For four years I sat on the other side of the table. As a Senior Associate at McKinsey & Company in Dubai from 2022 to 2026, I conducted over 100 official Round 1 interviews and sat in the debriefs where those candidates were argued over and decided. I left the firm in 2026, so the bar I hold you to is the one being applied right now, not the one from five years ago.
My own route in took eight years. I started at Accenture in Russia in 2013, moved to Accenture in the UAE in 2018, reached Associate Manager, and joined McKinsey in 2022. I was not a campus hire and I was not fast-tracked. If you are trying to convert an industry, Big 4, or Tier-2 background into an MBB offer — or to break into the Gulf from outside the region - I have run that exact play myself, and I know which parts of your profile an interviewer quietly discounts before you have said a word.
At McKinsey my work centred on Digital, Analytics, and TMT across the Middle East. I coach in English and Russian, and I know the CIS market well enough to tell you how your CV will actually read to a screener who does not.
What you get from me is an honest read on where you stand and the specific behaviours to fix. If you are two weeks out and not ready, I will tell you that in the first session rather than sell you a package.