How to get into McKinsey – Blue Chapter

How to get into McKinsey

In this article, we highlight some key points around working at Mckinsey and how you can build your profile to get an interview invite from the firm.

Nature of work

At Mckinsey, an individual can expect to work on projects from all over the world and across industries. Along with having great academic and professional backgrounds, Mckinsey individuals are great team players and easy to work with.

Application insights

There are essentially three ways of applying for various roles at Mckinsey. Firstly, students can apply through university by being involved in campus recruitment activities. Secondly, individuals can find roles online on the website and submit an application. Lastly, networking with the right set of individuals and applying through their referral is an effective way to apply.

Speaking about recruitment trends, most of the generalist roles are fulfilled by students from campus recruitments and young professionals. For experienced individuals, applying to a certain practice (Marketing and Sales, Finance) for a specialist role is more favorable.

Profile building tips for Experienced Individuals

Every practice area at Mckinsey is looking for individuals with deep experience in specific areas, useful to that practice. For specialist roles, Mckinsey looks at the understanding of industry trends and client knowledge in potential candidates.

One can explore the Mckinsey website and read about Practice projects, useful for doing a mapping of their own experience and understanding an ideal role fit.

Hence, for experienced professionals, it is essential to highlight their niche expertise through work done in various industries. This can be highlighted on the resume by mentioning the work done and the impact created as well. Highlighting the value addition is a crucial aspect of the application.

Profile building tips for Students and Young Professionals

For students applying through campus recruitment, it is important to highlight leadership experience and initiatives taken at University. The ability to work in teams easily should also reflect in the resume. In order to develop these factors, students can be involved in starting consulting clubs, leading small teams in a start-up, or showcasing leadership initiatives in some capacity goes a long way.

Building a strong GPA is an important factor for students and may not be as important for experienced applicants due to their niche expertise.

Lastly, for anybody applying to consulting firms, specifically Mckinsey, having strong case solving skills is a must. This is an essential criterion of the interview process, where several rounds of interviewer-led cases are conducted for testing ones consulting skills.

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