I joined McKinsey as an experienced hire. I had completed my MBA at Rotman four years prior and had been working in financial services in Toronto for more than eight years. I was thrilled to join McKinsey and a little worried about starting a new career. My excel skills were rusty and didn't know all the PowerPoint shortcuts. I reminded myself what colleagues had said during new hire training: "We didn't hire you for what you know, we hired you for who you are." I would learn the rest.
Receiving formal and informal support
My skills have improved 10-fold in the year I've been at McKinsey. The strength of the training, mentorship, and expertise at McKinsey quickly relieved my initial concerns. In addition to the multiple weeks of structured training at every advancement, I receive ongoing constructive feedback on a daily basis from my team members and leaders.
During my first client project, I needed to understand McKinsey's latest thinking on a particular topic. I was quickly overwhelmed with the breadth and depth of available material in our internal sharing and learning platforms. I asked the business analyst on my team how he would sift through this vast amount of information. He was incredibly patient, spending nearly 30 minutes showing me the systems and talking me through his thought process for prioritization. Without that guidance, I would have spent needless hours being ineffective with my search. That real-time coaching is an example of how the collaborative culture at McKinsey has supported me to be at my best.
My impact transcends across industries
My favorite part about working at McKinsey is the diversity and complexity of the problems our clients seek our support to solve. Since joining McKinsey, I have served five clients in four industries across two countries as part of two McKinsey offices. At the onset of COVID-19, I had the incredible privilege of supporting a North American state-level government with its response to the public health crisis.
Due to the urgency and humanitarian impact of the work, there were late nights and early mornings. Our McKinsey and client teams were working around the clock. Despite the intensity, when my development group lead called to check in on how I was feeling, my response was unequivocal: "There is nowhere I'd rather be, except not in a pandemic." I was incredibly thankful to be in a role to support our public servants and elected officials in uncertain times. There was a lot we didn't know about the disease at that time, but I took solace knowing we were bringing all of McKinsey's research and experience to the table.
My love for travel
Outside of work I am an avid traveler. In the past 10 years I have travelled to 47 countries and six continents. One trip that is especially dear to me is the trip with my father to Peru last October. He dreamed of seeing Machu Picchu, and I had the crazy idea we should hike to the top. I'm happy to report we made it! With all that has happened this year, I'm incredibly thankful we seized that opportunity when we could.
Once it is safe to travel again, a target personal milestone is to travel to all seven continents. Until then I will continue supporting local businesses and exploring all the parks nearby with my new buddy, Castiel, our seven-month-old Golden Retriever puppy.