I Left My Dream Job at Mckinsey: Here's Why
Summary
TLDRThe speaker reflects on their experience working at McKinsey, highlighting both the firm's prestige and the challenges of consulting. They discuss reasons for leaving, such as the grueling travel schedule, working with slow-moving corporations, and feeling disconnected from the impact of their work. While McKinsey provided valuable skills and opportunities, the speaker realized they preferred the fast-paced, hands-on nature of startups and venture capital. Ultimately, they express gratitude for the experience but encourage others to pursue paths that better align with their passions and talents.
Takeaways
- 😲 McKenzie has strict standards, such as using no font sizes larger than 10, which can feel excessively focused on appearance.
- ✈️ While consulting offers glamorous travel, it often involves visiting less appealing, remote locations, which can hinder personal life and routines.
- 👨👩👧 Consulting travel schedules make it challenging to settle down, build friendships, or start a family, as it demands frequent time away from home.
- 🏢 The work often focuses on optimizing large, slow-moving corporations, which can feel less exciting than working in fast-growing startups.
- 💼 The speaker did not want to pursue partnership at McKenzie, as selling consulting work did not feel authentic or fulfilling.
- 📊 There's no real feedback loop at McKenzie; consultants don’t see the direct impact of their work since they leave before execution happens.
- 🚀 Working with startups was more exhilarating for the speaker, offering faster growth and more hands-on execution, unlike McKenzie's focus on strategy.
- 💭 Consulting made the speaker feel more transactional and rushed, which led to a less positive personal transformation over time.
- 🏆 Despite the drawbacks, McKenzie helped the speaker develop strong communication skills and opened doors to prestigious opportunities, like Harvard Business School.
- 💡 The speaker encourages ambitious individuals to consider riskier, more fulfilling career options, like startups, instead of defaulting to prestigious but potentially ill-fitting firms like McKenzie.
Q & A
What was the initial issue the speaker faced with their presentation at McKenzie?
-The speaker's manager criticized the use of font sizes larger than 10 and requested a revision of the presentation to reduce font size and fill in blank spaces.
How does the speaker describe the work culture at McKenzie, especially regarding attention to detail?
-The speaker mentions that consultants at McKenzie agonize over small details like font size, focusing heavily on presentation aesthetics, which can frustrate those who prefer to focus on getting work done.
Why does the speaker believe McKenzie is not for everyone, despite its prestigious reputation?
-The speaker feels that while McKenzie is highly ranked and offers prestige, the lifestyle and nature of the work are not suitable for everyone, especially those who prefer more hands-on or impactful work.
What is one of the major downsides of the travel lifestyle in consulting, according to the speaker?
-The speaker mentions that frequent travel disrupts personal life, making it hard to build friendships, settle down, or maintain a routine, and it can also lead to being an absentee parent.
How does the speaker compare the work in consulting to working in startups?
-The speaker prefers working in startups because it offers a chance to be part of fast-growing businesses, with more tangible results and less bureaucracy compared to optimizing large corporations for minimal growth.
Why did the speaker not aspire to become a partner at McKenzie?
-The speaker couldn't see themselves authentically selling consulting services and didn't admire the lifestyle or skill set involved in being a partner at McKenzie.
What does the speaker find frustrating about the feedback loop in consulting?
-The speaker finds it frustrating that consultants often don't see the results of their work, as they don't own the execution and move on to new projects before outcomes are known.
How did working at McKenzie impact the speaker’s personality, and why was this a concern?
-The speaker felt that the constant rush and transactional nature of consulting made them a ruder and less kind person, which they disliked and found concerning.
What career realization did the speaker come to after working at McKenzie?
-The speaker realized they preferred working in startups and venture capital, where they could see the real-world impact of their work and found it more fulfilling than consulting.
What positive aspects of McKenzie does the speaker acknowledge despite leaving the firm?
-The speaker appreciates the smart, kind people at McKenzie and credits the firm with helping them develop communication skills, opening doors to other opportunities like Harvard Business School, and leading them to their passion for startups.
Outlines
💼 My First Week at McKinsey: The Font Size Incident
The speaker recalls their first week at McKinsey, where their new manager criticized their PowerPoint presentation for using font sizes larger than 10. This incident highlighted McKinsey’s obsession with details and presentation aesthetics, which can be frustrating for those who prefer focusing on substance over style. Despite the challenging experience, it reflected the firm’s intense attention to every detail, even down to font size, which is part of the culture at McKinsey. The speaker acknowledges that this focus on presentation isn't unique to the entire firm, but it was a defining early experience.
