Mark
Business Analyst
Why McKinsey?
Three things made me realize McKinsey was the perfect place for me. First, the opportunities to work on incredibly interesting topics and have high impact for some of the world’s leading companies and organizations—even though I was a 22-year-old a few months out of dorm life. Second, and related, was that McKinsey gave me the opportunity to be on the frontline actually doing the work. I wasn’t going to be pigeon-holed as the data monkey sitting in a cubicle somewhere; rather, I would do everything post-MBA hires would do: interact with clients, conduct analyses, prepare and give presentations, and problem-solve with the full McKinsey team. Finally, as someone who had no idea what I wanted to do when I “grow up,” I found appealing the breadth of opportunities McKinsey offered me. I could see what it was like at virtually any type of company out there, from non-profits to candy manufacturers.
“I’ve worked in five different countries across three continents (in addition to a nice collection of states).”
Breadth of Opportunity
It didn’t take long for me to realize what sort of opportunities I’d be presented with at the firm. On the second day of my first project, my engagement manager asked if I would mind running a meeting with a handful of mid- and senior-level clients by myself. Another engagement focused on a question where academics can’t come close to agreeing on a theoretical perspective—we needed to answer the question in a practical way. Yet another study presented us with an opportunity to address a challenge that the client had been unable to address successfully elsewhere. Throughout my time here, I’ve worked in five different countries across three continents (in addition to a nice collection of states). I thought my expectations of McKinsey were pretty high, but clearly, they should have been even higher.
Relationship-Building With Clients
Being rather young-looking (I was recently carded entering a bar with some clients in Montreal, where the drinking age is 18—the clients I was with never let me forget this), I often start the study in a bit of a hole. However, over the course of the engagement, I usually develop strong relationships with my clients. In one instance, the senior client started routinely asking me for advice on topics that had nothing to do with our engagement, and also referring his colleagues to me to help them think through some challenging issues. A particularly telling point in the relationship was when late one Friday afternoon he asked me for my cell phone number. Sure enough, that weekend, he called with a time-sensitive question. As my involvement in the engagement came to a close, I was genuinely sad about no longer working with the client team. However, since then, we’ve remained in contact, talking about both work and life more generally.
Development in the Middle East
Recently, I’ve been in the Middle East serving the developer of a new special economic zone city. The idea behind the city is to have more liberalized business regulations to foster development that will spill over into the country as a whole. During the engagement, I’ve been working closely with the developer’s CEO and CFO to identify the best industries to locate there based on what the city has to offer, develop the business cases for these industries (what it is about the city that should attract them), and finally start the process of actually attracting businesses to relocate to the city. This has been a truly unique experience. There are very few places in the world where work with such a profound impact on a country’s economy is being done, and I can’t think of any other organization where I, a 20-something American, would be able to do it.
Flexibility of Lifestyle
This isn’t a 9-5 job by any means, but I’ve found the lifestyle to be entirely sustainable, especially once you learn how to say no and effectively recognize what work is “nice to have” versus what must be done. I’ve also found that there’s a great deal of opportunity to work how you want—the idea of face time just isn’t important here. I’ve had teammates who leave every day by 7 pm, but work later from home when necessary, and others who stay as late as necessary on Thursday so that on Friday they can pack up by 5pm and not do any work until Monday morning. McKinsey is a place where individuals can set their own boundaries, and so long as the work is getting done, everyone respects those choices.
Personal Favorites
Favorite book: The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
Favorite movie: "The Usual Suspects"
Hobbies/interests: Running (distance), politics, golf, biking
Something fun/crazy/special/unique about me: When I was four years old, I was on the cover of a Time Life book entitled Teaching Good Behavior. Putting the irony aside for a moment, my parents’ one condition was that my name not be included in the book, as they “didn’t want me to become a child model.” I have yet to forgive my parents.
Favorite place that you’ve traveled to, and why? This is a tough question for someone who in the last year-and-a-half has visited nearly 20 countries thanks to McKinsey (most on weekend travel while staffed overseas). While there’ve been plenty of great places I’ve been to (London, Rome, Petra, and Bangkok to name a few), I’m going to reach back a few years to a place I visited with my family over winter break my senior year of college: Australia (and Melbourne to be more specific). While many locations are incredible in one dimension but lacking in others, I found Australia to have an incredible mix of everything. Melbourne is a fun, modern city with interesting history and culture; the people are incredibly friendly; the wildlife is diverse and fascinating (from baby penguins to koala preserves) and the natural scenery is spectacular (the Great Ocean Road puts the Pacific Coast Highway to shame). I’m still working on being staffed on a study in Australia!