Dear A,

I fully understand your situation, as multiple mentees of mine are facing the same challenges. Nevertheless, I want to calm you a little down, since it's common for McKinsey t resign the offers. I think that they might be pushing back the date again, if the circumstances become even more severe. For example, we might face the second wave of COVID. However, now quarantine is over in Italy, so I hope that the business will ramp up slowly and McKinsey will get involved in lots of new restructuring digitization and process optimization projects where they will be looking for new consultants.

If you need any help or advice, feel free to reach out.


Best,

André

Hi there,

First of all, congrats on the offer! You don't have much to worry about.

It is unfortunate that your starting date got pushed twice, however, McK would not rescind the contract. Too high of a bad publicity risk, and McK is so big that onboarding a new batch of 10 consultants would not hurt it's bottom line drastically.

Like all other consulting companies, McK is trying to cope with how to onboard new consultants in an efficient manner. With their offices being closed, there is no way to properly onboard new people, which will actually make your first couple of months horrible for you.

Trust me, the last thing you need is to get your initial training online, and get staffed on a project, get completely lost on what to do, and feel weird for having to call your teammates every 30mins to ask them on how to use that shortcut on PPT or Excel.

Enjoy the downtime, take an online course or two, try to master pivot tables mechanics on excel, learn to type with all 10 fingers, read about the pyramid principle, etc.

You have a great career with a great company ahead of you, nothing to worry about if it is delayed by a few months.

Best of luck,

Khaled

Hi there,

I don’t think there would be a breach of contract if they rescind, since you have not formally signed any contract (unless there are clauses on this in your offer letter).

However, I would not worry about that too much. I haven’t heard anyone who got an offer rescinded from MBB due to the COVID – it is simply smarter from them to postpone the start rather than lose a candidate and create bad rumors. I believe the worst that could happen is that they postpone further your starting date.

Having said that, if there is an option to sign the contract soon, I would try to do so.

Best,

Francesco

Hi,

The odds that they do this are very low (given prestige, status, etc.)

However, we can never be 100% certain. For that reason, just think about a Plan B (or even a short-term job/internship in the meantime).

Cost: Your time

Benefit: Insurance against no income/plan AND peace of mind

My view: If it costs you nothing but your time (and you have some to spare), yes you should be pursuing a plan B. Even though the risk is indeed low these are unprecented times and one never knows!

By the way, if anyone iinterested in trying out cases that deal with the impact of the coronavirus, check out these two cases:

https://www.preplounge.com/en/management-consulting-cases/brain-teaser/beginner/coronavirus-times-194

https://www.preplounge.com/en/management-consulting-cases/candidate-led-usual-style/intermediate/chinese-chess-191

(edited)

Hello!

I understand your worry.

However, there is reall no need to worry. It´s true that they can rescind it, but it would be so so so weird that this happens.

I´ve heard about other MBBs contracts being pushed back -not only with the COVID crisis, but with prior ones-, but all of those finally happened. I´ve never heard of MBB offers being cancelled.

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

This is a very understandable concern. At this stage, I would not be aware of it. Consultants want to stick to their commitments and also preserve their image. This will be the very last resort; it is more likely that you will asked to start later again.

Hi,

Legally they can

In reality, the won't do that. MBB is not rescinding their office, so please don't worry

Best