Journal
Mitchell
Business Analyst, Toronto
December 2009
Hi, everyone.
Thanks so much for checking out our blog. This is my first venture into the world of McKinsey blogging, and I’m excited to share some of my thoughts and experiences.
To begin, I’ll give you a brief background on myself. I graduated from McGill University in Montreal in 2008, with a bachelor of commerce in marketing and entrepreneurship. While at school, I was involved in a few entrepreneurial ventures, all in the technology space. I was also very involved in McGill events, both internal to the university and within the broader community. After graduating, I discovered my three passions—consulting, hockey, and cooking (but I could use some serious practice on the last two).
Before joining McKinsey, I always said I was interested in a career where I was continuously learning. I started at McKinsey a little more than a year ago, and let me tell you—the learning started on day one and hasn’t stopped since. I may have set out to be a marketer and tech entrepreneur, but since joining the firm I’ve been involved in engagements in petroleum, mining, and retail, all of which were amazing learning experiences. And there’s no one I would have rather shared these experiences with than my great colleagues (a discussion about the great people at McKinsey is definitely worthy of its own blog post—stay tuned).
While working at McKinsey is definitely challenging, it’s also a ton of fun. I’ve been involved in seven engagements, each of which has involved hard work and good times. On one engagement, we spent quite a bit of time in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where we had the chance to learn about Brazilian business customs and also explore the city. (Who knew it could take nearly four hours to drive from downtown to the airport?) On another, my team included consultants from across the Americas and Europe, and two of them had never been to a professional hockey game. So, we decided to go to one as a team and had a great time.
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading a bit about my experiences so far at McKinsey. I’ll be providing more details in future blogs, so please come back and check this page out soon.
If you have questions for our bloggers—or for us in general—please e-mail them to canada_recruiting@mckinsey.com. Check back next week for new entries.
Mitchell
Dear potential hires:
Undoubtedly, your mind is full of questions and concerns. In this blog, I hope to address some of those based on my own experience with McKinsey this past year.
“We solve the most interesting problems out there.”
This is one of the phrases I often heard from McKinsey consultants when I was considering joining the firm. Fresh out of the academic world, I confess I was skeptical of how “interesting” corporate problems could actually be. After all, when most people think of the “most interesting problems,” they think about solving world hunger or squaring the circle.
However, McKinsey has shown me that any problem is interesting as long as one has the right perspective. One only has to realize that determining the most effective way to board an airplane or to purchase a surgical suite for a hospital or to improve the speed at which produce gets delivered to the grocery store can have an instrumental effect on the way an industry, an economy, and even your day-to-day life is run. And these seemingly mundane issues are usually far from simple.
Most careers offer you the opportunity to explore two or three such interesting problems, usually in a specific area. McKinsey offers you that rarest of opportunities—the chance to apply your intellect to a series of interesting problems, some in sectors that are dear to your heart and others in areas you’ve never heard of. And because we don’t specialize in any one industry or function, the breadth of sectors is truly remarkable, ranging from health care and finance to agriculture and mining.
You will find some problems and sectors more stimulating than others, but finding out what really excites you is interesting in and of itself.
Q: “What is a typical day at McKinsey?”
A: “There really is no typical day at McKinsey.”
Ask yourself: do you want to work in a place that has a “typical day”? McKinsey is definitely a place where routine regularly goes out the window.
That being said, a few key things do happen to me weekly at McKinsey. These include:
Problem solving. We use this term a lot at McKinsey, and it is at the core of our value proposition to our clients. This is what we do—think through the most pressing problems facing our clients today.
The McKinsey team-based model truly shines by bringing together people from diverse backgrounds to tackle issues that range from what type of analysis we need to do to how to handle a sensitive situation. Imagine having productive debates where you are encouraged to bring any compelling argument (even if it is contrarian) to the table. We do this every day.
Research and analysis. Depending on the study, you may spend a good chunk of your time conducting research or building a financial model. McKinsey provides a host of resources to help you with both these tasks, including a dedicated research division, with experts in most industries, functions, and geographies, as well as an analytics group to remind you that complex geospatial analysis is possible—but not in Excel.
I am still amazed by the resources we have, including the wealth of individual and institutional knowledge. In fact, it is common practice to spend the beginning of an engagement speaking with colleagues who have worked on similar projects to understand their key learnings and how they could apply at your client.
Storylining. Remember those behind-the-scenes documentaries where screenwriters discuss how they storylined the script for your favorite movie? Well, we do a lot of storylining too. Our great analysis and research become truly compelling when presented as a story. We put a lot of thought into how to structure our presentations so that they are interesting, logical, and persuasive.
In fact, I am increasingly convinced that our documents follow Freytag’s infamous pyramid that illustrates the five elements of a good drama—exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement. Who knew creative writing class would be useful in making PowerPoint presentations?
Team events. If you’ve ever scoffed at those corporate team-bonding events, then scoff no longer. At McKinsey, we try to do one of these events with our teams every couple of weeks…but we get to choose our own events. So whether it’s heading out for dinner, going to a sports game, or playing a game (curling, anyone?), spending time outside work with your team helps you connect with your colleagues and improves your team dynamics.
The frantic dash through the airport. When you fly at least twice a week (back and forth from the client site), the ability to dash through airport security, customs, and half the terminal in order to just barely make the last flight out of town becomes a well-honed skill.
Realizing you’ve memorized the room service menu. This ranks up there with looking forward to the first day of the month because that’s when the airline changes the on-demand movie selection.
