McKinsey’s is the kind of place where the receptionist buzzes you in and asks three times if you’d like a cold drink while you wait for your appointment.
The kind of building that wins an award for architectural design, perhaps due to its tastefully minimalist flair: the exterior is a pleasing mix of off-white brick, off-white stone and orange-brown wood arranged in smooth 90-degree angles.
But what do the people inside this award-winning building do?
“McKinsey is a management consulting firm,” explained Andrew Pickersgill, principal of the Toronto branch. “The profession comes from a desire clients have, whether it’s multinational companies, governments, [or] non-profits…for unbiased outside advice and expertise on really tough business problems.”
In a nutshell, McKinsey scours university campuses looking for top talent, or distinctiveness, as those who work for “the firm” term it. After a brutal interview process, those who remain standing are put through a grueling few weeks of training.
Within a few months these fresh-faced graduates are putting in 60-70 hour weeks, working in consulting teams that advise the bosses of some of the top corporations on how to run their business better. And, in a few decades, many former McKinsey consultants will find themselves at the other end of the boardroom table.
McKinsey & Co. is one of the most sought-after employers in the business world. It actively recruits a handful of new U of T graduates each year as management consultants-a position so coveted it seems like the Rhodes scholarship in prestige.
Pickersgill laughed at the comparison, but admitted that the company has hired Rhodes scholars. In fact, he noted, the company has hired just about every kind of graduate, many from non-business programs.
“We hire tons of engineers, doctors, lawyers. We hire PhDs, Rhodes scholars, a fair number of MBAs and a few undergrad commerce students. It’s a real mix.”
Ganendra Nikhil, an ex-U of T student turned McKinsey consultant is proof of that.
“I did my undergrad in engineering science, and right after that I did my master’s in bio-medical/chemical engineering at U of T. At McKinsey, I do mostly retail and high-tech, so nothing to do with bio-medical engineers or science.”
The recruiting process is rigorous.
“It tests nothing to do with business specifics. You’ll have engineers and people with English or science backgrounds who don’t have any specific business knowledge,” said Nikhil. Following the test are two rounds of interviews. Not everyone who makes it through the first round comes back for the second.
The statistics are quite jarring.
“In Canada last year, we screened over a thousand applications,” said Pickersgill.
Of that number, approximately 150-200 applicants were from U of T. One third of the total number of applicants make it to the first round of interviews, and of that third, fifty percent make it to the second. About 90 per cent accept an offer from McKinsey. The entire process takes at least three months.
Pickersgill insisted that any ex-U of T student could apply and make it through. But that “anyone” has to have some pretty extraordinary abilities.
“We look for distinctiveness. That’s a word we use a lot,” said Nikhil.
It translates into people who are near the top of their class, people who have started foundations or done remarkable non-profit, pro-bono work, and people who have outstanding communication, personal presence, leadership and problem-solving skills.
So while McKinsey makes a point not to judge applicants by their academic program, for Joe Blow, an affable student with a 3.2 GPA and a considerable though not terribly prestigious list of extracurricular and work experience, getting a job offer from McKinsey is near impossible.
Pickersgill put it simply: “If we don’t hire great people, we don’t have a firm.”
This is especially important for a company that has few safety measures in place in case their clients are dissatisfied with results. Most dealings are done by handshake rather than lengthy contracts or rules.
Newly hired undergraduates (their official title is “business analyst” as opposed to grad students, who are “business associates”) typically spend two to three years at the company, including one year in another McKinsey office abroad. Many go on to graduate school (often totally or partially paid for by McKinsey) and many return to the company after getting their master’s.
Their average work week is 60-65 hours per week, most of which is not spent in an office but on-site with their clients.
However, Pickersgill refused to talk about the salary of newly hired university graduates. But they are no doubt well compensated. And the company offers a wealth of opportunities for recent graduates, too.
“Someone who’s never done anything in financial services or health care or retail can touch all those things in this two-year window. So it’s an incredible place to get this diversity of industry, global and functional experiences right out of school,” said Nikhil.
