Nick
Engagement Manager
Why McKinsey?
There are very few places you can go where you are transformed in some way. McKinsey is one of those places.
I was studying economics in grad school when I began to question whether academia was the best way to make an impact. I didn’t want to go straight into government; I had become a bit disillusioned by the challenges of a career in the public sector. I got a recruiting email from McKinsey, and I’ll be honest, I didn’t know much about the firm. I went to the recruiting events, and.the more I saw, the more I liked. When I got an offer for a summer associate position, I jumped at the opportunity.
Do What You Care About
There are significant opportunities to do the things I care about here. I’ve begun to build a body of work related to helping education systems improve their performance. I also do public sector work and implementation work to transform and improve organizations. There is a personal aspect to this: My father, whose parents were immigrants from Spain, was the first person in his family to go to college. Through hard work he and my mother were able to enjoy the American dream by the time I was born. I owe much of my success to them.
Transforming Health Care and Education
I spent a year and a half in Egypt doing public sector work with the firm. I helped to improve the quality and culture of public hospitals in a large Middle Eastern country. I also helped them plan bed capacity in preparation for the implementation of a universal insurance system there. In education, I had the opportunity to design and help lead a full-scale transformation effort for the school system of a small Middle Eastern country. Since then I have been back in the U.S., where I am leading a firm initiative to transform education systems in North America.
Free Time
Outside of work, I really enjoy running and biking. I’m also an avid singer and heavily involved in my church. All of those things are more than just weekend hobbies to me. I try to set boundaries around how much time I’m going spend on work and do only those work-related activities that fit time-wise and energy-wise. It has worked to some extent, even though it’s always a bit of a balancing act.