Why I joined the World of McKinsey, BCG & Bain

It’s a question I am asked many times and I have never posted my thoughts. Now, a good few years after leaving, I think it is worth giving my reasons for becoming a management consultant, staying as long as I did and exiting as a managing director. Not everyone will agree with my thoughts, but it is an honest opinion. Management consulting is a meritocracy. No matter how old you are, your background or views, if you are smart, can solve problems and clients like you, then you will move up rapidly. I have friends who entered their professional careers at the same time as me. They joined exceptional companies like GE, Nestle and a host of other blue-chips and investment banks. No matter how fast they were promoted, there was always an expectation they would need to work longer in a position before moving up. And they did. If you are truly intelligent and want to be recognized for this, then management consulting can get you to the top and cut out all the waiting time. The path to partnership is 6 -8 years as a principal and another 3 to 6 years as a director. If you are…

Behind the Feature on Women in Emerging Markets

Behind The Feature: Michael & Irina on Women in Emerging Markets and their ambitions. Michael Boricki, a Firmsconsulting Principal, edited September’s Quarterly article about the significant challenges of women in emerging markets who lack career guidance to join the likes of McKinsey, BCG et al. Irina (see footnote 1), a Big-3 consultant and co-writer of the article, was the source material for the article and the main consultant profiled. The photo-essay above follows a young lady, who lives in Irina's old apartment, through her typical day. This essay aims to provide some context for Irina's former life in Ukraine. Photos are copyrighted to Firmsconsulting. How do you think women should use the inspiring stories in this piece? Michael: Well, I can answer that by telling you how women in emerging markets, or of disenfranchised backgrounds, should not use the article. When we wrote this article I was most concerned with readers looking at these stories and thinking that if they spent a few thousand dollars on advice, along with tens of thousands of dollars on an education, they could achieve an amazing career outcome. That keeps me awake at night. I worry that all of the advice will be taken literally. What Irina…

Unemployed to The Big-3

Unemployed to The Big-3 This article was co-written with eight clients including those featured in this article. Feature Begins: Unemployed to The Big 3 Irina did not follow the path of a typical Ukrainian high school graduate. Unlike her peers who studied the arts, economics or mathematics at university, she did not have the luxury of pursuing post-secondary education. She could not afford the opportunity cost. The only child to a widowed and ill mother, she had grown up with the expectation that taking care of her mother was the natural next stage of her life. Therefore, despite graduating 1st in her class, she pursued the unlikely path of shunning an essentially free university education to seek full time employment in Ukraine’s black-market economy. Irina openly admits that even if her mother had been healthy and able to work, she was unlikely to have pursued higher education since there was no one advising her of its value. Irina did not have many role models in her life, yet was inspired by US television shows to dream of a life on the US west coast. An option she felt was out of her grasp. Both her grandfathers had succumbed to alcoholism, and…

Joining McKinsey from the Military

Meet Eliot, an officer in the US military with 6 years’ experience including combat experience in Iraq, leading a combat platoon and economic planning team, and a subsequent deployment to the US Central Command where he was responsible for logistical planning for Middle Eastern supply lines. Aged 30, he has risen rapidly through the army and completed an undergraduate degree from a top private US university and two masters in engineering and economics from the same institute. Although up for a promotion soon, he now wants to make a transition to consulting. What should he do? Two wars in Asia have made this profile and career decision point not uncommon. We regularly receive requests from ambitious soldiers to review their profile and determine the best route for them to follow. McKinsey and BCG tend to favor successful applicants from the military forces since they have a type of drive and practical experience consulting firms want – they get things done. What follows is the typical conversation we have and what we search for in the candidate before advising them. The key takeout is that not all profiles are the same, so it is almost impossible to give proper feedback from simply…

