The reader reached out because he was interested in McKinsey and had some specific questions about training, staffing, and culture. I couldn’t go into specifics in my response because I didn’t want to violate any confidentiality rules, but I think that I was able to provide some decent high-level guidance.
Unfortunately, it took me so long to get to this reader’s email that the information was no longer useful to him. That said, I thought that it would still make sense for me to post it as a blog entry just in case someone else were to find the information useful.
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DT wrote:
Hi Marquis!
Your website is just great! Very very insightful, at some point it has helped me quite a bit! I got your email from www.managementconsulted.com.
A quick introduction – my name is “DT”, a MSc Economics & Management student at the London School of Economics. I’m really really interested in applying to McKinsey, but I have some questions I wish to ask first:
Last but not least, what is the culture like? What do you find appealing about the firm? What do you like about the people?
Marquis, I’ll really appreciate your insight on these questions! It would be very helpful to hear what you have to say!
Thank you Marquis!
Warm Regards from London,
DT
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My response:
Hi DT,
I hope this message finds you well.
I know that this email may seem random (and you may not even recognize my name), but you emailed me a couple of years ago with questions about McKinsey. Back then, you were in graduate school at the London School of Economics and were considering applying for a job at The Firm.
I receive many, many emails from people seeking information on a range of topics and, unfortunately, your email fell through the cracks over time. I’ve recently started the process of going through my Inbox to respond to emails that have been there for a while and I found yours. I’m really sorry that it took me so long to respond and, while you likely finished school a long time ago, hope that the information below may still be of some use to you.
In your email, you asked a series of questions and, while I don’t usually give detailed responses to so many questions, I figure that it is the least that I can do in this case, given the amount of time that has passed:
- I want to know about McKinsey’s staffing system. Is it flexible? What was travel like in your first year?
I’m not 100% sure that I understand what you’re looking for when you ask about whether the staffing system is flexible, but I’ll do my best to respond. The staffing system would impact a McK consultant in his/her first couple of years when a Staffing Manager would help to identify project opportunities and help in finding a match. The system is flexible in that the Staffing Manager will aim to place people on assignments that interest them (either with industry or functional) area, but there are some nuances to that. McKinsey is organized in geographic regions, each of which is made up by a set of offices. When it comes to staffing, McK tries to staff people within their office, especially early on in their tenures at The Firm. For example, I worked in the Atlanta office, which was part of the Southern Office along with the Charlotte, Miami, Dallas, and Houston offices, so I could have pretty easily been staffed on projects that originated in any of those offices. That wouldn’t have precluded me from working on projects from other offices (which I did), but I believe that the initial goal is to staff people within their home regional office. Another nuance is that consulting firms in general (including McK) try to staff people on projects where they have some kind of background/expertise, as doing so makes it easier for them to hit the ground running on a new project. So, if a new consultant comes in after having worked in Operations for an Automotive company, it is likely that he/she will be staffed on projects having to do with Operations, the Auto industry, or both. Alternatively, a person could be staffed on a project based on a certain skillset or capability that may be desired on a given project. For example, if someone has a technical or analytical background, he/she may be staffed on a lot of projects that would require financial modeling or daya analysis. In my first year, all of my projects were outside of my home city, so I ended up traveling a lot. For most weeks, that involved me spending Monday through Thursday wherever my client site was, with my departure flight being early on the Monday morning and the return being on the Thursday night. That sort of travel schedule is definitely not for the faint of heart, but it is all a part of what one signs up for when joining a management consulting firm. —
- I want to know about the training resources. How was their graduate training? What kind of training is it? Structured classroom sessions or more on-the-job?
The training resources at McK were outstanding. There were several in-person training courses set up to help consulting staff to develop core functional, management, and leadership skills as a means of preparing them better to execute on client work. I took several of these courses during my time there and they were invaluable to me as a McK and since I’ve been away from The Firm. In addition to the classroom training, there is a strong emphasis on on-the-job training from more experienced colleagues and self-study. The on-the-job training is pretty self-explanatory, so I won’t spend too much time on that. I’ll just say that, like all management consulting firms, McK operates with an “apprenticeship model”, in which consultants are shown many of the nuts and bolts skills while executing on engagements. The self-study resources at McK are plentiful, so, if a consultant wants to learn about something and there isn’t a class for it, there are lots of internal resources that can be accessed to building his/her knowledge. —
- How soon did you get to work on your first project? At what level did you begin to specialize? Is there a rotational scheme?
I worked on my first project 2-3 weeks after my first day, but the first week or so of that period was orientation and training. I’m not 100% sure what you mean when you refer to a “rotational scheme”, but I may be able to offer some commentary on the point. For most people starting out after grad school, the idea is to work as a generalist and then specialize once you figure out which industry or functional area is most interesting. This usually happens in Year 2 or Year 3. By the time a person chooses a “major” to focus on, he or she will have worked on projects in several areas. In that sense, I guess that it could be referred to as “rotational” in nature, but I’m not certain if that was where you were going with your question. I may have covered that point with what I’ve said here though. —
- Last but not least, what is the culture like? What do you find appealing about the firm? What do you like about the people?
Oh man, there’s a lot that I could write here, but, in short, the most appealing thing to me about McKinsey is that it is the most brilliant collection of professionals with whom I ever worked (and likely will ever work). McK goes out of its way to recruit the best and the brightest and, as a result, one ends up working alongside people that are amazingly intelligent. I can’t say that the soft skills were always there with everyone, but the intelligence, work ethic, and desire to solve hard problems were consistent across all of the McKinsey peple that I met while working there and since leaving a few years back. For someone who is considering applying, one of the biggest value-adds is the tremendous learning opportunity that is available from trying to address issues that are big and important with solutions that win. —
Well, that’s about all that I have on your questions. You’ve likely already gone through the application process with McKinsey and may have picked up this information elsewhere, but I didn’t want to not send you something after seeing your email.
Take care and I apologize again for taking so long to reply to your email.
Marquis
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