Vickey Xiong

McKinsey Office: Shanghai

Hometown: Jiangxi province in China

MBA Program, Concentration: Chicago Booth; General Management and Entrepreneurship

Undergraduate School, Major: National University of Singapore; Industrial and Systems Engineering

Focus of current engagement: Digital transformation of a leading pharma company.

Why did you choose McKinsey? Being able to work with the smartest and most talented people every day. Everyone in McKinsey has an amazing background, inspiring stories, and their awesome ‘spikes’. I’m mentally challenged and inspired every day working here. In addition, these amazingly talented people all come from such diverse backgrounds. Take my current engagement, for example. We have a consultant, a product owner, a designer, and a data engineer from three offices in one team. Such a team set up is highly unlikely in other consulting firms. I’m glad for such diversity in McKinsey because I can learn an incredible amount every day.

What did you love about the business school you attended? The pay-it-forward culture – you can cold email anyone associated with Booth and they are willing to help you, and you do the same. I always felt supported and had a community to share the ups-and-downs along my entire MBA journey. I wouldn’t have been able to get into McKinsey if I didn’t get so much help from my consulting club seniors and ex-consultant peers.

What lesson or skill did you learn from training at McKinsey and how has it helped in your role? I definitely learned a lot about McKinsey’s core skillsets – such as the typical McKinsey frameworks, how to conduct an expert interview, and how to use PowerPoint and Excel. However, the most valuable part about my training is the friends I made during the two-week Embark training. Even after we went off to different projects, we check in with each other on how we like our projects and can support each other.

Tell us about an “only at McKinsey” moment you’ve had so far. For our pre-Christmas team dinner, the partners treated us to a top French restaurant in Shanghai. During the dinner, the partners started to ask everyone how they feel about the study; are there clients who are difficult to engage; what can partners do to support the team; and how the study can be more effective and efficient. Such questions and conversations made me realize the partners not only care about the project deliverables, but also the well-being of everyone on the team. Although the partners seem high up there with multiple projects and busy schedules, they care about the team and recognize it when the team needs a helping hand.

What advice would you give someone interviewing at McKinsey? Don’t be afraid to show your personality during the personal experience interview. During interview prep, some MBA students just keep practicing their stories using the typical STAR framework until you sound like a robot. But for McKinsey, how you were feeling and what you were thinking at the moment is highly valued because it makes you human and it helps your interviewer picture how you are as a person and as a teammate.

Who has had the biggest impact on you at McKinsey and how has she/he helped you? My first engagement manager. I was struggling a bit at the beginning of my first study because it was a topic I was totally unfamiliar with, the learning curve was steep, and I wasn’t assigned an engagement in the beginning. As soon as my engagement manager arrived, she quickly guided me and I learned so much from her. She is very strong in structured thinking – whenever we are stuck during a problem-solving session, she would tell me ‘Give me 30 minutes so I can think about this.’ Usually, when I come back to her after 30 minutes, she would have the deck structure and the story pretty much thought through. She gave me great advice not only on how to perform well during this specific study but also on how I should think about my entire McKinsey career.

My most meaningful achievement (professional or personal) and how it made a difference is…less of an achievement, but something that is meaningful to me. I’m proud of myself for having the courage to move back to China after being away for almost 15 years. Since I left China in my early teens, so much has changed. It was definitely a challenge for me to move back and start a new career but I’ve had good support and I’m glad I made this move. I’m learning so much and I’m excited to be part of the fast-moving economy in China.

A fun fact about me is…I love to travel! I have backpacked around Southeast Asia since being a teenager and been to more than 45 countries. I’m glad McKinsey has the Take Time program which allows me to take more time off – 5-10 extra weeks – to indulge in travel adventures.