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My life before McKinsey Born in Lausanne Exchange at the University of Birmingham PhD in Group Theory at the EPFL Joined McKinsey Geneva Student in Mathematics at EPFL Start-up & Association Travelled 3 months in South America
Who is McKinsey & Company? Global firm with >11,000 consultants 106 offices in > 60 countries Serving the world s leading institutions for > 85 years Expertise in all industries, e.g., energy, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, health insurance, banking McKinsey&Company the elite of global consulting -The Financial Times
In Switzerland, we serve clients in 7 functional areas and cover the core industries of the Swiss economy Projects by function 2009-2014, percent Projects by industry 2009-2014, percent Strategy 31 Organization 22 Operations 18 Telecom Travel Transport Other & Logistics 8 Retail/Apparel 2 & Hospitality 2 Consumer/ 4 Packaged 4 Goods 27 Chemicals & Agriculture Marketing & Sales Risk 7 11 Banking & Securities 16 Corporate Finance 6 18 19 Insurance Business Technology 5 Pharma & Medical Products
My first 9 months as a consultant Engagements: 5+ Chemicals Identification of synergies Pharmaceuticals and Medical Products M&A Strategy High Tech Go-to-market strategy Automation Technologies Optimization of the shared services network Consumer Goods Marketing spending effectiveness Training Mini-MBA (2 weeks, McKinsey University, Amsterdam) EMBARK (1 week, London) Various online courses to improve consultant skills (communication, PowerPoint, Excel, corporate functions) Other Events Office retreat (Verbier) Summer Academy (Frankfurt) McKinsey football tournament (Munich and Cologne) Several team events
The team The client A real challenge Geneva Vienna New York Chicago Costa Rica The challenge Enter the European market What we needed to understand The complex market dynamics and potential market opportunity The go-to-market strategy, with a value proposition that differentiates the client from existing competitors What we did to figure it out Interviewed industry experts Studied competitor landscape Analyzed the results of a 300+ customers survey Synthesized results to create the strategy
The soft skills and methodology obtained during my PhD help me as a consultant Soft Skills I ve relied on the skills I acquired as a PhD student, such as Structuring problem solving Taking a hypothesis-driven approach Communicating complicated material to non-specialists Showing persistence to achieve targets Driving and organizing my work Methodology In general, when I work on an engagement I go through the same steps I would for any research project I collect information about best practices I gather and analyze data I work under the guidance of my project manager I synthesize and communicate the results
Having a PhD allows you to start directly as an Associate Masters Undergrads Fellow Analyst Fellow MBAs JDs,PhDs, MDs Associate Lead your own client project area Build leadership skills Engagement Manager Lead teams Build expertise Associate Principal Practice working as a Partner Build relationships and interpersonal skills Partner Counselor and peer to CEOs 2-3 years Election to Partner takes roughly six years
People in McKinsey come from a variety of backgrounds Backgrounds of consultants in Switzerland, percent 230 consultants in Switzerland 69 consultants have a PhD ~45% ~20% ~5% ~5% ~25% More than 40% of Managers and Partners have a PhD 75% have postgraduate degrees (PhDs, MDs, MBAs) Business/ Economics 62% 3% Law and social sciences Engineering Basic sciences & Computing Communication sciences 30% Life and 5% health sciences
What my recruiting process looked like What I did before the interview Participated in various recruiting events «Dive» weekend in Madrid with Mckinsey «Grow» weekend in Lisbon with BCG Workshops on the campus for consulting and banking companies Participated at the FORUM EPFL and similar career fairs CUSO seminar on «how to write a CV» Networking McKinsey recruitment process Application Submit your application online at the McKinsey http://www.m ckinsey.com/ careers Round 1 3 case-based interviews with consultants Interviews Interviewers select candidates for Round 2 Support throughout process: 1. Answering your questions 2. Providing materials and guidelines 3. Providing personal contact with a consultant 4. Interview preparation coaching session Round 2 2 case-based interviews with senior consultants All interviewers discuss potential offer together Offer Inform candidates of outcome (offer) Detailed feedback to all candidates at the end of the day
Questions?