If you have questions for our bloggers—or for us in general—please e-mail them to canada_recruiting@mckinsey.com. Check back next week for new entries.
“What do you like best about McKinsey?”
Many of the things I really enjoy about McKinsey—the extremely bright colleagues, the challenging problems, the constant new learning—are discussed in other blog entries. But there is one truly rewarding aspect of McKinsey that we don’t discuss enough with our candidates—our client relationships.
Our clients are every bit as diverse in approach and culture as you would expect. They range from the staid to the eccentric. Their organizations can be laid-back, or they can be as fast-paced as McKinsey is. They may engage us as long-term counselors or as short-term analytical experts. Each client situation is unique, with its own quirks and stress points.
The chance to build these client relationships and the privilege to witness and work within the inner functions of their businesses and organizations is one of the most fulfilling aspects of working at McKinsey. After all, this is our business—being a true thought partner, colleague, and friend to our clients.
Even as a business analysts or associate, you will likely have the opportunity to build a client relationship. Whether this is collaborating with a single individual in finance to build a model or leading a 15-person client team of senior managers, learning to be credible in front of clients and developing a rapport with them is truly rewarding.
This is a privileged situation—to learn to be an adviser to a variety of clients in a variety of sectors so early in your career. To me, this is the best aspect of our work.
“What types of people work for McKinsey?”
If “McKinsey” makes you think of grave, black-suited, faceless corporate minions, you’re sure to be disappointed. In fact, McKinsey is full of the quirkiest, nerdiest, sportiest, and most adventurous group of people I’ve ever met. If you randomly select a handful of McKinsey people, they are bound to have assembled more random tidbits of knowledge than ten Ken Jennings and more crazy adventures than that Mike Harding guy.
At McKinsey, you can find people who’ve climbed Mount Everest, won Olympic gold medals, entered the Guinness Book of World Records, lived through terrorist bombings, nearly been killed by wild elephants, spent their childhood on a boat in Polynesia, nearly sank into the Mariana Trench, performed open-heart surgery, eaten porcupine, and participated in a cheese-rolling competition. And these are just the people I’ve worked with so far.
You might counter that there are interesting people in all organizations, and you would be right. But the team-based nature of our work means that, at McKinsey, you are constantly working with a new group of colleagues from the firm’s global network. As a result, you get to know a far broader spectrum of people than you would elsewhere.
And McKinsey does one thing extra—it combines interesting people with improbable situations. No one can prepare you for that impromptu trivia game with a partner at 10:00 p.m. or a client who likes to listen to loud glam rock when driving or the time your engagement manager and associate principal decide to have a Dance Dance Revolution competition at the local arcade. Whether it’s chasing the northern lights with your team or entering a camel race (this has been known to happen), the intelligence, spirit, and drive of your colleagues make McKinsey a truly great place to work.
Sometimes, I like to think of McKinsey as the Pixar of the corporate world—full of creative, hyperactive minds and bodies. Now, if only we could make our PowerPoint presentations in 3D.…
If you have questions for our bloggers—or for us in general—please e-mail them to canada_recruiting@mckinsey.com. Check back next week for new entries.
Gillian
Business Analyst, Toronto
October 2009
Dear potential hires:
So, you’re considering applying to McKinsey, but you’re still not sure exactly what McKinsey is or what McKinsey does. You’ve Googled the company and have found out that it’s the largest management consulting firm in the world, that it has offices in more than 80 countries, that it serves most Fortune 500 companies, that it counts among its alumni several heads of state, numerous CEOs, and noted humanitarians. You’ve even started noticing its name mentioned in the business section of several global newspapers.
Undoubtedly, your mind is full of questions and concerns. In this blog, I hope to address some of those based on my own experience with McKinsey this past year.
“What’s the worst thing about working for McKinsey?”
I liken this question to the dreaded interview query: "name your three greatest weaknesses.” Beads of sweat emerge. Heart rate accelerates. Should you really confess your chronic YouTube obsession?
All kidding aside, the worst thing about McKinsey is also the best thing—the complete lack of routine.
You never know what is coming at McKinsey—where your next project will be, with whom you’ll be working, how open the client will be to your suggestions, or how many hours you will have to put in this week. In fact, it is not uncommon to receive a call on a Friday afternoon asking you to show up on the other side of the country Monday morning to meet a whole new team and a whole new client.
This can be exhilarating. McKinsey is built on the concept that stretching your boundaries on a daily basis is essential to personal growth, so there is never a dull moment and certainly no such thing as a comfort zone.
Of course, this means that your existence turns into a roller-coaster ride. We live a transient life filled with airports, hotels, rapid-fire e-mails, client meetings, BlackBerries, and innumerable points programs. It might seem glamorous, but it requires hard work, adaptability, and an ability to work or sleep in any form of transportation.
Every day is a challenge, and some days you enjoy it more than others. On those off days, the realization that you will be sleeping in yet another hotel bed, or that you are late for yet another flight, or that you will have to put in five extra hours to complete an urgent analysis, or that you can’t go for drinks with friends because of an evening conference call can be extremely frustrating.
Being a consultant at McKinsey is a highly demanding but highly rewarding job—one that requires a full investment of time and energy but provides high returns. As with any such job, it is stressful, at times exasperating, and often maddeningly unpredictable. But what makes it worthwhile is the learning curve, being surrounded by the highest-caliber colleagues you’re likely to find, and the opportunity to have a real impact on the decisions of governments and Fortune 500 companies.
Stay tuned for more of my perspectives on McKinsey.