I joined McKinsey straight from university, where I’d studied economics and international management. I thought consulting would be exciting because of the mix of industries and clients, the pace, the chance to travel and work in different environments, and the contact with senior executives.
I chose McKinsey partly on gut feeling and partly as a conscious decision. I liked the people I met at my interviews, and six or seven of my old university friends had already joined the Zurich office, so I felt I’d fit in. I also thought McKinsey’s international reach and networks would give me better learning opportunities than I’d find anywhere else.
Exploring options
It didn’t take long for me to realize my hopes to travel and work in new places: in fact, it was over a year before I did my first project in Switzerland. So far I’ve spent eighteen months on projects in the Middle East and six months in the United States, as well as spending several months in Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
Initially I worked for clients from many different industries. After about three years I started to specialize in insurance and asset management because I enjoyed the work and liked the people.
Digging deeper
A few years ago I spent six months in San Francisco helping to produce an independent economic report, “Changing the fortunes of America’s workforce,” for the McKinsey Global Institute, our internal macroeconomic think tank. I’d been thinking about applying for educational leave, but my short-term fellowship at MGI made a great alternative: it gave me an opportunity to use my economics background and go deep into a topic for a tangible purpose, rather than as an ivory tower exercise.
The aim of the research was to understand recent changes in income dispersion in the United States and what has caused them. McKinsey put together an international team of consultants and asked eminent academics and policy makers to test our findings. Even when you’re used to presenting to senior executives, it’s still a challenge to be grilled on your methodology by a professor who’s been working on the topic for 15 years. Contributing insights and analysis to such an important effort was very satisfying.
Living in San Francisco was a great experience too. Getting to know a new place is easy when all the arrangements are made for you: McKinsey sorted out my visa, paid for my apartment, and even helped me meet people through the office network.
Taking responsibility
Because of the way we work here, even young associates are given a lot of responsibility. Early in my career I was on a team researching best practices in real estate investment with an engagement manager and another junior consultant. We spent three weeks travelling in Europe, Asia, and the United States asking leading investors how their business model worked.
Because we had to cover so much ground so quickly, I sometimes had to lead interviews with senior people entirely on my own. We also had to put together our fact base and synthesize our findings as we went along—not so easy when you have only a week to cover Singapore, Tokyo, and Hong Kong!
Recharging and relaxing
Working here can be pretty intense: at the moment, for instance, I spend two days a week in the Middle East and the rest of the time in Europe. But people here understand that you need to build recovery time into your schedule, so for the past two or three years I’ve taken a long break over the summer when things are quieter. I use the time to travel and catch up with friends and colleagues in Asia and the US.