Hi all,
A big thanks to this community, I have accepted an offer from McKinsey as an Associate in the US. I'll start in a couple of months, I have some down time over the evenings and weekends until then. How can I use this time to prepare myself? Are there any online courses, etc. you'd recommend (financial modeling, etc.?)
Also, how was your first week @ McKinsey, I hear there is a week-long training, any info on that would be great!
Cheers!!
Hi Anonymous,
first of all, congratulations on your offer! If you want to prepare in advance before you start, I would recommend working on technical, communication and stress management skills.
Below you can also find a list of things that could be useful to practice during your first weeks:
Hope this helps,
Francesco
Hey,
My biggest advice is to not worry about all of that and go travel and enjoy yourself. First week training is awesome! Very fun and interactive. The trick here at the Firm is the learning and skills will come, but you have to make sure to enjoy yourself. Congrats!
Hi,
I would concentrate on getting the right financial modeling skills and presenting your analysis in Power Point.
1) Financial modeling - the best course I know is Training The Street. Take Financial Modeling, Valuation, Maybe LBO. Also, learn pivot tables and the basic statistics tools
Excel and Financial modeling - the best course I know is Training The Street. Take Financial Modeling, Valuation, Maybe LBO. They have the amazing templates that you have to reproduce to be able to do that fast.
The key thing - throw away your mouse and put some tape on your touchpad. Do everything with your keyboard!
2) Power Point
And finally - take a long vacation before starting your job;)
While in consulting focus on the following:
Good Luck!
Hi Congratulations on accepting the offer. I am currently in the interview process for McKinsey implememnattion for US office. Can i pick your brain on your experience with the interview process sometime?
Hi there,
Some great advice here, especially some Excel skills which I think will come in handy, but I'm going to disagree with all of it.
From experience, I know that McKinsey will give you all the training, coaching, and feedback you need once you start. You'll likely find it easier to learn when you know exactly what you need it for and when you see "how it's done here." So perhaps you should leave most of the skills training for later.
On the other hand, what about the big picture? Most of us spend so much time and effort preparing for careers at MBB, that we don't think enough about why we're doing it? What's important to you and what's your purpose? Spending time to deepen this aspect of yourself will help you find work at McKinsey that suits you best.
Second: people. Now that you have accepted your offer, it's a great time to work on your professional relationships. You're not busy right now, so who else can you support and help out? (trust me, it'll pay you back in the future, but that's another subject). Who can you reach out to so that you stay connected and for advice and mentorship? These sort of phone calls and virtual meetings are very important but almost never urgent, and now you have the luxury of time to make them happen.
Hope this helps. Best of luck!
Allen
Congratulations! Any tips on how you aced the PEI and cases? Thanks
