Meet McKinsey’s MBA Class Of 2017

Josh Durodola

McKinsey office: Atlanta

Hometown: Jos, Nigeria

MBA Program: UC Berkeley Haas School of Business

Undergraduate school, major: Howard University, Electrical Engineering

Focus of Current Engagement: Investment and cost optimization at a telecommunications company

Why did you choose McKinsey? At the end of the day, it was because of the potential for impact and meaning. Over the summer, I connected with a partner who unknowingly sold the firm to me. He talked about how one of his regrets was not doing a study with a penitentiary in New York. That, along with other studies I heard about, convinced me that McKinsey was a place where I could have huge impact on others.

What lesson from business school best prepared you for your career in consulting at McKinsey? One of the big ones is being authentic and vulnerable with people – this has really helped me connect with McKinsey teams and clients, making the work more enjoyable and impactful.

Another has been applying lessons from courses I took. I used the things I learned in my Financial Information Analysis class on day 1 at my current client. I have also used some of the skills I developed in our Designing Financial Models that Work course.

Tell us about an “Only at McKinsey” moment you’ve had so far. In summer 2016, I was part of a team that was working on a large-scale transformation. A week before the end of my internship, we had just completed a company-wide townhall. There was a small reception afterwards, and the CEO of the company walked up to me and a couple of McKinsey colleagues and said to us: “Thank you, without you, we probably wouldn’t be here today, we wouldn’t even have our jobs.”

What advice would you give to someone interviewing at McKinsey? At game time, on the day of the interview, stay present and laser-focused on the client situation or problem presented to you. It’s very easy and common for your mind to wonder or start assessing your performance on the case, but that’s the moment in which you need to be present in the client situation, and solve it like a problem a friend brought to you. Other than that, stay structured.

What do you expect to be doing in 5-10 years?

That’s the million-dollar question. The range is helping small businesses in Nigeria in a PE-type structure, doing some sort of life coaching, helping clients at McKinsey, or just spending time with friends and family.

My greatest personal or professional accomplishment is…I’m most proud of when I’ve been part of other people’s process… seeing my roommate in college initially struggle with calculus and go on to pursue a PhD in engineering, or motivating my prior manager on her journey to drink less coffee, or doing consulting interview coaching and seeing folks get offers.

A fun fact about me is…I wore a watch that didn’t work for 3+ years, and I’m on track to beat that record.

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