What McKinsey Seeks In MBA Hires

McKinsey Social Initiative’s Generation project receives the National Youth Employment Partnership Award from Jobs for America’s Graduates (JAG)

Here is some additional information that Brian Rolfes shared with Poets&Quants on McKinsey’s application and interview process.

Application Process 

• MBA graduates typically join us as associates, working either as generalists or practice consultants, depending on their preference and interests.

• MBA candidates in-between their first and second year may apply for an associate intern position—this is usually a 10-week internship during the summer.

• We ask MBA students to apply on our website for both the associate and associate intern positions. Deadlines vary by school – you can check our careers website  for the most part the associate application deadlines are in early fall (August – October) and the associate intern application deadlines are later in the year (November – December).

• In the application we ask for a resume along with supporting information including your education, work experience, and other skills and achievements. We also ask for your preference of up to four office and/or practice locations. The application should take approximately ten minutes to complete.

Application Tips 

• Throughout the application and interview process it’s important to keep in mind we are looking for five attributes – personal impact, problem solving, entrepreneurship, leadership, and an overall orientation toward achievement. These should be highlighted through the examples and supporting details you provide in your application, and throughout the interview process.

• Here are tips for completing your application to ensure these attributes are represented:

• Make sure you resume accurately reflects your achievements and their scale.
• Make your resume as specific and relevant as possible.
• For education, please include your university, degree granted and graduation year, including subject of your degree, major prizes or awards, significant academic projects, and scores for any standardized tests. If you studied in an academic system you think may be unfamiliar to us, please try to explain results; for example, scored in the top 2 percent of students nationally.
• For work experience, beyond your day-to-day responsibilities, we’re interested in your achievements and the impact you had based on your direct involvement. Feel free to describe any skills, experience, and entrepreneurial successes.
• Include volunteer and charity work or positions of responsibility in professional organizations—especially that entail initiative, entrepreneurship, or extraordinary commitment.
• Include all languages in which you have business conversational ability or better, including an estimation of your level of fluency.

• Also, we encourage you to get to know the various McKinsey offices and practices during the recruiting season so that you have a better sense of where you would like to be when completing your application.