Solid consulting skills are vital to a successful career at McKinsey. Before you begin work on client projects, you’ll take part in training programmes that introduce core consulting skills such as structured problem solving, client communications, influencing skills and analytics.

Once you start to work with clients, we’ll provide you with experiences to help you develop. As well as placing you on projects that draw on some aspect of your background, we’ll also give you opportunities to tackle issues you may not have encountered before so that you can build the broad problem-solving skills that will help you succeed in your career.

Individual client projects can run from six weeks to six months.

There is no typical week at McKinsey. Your hours vary according to the client project you are involved in. At the start of a project your team will discuss working patterns to take account of individual needs. There may occasionally be weekend work, but you can usually manage your time to avoid it.

Working on site with our clients enables us to build up a much better understanding of their challenges and needs. About a third of our engagements take place out of town, with consultants typically spending three nights a week away from home. However, all consultants are encouraged to spend Fridays in the London office, and consultants can express a preference for projects closer to home if they wish.

We encourage consultants to steer their own professional development, so you can specify which projects you would like to work on. Our staffing specialists will try to meet your preferences while taking into account the client’s needs, the skills required and the professional development of other consultants.

We value diversity, and our consultants have a wide range of educational and professional backgrounds. This richness gives us the range of expertise we need to tackle our clients’ most complex problems.

Newly hired consultants begin as either generalists or can join one of our practices such as McKinsey Digital or Marketing & Sales.  When joining as a generalist, once they reach the position of engagement (client project) manager, they usually choose to focus on the areas that interest them most.

However, consultants can choose to join as specialists if they have deep industry knowledge or functional expertise. Specialists can serve as active members of a client project team or as sources of knowledge on which teams can draw. Individual specialists vary in the mix of client and knowledge-building work they take on.

Please check our open positions database to search for roles suited to your experience.

Yes. You can find a list of McKinsey offices and their websites on our global site. If you apply online via the site, you can select up to four offices.

When you apply online, it is not necessary to include a cover letter as your application is automatically routed to the appropriate recruitment team. However, if you feel you need to include a cover letter, please address it to Recruitment Manager.

Undergraduate, masters, or PhD students graduating in 2022 from a university in the UK or Ireland, or those who have graduated in the past two years, should apply between September 1 and October 17, 2021.

MBA students should visit our Global Careers site and search for their business school (where applicable) to find the application deadlines.

Applicants working in industry who have more than three years of professional experience are welcome to apply for a consulting position at any time of the year. Please refer to the below “Application deadlines for experienced hires” for our timelines for Associate and Junior Associate hiring.

Up to four location or practice preferences can be selected within one application; for example, it is possible to apply to both ‘London’ and ‘Digital McKinsey/London’.

We recruit for Junior Associate and Associate roles year-round, and have 5 application intake windows for London & Dublin during the year. These application windows are linked to specific interview timelines. You can find the 2021/2022 dates below.

_{* Your interviews will be held on either a Thursday or a Friday}

If the proposed timelines do not work for you, or if you are involved in other recruitment processes, please get in touch with us to see what flexibility we can offer.

You can apply all year round, but regardless when you apply, you will always have the same chances of being invited for interview. After we have made our decision, you will hear from us. With our application deadlines, we create the best possible transparency and planning for your entry.

Prepare for your application here.

Students joining our summer internship programme spend eight to 12 weeks with us between June and August. The programme is open to MBA students and undergraduates in the penultimate year of their degree and is designed to provide an insight into the day-to-day working life of a McKinsey consultant.

Undergraduate students graduating in 2023 who are interested in applying for a summer internship should apply by January 20, 2022. The applications will open in September 2021.

MBA students graduating in 2023 who are interested in applying for a summer internship in the London office can find out more about deadlines by visiting our Global Careers site and looking for your business school.

Up to four location or practice preferences can be selected within one application; for example, it is possible to apply to both ‘London’ and ‘McKinsey Digital/London’.

1. Can I apply to you all year round?

- Yes, you can apply all year round. With every application deadline, you have the same chance of being invited into our selection process.

2. I already have several years of professional experience - does the same process apply to me?

We recruit for Junior Associate and Associate roles year round using this process. For other roles, please refer to the careers page.

3. Do I have the same chance of being invited into the selection process at every application deadline?

Yes, the chances of being invited into the selection process are always the same - regardless of when you apply. We carefully examine each application and make our decision based on a variety of criteria.

4. How long do I wait for a response?

After the deadline has passed, we will review all applications, make our decision and get back to you with feedback. Please refer to the “Application feedback” date in the table above.

5. I would like to apply to specific McKinsey practices including McKinsey Digital, Analytics, Marketing & Sales, Risk or Operations - do the deadlines also apply to these functions?

No, the above deadlines do not apply to specific practices, only to our generalist Junior Associate and Associate applications.

6. Does my potential start at McKinsey depend on a specific deadline?

No, we have a range of start dates throughout the year.

7. How do you prepare for the interviews, and what does the selection process look like?

As part of your application, you will receive an invitation to complete our “McKinsey Problem Solving Game”. If you are successful in being selected for our assessment process, this will contain two rounds of interviews with case studies and personal experience elements. You can find further materials to help you prepare here.

8. I have received an invitation to “Solve, the McKinsey game”. How can I prepare for it?

The following video gives you a good impression of what to expect in Solve, McKinsey's assessment game. Specific preparation is not necessary. Before each task area of the game, the next steps are explained to you in a tutorial. No gaming or economics knowledge is required to successfully complete the game.

Your performance in the assessment will be considered along with the rest of your application and any other assessments you take at this stage. In the interim, should you have any questions about the process, do not hesitate to reach out.

9. What happens if I cannot attend my interview day?

If you are unable to attend your interview day, please reach out to your recruiting contact.

We look for minimum qualifications of AAB at A level or equivalent and a 2.1 degree (expected or actual) in any discipline*.

As well as listing your academic achievements, please tell us about extracurricular interests such as voluntary work, sporting attainment, musical accomplishment and entrepreneurial activities.

Please include all your work experience and internships with dates of employment, role descriptions and details of tangible achievements.

*Requirements for academic transcripts vary per location:

• France, Greece, Ireland, Kazakhstan, Latin America, Middle East, North America, Portugal, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom – Academic transcripts are optional but make sure to include A-level (or equivalent) grades by subject as well as overall university grade on your CV
• Asia and Pacific, Belgium, Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland – Submit academic transcripts form university with your application
• Africa, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden – Submit academic transcripts from high school onwards with your application

When we receive your application, we’ll send you an automated e-mail acknowledgement. You should receive a decision on your application within three weeks.

Please note that if yours is a milkround application you should not expect to receive a decision before the application deadline. However, if you receive an offer elsewhere, please contact us immediately and we will try to expedite the process to meet your timeframe.

If your application is unsuccessful, we regret we will be unable to accept further applications from you for the same role in any McKinsey office for 12 months.

McKinsey’s London office has a dedicated team to help students at UK universities apply to our offices worldwide. To be considered for one of our global offices, you need a strong tie to the country concerned and business-level proficiency in the local language.

For information on internship opportunities at other McKinsey offices, please visit our global recruiting page.

To find out about individual offices, visit our locations page.