While our training programs give you a foundation of essential tools and skills, everyone here will tell you the best learning and growing happens on the job with your team.
Here are just some of the ways working in teams helps you stretch and accelerates your growth.
How teams work
Teams are made up of diverse global experts
Teams are usually made up of three to five consultants, whose tenures range from business analyst to partner, and select members of a client’s organization. Everyone is a full-fledged member of the team with responsibility for a distinct part of the assignment.
To form a team, we look across our network of more than 8,000 consultants worldwide to bring together a diverse group of generalists, industry experts, functional specialists, and leaders to meet the given challenge.
Because we operate as “One Firm,” every McKinsey consultant around the world shares the same values and working principles. This means we can easily join together to solve our clients’ problems while benefiting from our diversity.
Your understanding of different industries and functions will grow exponentially as you learn from the expertise of your teammates.
You are assigned to teams based on your needs
Our goal is to give you team assignments that will help you develop new talents and expose you to a diverse portfolio of clients, industries, and challenges. With this model, every new assignment will deepen your knowledge and expand your leadership capabilities.
Teams are not permanent
Teams focus on solving a specific problem, with a typical commitment of 2 to 6 months. Once an engagement is completed, you’ll have the chance to work with a new team and a new client—which means new learning opportunities.
This exposure to a wide range of significant management and industry issues with the support and expertise of different teams ensures you’ll grow more quickly here than anywhere else.
How teams help you grow
Most of a team’s work happens at the client's site
On a client engagement, you and your team will typically spend three to four days a week at your client’s location. Working alongside the leaders who own the problems they bring to us has tremendous value. You’ll learn how to build trust and work with clients as a peer. And just as the relationships formed with your teammates extend beyond each engagement, so will many of your client relationships.
Teams provide ongoing coaching, feedback, and mentorship
You’ll receive coaching and feedback from your team before, during, and after the engagement. Because we commit to helping each other grow, consultants often find mentors in their senior team colleagues.
You don’t have to agree with your team
All McKinsey consultants are obligated to dissent if they believe something is incorrect or not in the client's best interests. Everyone’s opinion counts. While you might be hesitant to disagree with the team’s most senior member or the client, you’re expected to share your point of view.
Much like mentorship, this obligation to dissent helps you grow by pushing you to deepen your opinions, clarify what you believe, present facts to support your perspective, and influence others to understand your viewpoint—the building blocks of becoming a trusted advisor.
With each team comes a robust support staff
All our team members have access to the approximately 1,500 knowledge professionals who “consult to the consultants” by providing rapid access to specialized expertise and business information.
This rich resource is unique among consulting firms, and it means that you learn from the best experts our firm can bring to bear on a topic—both within and outside the team room.
Also supporting you and your team are visual graphics, travel assistants, team assistants, and practice managers—all of whom are in place so that consultant teams can keep a laser focus on solving problems rather than on research and admin.
Working in teams builds lifelong relationships
Because team members work so closely with each other, their bonds last long after a study is over. Consultants most often build their networks with the people they meet and work with during client engagements, including both colleagues and clients. Because engagements change regularly, our consultants quickly develop strong and lasting networks.