Does anyone here have previous interactions with McKinsey? Haven’t heard the firm mentioned often, but would like to hear any AFers experience or insight with the firm. Thanks!
What would you like to know? I know some people who worked there and maybe can ask.
They were consulting our department at my first job. The people were really enjoyable, but the changes they proposed didn’t really stick. I think they were well intentioned, but overall ineffective. This was my perspective as one of the people working in a role they were redesigning. I just started so I wasn’t attached to either process, but I can confirm the old ways won and were probably more effective to begin with.
They are really good at bringing energy. I think people were generally excited to have them around until they found out their ideas. Sometimes it’s difficult to give advice on how to do something without having ever done it and working only with upper management (who don’t have the day to day experiences). I think they’re a lot more effective and personable than the outfit working at my new job.
Personally, I don’t see the point in consulting for most things though.
IEV worked there. He posted a nice recap of his experience last year.
I’d interviewed with McKinsey and got a summer internship offer from them years ago, and have about 100 connections that are past or present employees at the firm. What insights are you looking for?
Consulting and banking don’t go together. My opinion is, consultants can suck it. I’m thinking @gselevator will agree. Just saying.
Their research is subpar at best.
McKinsey is widely recognized as one of the top 3 management consulting firms, along with Bain and BCG.
Sounds like others here are more qualified to provide some insight, but I’m surprised you haven’t heard more about them.
I think the people that work at these top consulting firms are A+ people. They tick all the boxes - smart, polished, personable etc. However, I think that corporations do waste an exhorbitant amount of money hiring these big consulting firms for not much ROI. I mean the vast majority of operational/business issues/problems can be solved in 2 seconds by just listening to employees and customers. But for some reason it sounds much better coming from “McKinsey” of “BCG”.
Oh I know who they are. I meant more worked for/with lol
The reason I ask is I applied for a position with them mostly on a whim. I never expected to hear from them, since I only have 50% of the desired time in the relevant field. I was more excited that the position existed and mentally made a note to look for that type of gig when I reach the desired time. However, the HR department contacted me today to have an initial discussion to serve as a pre-screen to determine if an interview process should be started. I know that McKinsey interviews are very structured, so wanted to get a sense of the process. Most of the stuff I find on the internet related to getting hired out of college, which I’m sure is useful as well
From what I have heard and partly experienced, McKinsey, Google and GS run the most gruelling recruitment processes known to mankind.
That seems to be a consesus opinion ha ha This is why I’m skeptical when they say you don’t need to know anything before the talk with HR.
We have their evil twin BCG working on special projects at my company. Biggest waste of money I have ever seen.
My most grueling interviews were from hedge funds by a long shot. From my friends that have interviewed with Google, they say those are pretty intellectually challenging and involve lots of problem-solving and brainstorming. My experience with GS interviews is that they haven’t been terrifying, but they do kick the tires a lot and have you meet with multiple people, sometimes multiple times apiece.
While my McK interviews were challenging, I found them less difficult than Bain and BCG interviews (for the brief time I had considered becoming a consultant). Solving a case in the “recommended format” is not one of my strong points, hence Bain and BCG being more difficult. However, the format for McKinsey interviews back when I interviewed with them in business school was that on a super day, you’d meet with multiple people and then would be asked to provide assessments of various business situations, what could go wrong, etc. It felt a lot more like trying to battle-test an investment thesis than most case interviews which feel more like the game of “20 questions” to me.
One area I have heard many people struggle on McK interviews though is with the personal assessments - unlike Bain or BCG, they really go into understanding your decision-making process, leadership and teamwork capabilities from past roles. Basically, you need to have outstanding self-awareness and receptivity to feedback, both of which are important to the McK culture. Bain and BCG interviews tend to be much more about cases. With McK, if you don’t know your resume cold and can’t talk in very specific details about what you actually accomplished and what your thought processes were during those times, you’re screwed.
A lot of this is just “CYA” for senior management or board of directors. That way if something goes wrong, all they have to say is “Well, we’re sorry this didn’t work out but this was probably just an outlier. We had thought it was a good idea, and those consultants that we hired from BCG agreed. We’ll do better next time.”
Thanks for the insight Numi
This pretty much summarizes my experience with them.
Vince Vaughn showed us all in The Internship.
This comment on WSJ sums it up: “What a racket consulting firms have going on: come into a company you have no experience in, observe for a few weeks, pump out a massive ppt deck full of useless stats and charts, and charge millions for said useless advice. Any CEO that hires a consulting firm should be fired immediately as it proves he is incompetent to do his own job.”
If consultants actually had the sixth sense that they claim they possess, they’d be full-blown investment managers.