Finance was my favorite subject when I was a business student, so banking seemed an obvious career path. Then I went to an event at my university and heard about McKinsey’s internship program. My interview here was refreshing: whereas banks focus on how well you can solve problems, McKinsey also wanted to know about who I am, what my values are, what choices I’ve made.
Learning as an intern
I spent 10 weeks of my summer vacation as an intern in the Zurich office. Straight after the three-day induction I joined my first project, helping a supermarket optimize its selling space. We visited competitors’ stores, moved shelves around, and worked out what to sell in the space we’d freed up. As an intern, you have the same kind of tasks as other people in the team, but you get much more coaching. Your team leader makes sure you have a lot of client contact and challenges you to start taking leadership.
My second project involved revisiting the organizational setup and allocation of assets in a family office. Two weeks in, the global financial crisis hit, wiping out a large portion of the family’s wealth overnight. Our focus changed immediately: we had to help the office manage liquidity in order to survive. There was a lot of pressure, but I saw how our work helped people and had real impact.
Weighing up options
After I went back to university, former colleagues kept in touch and I was invited to regular workshops at the office. I didn’t want to make a commitment until I was certain, so I took a series of internships and part-time jobs with an insurance company, a bank, a consultancy, and various other organizations. But nothing I did was as exciting as my few weeks with McKinsey, or offered as many opportunities.
An incident when I was working for an insurance company sums up the difference. While doing an audit, I kept finding things that we could do a lot better, so I went to see my manager with some suggestions. He told me, “You’re not here to change the future; you’re here to confirm what’s happened in the past.” That was so depressing. Nobody at McKinsey thinks like that. Right from the beginning, you have a voice and your ideas are taken seriously.
I joined McKinsey Switzerland’s Fellow Program after completing my masters degree. As I wanted to specialize straight away, I’ve joined the Corporate Finance Practice. I’ll spend two or three years building up business experience and then think about applying for an office transfer or the global rotation program so that I can spend time working in other countries.
Building confidence and skills
Even when you are new here, people put trust in you and let you take risks. On my first project, I observed client workshops and took notes until one day the project leaders were busy and suggested I run a workshop myself. I wasn’t sure I could do it, but my engagement manager helped me prepare, and though I was petrified at first, the presentation flowed really well. My engagement manager sat in for a few minutes and gave me helpful feedback afterwards. From then on, I ran workshops on my own.
McKinsey puts emphasis on “soft” skills as well as knowledge, because consultants spend all their time interacting with clients and we need to be able to understand and engage with people at a deep level. But knowledge is key to everything we do. After 18 months in the job I’m still amazed by the breadth of expertise I can draw on in my work. Seeing a network like that is mind-boggling.