What is being a McKinsey BA actually like / Advice
Very thankful to have landed a seat at McKinsey in a large east coast office (NYC/Bos/Chi). Obviously had a good amount of networking calls, but would love to hear candid comments about the following
1) How do you position yourself to be a top bucket performer? Are office politics heavily involved or is it fairly meritocratic? Can you get unlucky and get staffed on a first case with a bad manager?
2) Obviously lots of attrition as a BA. Heard from friend (probably office-dependent) that by Y3 as high as 80%-90% of their original BA start class left. Was wondering the percentage of BAs that leave as a result of "up-or-out" versus ones that exit on their own accord. What is the percentage of analysts that get promoted to EM out of the BAs that want it.
3) Would you recommend taking the GMAT before I start? How easy/hard is it to get admitted to an M7 coming from McKinsey (NYC/Bos/Chi). Do analysts that leave to MBA come back as an associate or EM?
4) I know McKinsey tells analysts to do nothing to prepare, but I'm eager to get sharper. Are there any things I can do now (or books I can read) that will translate to the job. For example, I am not familiar with excel or financial modeling, but am interested in PE in the future. Should I learn excel / financial modeling before I start?
5) How often (on average) do you actually travel post-covid? Have heard conflicting answers from a couple times a year to twice a month to every week. If I do due diligence / PE engagements, would these have less traveling?
6) Curious about what culture is like in a big office post-covid. With many teams working remote or traveling (and due to being in a big city office), I am curious if it is difficult to develop a tight-knit culture. How often are people actually in the office - Fridays only culture?
Del
For context I’m at McK. I’ve given an answer to each of these before but happy to give an updated perspective:
1) When you join you’ll be directed to the LDM. This encapsulates performance expectations across various axes by tenure. High-level, top performing BAs (Distinctive is the highest rating) realise that putting together client ready pages/ models/ storylines very quickly is table stakes for your first year. Distinctive BAs are able to confidently discuss and iterate with SP/Ps, proactively reach out and discuss with clients (including CEO-1 level clients) to move the thinking forward and get to the right answer. There’s a lot more to this, I can elaborate if helpful. This will all get you to Very Strong (the second highest rating). Distinctive only happens in truly extraordinary cases, e.g. client CEO demands that the next phase will only happen if that BA will lead it, client offers the BA a mid/ senior job because they’re so good, BA convinces the client to make a material strategic pivot. There is some luck required to be in this position of course.
1b) Yes there is a risk that your first study is tough. This is a risk at every consulting firm that I know of. Your job when you join is to leave your ego at the door, put your head down, absorb everything you can and kill everything put in front of you. After your first study, you can work with whomever you want (as long as they want to work with you). I have worked with people I did not like and who did not like me - that is a part of life. The Firm is big enough that I do not need to work with or see them again.
1c) Unlike at university, ‘merit’ cannot be objectively defined in the real-world. In the corporate world, people work together because of reputation. Leadership will pull you into my work and mentor you if they trust that you will do a good job. This reputation is built up over time by consistently killing it. There is minimal politics at the senior level because of heavy incentives to collaborate - but this is not something you need to be concerned about. You need to a) crush everything put in front of you, b) overinvest in your development to get ahead of your tenure as quickly as possible, c) build strong relationships with leadership. This means that you are first in line to be staffed when a new study is confirmed.
2) We are back to pre Covid normal levels of attrition. Because the hiring market is slow, lower voluntary attrition is countered with greater CTL rates. My abc advice above aims to put you in the top 10% which is the best way to achieve job security. McK’s model (The Jungle) structurally creates significant inequality between the top and bottom performers. The top performers can choose between 2-6 studies starting on any given week, whatever sector/ function they want, early promotions and absolutely no stress about losing their job. Bottom performers struggle to find any studies and may be on the beach for multiple weeks and will likely be cut in a few months anyway. I won’t give numbers because I don’t know and they aren’t relevant anyway.
3) I would if I were you - you will value your free time once you join. M7 is basically everyone. I’m considering applying to B-school now and my sponsors are discouraging me from applying to anything other than H/S
4) Don’t bother with books. Do your GMAT, learn to model if you want after that (learn shortcuts etc). Rest well and be prepared to work long hours, particularly in your first 6 months. I wouldn’t put much stock into the wlb expectations from other consulting firms, in my experience McK expects much more from BAs much faster and you should over-invest to get ahead of your tenure as well. Hit the gym, get fit, sort out your life admin stuff.
5) Yes DDs will mostly be no travel. Otherwise the default is generally client site as much as possible. You won’t do just DDs (they are also quite dull and very straightforward), so I would expect to travel 3-4 days a week coming in. PE portco work and top of the house work will mostly be in person. As with everything, if want/ don’t want to travel, having a reputation makes this easier.
6) Varies on the office. Friday drinks is a thing and office leadership (in London at least) is giving the BAs more budget to have more socials and have more fun. Generally you’ll know most of the other BAs in your office and other offices you travel to frequently and there’s some event(s) every week you can go to.
On Q5, in London would this be travel to the clients' London offices? Or often to their offices in other countries?
Clients offices in London, offices in other cities in the UK and client offices in other countries/ cities.
I’ve done all 3 - it depends on the sector and function your work is in
Think OP is looking for a US perspective buddy
McK has the same culture/ norms everywhere so this is all relevant. The point on office culture is very specific - OP would need to reach out to a BA from that office to get an accurate read
No Wharton for you?
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