McKinsey Forum

[Anonymous User]

What kind of JD candidate has a shot with McKinsey? Is a median t13 student with work experience in digital marketing a weak candidate?

[misterjames]

Based off previous threads my understanding is McKinsey really only looks at exceptional JD applicants. There's no "boost" just for having the JD.

[Anonymous User]

Could you have gotten the job prior to law school? That’s basically the ask.

[Anonymous User]

The above posts are credited. I was top-3rd at Columbia (but crappy state school undergrad with 2 years of crappy middle-management W/E) and didn't even get a screener from any of the big 3 consulting firms.

EDIT: I had a very PI-focused resume, though. That may have made a difference.

[Anonymous User]

Could you have gotten the job prior to law school? That’s basically the ask.

Sounds like I'm out then lol

[Anonymous User]

As a law student, you will be applying for an "associate" role as an Advanced Professional Degree (APD) candidate. If you applied prior to law school (assuming you didn't do an MBA), you would have been applying for a "business analyst" job (one tier lower).

I was top 1/3 at Chicago. Did McKinsey's online assessment test (math, graphs, etc) and got invited for a screener = two back-to-back experience+case interviews. Got invited for final round interviews (3 more interviews + lunch). Finished the interviews, got dinged a week later. I was sort of interested in consulting, but I mainly did it for the extra interview practice (ended up going to a V5 firm). I guess... they saw right through me.

However, if consulting is really your thing, you should definitely give it a shot. There were quite a few T13 law students at the interviews (in addition to the PhDs and MDs). From what I remember, most of them had little or no full-time WE prior to law school.

[Anonymous User]

I couldn't get interviews with any V20 firms with my grades at a T20 but did get a Mckinsey Interview for fulltime.

I have good test scores though, which is important to them. I applied through their online portal.

[Anonymous User]

Could you have gotten the job prior to law school? That’s basically the ask.

This is incorrect. It is actually much easier from law school.

[Anonymous User]

McKinsey associate here from HYS.

Not sure about getting your foot in the door (I got my interview through 2L firm recruiting - McKinsey and BCG both came to ours) but they never once asked for my grades throughout the process. I also was not a competitive applicant out of undergrad (got dinged) so you definitely have a shot.

I'd ask others at your school who ended up at MBB how they got their interviews to see about that. I will stress that once you get to the interview stage, interviewing is MUCH different than biglaw interviews. You really need to prep, practice your mental math, etc. If you get to that point, make sure you take the prep time to be successful.

Good luck!

[Anonymous User]

McKinsey associate here from HYS.

Not sure about getting your foot in the door (I got my interview through 2L firm recruiting - McKinsey and BCG both came to ours) but they never once asked for my grades throughout the process. I also was not a competitive applicant out of undergrad (got dinged) so you definitely have a shot.

I'd ask others at your school who ended up at MBB how they got their interviews to see about that. I will stress that once you get to the interview stage, interviewing is MUCH different than biglaw interviews. You really need to prep, practice your mental math, etc. If you get to that point, make sure you take the prep time to be successful.

Good luck!

Do you have an idea how heavily test scores are weighted in the first step of the application process? Can they make up for a T-20 law school and bad grades at a decent UG?

[Anonymous User]

McKinsey associate here from HYS.

Not sure about getting your foot in the door (I got my interview through 2L firm recruiting - McKinsey and BCG both came to ours) but they never once asked for my grades throughout the process. I also was not a competitive applicant out of undergrad (got dinged) so you definitely have a shot.

I'd ask others at your school who ended up at MBB how they got their interviews to see about that. I will stress that once you get to the interview stage, interviewing is MUCH different than biglaw interviews. You really need to prep, practice your mental math, etc. If you get to that point, make sure you take the prep time to be successful.

Good luck!

Do you have an idea how heavily test scores are weighted in the first step of the application process? Can they make up for a T-20 law school and bad grades at a decent UG?

Anon from above. They didn't look for or ask for any of my test scores when I applied - I honestly don't know if that's standard or varies. Recruiting is pretty school specific so your best bet is to use LinkedIn to find an alum from your school at McK and ask what their process was like.