🌍 The Glamorous Yet Grueling Consultant Lifestyle
The speaker describes the seemingly glamorous lifestyle of a McKinsey consultant, traveling to various cities to advise major corporations. However, in reality, the travel schedule is exhausting, often involving work in remote, less exciting locations like Cincinnati or Peoria. The demanding hours and constant travel prevent consultants from building a stable home life, cultivating friendships, or establishing a healthy routine. While the allure of traveling and working with influential companies seems appealing, the harsh reality of long hours and remote locations dampens that image.
📊 Client Work: Navigating Corporate Politics
The speaker shares how the nature of client work at McKinsey, particularly for Fortune 500 companies, involves navigating internal politics in massive organizations. Progress is often slow and focused on small improvements, like increasing growth by a small percentage, which the speaker found demotivating. They realized they preferred the fast-paced, high-growth environment of startups, where they could see a more direct and significant impact. This experience made the speaker appreciate startup culture over the slower, more bureaucratic environment of large corporations.
🚪 The Decision Not to Become a Partner
The speaker explains their decision not to pursue a partner role at McKinsey. They struggled to authentically sell consulting services and found it difficult to justify the high fees McKinsey charged for their work. Instead, the speaker gravitated towards the world of startups, where they admired builders, creatives, and innovators. Consulting didn’t align with the speaker’s personal values and aspirations, leading them to shift their career focus.
🔄 Lack of Feedback and Fulfillment in Consulting
The speaker highlights the lack of a feedback loop in consulting, where consultants rarely see the long-term impact of their work. Unlike startups, where results can be seen and measured quickly, McKinsey consultants often move on to the next project without knowing if their strategies made a meaningful difference. This lack of fulfillment was a major reason the speaker left McKinsey, as they found more satisfaction in environments where execution and direct impact mattered more.
💼 Does Consulting Make You More Transactional?
The speaker reflects on how consulting work might make individuals more transactional. Constant deadlines, rushing to flights, and frequent changes in project teams create an environment where interactions feel rushed and less personal. Over time, the speaker felt that this transactional nature affected their own behavior, making them less considerate. This shift in personal dynamics contributed to their decision to leave McKinsey in search of a career that better aligned with their ideals.
🎓 Gratitude for McKinsey and Future Opportunities
Despite leaving McKinsey, the speaker expresses gratitude for the opportunities the firm provided. McKinsey helped the speaker develop communication skills and opened doors to ventures like public education, Harvard Business School, and a future in startups and venture capital. While McKinsey was an essential part of their journey, the speaker acknowledges that it may not be the best fit for everyone, particularly those seeking a career that aligns more with their talents and aspirations. They encourage ambitious individuals to explore paths like startups for a more fulfilling career.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Consulting
💡McKinsey
💡Font Size
💡Lifestyle
💡Client Work
💡Politics
💡Startups
💡Feedback Loop
💡Venture Capital
💡Stress
Highlights
The speaker's first experience at McKinsey involved strict font rules in PowerPoint presentations, highlighting the meticulous attention to detail in consulting work.
Consulting often focuses heavily on communication aesthetics, like font size, which can be frustrating for those who prefer focusing on actual productivity.
Despite McKinsey’s prestigious reputation, the speaker realized it wasn't for everyone and decided to share the challenges of working there.
The lifestyle of constant travel, long hours, and remote locations can make it difficult to establish roots, maintain friendships, and start a family.
Although working with Fortune 500 companies may seem glamorous, navigating corporate politics can be demotivating, especially when working on minimal growth projects.
McKinsey made the speaker realize they preferred working with startups, where rapid growth and excitement are more prominent than in large, established businesses.
The speaker didn’t see themselves becoming a partner at McKinsey, as they didn’t enjoy selling consulting services for large fees.
There’s no clear feedback loop in consulting; unlike in startups, consultants rarely see the long-term impact of their work, making it less fulfilling.
In startups, there is a faster feedback loop where results of actions can be seen almost immediately, offering more gratification and learning opportunities.
