Saturday, March 17, 2007

Looking back on 2 years with McKinsey

I've added tags to almost all of my posts now to make it easier for readers to browse my posts by subject. Just now, I browsed through all my posts about my time at McKinsey before coming to London Business School. It was beautiful to look back and think about what a crazy and enriching experience it has been, and also to think about all the friends I made there. I also think most of the things I am enjoying and looking forward to now are thanks to my time there - the benefits I earned through hard work, the brand name, the trainings, the coaching by Managers and Partners - in a way I can engage on a new path now and the path is much more rosy thanks to the effort I put in there. I was remembering what our global head Ian Davis said at one training:

"Being successful at McKinsey doesn't mean making partner. Being successful means that whenever you look back on your time with McKinsey later in life, you think it was the right thing to do at that moment of my life and I'm glad I did it"

But reading through these posts, you will also understand how different my life is now. I play tennis in the sun almost every day, I play football with the women's team, I go to Richmond Park, Hyde Park, Regent's Park a lot, I am planning lots and lots of holidays around the world, I enjoy trying out new restaurants, I sleep a lot, I have new friends from all over the world ... this definitely beats working 17h days!










12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Angie, just saw your posts about consulting.. it's great and very helpful. Thanks for them!

It's ironic that I have been trying to get in McKinsey since the past 5 years, tried once in '02 and then again in '03....

I have been thinking about targeting them post-MBA. But after reading your posts, I am not sure anymore...

I actually want to get in strategy consulting and after gaining some experience, I want to go on and do some consulting to governments (in developing countries).... what would be the best way to proceed you think?

Thanks in Advance,
The ambitious one.

Anonymous said...

Hi Angie,
I have been an avid reader of your blog. Especially since not many people in my school writes a blog..
I currently doing my MBA at IE. Would like to seek your advise...

Did you interview candidates during your time at McK?

And for consulting in general, is the case interview the most important part of the interview process?
In my school, some guys are going all out to network with the consultants. I'm trying to figure out whether to spend time on case interview practise OR networking?

angie said...

Anonymous 1: sorry to hear about that. If you want to go into developing countries after that - why don't you do it right away? It depends a bit on your current expertise, but especially as an engineer or doctor, but even as an economist or sociologist, there are many ways to work as a consultant for NGOs or governmental development agencies. Otherwise just try to develop some expertise in whichever field that you could use to transfer your knowledge in developing countries.

Anonymous 2): at the McK interview, all parts are important. You cannot say if fit or case is more important, since everything has to be very good in order for you to pass - so everything is equally important. But despite fit being important, networking with consultants is a waste of time in terms of lobbyism they can do for you. Networking only helps you in terms of having a clearer picture of what consulting is about and what the interview will be like. Beyond that, networking is useless at least with the big consultancies, the hiring process is very transparent and fair without nepotism. So if you have to make the trade-off, I would always go for case preparation over networking. But ideally, you should do your case preparation with former consultants, so perhaps you can combine the two :-).

Anonymous said...

Hi Angie,

This is anonymous 1. Thanks for your response.
Is it possible to email you? I am not sure your email is posted on the blog site...
thanks!

Anonymous said...

Thanks a lot for your valuable advise. Really really appreciate it.

I have done lots of networking to know enough about consulting. But was under a bit of peer pressure to join in the lobbying effort in trying to get on the consultants good books lately...

Anonymous 2

Anonymous said...

Angie,
My contact has nothing to do with this subject.
I am a LBS/INSEAD MBA candidate who got accepted at both schools.
I am now confused about which school to choose. Can I contact you through an email? I am visiting LBS in 9 days and I know very few LBS students to show me their views about the school.
My email is rupi_13@hotmail.com.

Thanks.

Best regards, Rui

Anonymous said...

Hello Angie! congrats for your blog and for your exciting new life at LBS, after intensive times at McK!
I am an Italian applicant for LBS R2, I have just been waitlisted...now I am planning to visit the school. Would you give em some precious suggestions about visiting the school? First of all, I guess it is not worth coming on Saturday...We have some vacations in Italy on April 9th (monday after Easter) and April 23-24-25. Is the school open on those days? thank you.

Michele

Anonymous said...

Hi Angie,

Nice to meet you. Just been browsing some blogs and came across yours. Interesting read.

As a matter of interest why are you interested in getting into Sales and Trading and were the long hours with your last employer the big turnoff why you left?

Do you have a life plan for post IB?

Best wishes,
Tom

angie said...

Michele, the best time to visit school would be at the end of April, since it is spring break at the moment and almost all students are on holidays abroad.

Tom - hours in S&T are very different, usually 12h per day, no weekend work and you get to sleep in your bed. This definitely beats working 16h/day, sleeping in hotels and getting up at 4:30 on Monday morning to catch flights out of town. It's a big difference in quality of life compared to consultants and people usually stay much longer.

Clear Admit said...

Hi Angel Angie! As you may have seen in our blog earlier today, your blog has been nominated for Clear Admit's annual Best of Blogging Awards. You can find more information about the contest and a complete list of the nominees at http://blog.clearadmit.com/2007/04/best-of-blogging-nominees-2007/.

Input from the nominees is a key part of establishing the final ranking, so we'd love to have you participate. If you're interested in voting, simply email us at bestofblogging@clearadmit.com to receive a ballot.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Best,
the Clear Admit team

Anonymous said...

Hi Angie,

Thanks for the reply and congrads on the nomination. As a matter of interest how many cases did you face in the McKinsey interviews (10?) and what frameworks did you learn in during your time there.

Be well,
Tom.

Forrest Gump said...

thanks for the comment AA. I will definitely meet you there this fall, and we should catch up for some drinks. maybe we could a do a small bloggers meet, since so many of us are headed to GSB, and a few to Kellogg.