Hi fellow monkeys,
I was lucky enough to receive a McKinsey offer today after roughly two years of pursuit. I am now faced with one of the most major decisions: which office to choose out of New York, DC, Chicago or Silicon Valley?
Would love to pick your brains. My priorities are as followed: (1) good career development opportunities, (2) good office culture, (3) Low tax rate & costs of living, (4) Standards of living
Note: I am not at all familiar with McKinsey's presence in any of these areas.
I would imagine your career development will be dependent on your performance on the projects you are assigned, so that one would probably be up to you where ever you go.
The culture, someone else should speak on, but I can't imagine they will be hugely different across offices, it would probably depend on your particular staffings.
Chicago is easily (IMO) the best bet as far as cost of living, especially compared to DC/NY/SV. I love Chicago, although I have never lived there. You may not enjoy living in the Midwest, but Chicago is a beautiful city and it was a lot cleaner than I expected it to be. That would probably be my choice, but I have no interest in Silicon Valley. DC would be my second choice, but it's also incredibly expensive.
Thanks for your reply!
I agree that Chicago is a great city, I loved it when I visited for a week. Nice inner city and clean streets. But the weather is a big turn-off. DC was, in my head, my first choice, then Chicago second.
DC is also awesome, and weather can be a lot better. I don't think you can go wrong. If you end up in Chicago, just hope that your winter clients are in the Caribbean! LOL
Haven't lived in Chicago but DC isn't that much more expensive than Chicago. They're in similar tiers for cost.
out of curiosity, how are you able to pick offices after getting an offer, since McK recruiting is office based?
I will be purposefully vague but if you search for jobs on the website (off-cycle), there will be ones where you indicate your preferences, not necessarily a hard and fast choice of office
I see, is your offer for a non-generalist role then? Also, Chicago will have the lowest CoL out of the 4 but I think you should focus on what you want to do at McK and get out of it in terms of next steps/ exit opps more!
Congrats! Couple things to think about:
What industries are u most interested in? Predictably, work in SF will be tech heavy while NYC and CHI will have lots of financial services projects. Same goes for public sector opportunities in DC. Although McK prides itself on the global staffing model and is less geographically targeted than Bain, they still organize around "office" or region e.g., west coast and your access to the partners selling the projects of interest will be better in specific offices
How much do you care about office "prestige"? Though the differences are relatively marginal, NYC and Silicon Valley will definitely have an edge reputation-wise over the other two
Last, and not to be forgotten, which location is best for retaining a healthy work/life balance? The consulting lifestyle is hard as it is, and it helps to be close to friends/family.
Good luck
One of my buddies works in the Chicago office and from the looks of his social media he doesnt do dick so I'd go for that
As with most consulting firms you'll probably have the best experience in NYC. Largest start class, and immediately connected with the largest office and where (most likely) the most power resides or circulates through on a frequent basis.
I know the SVO office well. For what it's worth, the SVO and SFO and heavily interconnected - and you get access to both offices. Obviously SVO/SFO are going to have best exits into tech, but NYC is probably best for more traditional exits.
But obviously both suck in terms of cost of living.
Thanks everyone for pitching in! I have made my decision after weighing your opinions. I will keep my choice confidential but I can surely say all comments were helpful to my thought process!
Congrats on the job! Sounds like you'll have a great gig in a fun city whichever one you chose.
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