The speaker felt that working in consulting made them more transactional, as the constant deadlines and changing teams encouraged a rushed and impersonal work dynamic.
McKinsey is an excellent training ground for communication and professionalism, especially for those coming from technical or analytical backgrounds.
Despite leaving McKinsey, the speaker is grateful for the experience, which opened doors and led them to pursue further opportunities, such as working in venture capital.
Consulting at McKinsey gave the speaker valuable experience but also underscored their preference for working in environments where execution and results matter more.
The speaker warns ambitious individuals not to join McKinsey just for the prestige, as they may find more fulfilling opportunities elsewhere.
For those interested in breaking into startups or venture capital, the speaker offers advice and resources through additional videos.
Transcripts
it's my first week on a new engagement
at Mackenzie and I'm putting together a
PowerPoint presentation for a client
kickoff my new manager walks in and asks
to take a look at what I'm working on he
looks at the first slide and then starts
thumbing through the rest of the
presentation and says we don't use Font
sizes bigger than 10 here at McKenzie
reduce the size of the fonts and figure
out some way to fill in all the blank
space and redo all the slides then he
left the room it was like 10:00 p.m. on
a Tuesday I thought it was a joke but
that dude was deadly serious this guy
was kind of like a char picture of what
everybody hates about Mackenzie and
thankfully not everybody at the firm was
like that but that is a reflection of
just how much Consultants agonize all of
their energy thinking through how to
communicate something down to the
Cosmetics of font size which can be
really frustrating for people who
actually just like to get stuff done but
that's actually not the biggest reason
why I left the firm McKenzie is
perennially ranked the number one
consulting firm in the world one of the
most well-run and prestigious companies
to work at with a less than 1%
acceptance rate much lower than getting
into hard Harvard and in fact it's one
of the very top choices to work at for
people who graduate from Harvard but I
actually think it's not for everyone
probably not for most people and I'm
going to share the soft underbelly of
what it's like to work in Mackenzie by
talking about the top seven reasons I
[Music]
quit the first that we have to dig into
is the lifestyle it sounds super
glamorous traveling the world advising
Titans of Industry on world shap
strategy but the fact is when you do
travel you're working like a dog so you
don't exactly get to enjoy the places
you're traveling to and you'd be
surprised how much big corporations are
spread all over the world into remote
places so yes I did work at Luxembourg
San Francisco and Chicago but I also
worked in Cincinnati Eden Prairie and
peia Illinois these are places where the
hotel and food options are pretty
limited if you care about that sort of
thing I actually grew up in those sorts
of places so I actually kind of like
going to Applebee's every day but for
much of the Mackenzie people who are
used to a lot more it adds to the Grind
when you work these long hours in a
remote place that's not that nice and
most importantly the travel schedule
really gets in the way of settling down
routes in your actual home city building
friendships starting a family and just
having a healthy routine being out of
town living out of a suitcase Monday
through Thursday is a great way to
ensure that you're an absentee parent
now you may be thinking working in other
Industries like Tech can also be pretty
intense and long hours and while that is
true especially in early stage startups
I'd say that there is a lot more
flexibility if you're an engineer it
just matters that you get the work done
you don't need to travel across the
country and put in a bunch of FaceTime
you decide when to work now this is
changing quite a bit with remote work
and I'd say the lifestyle these days is
probably a lot better than it was say
you know 2 3 5 years ago but nonetheless
if you're a consultant clients and their
deadlines are still the ones dictating
your schedule the second reason I quit
McKenzie is the nature of the client
work itself yes you're meeting with some
highflying Fortune 500 CEOs and
Executives but these are also decades
old businesses with hundreds of
thousands of people where you have to
navigate tons of politics to get
anything minuscule done I'm just
personally very demotivated by
optimizing monolithic businesses like
this to grow 2% per year versus 1%
McKenzie is actually what made me
realize I love working with startups
where there is a real chance you can be
part of a rocket ship growing 1,000% a
year and is so much more exhilarating
the third reason I left McKenzie is I
just didn't want to be a partner at the
first
and I just couldn't see myself selling
Consulting work in an authentic way to
be honest part of that is I was a
business analyst in the middle of the
sausage making every day and I just had
a hard time believing that we were worth
the 500 Grand per month or whatever we
were being paid selling Consulting
business just wasn't a lifestyle or a
skill set I admired personally no
offense to my friends at McKenzie I
personally find myself much more
gravitating towards the iconic class the
builders and the creatives the rule
Breakers the kind of of people who tend
