I’ve been programming since I was a kid, and went on to study computer science at university. I discovered I was interested in technology not for its own sake but for what it can do for business. While I was a student I helped a bank build an intranet site and worked in the strategy department, where I met some management consultants. I was intrigued by what they did: tackling big questions that could mean a lot of change for a company.
Combining my interests
When I encountered McKinsey at university, I enjoyed being interviewed by my future colleagues—consultants, not HR people. I went on a weekend workshop and we spent time together after hours, which gave me a great insight into the kind of people who work here. I also found out how international our work is and how you can choose your own projects and switch between industries.
For someone with an IT background and an interest in management, McKinsey’s Business Technology Practice offers the perfect mix. Instead of dealing with the nitty-gritty of programming, I focus on how IT can shape a whole organization and what it takes to run a company.
Seeing business from the inside
Even as a junior consultant straight from university, I got the chance to try out my knowledge for real. I wasn’t in a support role or doing admin; I had responsibility for my own particular parts of a project. But I wasn’t left to fend for myself either; my colleagues guided and coached me throughout every project.
What I enjoy is the constant exposure to clients at all levels: senior executives, middle managers, shopfloor workers. I’m able to get under the skin of an organization and understand the dynamics of an industry. The intellectual challenge is exciting too. We work on problems that haven’t been solved before, the really tough questions that involve trying to understand how the future might pan out and coming up with fresh perspectives.
Going back to study
After I’d been working here for nearly two years, I took educational leave to study for a PhD in the artificial intelligence lab at the University of Zurich. McKinsey helped me apply, gave me a lump sum toward my living costs, and let me keep my laptop and smartphone and access to the Zurich office.
The research I did had a business twist: I was studying collective intelligence, or how large groups build and share knowledge—a topic I can now apply in my day-to-day work with big organizations. Thanks to my consultant’s training and focus on the end product I completed my doctorate in record time, but at just over three years it was still the longest educational leave ever taken in the Swiss office.
Taking on new roles
Since returning to McKinsey, I’ve become a junior engagement manager. The role I play is not so much the meat in the sandwich linking leadership and the team, but the spider in the web pulling together the skills and expertise that a client needs, coordinating the team, and driving the project. When I’m talking to clients, my IT background helps me understand how the engineers develop applications, and my consulting training helps me explain to the top managers what’s going on in their IT shop in a non-technical way.
In a typical project I collaborate with executives two or three levels higher than I would work with as a line manager in a company. I see how senior people make decisions and learn a huge amount from them. At McKinsey we bring a lot of value to our clients, but we get a lot back too—it’s a real exchange.