How to Verify Unpaid Internship for Hireright? - McKinsey

Question

How should I go about verifying my unpaid internship for the McKinsey employment verification? I just recently graduated from Undergrad and don't have many professional experiences, but this is one of them and was on my resume. I don't have an offer letter from the experience, but I can request at least 2 references/letters from my old manager and another supervisor from the company. Will this be enough?

Since it can't be verified through traditional payroll/HR channels, how will Hireright/my recruiter respond to this? Should I be concerned?

Answer 1

From my experience, you're fine as long as you can provide some sort of written confirmation — ideally a short letter from someone who supervised you, with their name, title, contact info, and dates you worked together.

Hireright can be a bit rigid — they often look for payroll or HR-backed proof, which obviously doesn’t exist for unpaid internships.

If Hireright pushes back (which they might), I’d recommend:

Asking them exactly what kind of documentation they’d accept
Then providing just that — no more, no less
Loop in your recruiter if needed, but only after you've made a good-faith effort

Wouldn’t worry too much — this comes up often, and as long as you’re transparent and responsive, it usually gets sorted but might take some time.

Answer 2

This happens the whole time. And people are not having issues with this. Hireright doesn't want to be flagging false positives, so I am very confident they figured out a process (that isn't too burdensome) to deal with these situations.

So relax. You know have people who can confirm you worked there, that will be enough.

Answer 3

Hi there,

References or written confirmation from your former manager are usually sufficient for unpaid roles. McKinsey understands that some internships and volunteer experiences may not always be formally documented. Just be transparent with the recruiter up front and provide the documentation that is available. You should have no concerns as the experience is genuine and have reasonable proof.

Answer 4

Hi there,

Q: I don't have an offer letter from the experience, but I can request at least 2 references/letters from my old manager and another supervisor from the company. Will this be enough?

In these cases, usually you can show your experience is real by leaving the contact information of your former supervisors, so that they can verify the work experience. Reference letters could also help. So long as you have actually worked there, I wouldn't worry about it.

Good luck!

Francesco

Answer 5

That should be fine.

If you can provide contacts that are themselves verifiable (e.g., through LinkedIn and other platforms) and can then be contacted for a call, there shouldn't be any issue.

If you have doubts, though, feel free to also ask McK to confirm that this is enough.

Best,
Cristian