to start early stage companies the
fourth reason is there's no real
feedback loop yes you make money off
clients and you're graded by other
Consultants on the quality of your work
but there's no real way to know if the
work you're doing is actually creating
value because you don't own the actual
execution of the strategy you come up
with and you're just simply not around
anyways to see the impact because you're
on to the next project one of the
reasons I really love venture capital in
investing is there's a very clear and
objective metric by which you're judged
and that's cash on cash returns Venture
is a little bit tougher in the sense
that it may take 10 to 15 years to IPO
but I'm personally willing to play the
long game the feedback loop for startups
is much faster you could for example
launch a new marketing campaign for your
product and see the results same day a
related but actually more important
point it's just not as fulfilling when
you only do strategy I didn't fully
realize this until I worked at Google
and startups the work you're doing is
just so much more fulfilling when you
actually see it through all the way to
the end and see the real world impact
that it's done and McKenzie the best you
can do is maybe stay in touch with
clients and hear about that secondhand
but for the vast majority of Consultants
especially Junior folks you just have no
idea if anyone did anything with your
suggestions this is the polar opposite
of a startup where ideas are cheap and
execution is everything and you spend
all of your time actually building and
learning as fast as possible and lastly
this is probably a controversial point
that many will not agree with but I
wondered if the work was making me more
transactional as a human being hear me
out here people are generally just
Rudder and less kind when they're in a
rush and with Consulting you're always
pulling late nights to meet a client
deadline always running to catch a
flight and I think for me personally it
brought out the worst of me sometimes
and also the fact that you're constantly
working with different project teams
doing work for different clients and
then leaving before the repercussions of
your work are known I also think that
structurally that might make a lot of
people more transactional as well and so
in some sense I actually didn't like the
person I was becoming through Consulting
and I think this is one of the
underrated pieces of joining and leaving
jobs is what is the nature of the work
due to you as a person I admittedly am
an idealistic Optimist but I like it
that way so for me being a venture
capitalist and getting to dream
alongside amazing Founders trying to do
the impossible is perfect now you'll
notice I didn't say I left Mackenzie
because of the stress frankly I think
there's a lot of jobs out there that are
more stressful namely working at an
early stage startup or starting your own
company which I think is in order of
magnitude more stressful but I would say
I don't like the kind of stress that you
face at Mackenzie because it's often the
product of big company politics that are
beyond your control especially as a
junior person imagine an executive at a
company may be threatened by your
presence just because McKenzie was hired
by his or her boss when they weren't
doing a good job and that person may go
out of their way to criticize you
publicly in high stakes meetings in
front of your team and clients and and
give illogical emotional feedback which
leads to tons of thrash on the work
you're doing that stuff happens all the
time at McKenzie and there are certain
clients and engagements that get
reputations for being a complete
disaster but at the end of the day I
think those Stakes are still just so
much lower than living paycheck to
paycheck or say being a startup operator
where your customers investors and team
owe their livelihoods directly to you
all that said I'm actually really
grateful for my time at Mackenzie
there's some amazingly smart people and
kind people there that were actually the
biggest draw for me in the first place
and I certainly personally got a lot out
of it at the time I joined I was much
more of a math nerd who needed help with
communication and Mackenzie I think is
the best training ground for that in a
business context and it opened up the
doors to so many other opportunities I
actually ended up following one of the
partners I work with into the public
education sector and I eventually went
to Harvard Business School in large part
because of the Mackenzie brand and the
strong references and that is actually
where I discovered my love for startups
and Venture Capital so Mckenzie was an
integral part of my journey so far that
I'm immensely thankful for and I
wouldn't change for the world but I
thought this was an important video to
make precisely because McKenzie is such
a strong brand that opens doors I feel
so many people join the firm when they
may be better served elsewhere you can't
go too wrong working with such smart
people at a place that opens doors but
it's a safe option for many incredibly
ambitious young people who could dare to
do something that's a better fit for
their talents and for the most daring
startups are an incredible opportunity
for outsize impact on that note if
you're looking to break into the startup
World inventure capital I made a couple
of videos that walk through step by-step
how to land the dream job helping build
the future thanks so much for watching
see you next
time
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