Does having McKinsey on your CV matter that much in your future career?
By Sean Quinn
Former Managing Director at a Private Equity firm
I never worked for McKinsey but for some reason I have five or six friends who did earlier in their careers and one who still does at a senior level. I can’t remember his title, maybe Practice Leader or something. He co-heads a particular industry group. McKinsey will open a ton of doors into nearly any company or industry that you want to enter. They don’t expect you to stay forever and will actually help you place into another role.
Not working for McKinsey isn’t going to hinder your career. There are millions of successful people who never worked for them, or Bain, BCG, Goldman or Morgan Stanley, but it doesn’t hurt. Having the first thing on your resume being one of those companies looks good for the rest of your life. It will definitely help to get into business school and while I’m not a prestige whore, when I see a resume with one of those names on it I know that they were thoroughly vetted by an organization larger than mine and passed, then they worked for them and learned a lot.
The main thing I’ve noticed from my friends who were at McKinsey is the network of alumni. Some companies and even schools will promote their alumni networks but McK’s is legitimate. A couple of the ex-McK guys I know will go on annual alumni trips and have regular local meetups. One guy I know is in his 60’s and worked there in his 20’s or 30’s and he still attends those occasionally. If another alumni that they do not know cold contacts them they will get back to that person even if they worked there decades apart.
Like I said, it’s not necessary to work there to be successful but looking back a couple of decades personally I’d probably do it if it were an option.
Sean answered this on Quora
Did you finish the project according to this jigsaw puzzle guide, and is there a video demonstration?