Question:

I am looking for guidance on how the experienced hire recruiting process works, whether there has to be a specific opening in an area related to my experience for me to secure an interview and how I could improve my chances of getting an interview/offer.

My Response:

Unfortunately, I was never really involved in experienced hire recruiting and only worked with a few experienced hires (e.g., people who were not recruited immediately after graduating from some type of degree program).

I understand that in the normal recruiting process a few years ago, you got to the 2nd round. This speaks favorably to your skills and perhaps just another attempt will be sufficient.

I will give two suggestions.

First, when you get in touch with the recruiter for experienced hires, ask them how the process or criteria may be different than either MBA or APD recruiting.

Second, McKinsey has a number of specialized groups that aren’t necessarily part of the normal Associate track. I worked with a team of in house statisticians that I never knew the firm had as an internal resource. They were staffed with a bunch of math PhD’s and basically were called in for the very advanced statistical analysis.

Such groups exist in functional areas (for example I know McKinsey has a corporate finance team that consists of a lot of ex bankers that are specifically called in for M&A work and anytime there was a sophisticated valuation needed.). I know similar groups existed in business technology and human resources.

They may also exist in industry areas as well. The criteria for getting into one of these areas may differ. So it would be very useful to get a bit of clarity from the individuals you’re dealing with as to what they’re looking for.

So when in doubt, ask. I found the recruiters to be very accessible. As in pick up the phone and call them… it helps if you call them during the off season where they have more time to answer a simple question or two.

Hope this helps.

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