Business Analyst or Junior Associate

Hi there,

1. In theory in your case it should apply to both BA and JA, given the latter is even a more senior position. However as mentioned by Ken I know cases where candidates managed to interview for a different office within the ban period when applying via referral (I would recommend to be transparent with the person referring though)
2. I would not expect the bar to be lower for JA than for BA - JA is even a more senior position
3. I would be transparent with the person referring you - they should be able to advise on the best way to proceed. Explain you applied before for a different office and position, grew doing XYZ in the meantime and HR suggested to apply for a more senior position now, hopefully he/she will suggest to apply now
4. I would go for the partner referral if you have the same kind of relationship with both and have not asked already to the EM to refer you – would be strange for him/her to know you ignored his/her offer. If you have already committed with the EM, then you have to go for that (you could mention to the partner that you have already been referred and possibly he/she will still recommend you to HR)

Best,

Francesco

Hello,

To echo other experts, you should absolutely talk to the recruiter and be very clear about the fact that you were rejected from a BA position 8 months ago. If you don't do this and apply anyway, your situation will quickly become apparent to the recruiting team as soon as your application comes in and they match your name and contact details, and you risk potentially being banned from re-applying for longer. The general answer is that yes, the ban applies to all positions, and you cannot apply earlier than that even if you do have a referral. That being said, it might be worth discussing your individual situation with the recruiter/your network at the office anyway to see if they are willing to make an exception for any reason. In any case, do not try to obfuscate the fact that you were rejected for a BA position earlier. Unfortunately there is just no way around this.

Regarding your question #2, companies tend to look for similar skillsets across BAs and JAs, and the interviews are very similar in nature. There is a slight difference across the candidate pools in that, as you point out, JAs are hired from industry, but generally this tends to play out via JAs being able to apply for more specialized positions than BA (e.g. a private-equity focused JA versus a generalist BA). But this does not mean that the bar for a JA is lower, and their general skills (quantitative analysis, structuring, synthesizing, problem-solving, etc.) are expected to be just as good if not better. 

Feel free to message me if you want any more details about this.

Hi there,

Good job on networking! However, please don't mislead people - you need to tell them upfront you were reject 8 months ago…it's wasting your time and theirs!

1 - Yes, it applies to all positions.

2- You should apply to the position she tells you to apply to. Plain and simple. Don't overthink this!

3 - Almost certainly yes. What you do need to do is flag ASAP to both her and the Partner that you were rejected 8 months ago and are wondering what the process is. Maybe you'll get lucky and they'll say re-apply…demand is through the roof right now

4 - Back to my initial response - please stop wasting people's time and trying to game the system! If you've already locked in the referral from the EM you need to take it. Please please get better at navigating these waters…this isn't a good way to approach things and will come back to get you politically when you're working in the office!

This really depends on the office and so I would just take the guidance of the recruiter as opposed to speculation from coaches. I have seen instances where a candidate rejected from one McKinsey office is interviewed by another office within the same year and receives an offer. Not common but I have seen enough examples. 

Good luck!