Advice and info about Mckinsey Onboarding and first month.

Hi there,

Here’s what to expect when onboarding at McKinsey as a Delivery Consultant, and how to prepare:

1. Onboarding Program (first 1–2 weeks):
You’ll go through Welcome to McKinsey (WTM), covering firm values, core consulting skills, and tools. You’ll also receive role-specific training (e.g. agile delivery, digital tools).

2. Capability Induction:
You’ll attend sessions tailored to your specific team (e.g. Implementation, Digital), learning delivery toolkits, role expectations, and meeting key team members.

3. Early Engagements:
You might shadow a live project or take on limited-scope responsibilities to ease into client work.

4. Support Structure:
You’ll be assigned a PD Manager, Coach, and Buddy to support your staffing, development, and day-to-day questions.

5. First Month Expectations:

• Steep learning curve and fast-paced work.
• Lots of feedback and coaching.
• Be ready to handle ambiguity and take initiative.
• Hours can be long depending on client, but Delivery roles tend to be more structured.

Advice:

• Take ownership early and ask questions often.
• Build relationships within your team and capability.
• Capture and reuse frameworks as you learn.
   

Wow, you're on to quite a journey. 

McKinsey training always starts with a week long training called Embark. You'll get all the basics there. 

Typically, the office that you'll be joining will be running their own induction. 

And lastly, if you are part of a specific practice (e.g., Delivery/Implementation), they are likely to run their own. 

Don't stress about them. Be open. Enjoy them. Meet people. You're likely to start working with them soon. You're not assessed for anything at this point, so it should be a stress free environment. 

And if you're joining the firm soon, you might find the guide below helpful. I tried to pack in all my learnings from the first years in consulting:

• Expert Guide: How to Become A Distinctive Consultant

Good luck!
Cristian

You’ll have a 1 week long training called ‘Embark’ which covers consulting fundamentals and how to navigate the company

Then you’ll be assigned to your first project to ‘shadow’ a more senior consultant and learn the ropes.

A couple of months in, and you’ll be expected to have learned how to run a workstream and you’ll start delivering stuff on your own!

Hello! The best thing you can do at the start is just show up: go to the office, get curious about all the different types of work, and have casual 1:1s with consultants of all tenures!! After Embark week (best week in McK!), you’ll be assigned a Professional Development Manager who will handle your staffing at the beginning. Early on, staffing mostly goes through your PDM, so don’t worry too much about chasing projects (even if people at Embark may be super stressed about it). Once you’ve got a few reps and start building relationships, you’ll have more say in where you go next. Also, be super open-minded: some of the projects I was least excited about ended up being the ones that opened the biggest doors. Good luck and make your own McKinsey :)