McKinsey career entry points: Which salaries and career levels do you qualify for?

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McKinsey roles are available for different stages of potential applicants' careers. Make sure to apply to the best suitable McKinsey role. Whether you're a recent graduate or an experienced professional: which is the optimal McKinsey entry point? 

McKinsey undergraduate roles and entry points

For McKinsey undergraduate entry points, such as McKinsey bachelor roles and McKinsey entry points for McKinsey MA roles, you can get an idea regarding the McKinsey Junior Fellow salary (Europe) and McKinsey Business analyst salary rates (US).

McKinsey graduate roles and entry points in Europe

Graduate entry points are including McKinsey master roles and McKinsey diploma roles. Match the McKinsey qualification criteria and you may be one to enjoy a desirable McKinsey salary. The McKinsey Junior Fellow salary is the lowest, followed by the McKinsey Fellow Salary, the McKinsey Fellow Associate salary and the McKinsey Fellow Senior Associate salary. 

McKinsey graduate roles

Don't forget about McKinsey Senior Business Analyst role. The McKinsey senior business analyst salary (short: the McKinsey SBA salary) is clearly higher than the analyst salary. 

McKinsey MBA and PHD roles

McKinsey MBA roles and McKinsey PHD roles are special within McKinsey. PHDs may be best advised to go for a McKinsey Junior Associate role. The McKinsey Junior Associate salary is remarkable. McKinsey MBA roles provide even better compensation than the McKinsey Junior Associate salary. The McKinsey Associate salary, although lower than the McKinsey Senior Associate salary is the McKinsey entry point for MBA graduates.

McKinsey experienced hires

McKinsey experienced hire roles are best suited for individuals coming from Fortune 500 companies. Experienced hires can start as McKinsey Engagement Manager, McKinsey Associate Partner or in rare cases even as a McKinsey Partner or even a McKinsey Senior Partner. On the top of the pyramid is the McKinsey Senior Partner salary followed by the McKinsey Partner salary. Usually these salaries have big portions of success based pay. Similar so do engagement manager salaries and McKinsey associate partner salaries.

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McKinsey paid leave, McKinsey unpaid leave, McKinsey social leave

A McKinsey Unpaid leaves can be agreed quite flexible as long as no projects are being hurt. The McKinsey Paid leave is for MBA leaves and McKinsey PHD leaves in the McKinsey Fellowship program (EU). Some fellows also decide to do a McKinsey social leave before coming back to the company. Whether you're exploring McKinsey Entry points or already serve in a McKinsey role, McKinsey has opportunities for every qualification level. Videos on the BCG entry points and Bain entry points will follow: learn which qualification is required to for which role at these companies.

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Video transcript:
You probably heard that you can make about €75,000 as a fellow at McKinsey in Europe, $100,000 US as a business analyst in the US, and close to $200,000 when you start your career at McKinsey as an associate. And you wonder which of those positions would you qualify for? Watch this video! I will explain everything!

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Gabriel Goldbrain SUCCESS Training

I'm Gabriel Goldbrain! And my mission is to make you successful in landing one of these jobs at a tier 1 or tier 2 top management consulting firms. Get my training apply at www.gabrielgoldbrain.com.  

Regional differences in McKinsey Junior Roles

Let's now get started! When we're talking about Junior roles, we should first talk about some regional differences you find within McKinsey. So usually in North America, you will find the Business Analyst track on the junior role level. Whereas in Europe the Fellow track is more predominant. And why is that? Why do they have a kind of different tracks which then finally match up together at the Senior Associate level? So that is basically because of the different education systems. You will have a different education system in the US than in Europe. And so, this, these different tracks that McKinsey developed, these different career tracks, they take this into consideration and align the structure from the Senior Associate level on.

PowerPoint Slide Explaining McKinsey Entry Points

Let's now have a look at the PowerPoint slide which I prepared for you. And I will lead you through the different career steps and talk about the particularities, about the steps based on that slide.

The UP or OUT principle

Let's first of all talk about the up or out principle. At McKinsey you will be working on projects all throughout your career here. And after every project your performance will be evaluated and based on that McKinsey forms an opinion. How you match their standards? How well you perform? How happy they are with what you did? And so if they think you don't match their standards to be promoted to the next level, which is expected after a certain while, then they will ask you to leave. I plan to do a separate video on the up or out principle. So make sure that you don't miss it. Subscribe to my channel! You will also get all the new videos which help you to successfully manage landing a job at these consulting firms.   

European Fellow track: Junior Fellow at McKinsey

Let's start with a European fellow track. With a bachelor's degree you start as a Junior Fellow. The same applies if you have a master of arts degree from social sciences. This role is usually compensated at about €45,000 €55,000 €60,000 gross salary per year depending which office you start at.  

