Christina

Business Analyst

Small-Town Girl

I’m from a town of about 10,000 people in South Jersey. Being from a small town is a huge part of who I am (although in my older life I haven’t wanted to live anywhere but the big city!). Growing up there provided a great community feeling. My mom’s family is Puerto Rican; my mom was the first of her siblings born here. My dad is African-American, born here. I am truly grateful for my parents and their support in anything and everything that I’ve set out to do.

Passion for Non-Profit

In the long term, I’m very interested in non-profit work, specifically in the area of education. I spent my first two summers in college working for non-profit education programs through Harvard’s public service organization, the Phillips Brooks House Association. I really enjoyed the work but felt I could do so much more if things could have run more efficiently. When I learned that consultants worked to help clients’ businesses become more efficient and effective, I knew I was interested.

My McKinsey Preview

I was first was introduced to McKinsey through Management Leadership for Tomorrow, (MLT), a career prep program focused on helping minority college juniors secure internships. Through that, I had the opportunity to participate in the McKinsey Preview Program, a program to introduce rising juniors and seniors of African-American or Hispanic descent to the firm and consulting in general. I was quite impressed by the McKinsey people I met. These were the types of people I wanted to work with.

Confidence Boost

One thing that has improved (and still has a way to go) since I’ve joined the firm is my confidence level. McKinsey really stretches you to do things you never thought you’d do, whether it’s facing a tough senior client or developing a piece of analysis when 5 months ago you didn’t even think you knew how to use Excel!
Since joining the firm, I’ve spent 3 months on a retail growth strategy study, 2 months on a project management study for a consumer client, and now I’m doing consumer health care strategy. I’ve developed both personally and professionally, doing and seeing things I otherwise wouldn’t have, especially right out of college.

So You Think You Can Dance?

Each study I’ve been on, I’ve tried to get my team to have a night out dancing. My first couple of teams were resistant. But on my last one, at least 2 or 3 people were really up for going salsa dancing, so we did it to celebrate wrapping up the study. Now one of the girls is on my new team, so we might do a weekly little dance lesson. Hanging out with the team outside of the team room is always a fun time.