Careers

Currently, there are more than 1,400 consultants with PhDs at McKinsey globally, and most say they came to McKinsey to broaden their horizons beyond the academic setting. As consultants, they find they can apply their problem-solving skills in new ways, work within fun and stimulating team settings, and make measurable impact more quickly and more often.

Many came from careers in basic research, where they often worked in isolation and where it can take years to achieve tangible results. As McKinsey consultants, they work through their clients’ problems in months or even weeks rather than years. To solve those problems, they work side by side with other consultants and with their clients. As in academia, the environment at McKinsey is intellectually stimulating and competitive, but it’s also ever-changing and supportive. PhDs who come to McKinsey appreciate the chance to tackle a new challenge with each engagement, and they develop personally and professionally as they go, with mentoring support, on-the-job training, and more formal learning opportunities such as mini-MBA and leadership courses.

For someone who has spent years conducting research within the same field, coming to McKinsey offers the chance to branch out—to explore new industries and new ways of thinking. Many consultants with PhDs in fields such as pharmaceuticals or high-tech go on to work in those areas, but some choose to enter industries they might never have been exposed to before joining McKinsey, including media, private equity, consumer goods, and banking.

Every McKinsey engagement demands the same types of qualities that you need to succeed in academia: strong problem-solving skills, intellectual curiosity, and the drive to achieve results. The difference is, at McKinsey you’ll be working with and presenting your findings to the leaders of the world’s most successful companies, leaders of the most influential organizations, and even heads of state. McKinsey’s clients include:

• More than 90 of the 100 leading global corporations
• 24 of the top 25 global pharmaceutical companies
• 8 of the top 10 US managed-care companies
• Governments in more than 35 countries

McKinsey consultants learn to solve problems quickly and make fast decisions, even when they don’t have all the information about a particular subject. Consultants with PhDs say one of the biggest challenges—and most attractive aspects—of a career with McKinsey is this shift in thinking. In the academic setting, they grew accustomed to diving deep into a subject, often spending years gathering and analyzing data, looking at research questions from all angles, and formulating elegant, intellectually pure conclusions. At McKinsey, consultants learn to work with the most important information, whittle a problem down to its core, and offer a solution that helps a client make better decisions, even if it’s not a clear-cut, easy answer.

You don’t need a business degree to succeed at McKinsey. In fact, nearly half of our consultants come from fields other than business. We value the talent and breadth of experience we gain by hiring consultants from a range of professional backgrounds, and so do our clients. McKinsey was the first consulting firm to start recruiting large numbers of consultants with advanced professional degrees outside of business. More than 1,400 of our consultants and more than 3,000 of our alumni worldwide hold PhDs, and they’ve been just as successful at McKinsey as consultants with MBAs.

If you join McKinsey with a non-business advanced degree, you’ll receive a thorough grounding in the business world through our mini-MBA program before you start your first consulting engagement. In this intensive, 3-week course, you and about 40 other new consultants will learn the core skills in subjects such as microeconomics, accounting, finance, marketing, operations, and business strategy, taught by the most highly regarded professors from the world’s top business schools.

As you build knowledge in areas such as supply and demand economics, competitive strategies, lean operations, and M&A valuations, you’ll also get to know your new colleagues and have a great deal of fun. Consultants describe mini-MBA as an intense, shared experience that helps them bond with other consultants from around the globe as they prepare for their new careers as McKinsey consultants. It’s the first step in building the personal network of colleagues and mentors that consultants depend on throughout their careers.

As a McKinsey consultant, your day-to-day responsibilities will vary depending on the industry and the client you’re working with, but one thing will remain constant: you’ll apply your critical-thinking skills to solve problems with no easy answers.

You’ll identify key issues, form hypotheses, conduct analyses, formulate recommendations, and discuss them with the client’s management. You’ll work closely with each client on-site to help implement your recommendations and get results.

For the length of the engagement, you’ll work as a member of a team with the client, doing everything from planning the strategy for a company acquisition, or developing and marketing a new product, to improving how an entire nation’s healthcare system works.

As you progress from engagement to engagement, you’ll be challenged to take on new responsibilities and stretch your skills. At the same time, McKinsey emphasizes the importance of work/life balance and pursuing your own passions. A career with McKinsey offers the flexibility and encouragement to follow personal priorities that academia doesn’t always provide.

McKinsey promotes consultants based on their potential, and there are no restrictions on the number of people we promote or elect to partner. Our mentorship model and emphasis on support create a culture in which every member of McKinsey feels invested in each other’s success.

You’ll be constantly challenged to broaden your skill set and step into leadership positions. The environment can be intense, but you won’t be competing with other consultants. You’ll be pushing yourself to take on new responsibilities, understand new industries, help your colleagues, and work with top-caliber clients from around the globe. Through mentoring relationships, you’ll learn from others’ experiences and apply what you’ve learned in client engagements. You’ll also build knowledge in formal training programs such as these:

• Basic Consulting Readiness: a 1-week "boot camp" to learn the basic day-to-day skills required to be effective on your first day on an engagement
• LEAD 1: a 2-week course to learn about your own skills and how to use them more effectively to lead teams and clients
• LEAD 2: a 1-week course to learn the basics of managing a McKinsey engagement
• Engagement Leadership Workshop: a 1-week course to refine your team and client leadership skills
• Client Leadership Workshop: a 1-week course to refine your skills in counseling senior business executives
• Communications Skills Workshop: a 1-week course to improve your communications skills

Consultants with advanced professional degrees outside of business are elected to partner at McKinsey just as often as consultants with MBAs. Currently, more than a third of McKinsey’s 1,200 partners worldwide hold advanced professional degrees.

We want you to succeed, and we’ll support your growth with formal training and development programs to continually strengthen business and leadership skills. Our apprenticeship model ensures you’ll always have experienced consultants to turn to for advice or insight. Expectations are high—McKinsey consultants handle some of the most sensitive, critical issues faced by the world’s top organizations—but they’re also clear. You’ll know your responsibilities before beginning each client engagement, and when you need help, you can turn to one of your fellow consultants or one of the 19,000 McKinsey alumni worldwide—more than 3,000 of whom came to McKinsey with PhDs.

You’ll grow with each engagement, but you’ll be the one directing that growth. We understand that not everyone wants to become a partner. If you find another opportunity that interests you, we’ll support you as you pursue it. You’ll take the skills and knowledge you built at McKinsey with you into your chosen field, and you’ll stay connected as part of the global McKinsey alumni network.

On average, consultants with PhDs who have moved on from McKinsey stayed with us for about 4 years. They now work in more than nearly 60 countries and in a wide variety of areas, including these:

• Academia
• Asset management
• Education
• Energy
• Healthcare payors and providers
• High tech
• Information technology
• Investment and wholesale banking
• Medical devices and diagnostics
• Private equity
• Pharmaceuticals