What is the "experienced professional" hire process like at McKinsey?

Question

Hi, do experienced hires (ie more than 15 or 20 years experience) have to take a quantitiative test or perform a strict case interview? Then, if hired, what is the advancement process: ie how long as an associate, as an EM, associate principal, etc? Thanks!

Answer 1

Hi,

There is no strict rule here, but with 15-20 years of experience, you'll not have to write a test. The rest depends on your background:

If you have 20 years of industry experience most probably you will not be considered for a generalist track. If you have 20 years of industry experience, you are probably in your 40s and I can't imagine you reporting a 25 year old Manager as an associate. And you can't be considered for a generalist Manager since you have no experience of leading consulting projects.
If you had prior consulting experience in your background you might be considered for a Manager / AP and even partner role since you have experience and can lead or even sell the projects. The interview process will be formal with case interviews, but for the senior roles it will be more about structuring the workstreams, defining deliverables and allocating resources. The career path is pretty standard - 6-7 years from an Associate to a partner
If you have 20 years of industry experience you can be considered for a knowledge specialist career path. It can be as part of the R&I team or part of the certain practice. Depending on the team there might be different names of the roles but you can still progress to a partner. The interview will be a formal process with cases and they will also check your specific industry knowledge. The career path is usually longer than for the generalist

Best!

Answer 2

For McK, you don’t need to take the PST.

You will still have cases , where you will be expected to score better on the creativity questions and less on the structuring.

You would start as an associate and be able to quickly progress to EM and beyond, I.e. promotions within 1 year is not unheard of.

Hope or this helps.