonstrating familiarity with project management frameworks, risk mitigation strategies, and the ability to keep diverse teams aligned and on schedule under tight deadlines.

Cultural Alignment – McKinsey & values collaboration, intellectual curiosity, and a non-hierarchical mindset. You should show that you are comfortable navigating ambiguity, receptive to feedback, and committed to delivering exceptional quality for clients.

The interview process for a Project Manager at McKinsey & is highly structured, rigorous, and designed to thoroughly evaluate both your analytical capabilities and behavioral alignment. It is a multi-stage journey that requires significant preparation and time commitment, often taking several weeks to complete.

The process typically begins with an initial HR screening call, where recruiters assess your background, location preferences, and compensation expectations. Following a successful screen, candidates are often asked to complete the McKinsey Solve assessment—an interactive, game-based digital test that evaluates your cognitive ability, systems thinking, and decision-making under pressure.

Once you pass the digital assessment, you enter the core interview rounds. McKinsey & provides a comprehensive coaching platform and matching coaching sessions to help you prepare. The subsequent rounds consist of multiple interviews, each typically split into two distinct parts: a Personal Experience Interview (PEI) focusing on behavioral competencies, and a rigorous, interviewer-led Case Study. These rounds are designed to test your resilience, analytical depth, and structured communication.

The visual timeline above outlines the typical progression from your initial contact to the final offer decision. You should use this timeline to pace your preparation, ensuring you dedicate sufficient time to practicing cases and refining your PEI stories before entering the intensive multi-interview rounds. Note that while the structure remains highly consistent, minor variations in the number of rounds may occur depending on your location and specific practice area.

To succeed in the McKinsey & interview process, you must understand the specific competencies being evaluated in each core area. The interviews are designed to probe deeply into your skills, leaving little room for superficial answers.

Personal Experience Interview (PEI)

The PEI is a distinctive element of the McKinsey & process. Rather than asking a series of rapid-fire behavioral questions, the interviewer will spend 15 to 20 minutes diving deep into a single story. They will ask detailed follow-up questions to understand your exact thoughts, actions, and feelings during the scenario.

Be ready to go over:

• Individual Contribution – Clearly articulating what you personally did, rather than what "the team" accomplished.
• Conflict Resolution – Describing the specific conversations and techniques you used to resolve interpersonal or professional disagreements.
• Overcoming Obstacles – Explaining how you adapted when your original plans failed and how you mobilized resources to pivot.
• Advanced concepts (less common) – Navigating highly political client environments and managing stakeholder expectations when project objectives shift mid-stream.

Example scenarios:

• "Tell me about a time you had to manage a team member who was underperforming on a critical workstream."
• "Describe a situation where you had to convince a client to adopt an approach they were highly resistant to."

Case Studies

Case studies at McKinsey & are interviewer-led, meaning the interviewer will guide you through a pre-structured business problem. You will be expected to structure the problem, perform quantitative analysis, interpret data from charts or exhibits, and synthesize your findings into actionable recommendations.

Be ready to go over:

• Structuring – Creating a mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive (MECE) framework to break down the business problem.
• Data Interpretation – Quickly analyzing charts, tables, and graphs to extract the most relevant business insights.
• Synthesis – Delivering a concise, client-ready summary of your recommendations and the next steps, starting with the most important conclusion.

Example scenarios:

• "A private equity client is considering acquiring a waste management company. How would you structure the due diligence process?"
• "Our client is a global logistics provider facing rising fuel costs. What operational levers can they pull to mitigate this impact?"

Delivery Assurance & Project Management

This area evaluates your tactical ability to deliver complex projects on time and within budget. You must demonstrate that you can establish robust governance, manage risks proactively, and maintain alignment across cross-functional teams.

Be ready to go over:

• Risk Management – How you identify potential roadblocks early and build contingency plans into your project design.
• Governance Frameworks – Designing reporting structures, steering committee cadences, and clear decision-making processes.
• Resource Allocation – Managing team capacity, preventing burnout, and ensuring the right skills are mapped to the right tasks.

Example scenarios:

• "How would you structure the first 30 days of a project recovery effort for a transformation program that is currently six months behind schedule?"
• "Describe how you manage scope creep when a client continuously requests additional analyses outside the initial agreement."