European Fellow track: Fellow at McKinsey

With a master's of Science degree or a more quantitative discipline like if you studied business, if you studied finance, if you did computer science statistics mathematics, typically you will start as a Fellow right away which means about a gross salary of €75,000 per year and that is the core of the fellow program. So you get the salary for 3 years. Although the third year, you can take a leave, which is not an unpaid. It's a paid leave and it's part of the deal and part of the program. Also in some cases you may have master of Arts students which had like quantitative disciplines. Like maybe you had a minor studied social sciences and maybe had a minor in some hard quantitative discipline or you did business as a minor. So that may also be possible that you start as a fellow directly. It's kind of up to the impression that McKinsey gets during the interviews with you. So they will assess how mature you are and  how well suited you would be to start directly with a fellowship program. I made a special video about the fellowship program. So watch it! Like it! And share it with your friends! 

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European Fellow track: Fellowship timeline + Paid Leave

Timewise you spend about 1 year in the junior fellow role about 9 months in the fellow role. Then you will be promoted to associate fellow. And from there after another 6 to 9 months, you will be promoted to the senior fellow role. Shortly after their promotion to fellow senior associate, most fellows take the leave. And in Europe they mainly do a PhD. An MBA is also not impossible, but it's a rare option because there people usually need support from McKinsey and this is typically reserved to the best performing candidates. And in Europe it's rather unusual to go this way when you are a fellow at McKinsey. There is also a direct to associate option for the high performing candidates, who wish not to take the paid leave to make the PHD. So they can directly stay at the firm and continue their career. But still most of the fellows, they go for the paid leave.   

NA Business Analyst track: Business Analyst & Senior Business Analyst at McKinsey

Let's now talk about the North American business analyst track. Straight out of college you start as a business analyst with McKinsey. You will earn about $100,000 US straight out of college and then stay in the business analyst role for one year before you being promoted to senior business analyst. And after a period of about 2 years in total as an analyst and then as a senior business analyst, you may take a leave to do an MBA or a master's of Science degree. So you have two options: The first option is that you go directly to associate, which is becoming more and more usual in McKinsey in the US. Or you do an MBA. Getting MBA financing is not that easy because usually McKinsey requires you to return for a certain period of time after you obtained the MBA. And for for sure it depends on your performance. So you have to be a good performer to get financing from McKinsey. And in the US there is no such thing as a PhD financing, because people tend to get their master of science, their 2-year master of science programing financed, or their MBA.

Junior Associate at McKinsey

With a master of science in the US or an industry higher with a few years of work experience you start as a junior associate in the US. that means you will get a salary of about $150,000 to $170,000 us per year and that's a typical entry point for these kind of candidates.  

Associate at McKinsey

With an MBA you start as an associate and that applies across almost all regions. So also with a PhD you may start as an associate. But sometimes it's more advisable if you go for the junior associate, particularly if you have no consulting experience at all. Because it's quite different to work in a Consulting environment than in a university academic environment. So it's highly recommended that you rather take a step back and say "I spent one more year to get up to speed with a Consulting industry instead of going with an associate and maybe not performing up to standards". That's a consideration you should make when you apply with a PhD. What else can be said about the associate role? You will get an annual gross salary of about $190,000 or about it's close to 200,000. Let's, Let's state it that way. In Europe the associate salary usually is a office in which you hold the associate role.

Senior Associate at McKinsey

Then let's talk about the last entry point or basically it's not really an entry point I would call it a reentry point. This is in the European fellow program when you have completed your PhD and then return to McKinsey or when you did an MBA with a fellow program and then return to McKinsey. This is the reentry point. You will start as a senior associate which is also kind of a junior project manager role.   

Engagement Manager Level and Beyond at McKinsey

The entry points for roles on engagement manager level or above are usually less standardized. So here it depends pretty much on your your CV, on your previous experience, on maybe clients and revenue you can bring to the company. So these are highly negotiable and there is no standard approach to kind of say which is the ideal entry point beyond an engagement manager role. An exception to that are for sure persons changing from other tier one or tier 2 management consulting firms. They are more comparable there. It's more clear which roles they may start at. Maybe they want to accelerate their career, take a career step earlier and then maybe they are... they're senior associate level comparable and then they apply to McKinsey and make their move half a year earlier. Things like that are usually happening, but more or less they are comparable. As you have seen there are Regional differences within McKinsey. Which is not surprising. They are covering more than 65 countries and more than 130 cities with offices. So if you had an unusual CV, let us know in the comments  which entry point McKinsey offered to you. Share your experiences with the community! They will highly appreciate it. One note on the slide you find it on my website www.gabrielgoldbrain.com. I want to recommend two videos to you: The first video is about the McKinsey fellowship program which is very popular in Europe and the second video is about the pitfalls of the McKinsey recruiting process Don't forget to like my video and subscribe to my YouTube channel.

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