At my best with McKinsey

Tech Parenthood Flexibility Western Europe Africa Asia-Pacific North America

June 24, 2020At McKinsey, technologists have the autonomy and flexibility to follow their own career paths, with the support of a 4.5K+ tech community and a 30K+ person firm. Colleagues have access to the world’s leading functional and industry experts, mentors, and personalized technical and leadership trainings.

We asked six technologists around the world to tell us about meaningful experiences they’ve had at McKinsey that have helped them grow personally and professionally.

A seat at the table

Jared, design, Austin

I studied architecture, and worked with a few agencies designing physical spaces and trying on different hats in my work. At design agencies, you don’t work directly with leaders, so products are often designed in a vacuum, and it can be difficult to meet the end users’ needs. I joined McKinsey about three years ago because I wanted to have a seat at the leadership table, and bring design to the core functions of business.

For example, I worked on a transportation and logistics project with a supply chain company that wanted to better service its smaller customers. The business identified that a large majority of their customer base was small business owners, so sales representatives would spend 70 to 80 percent of their time on sales that only generated 20 percent of revenue. Through qualitative interviews, capability building, and frequent user testing, we identified pain points and developed a product informed by design from start to finish.

Autonomy and flexibility

Divya, agile coaching, Bengaluru

Joining McKinsey has had a huge impact on my professional and personal life. The level of trust McKinsey places in its people and flexibility the firm allows has enabled me to grow my family while advancing my career.

My husband is in the army, and is often deployed to areas with no McKinsey presence. McKinsey allowed me to work remotely for close to three years, so I could stay with him and strike a good balance between work and personal life. I was even promoted while I was working remotely. I had a very difficult pregnancy and was advised to stay on bedrest, where again the firm was supportive and I worked from home for the duration of my pregnancy. Many women worry that when they return from maternity leave, their career paths will be thrown off, however, not only was I on track, but also promoted once again shortly after returning to work. Now, I am an associate partner and director of digital delivery and lead a team of 150 people based out of the Bengaluru office.

Freedom to explore

Rebecca, data science, Denver

After finishing my master’s, I moved to Colorado to join McKinsey’s Denver office as a data scientist in the global chemicals and agriculture practice. Although I was eager to work on the firm’s exciting and demanding projects, I didn’t want to give up my passion for mountaineering and wilderness emergency rescue.

That’s when I discovered Take Time, a McKinsey program that helps people like me pursue their dreams outside of work—like going on expeditions to ice caves within the glacier of an active volcano. I’m one of more than 1,600 people at the firm who take advantage of the Take Time program, which allows colleagues to take up to 10 weeks of additional unpaid time off per year. Through it, I’ve periodically taken time off to stay involved in the mountain and cave rescue community.

Last year, I spent five days inside the crater of Mount Saint Helens, serving as a technical specialist and emergency responder for an international team of explorers and researchers from five nations and a dozen organizations. I had the privilege of helping facilitate science experiments in glaciology, microbiology, and more. One project involved a specialized rover, NASA’s Ice Worm, that can climb up frozen walls using a system of drills to mimic an inchworm’s movement. The ice caves were a great test environment for the extreme conditions it might see on Jupiter’s icy moon, Europa. My colleagues were incredibly supportive of me taking on this adventure, and having the flexibility to take unpaid time helps me create the work-life balance that brings me meaning.

Problem-solving as a team

Giuseppe, product management, Nairobi

I’ve recently been supporting an insurance client’s digital transformation in Nairobi. It’s been such an incredible experience building a digital business from scratch. We identified which parts of the insurance business to focus on, and then co-created multiple digital journeys, which have delivered high business impact and customer value.

The people who I have worked with here at the firm since I joined have been fantastic. Coming from the telecom and aerospace industries, there was definitely a learning curve. I had to adapt to how things are done here while ensuring the quality of work delivered for a client is always high.

For example, on this project, we needed to deliver two android applications that were giving us a lot of technical issues the day before our alpha launch. We set out to troubleshoot as a team to insure the issues identified were resolved in time for our launch with the client the next day. We ended up working late into the night resolving all issues and successfully delivered the apps to the client. Some of the best times I’ve had with my team were in high-pressure situations like this, where everyone brings their best to the table and works on a solution collaboratively.

Building friendships and giving back

Najeeb, software engineering, Kuala Lumpur

McKinsey has given me the opportunity to work alongside highly motivated colleagues and drive real change utilizing the best technology. I’m part of a diverse work force, I’m always meeting new people, and I’m involved in the full project process of scoping and discovery to solution delivery. I cherish these moments. I’ve had unmatched experiences and built lasting friendships along the way.

In late 2019, with the help of McKinsey, I was involved in a local Malaysian program called re.code. This non-profit organization aims to equip migrant communities with new skills through digital learning workshops. This collaborative effort allowed me to transfer my knowledge as a software engineer to a group of young migrants by teaching them how to code and pursue their passion in software programming. I enjoyed my time running this program as I was able to contribute back to society.

Over the past three years with McKinsey, I’ve experienced growth and life-changing moments on professional and personal levels. As I embrace fatherhood and see my beautiful six-month-old boy growing up and learning new things every day, I am blessed to know the journey ahead is vibrant.

Learning as I work

Helen, data science, San Francisco

I joined McKinsey after completing my master’s in learning analytics at Colombia University. When I started, I was staffed on a short-term project where we were using data to help the client understand how their talent strategy compares with their peers’. It was a standard question, but the sample size was too small for us to draw any statistically significant conclusion. I felt too inexperienced to push back, even though the data wasn’t good enough to tell the story.

The client didn’t quite understand my concerns, and insisted we carry forward with the analysis. As expected, the result couldn’t tell a strong enough story, and the client was not very happy with it. I reached out to my engagement manager for her feedback. Instead of blaming me, my engagement manager provided constructive feedback and tactical advice on how to handle situations like this and avoid such problems in the future. She also shared her own personal experiences with similar issues.

At McKinsey, we’re not expected to know everything. As a fresh graduate, I was trusted to manage my own workstream and work alongside senior leaders on my first projects. It’s important to have a learning mindset and know when to ask for help. We have a network of experts on every topic you can think of and they are just an email or call away.

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For more information on McKinsey's tech career paths, visit mckinsey.com/TechCareers