Hello,

I had several colleagues at McKinsey with this career progression. It is certainly the exception rather than the norm for analysts, so it's not really a ‘trend’ in that sense, however it is indeed possible to jump from Senior Analyst to EM without transitioning to Associate or doing an MBA first. The rationale, as Udayan explained, is that the analyst's job is broadly similar to an associate's (with the caveat of less professional experience), so they get similar exposure and are able to build up a similar skillset. Therefore for top analysts who want to stay at McKinsey and continue the career progression in consulting, McKinsey really stands to gain a lot by keeping them at the firm and allowing them to transition to an EM role directly.

That being said, this career trajectory involves a lot of effort. You have to be an exceptional performer as an analyst, consistently garnering very strong performance reviews. You really need to go above and beyond in the job (which also typically means a lot of responsibility and extra hours). Most importantly, you need to build up a solid network of senior colleagues who will support your promotion, such as partners who will trust you to work as the EM on a project with one of their clients. 

Hey there, 

It has to do with delivering differentiated impact. If you study the MBB high performers that fast track , they tend to have superior problem solving skills but more than that they exhibit behaviours that enables them to create differentiated client impact.  A few of the behaviours I have observed are (a) Extreme sense of ownership towards delivering results  (b) Clear, thoughtful , insight driven and concise communication style that allows them to influence senior stakeholders and (c) Resilience , ability to navigate complex political situations and focus efforts on key priorities that will generate disproportionate results 

It is easy to acquire know-how, perhaps you can also acquire problem-solving skills with deliberate practice but ingraining high performance behaviours is quite difficult and takes significant discipline. 

Thanks 

In McK North America, it is now standard to go from senior BA to EM.  The speed is down to performance as well as sponsorship from partners/client service teams.  Furthermore, EM designation for North America has not explicitly been a ‘promotion’ as the rest of McK where an Associate is evaluated by a people committee and votes on whether they become an EM or not.  The reason for the change was largely around BA retention.  I've not seen this change happen in London yet where a BA now is designated to ‘Senior Associate’.

Hi there,

One thing you hear from day one of joining is that you should build your own McKinsey. A lot is possible if you put in the work + network.

Such transitions happen quite frequently within the firm. At the end of the day, McKinsey is a meritocracy, promoting and rewarding strong performers.

There are even more unconventional progressions such as from practice manager (more of an admin function) to AP to partner, etc.

Cheers,

Florian

Hi there,

Udayan nailed it! Just goes to show how well these companies reward hard work/grit!