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What types of work will I be doing as a knowledge professional?
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Knowledge work falls broadly into two categories. First is directly supporting the knowledge needs of client teams. This could include everything from conducting basic research to providing in-depth analyses and thought partnership to client teams. Second is being a valuable contributor to the development of McKinsey’s intellectual capital by coauthoring articles or documents and/or helping develop new proprietary knowledge that allows us to serve our clients in innovative and productive ways.
As a new knowledge professional, you will likely begin by directly supporting client teams with a wide variety of analyses. As you gain experience in your chosen area of focus, you will become even more closely integrated in the work of consultants and their clients and will become increasingly skilled at producing research and new knowledge.
If you are a more seasoned hire, joining McKinsey with substantial work/research experience, your expertise in a particular industry or functional area will allow you to serve as a valuable thought partner to client teams from the get-go and will present opportunities for you to help drive the development of important new areas of knowledge. Or, you might choose to leverage your professional experience and people leadership skills to formally manage and mentor others in the Knowledge Network.
Every day as a knowledge professional will offer you new ways to challenge yourself—and you will do so with the support of talented, motivated, and collaborative colleagues from both the consulting and knowledge communities.
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Where will I perform my work?
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McKinsey consultants work in small project teams and spend most of their time working with their clients at the clients’ offices. Your role as a knowledge professional is to serve as a “consultant to the consultants”—by finding and leveraging the best internal and external thinking relevant to the client question at hand.
You will act in partnership with consultant colleagues—sometimes as part of the team at the client site but more often in collaboration with them from your McKinsey office. Regardless of where you perform your work, you will be an integral part of McKinsey’s ability to deliver outstanding service to clients.
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What types of skills should I possess?
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We welcome people who are intellectually curious, who love a good challenge, and who thrive in a dynamic, fast-paced environment. Despite varied backgrounds, all of our knowledge professionals share a common passion for research and creating knowledge and for finding creative solutions to questions, even when no easy answers exist. Because our work involves a wide range of very challenging business issues, we look for people who are truly interested in business and world events.
Successful knowledge professionals are able to balance simultaneous projects, often with short deadlines, and deliver the type of high-quality end products that our clients expect from McKinsey. Strong analytics, outstanding quantitative skills, and great attention to detail are also valuable qualities to possess. Finally, we look for people who are strong communicators and comfortable working in a team environment.
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What options do I have for choosing an area of focus?
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McKinsey’s Knowledge Network is a strong, diverse, global community that spans more than 70 offices in 40 countries. As a knowledge professional, you can align your program with one of the following groups:
- Industry practice groups
- Functional practice groups
- Knowledge centers
- Geographically focused research groups
Industry practice groups: McKinsey’s ability to develop valuable insights and leverage deep expertise in key industry areas allows us to serve clients with even greater impact. As a knowledge professional dedicated to an industry group, your work will be focused around conducting research that supports client service teams in your chosen sector and, increasingly over time, establishing yourself as a “content guru” who has a deep industry expertise in a particular arena. Depending on the industry practice group you join, you could be located in a McKinsey office or in one of our four knowledge centers.
Functional practice groups: Along with our industry expertise, McKinsey also has dedicated professionals to advance our expertise in core business disciplines—from marketing to operations. As a knowledge professional within a particular functional practice, you will provide valuable research and thought partnership to client service teams whose clients are grappling with “make-or-break” business issues, while developing your own special functional expertise over time. As with industry-based roles, the range of work locations depends on which functional practice you join.
Knowledge centers: Our four knowledge centers (Delhi; Shanghai; Waltham, Massachusetts; and Wrocław, Poland) are central research and knowledge-building “hubs” for McKinsey. As a member of a knowledge center community, you have the opportunity to be formally aligned with one of our 18 industry or 7 functional practice groups, to be part of a generalist research group that supports teams across the full range of business areas, or to be part of a specialized group providing tailored support (e.g., analytics) to client service teams.
Geographically focused research groups: Typically based in traditional McKinsey office settings, our geographically focused knowledge professionals provide a wide range of research support to client service teams within a particular geographic region, over time developing a real expertise in country-specific business issues (e.g., regulatory environment, demographic trends, cultural dynamics).
