McKinsey Staffing Model

Hi everyone,

first time posting sans introduction.
I just had a couple questions about McKinsey staffing.

Background: Advanced degree candidate. Second round is soon and need to submit office preferences. I'm hoping to be on studies that involve consumer tech/products and/or real estate/hospitality clients, but I also want to stay a generalist. Does anyone know if I could be staffed on these studies from any office? If not, is there an office that has more of these types of clients that I should be putting on as my preference?
The only geographic preferences are: I want to stay in the US and would prefer the midwest or east coast.

10 Comments
 

Yeah.. you think I would be able to get access to those studies if I were on the east coast? Or should I just man up and look at west coast offices?

TLH
 
Best Response

less access

McK is less geographically targeted than Bain, but they still organize around "office" or region e.g., west coast.

you could still get staffed on the west coast but: (1) your commute every week will get old. not as bad as west going east, but still sucks. (2) you will get less exposure to the partners selling/leading projects on the west coast when initially trying to get staffed on them

If you're serious about tech, look at a west coast office. Or consider an IT-like practice (e.g., BTO), but that is a bit of a different ballgame.

real estate / hospitality is more of a niche, and I'm not sure if there would be a geographic focus there. hospitality might be more common. economic center of gravity of the US is a bit more east, so east coast would probably be fine here?

 

Thanks for the in-depth response. To start off, just like Markdc said, I have a broad range of preferences and not really strong preferences for any particular type. But, I would just like to try out a tech study or two just to get a sense of working in the industry since I'm an APD with a tech background. Nonetheless, I don't want to pigeon-hole myself into tech just yet without trying other industries. Considering your two main points, I guess WC might be better off since I could probably touch on all of my interests through a WC office (without the tiring commute E->W->E). With that said, if I were to start off on the east or midwest, would I be able to transfer offices somehow if I wanted a heavier focus on tech?

Thanks again,

TLH

TLH
 

In terms of culture? industry strengths? work life?

Also curious about this, although I generally hear that Bain is strong in financial services and McK & BCG are more broad-spectrum. Also, I hear it differs a lot between offices.

TLH
 

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