MBB Gender Factor upon hiring??

Hi there,

MBB are indeed pushing for more diversity and McKinsey for example does so very publicly in terms of gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc. Goal of this push is to fill the recruiting funnel with more capable people of underrepresented groups and primarily women.

This is achieved in two ways:

• Filling the funnel: MBB do various women-only events for networking and promoting careers at MBB at schools or other settings for experienced professionals.
• Building skills: MBB also do women-only events for various professional development topics and even interview preparation specifically.

Importantly, when it comes to the actual interview MBB do not compromise their standards that are the same for everyone. I was a McKinsey interviewer and I couldn’t have cared less about gender, for example. All I cared about was personality and competence.

Hope this brief take on this big issue answers you question at least a little bit. I acknowledge that in reality this topic is more complex.

Best of luck!

Hi there,

Q: MBB will consider a bit more diversity of women consultants. Or would it be strictly be based on case study performance?

Consulting companies have indeed started to target more female candidates in the last years. As mentioned by Moritz, this is mainly done via specific events that can help to get invitations.

In terms of the case performance evaluation, in theory it should be neutral to the gender.

Best,

Francesco

Hi there,

I'll say what others are too afraid to say: Yes MBB strives for diversity and yes this inherently affects the bar for performance. This happens with universities, why would the law of economics not apply to MBB?

It is impossible to have quotas without affecting quality (look at the USSR). Do they still aim for high quality? Of course! But something has to give.

If the pool of x group is 100 and the pool of y group is 10, and MBB needs 5 from each group, you do the math on required level! If you are in x group you do need to meet a higher bar than y group (and I have seen this with my own candidates).

I do have to emphasize, however, that the bar is high regardless. No matter who you are, you really do have to perform at a high caliber to get in!

Hi there, 

The same way there's a difference in the answers from the experts below, you can expect a difference in terms of bias of interviewers. These hiring guidelines differ by firm and office, so it's difficult to be specific. 

The most important thing to bear in mind is that MBB firms almost never reject candidates who are good enough just because they already hired too many. I know personally from several Partners in McK that they were never in this position. So then what matters is to focus on your own performance and worry less about all the noise around. 

Best,

Cristian

Speaking from a McKinsey recruitment perspective, in almost every office I have seen, there is a strong effort to ensure diversity. In the US this often means expanding target schools to include HBCs and also to have a lot more events and initiatives for women to apply and to retain women when they are in the firm by for example offering them more flexibility.

If your question is that is it more advantageous if you are a women applying to an office that is 80% male the answer is absolutely it is. Typically the advantage stops at getting the interview, after that everyone gets in on their own merits regardless of diversity.

Best,

Udayan

Adding to what has already been said, in final round decision meetings, there was often more challenge around turning down female candidates.  This was often facilitated by the head of recruiting who would ensure that unconscious bias would be called out.

In terms of the overall recruiting process, often recruiters would flag and put more emphasis on getting to know high potential diversity profiles (e.g., women, LGBTQ, non-target school, etc.).

Hello,

Moritz said it well! MBB has been working a lot on improving diversity in their hiring, which ultimately means providing additional opportunities for people with underrepresented backgrounds. For instance, during the recruiting process you may see events specifically catering to minority communities, such as talks and coffee chats. Once at the firm, there are also various networks and mentorship dynamics that are geared towards particular identities. 

At the recruiting stage, rest assured that you will be holistically evaluated on the strength of your application. However, interviewers should be aware of their subconscious biases and how those might lead them to evaluate candidates differently. So, in your case, you would not be more or less likely to get hired because of your gender (such discrimination would in fact illegal in many countries). However, recruiters might take a step to think about whether their evaluation of your candidacy is gendered in any way, and proceed to take a more holistic view if necessary.

Hello!

This is a huge topic atm, and there are many opinions, but honestly only internally (HR and the People comitee) know. 

Couple of weeks ago there were some interesting posts here from some candidates who were given some intel from their Bain friends about this topic, that was interesting for me to read. Hope you can find them!

Hope it helps!

Cheers, 

Clara

While there is in some cases an effort to reinforce female recruitment, there's always a very high bar that needs to be met regardless. The bar wont go down, but within those that pass the bar there will a bias pro-diversity.

Hey there,

MBBs strive to increase diversity in the ranks (gender as well as other forms of diversity). However, they would not compromise on the quality of the candidate as that impacts their competitiveness in the market (the only competitive advantage for consulting firms is the quality of their talent) 

Thanks 

Ashwin