McKinsey & Company Reviews

Former Employee – worked at McKinsey & Company full-time for more than a year

Pros – Best training
exposure
work with best ppl

Cons – Travel
Choice of projects is not that flexible

Advice to Senior Management – Smile

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at McKinsey & Company full-time

Pros – - If you want to do top management consulting McKinsey should be on the top of your list..The reputation, market value, experience, growth opportunities are unparallelled.
- The fact that McK is a lot bigger than BCG, Bain etc give you more opportunities
- Job opportunities after McK...Compare the offers you get after a few years with McK with most other jobs and McK is a clear winner...I still hear about people being referred to as an "ex McK" person many years after they have left (as a "quality stamp")
- People processes (staffing, reviews, personal development, training etc) is truly world class.. I have worked at other consulting companies and seen how things are done at McKinsey's clients...McKinsey is simply world class here...
- Knowledge network of material, research, experts etc...Its very impressive and you will learn "what matters" very quickly when you need help (people are in general incredibly helpful)

Cons – - Work load and travel...If you have a problem with extensive travel and struggle with fairly heavy work load this is not the place for you...
- Overly focus on "large global institutions"... Lots of exciting opportunities you will never see because the clients are deemed to be too small or don't fit what the partners are being measured on.. Things are changing a bit here, but it will take many years....
- "Entrepreneurship" is encouraged...however at the end of the day you will not be successful if you stretch the boundaries outside where there are others already active (new clients, new functional topics etc...)..

Advice to Senior Management – -

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at McKinsey & Company full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – high level of values, integrity, excellence, challenges, learning opportunities, great people, smart coworkers, high levels of trust, excellent processes for serving clients.

Cons – some people work very very long hours. If you want to be promoted, you have to be doing the job already.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at McKinsey & Company as an intern for less than a year

Pros – - Mobility - McKinsey has branches all over the world so moving around depending on project preferences or country preferences is easy.
- Approachable and friendly staff.
- Steep learning curve - from day 1 you are encouraged to work with the biggest CEOs and on the biggest projects.
- Better working hours (compared to ibanking, etc)
- They pay for business school.

Cons – - May not always get the project you want.
- Hours are unpredictable.
- Often work involves directly interacting with the client in not-so-comfortable (geographically) setting.
(for example, a mining project I was handling involved me needing to go to the mine and be exposed to the environment) (interesting, but got tiring after a while)

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at McKinsey & Company full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – We have the right to dissent

Cons – sometimes that right is not taken in the spirit it is given

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at McKinsey & Company full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – -fantastic people
-environment that fosters information sharing
-top tier pay and benefits
-amazing work environment/office

Cons – -non-hierarchical business model leaves little room for advancement
-too much micro managing from low level management (one particular individual, not necessarily the norm)

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at McKinsey & Company

Pros – Amazing development opportunities through client interactions, responsibilities and coaching

Cons – Sometimes hard to manage work-life balance

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at McKinsey & Company

Pros – Kick start on learning how business works in the real work
Work with genuinely smart coworkers
Spending 2 years here at the start of your career will put you ahead of most peers who didn't start in Management Consulting, when it comes to your next job, B-School, etc.

Cons – Terrible work life balance
Management doesn't really care about your personal development or issues - the client/partners come first
Staying here past 2 years is a dumb move - making partner in a reasonable number of years is not a workable goal - move to another consulting shop or go join industry

Advice to Senior Management – None

Former Employee – worked at McKinsey & Company

Pros – + Well respected firm, working for McKinsey can put another $25K on your resume, at least I'm told this
+Top percentile academic business/law students often receive an offer to this company
++Beer Tap onsite... Can't argue with that!
+Extraordinary amount of time off (4 weeks average)
+Global influence
+Lots of prestigous events
(Bests reasons to work for McKinsey are not related to the actual job)

Cons – -- Extremely poor support staff management
-- Very VERY monotonous, surprised that Ivy League graduates are employed here
-- Support community is treated very negatively, and often frowned upon.
-- Promotions within support were handled based on popularity, not on communications or a relevant skillset
-- The reviews communicated to me consisted of VERY positive work ethics, and was given additional workload, only to discover the "Firm" wanted to part ways with me.
-- Did not receive any reason for dismissal, requested it, they informed me "We by law cannot inform you why we want you to leave"
- Upon job searching, everybody who sees McKinsey & Company thinks it's Mackenzie Financial (In Canada) unless applying for a senior management position, then you might get lucky.

Advice to Senior Management – Revisit your strategy on IT, reorganize your present IT support infrastructure, and stop basing the CSSA group... We're university graduates with Cisco/PMP/technical degrees (top percentile) and not some jerk in overseas in a call centre.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at McKinsey & Company

Pros – Great opportunity to learn and network. Learn from very bright coworkers and work on very interesting projects with high-level management. Practice your presentation skills and the work is very challenging and engaging.

Cons – Very long hours. Hard to have work life balance. Requires a lot of travelling back and forth, and hotel nights in different locations. Some clients do not accept recommendations and feels like six weeks of work just went down the drain.

Advice to Senior Management – Give us better work-life balance. Travel is a big pain but is part of the deal. Salary is quite good, so keep it that way.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend