Careers

Consultants with master’s degrees represent a broad spectrum of experience. Your role upon beginning your career at McKinsey depends on your academic and professional background. Generally, if you earned an undergraduate degree fewer than 4 years ago, you’ll be considered for a business analyst position; if you earned your undergraduate degree more than 4 years ago, you’ll be considered for an associate position.

We understand that the additional training you received and the expertise you developed by attaining a master’s degree add value to your work as a McKinsey consultant. McKinsey was the first consulting firm to systematically hire consultants with advanced professional degrees outside of business, and currently, more than 3,000 of our consultants worldwide hold master’s degrees in fields other than business.

Often, because of their professional experience, business analysts with master’s degrees show promise immediately, putting them on a fast track for promotion to associate. At McKinsey, consultants advance based on performance—not background or tenure—so if you perform well, you’ll be considered for early promotion.

Here are some example scenarios for possible entry points to a career at McKinsey:

• If you are interested in the German office and hold a bachelor’s degree and completed a 1-year master’s program, you will join as a fellow.
• If you are interested in joining the UK and Ireland office with a master's degree, you will typically join as a business analyst.
• If you are interested in a North American office and hold a bachelor’s degree and have work experience or completed a 3- to 4-year master’s program/PhD track, you will join as an associate.

Business analysts take responsibility for one part of the larger problem-solving effort on a client engagement; associates lead a key portion of an engagement. Consultants in both roles typically begin their careers at McKinsey as generalist consultants. They contribute to every aspect of a project, from fact gathering to analysis to implementation. They also collaborate with senior consultants and client leadership, participating in brainstorming, problem solving, and client communication and working on-site with clients to implement McKinsey’s recommendations.

You might conduct market research to help a high-tech client launch a new product, manage media communications for a major corporate merger, or revamp the processes in a client’s human resources program. Your day-to-day work will vary depending on the client you’re working with and the problem you’re addressing. And with each engagement, you’ll be challenged to take on new responsibilities and master new skills.

Depending on your experience, you may consider specializing by joining one of our 18 industry practices, such as financial services or telecommunications, or one of our 7 functional practices, which focus on core business disciplines such as marketing, operations, and strategy.

However you choose to shape your career at McKinsey, you’ll be recognized as a valuable team member on each client study, and your voice will be heard. All consultants, regardless of role or tenure, are expected to shape discussions, solve critical client problems, and contribute at the highest level.

Whether you work in the area of your existing expertise or move beyond your discipline will be up to you.

You could be hired as a generalist consultant, or you could choose to enter one of our industry or functional practices. Generalist consultants work on projects in a variety of industries and take on responsibilities in all aspects and stages of each client study. This option gives you the widest choice, the most diverse professional experiences, and the opportunity to learn about different industries and functions. Joining one of McKinsey’s practices requires some expertise in and an affinity for a particular area—be it an industry practice such as pharmaceuticals or a functional practice such as corporate finance. You’ll spend most of your time on projects in your chosen area, but you’ll also have the opportunity to apply your skills in others.

McKinsey’s clients come from a wide array of industries, and we serve them as experts in a variety of core business functions. As a McKinsey consultant, you might advise one of the world’s largest consumer electronics companies in developing a new product, devise a growth strategy for a new biotech firm, or work on a merger integration between two industrial goods companies. With each engagement, you’ll have the chance to apply your skills and expertise in new ways to solve critical problems for the world’s top organizations.

Learn more about our industries and functions.

While we value consultants with PhDs for the strong problem-solving skills and deep topic expertise they bring to the firm, a consultant does not need a doctorate to succeed. In fact, more than one-third of our consultants hold master’s degrees in fields other than business as their highest degrees.

The same qualities that led you to earn your master’s degree—critical problem solving, intellectual rigor, and the desire to delve deeper into a subject of interest—will help you succeed as a consultant. And, we’ll invest in your professional development. Through formal training, on-the-job learning, and our culture of mentorship, you’ll build the additional skills you need to thrive as a consultant.

Master’s candidates who have joined the firm have gone on to be just as successful as consultants with MBAs and PhDs. If you choose to pursue a PhD, we support your choice and hope you’ll consider joining McKinsey once you’ve completed the program.

McKinsey consultants come from all backgrounds and education levels, from new graduates with bachelor’s degrees to consultants with advanced professional degrees to experienced professionals. Diverse backgrounds help create dynamic client study teams.

Joining as a business analyst is a 2-year commitment, and during that time, you’ll become close to your fellow business analysts. Each business analyst class is generally active socially, with plenty of opportunities to bond as a group through training programs and class events. At the end of the 2-year program, you and your peers will decide how to proceed—some stay with McKinsey, some choose to pursue another academic degree, some find jobs in industries that interest them, and some choose to participate in McKinsey’s Global Rotation Program, which allows them to join McKinsey offices abroad temporarily.

If you join as an associate, you’ll be part of the community of McKinsey consultants who hold advanced professional degrees, including PhDs, JDs, MDs, and nonbusiness master’s degrees. Special training programs and business education opportunities will give you the chance to spend time with your peers while you learn the core skills you need to succeed as a consultant.

Beginning with your first client engagement, you’ll learn that working on a McKinsey team involves more than work; it can be fun, too. You’ll get to know your team members—those with business backgrounds and those without—during and after working hours. Many consultants develop lasting friendships while working closely on projects. With each client engagement, you’ll add to the personal network of mentors and colleagues that you’ll rely on throughout your time at McKinsey and beyond.

There are more than 3,000 McKinsey consultants worldwide who hold master’s degrees in fields other than business, and there are more than 13,500 in our global network of alumni. Some consultants stay to become partners; some join clients in an area they’ve become passionate about; and some go on to become leaders in organizations they became familiar with while working at McKinsey.

As a consultant, you’ll benefit from an accelerated career path. You’ll be constantly challenged to expand your skill set and take on new leadership roles, and you’ll be promoted based on your performance. This merit-based system means advancement happens much faster than in academia or the corporate world.

It also means that, while expectations are high, you won’t be competing against your fellow consultants. With our emphasis on informal mentorship and McKinsey’s culture of support, you’ll get the help and advice you need to step confidently into roles with new and greater responsibilities.

Whether you choose to stay with us or move on, you’ll find that joining McKinsey expands your career options and creates new possibilities for growth. Alumni with master’s degrees are now working in fields such as private equity, high tech, IT, investment and wholesale banking, telecommunications, and education as well as for nonprofit organizations around the world.

Learn more about where a career with McKinsey can take you.

Most consultants have an interest in some aspect of business, but you don’t need a business degree to succeed at McKinsey. More than one-third of McKinsey consultants don’t have business degrees, and they come from more than 400 different disciplines. Consultants with master’s degrees have a proven record of success at McKinsey.

We’ll provide the business knowledge to help you do your best work and perform comfortably and confidently in the business world. We offer structured training programs to teach you the basic consulting skills and fundamental business concepts to prepare you for client studies. Formal training programs for business analysts include these:

• Business Bridge Online, an online course taken before joining McKinsey that covers finance, accounting, marketing, strategy, and economics
• Basic Consulting Readiness, a weeklong course that will teach you McKinsey’s problem-solving approach, knowledge management techniques, values, and guiding principles
• Business Analyst Training, a weeklong course in advanced problem-solving and communications skills, which you’ll attend within 6 to 12 months of joining McKinsey

Depending on your needs, you can also take advantage of other training programs to help you build specific skills or to provide industry and functional knowledge. Along with the informal mentors you’ll find on client engagements, you’ll be assigned a development group leader, a senior member of McKinsey who will offer valuable insight and guidance on your career and engagement assignments.