What’s up, everyone. I’m back in Palo Alto after my 3-day trip to ATL for McKinsey’s Black Consulting Services Staff orientation and the event was a great experience. The purpose of this first-time event was to give the Black Associates and Business Analysts coming in this season insights about McK and the mission of BCSS, and provide some helpful lessons to improve our chances of being successful. McKinsey has a strong commitment to diversity and I believe this orientation is part of a set of initiatives intended to help it retain its African-American talent and attract even more top candidates into the Firm. From the looks of this first iteration, McKinsey is certainly on the right track.
The basic “in-class” curriculum of the orientation involved a combination of “classroom” and “experiential” learning. The “classroom” instruction was led by an Associate Principal out of the Dallas office and an Engagement Manager out of the NJ office. The instructors walked us through several presentations to guide us through McKinsey’s problem solving methodology, advised us on successfully navigating through the Firm, and informed us about the many resources that will be available to us through BCSS. We also had a presentation about the power of mentoring relationships within the Firm delivered by the higest ranking Black member of the Firm. The “experiential” part of the curriculum was for us to be divided into case teams of 5 or 6 and tackle a simulation study to help a newspaper company improve its profitability. I thought this would be an easy task because we’d all done case interviews and knew how to break down problems, but this was different because we had to work within the McKinsey methodology, which we were still figuring out. Plus, we had to conduct interviews with “client representatives”, who sometimes gave us much more pushback than I was expecting. Despite the challenges faced in the mock case study activity, I found it incredibly fun to “get my hands dirty” with the sort of work that I’ll be doing for real in a month or so. Plus, after being a bum since graduation, my brain was starting to atrophy and it needed this jolt to get myself on the right track before kicking off my McK career.
The “outside-of-class” activities were mostly more informal dinners with guest speakers who told us about their positions within the Firm and gave us advice about how to be successful at McKinsey. In addition to these dinners, we had a club outing on Thursday night, where some McK folks took the half of our cohort who were interested out for drinks and dancing. This one outing changed my whole view of how McK folks can get down…Before this, the orientation was really structured, reserved, and academic in meed, but, once the music started at the club, everythign flipped. Folks were dancing, goofing off, and just plain kickin’ it and I felt SO comfortable in that environment. I saw that, not only were McK people smart and driven, but they were fun too, which is a must-have characteristic for any place where I’d want to work. I’m going to have a ball working at the Firm.
As I left the ATL office yesterday, I couldn’t believe that this was the first time that the Firm had put on this sort of orientation because everything went off without a hitch. I learned a ton about McKinsey and how its teams operate, but, more importantly, I learned that there is a strong support system in place for African-American staff that I wasn’t expecting when I signed my offer letter in December. I’m even more excited about starting work at the end of August than i already was. Even better, I’m now a part of a cohort of 23 new Black hires that should extend my internal network farther than the folks who’ll be members of my Basic Consulting Readiness class. This has me realizing that my life of freedom as a non-working student is truly coming to an end and that doesn’t have me worried anymore…
The basic “in-class” curriculum of the orientation involved a combination of “classroom” and “experiential” learning. The “classroom” instruction was led by an Associate Principal out of the Dallas office and an Engagement Manager out of the NJ office. The instructors walked us through several presentations to guide us through McKinsey’s problem solving methodology, advised us on successfully navigating through the Firm, and informed us about the many resources that will be available to us through BCSS. We also had a presentation about the power of mentoring relationships within the Firm delivered by the higest ranking Black member of the Firm. The “experiential” part of the curriculum was for us to be divided into case teams of 5 or 6 and tackle a simulation study to help a newspaper company improve its profitability. I thought this would be an easy task because we’d all done case interviews and knew how to break down problems, but this was different because we had to work within the McKinsey methodology, which we were still figuring out. Plus, we had to conduct interviews with “client representatives”, who sometimes gave us much more pushback than I was expecting. Despite the challenges faced in the mock case study activity, I found it incredibly fun to “get my hands dirty” with the sort of work that I’ll be doing for real in a month or so. Plus, after being a bum since graduation, my brain was starting to atrophy and it needed this jolt to get myself on the right track before kicking off my McK career.
The “outside-of-class” activities were mostly more informal dinners with guest speakers who told us about their positions within the Firm and gave us advice about how to be successful at McKinsey. In addition to these dinners, we had a club outing on Thursday night, where some McK folks took the half of our cohort who were interested out for drinks and dancing. This one outing changed my whole view of how McK folks can get down…Before this, the orientation was really structured, reserved, and academic in meed, but, once the music started at the club, everythign flipped. Folks were dancing, goofing off, and just plain kickin’ it and I felt SO comfortable in that environment. I saw that, not only were McK people smart and driven, but they were fun too, which is a must-have characteristic for any place where I’d want to work. I’m going to have a ball working at the Firm.
As I left the ATL office yesterday, I couldn’t believe that this was the first time that the Firm had put on this sort of orientation because everything went off without a hitch. I learned a ton about McKinsey and how its teams operate, but, more importantly, I learned that there is a strong support system in place for African-American staff that I wasn’t expecting when I signed my offer letter in December. I’m even more excited about starting work at the end of August than i already was. Even better, I’m now a part of a cohort of 23 new Black hires that should extend my internal network farther than the folks who’ll be members of my Basic Consulting Readiness class. This has me realizing that my life of freedom as a non-working student is truly coming to an end and that doesn’t have me worried anymore…
