Open to answering questions regarding MBB, recruiting, breaking in, day to day life, career choices, etc.
Background
- Academic: MSc in Finance (Europe) - top GPA, public undergrad b-school (target locally)
- Internships: Summer analyst at MBB; Summer analyst at Goldman Sachs (IMD London); Off-cycle analyst at European Private Equity FOFs. Received full-time offers from all three
- Other: GMAT 730
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Pure personal curiosity - why go down such as finance focused track to then pivot to consulting?
Great question!
Let me give you a bit more context to help me address it and explain why it wasn't necessarily pivoting.
I've started a BSc in Economics (3 years) with no idea of what I wanted to do after uni; in my senior year did a Summer internship at McKinsey (from which I received a full-time offer). I had a great time during that Summer and accepted the offer, but asked to do an MSc in Finance (2 years) before joining full-time for 2 reasons:
i) I felt that I would benefit from spending more time at university (genuinely enjoyed Finance and wanted to learn more)
ii) I would have two more summers to try out different industries (I felt that I shouldn't go for it without trying out other things first)
With a full-time contract from McKinsey in my pocket, I applied to Banking and ended up accepting an offer from GS - Investment Management Division (I enjoyed markets). Had a great Summer experience but realized that there were not many transferable skills in that job, so I turned down the offer (I didn't want to narrow my options that early in my career).
Then, I decided to try Private Equity and submitted a few spontaneous applications for an off-cycle internship. Ended up in a mid-market FoFs, which was a great experience because I got to know the industry inside out and had a lot of direct senior exposure. Despite receiving an offer, the fund's senior partners (McKinsey alumni) highly recommended me to start my career at McKinsey (for the usual reasons: work with smart people, try several industries, solve complex problems, learn how to think and communicate, etc.) and I took their advice. At that time, my plan was (I'm currently reassessing it) to do 2 years at McKinsey, go for an MBA in the US and then pivot into PE (not straightforward but doable IMO).
That being said, I would probably have gone into PE directly but wasn't successful in recruiting out of university (the best I could do was getting a final interview at Blackstone).
Nevertheless, while at McKinsey I still get to work in Finance-related topics (DD, banking, etc.). Moreover, I feel that I learn more transferable skills working in strategy related topics (appealing to me as one option is to switch to entrepreneurship at a point in my life).
Thanks for doing AMA!
1. What's the recruitment process like?
2. Interview prep tips?
3. What was your networking strategy?
Thank you for the question!
1. Recruitment process is pretty straightforward. I interviewed for a Summer internship (in theory, the recruitment process is exactly the same for a full-time position).
The process was: McKinsey presentation dinner (top students were invited) >> CV submission >> McKinsey PST (Problem-Solving Test, sort of a ~1hour GMAT-like questions) >> First-round case interviews (two 1-hour interviews; ~15min for personal questions and ~45min to solve a consulting case) >> Second-round case interviews (another two interviews following the same structure, but this time with Partners) >> Offer for summer internship >> Performed well during the summer and received an offer to join full-time
2. Two prep tips that can increase your chances of getting in:
i) Do not underestimate the "personal questions" part of the interview. First impressions matter. McKinsey is obsessed with structure, so you need to make sure that your answers are sharp right from the beginning. Besides the classic personal pitch ("Why are you here?"), you are usually asked "situational questions" (e.g., tell me about a time in which you led a team, disagreed with someone and had him/her change his/her opinion). Ideally, your answer should be different (meaning that you should not talk about a time in which you had a group work at university in which one of the members didn't contribute much - we all did) and follow the STAR method (i.e. Situation, Task, Action, Results).
ii) It is crucial to prepare "face-to-face" for the case interview (i.e. not reading prep books but instead training with someone else - preferably someone that already did a "real interview"). My tip here is: apply to second-tier consulting firms (and go through the interview process) before applying to MBB. I'll give you my personal experience:
I didn't even know what a case interview was when I got invited by a 2nd-tier firm (the likes of AT Kearney / Oliver Wyman) to join their recruitment process. I went for the 1st round with near-zero preparation. Luckily, one of the interviews went very well and the other one not that much, but I got invited for the second round anyway. Then, I realized that, whereas I had gone through the first phase successfully, I had to practice if I wanted to pass the second one. As such, I did ~5 mock interviews with some friends that had already started the MBB process. Successfully passed the second round afterward. When I started the recruitment at McKinsey I had already an offer (and 4 real case interviews). That's the best preparation you can get.
