Hey there,

Tricky situation. I would play it as openly and transparently as possible with all parties involved.

Here is a potential sequence of things you could do:

1. Reach out to London HR and discuss your situation specifically with them to understand their needs and requirements (especially visa-related)

2a. If they agree that you can apply, get a referral and apply (a German referral should work). Tell the Chinese HR that you would also like to apply for the London office since your situation has changed

2b. If London is not an option, go for the Chinese office and then plan for an early office transfer between 6 and 12 months.

All the best,

Florian

Hello!

Unfortunately, it´s not a great situation to be in, and particularly now with the pandemic and after Brexit.

Not having previous work experience, connections or visa to work in the UK dimishes greatly your possibility to even start the process there. Hence, I think your best chance is to continue with the chinese recruiter and only then try to transfer -whenever you have an offer in hand, the power dynamics benefit you, until then, not at all-.

In any case, be transparent with your recruiter, since McK is all connected and it can make you look very bad and playing a "double game".

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Hi there,

I'm going to be very very blunt here: You are running a great risk by trying to play this game. You may end up gettign nothing as a result.

My honest view is that, as a Chinese national with no UK work visa, no UK connections, no UK reference on your resume, AND applying at the lowest level (associate), you have practically 0 chance of getting into the UK office. I don't see any reason for them to pick you over all the other applicants.

I would strongly recommend you take this incredible luck/opportunity you have with McK China and follow the process there. If you really want to move to London in the future, you can do so with McKinsey OR by leveraging the Mckinsey name.