Tips for Advanced Professional Degree Candidates

• We have experience reading academic resumes/CVs, so there is no need to fit your information into a traditional business format
• Include all teamwork and/or leadership experiences. We encourage you to add all of these experiences to your CV or resume. You are welcome to include examples from your undergraduate experience as well.
• Highlight distinctive awards, honors and fellowships
• PhDs and Postdocs should highlight top labs. We are familiar with top departments in most fields, but not necessarily the renowned researchers.
• Include entrepreneurship examples. We are interested in examples where you have founded, started or created something new and the impact of those efforts.
• Include meaningful work experience. We’re interested in all meaningful work experience, not just work experience related to business (full-time positions, internships, military service)
• Include anything else that is distinctive. We are interested in all academic and non-academic achievements from the recent past
• Consider including interests outside of academics. They will not help or hurt your application but can be good conversation starters in an interview
• Do not include personal references or summaries of your research papers or copies of journal publications.
• Cover letter is not required.

• Know your initial location preferences. Be thoughtful about your location preferences as you may interview with only one country. If you are interested in multiple countries, include a location from each country of interest within your top four office selections.
• Visa applications. Please also consider where you are legally authorized to work. While we support work visa applications for full-time hires, the availability of visas and final approval is out of our control and may impact your ability to start in a given location as planned
• Standardized test scores (e.g., GMAT, GRE, LSAT, MCAT, SAT). You will be better served by providing your scores, even if they are low, than by leaving them off. If you have not taken any of these standardized tests, you will be able to note this fact on the application.
• Undergraduate performance. You may enter performance based on your GPA, class rank/percentile, and/or honors (e.g., cum laude).
• Cover letter. A cover letter is not required, unless you wish to alert us to an unusual circumstance or to provide information on a reapplication.

Assessment process

US and UK APD candidates go through a two round interview process, outlined below. APD students in other regions of the world will go through interviews with individual hiring teams and the process may vary. For all candidates, we encourage you to review our interview preparation guidance. Approaches may vary by location.

First round

The first round typically consists of two 45-minute one-on-one interviews. Each interview will include a business case interview to test problem solving, and an experience interview to test other skill areas. Our interviewers are trained to examine candidates' past accomplishments in depth in order to determine if the skills they possess would position them well for a successful career at McKinsey. Candidates need to be prepared to discuss their most important experiences in a very detailed way, focusing on their specific role and describing their actions that were critical to success.

For UK APD candidates, interviews are always hosted in the London office regardless of the candidates' destination office.  Additionally, any MDs or Medical residents working or studying in the UK will go through their interview process with an individual hiring location or practice and not through the central UK APD recruiting process.

Final round

The final round of interviews will take place in the office in which the candidate will ultimately work. Each office and practice has a slightly different format for its final-round interviews and will give candidates a detailed description prior to the interview day.