3. Networking is overrated in consulting. I didn't do any networking whatsoever to get in. As I said before, I got invited for a company dinner, in which I met some consultants but the truth is that my chances of getting in would be the same if I didn't (they won't remember nor interview you and you basically spend one night with other 50 overly excited students trying to impress them).
Nevertheless, it's always useful to talk to people who already went through the process. I believe that the most helpful are either peers that recently completed the process or junior consultants (they will remember what's like to be at university). You can try to connect with them via personal connections / alumni relationships. If you don't know anyone there, you can always try to leverage career offices or join a "company presentation event". I would say that reaching out to consultants in LinkedIn, for example, would have low response rates given that we are busy most of times.
Let me know if you have any follow-up questions :)
Yes, I would say so.
Both are "prestigious enough" to get you an invitation for the first phase of the recruitment process. From then onwards, what university you graduated from is secondary (it might help you engage with the interviewer in case he/she is an alumnus, but I wouldn't consider it - it's purely random and you don't need it whatsoever).
If I were you, I would go for the LBS MiM for the following reasons:
- It's your personal choice (following your preferences/instinct is always good)
- It will not hurt your chances of being invited for the interviews
- You already have the Oxford stamp/brand on your CV
- You will expand your skillset - an engineering background with management knowledge is always a plus
- LBS will probably prepare you better for the recruitment process (e.g., help from the careers office, more peers also interviewing)
I hope it helps! Feel free to ask any further questions.
Good Q&A, man. Pretty detailed responses. I have a couple questions:
-How do the practice cases on the McK website compare to cases you'd be presented with at the interview? Are they generally a good way to prep? I did all of them in preparation for interviews for two T2 firms and I found them helpful. Unfortunately, even after going through all rounds of interviews and psychometric tests, I did not get the position.
-How helpful is it to have a second/additional language when it comes to recruiting? In your experience, does it make a difference at all?
-Is having any coding/programming background beneficial? Everywhere I look companies are looking for hires who have experience with coding even though the roles are far from tech-related.
Thanks.
I appreciate that!
1. Practice cases on the McKinsey website are actually very good interview prep. The type of problem formulation and questions is exactly what you should expect in your interview.
2. Additional languages are always useful since you become more versatile (e.g., can do projects abroad using the local language) and show that you enjoy learning. That being said, McKinsey only requires that you speak the local office language and English (if you are not based in an English-speaking country already). Speaking more languages is a plus but it is not required whatsoever and I would argue that not speaking other languages do not hurt your chances. All in all, I believe it has no impact on recruiting.
3. Similar to languages, it is always good to know more (again, it shows that you enjoy learning, especially if it's extracurricular) but it should not have an impact in recruiting (assuming you're applying to an integrative role; the answer might change if you are applying to the Analytics team). More and more, companies across industries look for coding skills just because it is a signal that you can think logically about problems. However, you can be a great consultant without any programming skills (the large majority of consultants do not have any tech-skills beyond Excel/PPT).
Hope it helps. Let me know if you have any further questions :)
What does it take to stand out as a first year consultant at MBB?
Thank you for the question. It's not science, but in my opinion there are 3+1 factors defining it (ranked per order of importance):
1. Attitude
It's all about your attitude. A distinctive 1st-year analyst is eager to learn, eager to help and eager to be in a good mood all the time (especially in difficult and/or more stressful times). The corollary of this is that you always go the extra mile (e.g., take notes in meetings and share it with the team even when no one asks you to do so, offer your help to your teammates before leaving, are not defensive, seek feedback and act on it, don't mind the long hours, etc.)
2. "Intrinsics" (intelligence, communication skills and Excel/PPT skills)
This depends on genes (higher IQ helps), previous experience (you get better in Excel, PPT, presenting, problem-solving with time; you can clearly understand who are the analysts that already have some experience before joining) and mentoring (learning from others helps)
3. Luck
I wouldn't downplay the importance of luck. The project you start with, the type of people you work with, who your evaluators are, etc. all play a role in how successful you are. Nevertheless, luck is not automatically out of your control. It's critical for analysts to proactively reach out to people they would like to work with, for example. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. At the end of the day, it's life.
First impressions / cycles
I believe that the first project has a disproportionate influence on your perceived performance. It's almost self-fulfilling: if it goes very well, then you are great and everyone will want to work with you, which in turn allows you to choose the best projects, having a better performance and so on (positive cycle). However, if the opposite happens you can enter a negative cycle that is not easy to leave...
Let me know if you have any additional questions.
Best vacation spot in Europe?