Question about Office Preferences

Question

I have a general question about declaring office preferences. If I were to declare 3 preferences, would the decision from my first preferred office, have any bearing on my second and third choice?

For example, if I pick a very competitive office like London for my first choice and a relatively less competitive office like Dubai for my second choice, assuming my resume doesn't pass screening at the London office and gets passed to the Dubai office, would that prior decision affect my application?

In simple words, would there be any difference between the way my application is viewed versus someone who declared Dubai as their first preference?

Answer 1

McKinsey hiring is global - in order to clear the bar you theoretically clear the bar for any office worldwide. I have only heard of extremely rare cases where someone applied to a London office and was really good but London ran out of space so they were asked to interview at their 2nd choice office. It happens but very rare.

The short answer is - there is no way to predict what will happen based on the offices you choose. Your first choice office will always get to see your application first, if they interview you then you are more or less stuck competing with others who applied to that office. So prioritize your first choice accordingly.

Best,

Udayan

Answer 2

Hi there. Some offices do regional recruitment, which means one recruitment team will cover multiple offices. In this case, within the region, no matter which office you choose, it won't affect your chance of getting in. Beccause they interview you first and once you receive the office, they discuss with you on office assignment.

However, some bigger office has its own recruiment team. So your chance of getting in depends on how much is the competition for that specific office.

You can clarfiy this with McKinsey people work in the office you're interested in applying.

Hope this helps!

Answer 3

I can only speak for McKinsey where It would make a difference if you are studying in the UK where the London team will go through all applications from UK schools (with a few small exceptions such as the German office). If not, your first choice office will review your application first.

Answer 4

Hi there,

In general it would not affect anything. If the 1st office rejects your application, the 2nd office gets it.

In fact, I ended up being interviewed for a few of my 2nd and 3rd office applications when I applied years ago!

Answer 5

Hi, I confirm it's not going to affect at all your application. I would only prepare very weel the potential motivational question: why this geography

Best,
Antonello