BCG Liberal Arts Major on Economic Modelling

*** Straight off, I want to say that I have never used a spreadsheet throughout my life.I tried to stay as far away from them as possible. Although I did well in high-school quantitative subjects, I deliberately chose literature since it was free and open to interpretation. I was never good with analyses. My internship at the FMCG was in the planning department but I physically never changed a cell in any of the economic modelling. Therefore, it was a bit of a surprise to me when I passed BCG’s screening test and even more of a surprise when I made it through all the interviews. I knew I could do it, but felt that some of my lack of analytics experiences could have held me back. Straight off, I want to say that I have never used a spreadsheet throughout my life.I tried to stay as far away from them as possible. Although I did well in high-school quantitative subjects, I deliberately chose literature since it was free and open to interpretation. Background. Within six months of joining BCG, and after being staffed on two organizational design studies, I was assigned to a pharmaceutical new division feasibility study project.…

How much finance must a BCG consultant know?

“Hello Michael, Thank you for a great website. I posted this to your forum and decided to email you too. My question relates to understanding financial statements. I have a master’s in political science from a great school but have no clue what is on financial statements. I have an offer from BCG but my question is what would happen when I join. How important is this skill as a consultant, what must I know and how do I learn it. Everyone has a different opinion here. I don’t want to get kicked out after all the work preparing to get in. Thank you in advance! Dasha” *** Hi Dasha, Thank you for the email. I will not touch on case interviews at all since that has no bearing on your performance once you join the firm. The rest of your questions are also easy to answer, but I will take care to explain them since my advice may be counter intuitive. You need to keep some facts in your mind as we discuss the answers. Fact 1: Until you make partner at BBM, you are just an apprentice who is still learning the ropes. I don’t mean to sound…

Managing my First BCG Business Case

"Hi Michael, Thank you for taking the time to discuss my career. I thought your stories were a little funny but really insightful, especially the Paris Hilton analyses. I never looked at it like that before. You were right, Joe Davis is a great guy to work with, and he likes constant contact. If you recall, I mentioned I would be going onto my first BCG business case engagement and wanted to know if you had any specific guidance on what I need to know to support my manager. I do not have a quantitative background and read history at Oxford. Any tips or guidance will be greatly appreciated. I would prefer printing the advice, so if you could kindly respond as an article that would be great. Scott" *** Scott, It was a pleasure meeting you as well. It was a pity we did not have more time to speak. I am going to elaborate based my own experiences from three perspectives: when I was a consultant, manager and then principal. While you need to support your manager, you also need to know what your peers and engagement partner are thinking. I was also a corporate strategy specialist and…

Part Two: Olympics Television Rights Case Solution

Max is an aspiring consultant who is looking to secure an analyst role with one of the top firms for the upcoming recruitment cycle in September 2011. His interest in management consulting was sparked by a failed McKinsey interview last year. In this series of blogs, he will be sharing his background, case preparation process, useful resources, and any breakthroughs or setbacks that he experiences. *** Practice makes perfect – at least that’s what I keep telling myself during this period where I’m trying to rip through as many quality cases as I can. Today, I would like to take you through a case that I did last week over Skype – I was in the role of the candidate. In order for you to get the most out of this, I suggest that you actually go through the setup of the case to see if your structure would have revealed the insights. Interviewer: The year is 2009, and your client is a major U.S. TV station. They are trying to put together a bid for the broadcasting rights to the 2010 Winter Olympics. What amount should they bid? ****STOP. Before you read the case solution, please take some time…

Part Three: College Market for Coupons Case Solution

Max is an aspiring consultant who is looking to secure an analyst role with one of the top firms for the upcoming recruitment cycle in September 2011. His interest in management consulting was sparked by a failed McKinsey interview last year. In this series of blogs, he will be sharing his background, case preparation process, useful resources, and any breakthroughs or setbacks that he experiences. *** This is an example case which I did by myself, and I wanted to post this to show people how they can practice solo with my case solution. Of course, this is not as useful as practicing with a partner, but it’s better than nothing! Case Question: Our client is a provider of coupons, and currently makes “welcome packages” for people who just moved to a new location. The client has had no luck reaching the college market and would like our help. In particular, they want to: 1) Segment the college market 2) Drive college traffic to their website 3) Retain their information online for future use [I actually think that this is a pretty good question for solo practice because you can layout your entire structure, and then go through to see…