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Question about Office Preferences

Application MBB
New answer on Jul 30, 2021
5 Answers
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Anonymous A asked on Jul 29, 2021

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?

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Best answer
Udayan
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Jul 29, 2021
Top rated Case & PEI coach/Multiple real offers/McKinsey EM in New York /12 years recruiting experience

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

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Erica
Expert
replied on Jul 29, 2021
Ex-McKinsey / 100% offer rate / LBS / Principle driven / Real case/ If you get the interview, you should get the offer!

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!

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Ken
Expert
replied on Jul 29, 2021
Ex-McKinsey final round interviewer | Executive Coach

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.

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Ian
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Jul 29, 2021
#1 BCG coach | MBB | Tier 2 | Digital, Tech, Platinion | 100% personal success rate (8/8) | 95% candidate success rate

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!

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Antonello
Expert
Content Creator
replied on Jul 30, 2021
McKinsey | NASA | top 10 FT MBA professor for consulting interviews | 6+ years of coaching

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

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Udayan gave the best answer

Udayan

Content Creator
Top rated Case & PEI coach/Multiple real offers/McKinsey EM in New York /12 years recruiting experience
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