Difference between McKinsey implementation and generalist consultant

Question

Does anyone have experience working with McKinsey Implementation? How does this differ from the generalist roles at McKinsey in terms of career prospects, salary and exit opportunities?

Answer 1

Hello!

To your points:

Role description and carreer > most of your time you will be staffed in implementation engagements (most is not always, and in those engagements, you will also work with general consultants)
Salary > same as the rest, depends on the tenure (BA > Associate > EM > AP > Partner) and the tieering you get in the performance review that happen every 6 months and compare you with your peers.
Exit opportunities > the profile of MI ends up being different to generalists, since they build a different set of skills more focused on driving organisational change, so the exit opportunities are therefore quite different. It´s hence harder to move inot PE or hard core strategy from MI, whereas you will be better positioned than generalists for a corporate management or transformational role.

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Answer 2

I agree with Clara on all the points, just one thing to add:

McKinsey also has different subsidiary companies, which focus on implementation (one example is Aberkyn, which fully belongs to McKinsey) – in these subsidiaries the salary level is usually lower. So, during the recruiting process you need to make sure that they are not thinking to put you into one of those subsidiaries

Answer 3

I agree with Clara

Answer 4

Hi, salary and career progression inside the firm is comparable to the generalist path (including MBA sponsorship). Regarding the exit opportunities, I do not see a huge difference, since outside the firm it is not 100% clear the distinction between the 2 roles: of course the client interaction will be different, therefore the exposure you are going to have with each client will be more at ops level than top executives.

Best,
Antonello