“Take Time” personal stories
Our “Take Time” program allows consultants to take time off between engagements to pursue personal interests and passions, whether that includes spending time with family or going on a dream trip. This “on and off” model allows consultants additional time to recharge without disrupting client work.
Christian, Berlin
I'm a serious musician (specializing in piano), and I needed more than a few hours on the weekend to develop musically. I heard about “Take Time” as I was wondering how I could balance my new designation as engagement manager with this other interest of mine. “Take Time” was the perfect solution.
I took 8 weeks off in April and May, and not only worked on my piano skills but also started learning clarinet! I'm certainly not a master yet, but my dream is to play in an amateur orchestra. I'm proud of McKinsey for offering this program and would strongly recommend it to anyone.
Alex, Pittsburgh
I have used “Take Time” to improve my Chinese (in Beijing) and my Spanish (in Colombia, where I stayed for seven weeks at the apartment of a fellow associate). I would not have been able to do this without “Take Time” because language requires immersion and practice. 4 weeks is the minimum you should spend. That way the language can sink in.
Anyone who has interests outside of work they'd like to pursue would benefit from “Take Time.” I think this is a unique way that McKinsey lives up to its goal of developing people. At the end of the day, we're all self-motivated people–and this is one unique option that you won't get anywhere else.
Larissa, São Paulo
My true passion is traveling and adventure sports. I always thought that the balance of working 11 months and traveling 1 month of the year was not enough. I had concluded that to reach my ideal balance I would have to take some years off work every few years.
Then, McKinsey implemented the “Take Time” program in Brazil. This changed my life, and the way I see both my work and my traveling. This, on top of everything else, has made McKinsey an unrivaled environment for exceptional people!
Kristian, Calgary
I'm really excited and grateful for the “Take Time” program. I'll be using the first 5 weeks of my time to accompany my wife on a rural medical-residency placement in the Yukon. She asked if I could join her, so I applied for “Take Time,” and I was really excited to tell her that I could. She was impressed with McKinsey–and sends her thanks.
I'm also taking the opportunity to build my expertise in sustainability and resource productivity. While I'm up north, I'll be working with a group of colleagues at Harvard Kennedy School Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, and I'll be writing a book chapter on sustainability policy.
I plan to spend another 5 weeks in late 2013 traveling with family. Overall, it's been a great way to balance life at McKinsey, recharge, and find time to do things that are important to me. People can't believe McKinsey is so supportive of this, and I'm sure we'll get a few new applicants next year because of it!
Martin, Riyadh
My wife and I will be traveling from Athens to Helsinki along the eastern border of Europe. I may take my Arabic textbook to catch up on all the vocabulary I have wanted to learn over the last 18 months.
Overall, for me, “Take Time” is a crucial element of making McKinsey more sustainable in the longer term. I consider myself super committed during studies, but I am overall lifestyle-oriented. So each year I need a few weeks where I can really calm down. “Take Time” is the way to achieve this. Additionally, my wife is a teacher and passionate traveler, so she gets 10 weeks’ vacation–consequently, “Take Time” is a way for me to catch up.
Romain, Stamford
“Take Time” has allowed me to spend more time with my family, and to continue to pursue passions I had prior to joining McKinsey. I am a pilot, and it can be difficult to maintain and improve my skills on a busy work schedule. I am using my “Take Time” breaks to train for my commercial pilot's license.
On the family side, my parents visited New England from France over the summer, and I took time off for me and my significant other to show them around some beautiful New England spots (including Acadia and Nantucket) and to visit my sister and her family in Denver.
We are lucky that much of our work allows for such flexibility, and that McKinsey has been such an active supporter of flex programs. My French friends cannot believe that I can take more time away from work than they can!
John, Tokyo
I absolutely love consulting, and think our jobs are amazing, but I wouldn't trade all of the other things in my life for it. “Take Time” made work-life balance a reality for me, giving me time to fiddle around on the piano, eat lunches and dinners with friends and loved ones, and live the life of the aspiring novelist that seems so romantic–for several weeks a year.
The absolute best thing about “Take Time” is that I set the metrics for success. My novel may still be a work-in-progress, and my neighbors may still curse my budding musical talents, but my steering committee of one recently reviewed the first few pages of my novel, the few bars of Mozart I've redefined, and the few pounds I've gained due to lunches eaten anywhere but over my keyboard–and it gave “Take Time” a resounding thumbs up.
Eduardo, Santiago
During my time off, I teach a negotiations class at my business school in Chile. I taught the class for the first time just before starting work at McKinsey, and then I taught the class again during my time off. My plan is to teach it for the third time during my time off next year.
My “Take Time” experience has also helped McKinsey in two ways: first, being in touch with the best business school in Chile has helped our recruiting efforts, and second, during my time off, I developed knowledge that has helped McKinsey’s clients (for example, I did a full-day negotiations workshop for a client in Peru that was very well evaluated by client managers).