Tips needed- Incoming BA at Mckinsey, US office
I am an incoming BA at Mckinsey starting next month in a US office. I am super nervous, I have no idea what to do right now.
Im mainly worried about the workload and how to plan my day and week, and how to handle normal daily tasks like cooking, working out, etc with the demands of the job.
I always hear people saying the job is an average of 60h a week but what does that actually mean/entail in a day? Would appreciate a schedule of how a day is in a travel week and a non travel week (ex, wake up 4:30am, go to airport 6am, etc)
Anything else I should know about training or technical skills I should learn before I start? I have no idea what I am doing lol because I have no finance or consulting/business experience.
Thanks!
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Typical day for a BA may be different, but typical senior associate day:
7AM: Wake Up
7-8AM: Check instagram and emails that may have come in overnight
8-9AM: Shower and eat etc
9AM-12PM: Calls and powerpoint
12-1: Working lunch, probably, maybe 20 min of down time.
1-3: Calls and Powerpoint
3-3:30: Self loathing and doom scrolling
3:30-6: Calls and Powerpoint
6-8: Maybe Calls and powerpoint, but they should wrap up around 7 on average during a study.
Typical "release" is between 6 and 8. Meal prep on weekends if you're concerned about that. Work out before or after work. Rinse and repeat for the next 25 years of your life.
Edit:
Skills you could sharpen: Powerpoint, Powerpoint, and critical reading. Also vocabulary/acumen/etc but thats mostly on the job.
Your travel and non travel week schedules dont actually change that much. On a travel day, you'll be expected to just work from the plane until standard quitting time. If you have a 4:30 flight, you'll leave the office with as little time to spare as possible, get through security, turn slides until you board, turn slides on the flight because free wifi perks, and then you'll presumably arrive home between 7pm and 10pm which is standard quitting time, and you'll quit.
Could be a dumb statement, but you'll work out your life schedule as you become a professional. I'm actually not a consultant, I just live with my S/O who is, and this is what I see/hear about on the daily. I worked in WM, and even that, compared to college, was a surprising change of pace/scheduling. You'll figure out what works for you, and if you dont you'll get fat and ugly. Its that simple. Dont forget to sleep occasionally and drink water.
I want to echo that last paragraph. I started at a very sweaty bank with minimal downtime. I was so worried about how I would be able to attend to life in general but everything worked out. I took advantage of the meal stipend, paid up for in-unit laundry, and did all my errands on Sundays. It sounds difficult when you’re planning it out, but realistically you’re never going to miss a meal or be unable to wash your clothes.
Now that my hours improved, I’ve found you can make it work by rapidly transitioning around 7-8pm to what you need to do that evening. Going to the post office or other things that close at 5 will still have to be a Saturday errand, but everyone deals with that. It’s a lot more feasible than it might seem.
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