Widening my perspective

My journey to become a data scientist at McKinsey was a thrilling adventure that stretched across three countries and two continents. I started interviewing during my last semester of graduate school in South Korea. In the quiet of winter, I jumped on video conferences with senior data scientists and analytics practitioners all over the world from the comfort of my lab.

Breadth and depth
After these session, I visited McKinsey’s office in my hometown, Manila, for final round interviews. What struck me most during this process? The firm’s geographic breadth and expertise are extensive, and yet, math, statistics, and computer science are universal languages.

I packed my bags and moved to Melbourne shortly after receiving the offer from McKinsey. Since I started, I’ve built machine learning systems and worked alongside incredibly talented colleagues on everything from commodities trading to customer value management.

Driving change through algorithms
I’ve increased my technical breadth and depth through exposure to diverse business domains. More importantly, my work has allowed me to see how algorithmic performance translates to actual value and real change for our clients.

I’ve been mentored by senior firm members (some of whom I met during interviews) and developed new skills through in–person and online technical and soft–skill training sessions. My first few months have widened my perspective of the possible. I look forward to forging my data science journey at McKinsey in the years to come.

Find a job like Christine’s



About Christine
Melbourne-based Christine is a data scientist with McKinsey's QuantumBlack team. Prior to McKinsey she was a machine-learning researcher at a data-science startup in Manila. She holds a a bachelor's in computer science from the University of the Philippines Diliman, and a master's in knowledge-service engineering from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology.

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

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