To search opportunities in these groups, check out our “Open Positions” section.
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How much client-facing time can I expect?
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Though every knowledge professional supports client service in an important way, direct client-facing time tends to be limited, at least until you are in a more senior role. We generally encourage candidates who are driven by the desire to serve clients directly to apply for a consulting role instead at www.mckinsey.com/careers.
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Is there a career path from research to consulting?
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There is no formal path from research to consulting, as they are two distinct yet complementary career tracks within McKinsey. However, there are research professionals who successfully transition to consulting roles, and vice versa, but these shifts typically take place at the more senior levels.
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I have a master's degree. Would I qualify as a junior research analyst or a research analyst?
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The decision on whether you would qualify directly for an analyst role, as opposed to a junior analyst role, will be based on the relevancy of your academic background to our work, as well as the amount of relevant work experience you have.
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Do I need to have a background in business?
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If you are joining us early in your career, your overall awareness of and interest in business is more important than a formal business, finance, or economics qualification. In fact, successful knowledge professionals come from a broad variety of educational backgrounds, ranging from history, philosophy, psychology, natural sciences, and languages to finance and economics. For more senior roles in the Knowledge Network, it is much more common for applicants to have advanced degrees and substantive work experience in a business-related field.
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I’m a seasoned professional from outside McKinsey. What opportunities exist within the Knowledge Network?
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We recognize the strength that comes from having a mix of professionals that includes both those who have “risen through the ranks of the Knowledge Network” and experienced hires who bring valuable outside perspectives to their new roles within the firm. There is a range of exciting senior-level roles within the Knowledge Network. Depending on your qualifications and interests, you may wish to pursue a knowledge content role or put your management skills to use in a people leadership position.
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What are the typical hours for a knowledge professional?
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It really depends, as hours can vary significantly based on the request or project on which you are working. We often work on several projects simultaneously, some with tight deadlines. This may require flexibility from a standard eight-hour workday, but not to the detriment of a reasonable work/life balance overall.
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What type of training do you provide?
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Across the firm, we take professional development—that is, the training, development, assessment, and advancement—of our members very seriously. As a member of the Knowledge Network, you will benefit from both formal and informal training to help you master your role and develop as a professional. You will take part in a number of formal learning and development programs tailored for your role and impact level. These in-person trainings are supplemented by our online learning portal, specially designed for knowledge professionals and offering self-directed learning across dozens of topic areas. We also rely heavily on McKinsey’s rich tradition of apprenticeship, with more senior colleagues taking an active role in coaching and mentoring new/junior colleagues. This valuable on-the-job training, combined with regular, actionable feedback, allows most new team members to acclimate quickly.
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Are there opportunities to travel as a knowledge professional?
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Most knowledge professionals have opportunites for occasional travel with their roles, for either training programs, client projects, or internal conferences. There is also an array of opportunities over time for long- and short-term transfers to McKinsey offices in other regions. As with most organizations, however, McKinsey is actively working to reduce our carbon footprint by leveraging technologies such as videoconferencing where possible.
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Where can I take my career if I join McKinsey as a knowledge professional?
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“Make your own McKinsey” is a mantra you will hear over and over when you join our team. High performers within the firm are actively encouraged by colleagues and mentors to proactively shape their McKinsey careers in ways that allow them to pursue their professional passions. You might get deeply involved in a specific practice research group—for instance, public sector, high tech, marketing, or corporate finance—or exercise your entrepreneurial spirit by pioneering a new capability area or take on a formal people leadership role. There are no limits to where your own professional path might lead.
If you choose to pursue a career outside of McKinsey someday, you will find a broad range of options open to you. Our knowledge professional alumni have gone on to an amazing range of activities, from research at some of the leading universities and think tanks in the world to fast-track management in the corporate world, business start-ups with other McKinsey alums, and pivotal roles in the formation of new governments.
For a McKinsey knowledge professional, there is never a day wasted in building capabilities, interpersonal skills, confidence, and comfort with high expectations and new challenges. All of this helps you to build an excellent tool kit for the future, relevant to any professional aspirations you hold.
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