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Hacking the Case Interview

Are you looking to transition from a PhD or advanced degree program and get into management consulting ? Unsure of how exactly to do this?

We have you covered! This comprehensive article covers:

• Why consulting firms hire PhD / advanced degree candidates
• Firms that hire PhD / advanced degree candidates
• Challenges that PhD / advanced degree candidates face
• PhD / advanced degree consulting recruiting process
• Submitting a PhD / advanced degree consulting application
• Passing consulting interviews with a PhD / advanced degree
• Recommended PhD / advanced degree case interview resources

If you’re looking for a step-by-step shortcut to learn case interviews quickly, enroll in our case interview course . These insider strategies from a former Bain interviewer helped 30,000+ land consulting offers while saving hundreds of hours of prep time.

Why Consulting Firms Hire PhD / Advanced Degree Candidates

Consulting firms hire PhD and advanced degree candidates for many reasons.

One, consulting firms want to hire top talent wherever they may be. While consulting firms have traditionally hired from top-tier undergraduate and MBA schools, they have been moving towards also hiring from top-tier medical schools, law schools, and graduate schools. Talented future consultants can be found anywhere and consulting firms want to hire them.

Two, a lot of the skills that PhD and advanced degree candidates have can be transferred to consulting. PhD students gather data, break down problems, write papers, and present their work to others. Analyzing data and presenting your work are critical skills that consultants use every day.

Three, the work that consultants do is increasingly becoming more specialized, requiring specialized expertise. This is where PhD and advanced degree graduates shine. If a consulting firm is helping a pharmaceutical company develop a strategy to launch a new drug, who better to help them than a biochemistry PhD or MD that understands healthcare ?

Therefore, if you are interested in transitioning to the business world, know that consulting firms do hire PhD and advanced degree candidates that have no business backgrounds.

As a PhD or advanced degree hire, you’ll typically be placed at roughly the same level as an MBA hire. However, if you only have a master’s degree, you may be placed at the same level as an undergraduate hire.

Firms That Hire PhD / Advanced Degree Candidates

All three of the top-tier management consulting firms, McKinsey, BCG, and Bain, hire PhD and advanced degree candidates. In fact, they have special programs that are tailored to helping PhD and advanced degree candidates go through the recruiting process.

In addition, many other top consulting firms hire PhD and advanced degree candidates, including Deloitte , Strategy& (part of PwC) , EY-Parthenon , LEK , and Roland Berger .

If you have a PhD in life sciences or an MD, there are many consulting firms that specialize in life sciences consulting . These consulting firms include: ClearView Healthcare , Guidehouse (Navigant ), ZS , Putnam Associates , and Huron Consulting .

Overall, there are many consulting firms that will hire PhD and advanced degree candidates.

Challenges that PhD / Advanced Degree Candidates Face

Although PhD and advanced degree candidates have some skills that will transfer over to consulting, there are many skills that will not. There are six main challenges that PhD and advanced degree hires will face when they recruit for and enter consulting.

Understanding essential business concepts

PhD and advanced degree candidates spend years studying fields that have nothing to do with business. One of the biggest challenges that these candidates face is ramping up on fundamental business knowledge.

Consulting does not require specialized business knowledge, but candidates should be familiar with fundamental business concepts, such as profitability, market share, and competitive advantage.

Additionally, many PhD and advanced degree candidates will lack the business judgment and acumen that a traditional MBA candidate has. Building up a strong business instinct takes time.

Solving problems quickly

PhD candidates may work on one project for many years, extensively researching the topic and going very deep into the details and nuances of the problem.

In contrast, consulting projects are typically solved in 3 – 6 months. As a new consultant, PhD and advanced degree candidates will need to learn how to solve problems quickly by focusing on the most important issues or areas.

Doing simple math calculations quickly

PhD candidates likely use sophisticated and complex mathematics in their research and work, such as differential equations or linear algebra.

In consulting, only very basic math is used. Surprisingly, during interviews, PhD and advanced degree candidates have a much more difficult time performing basic math calculations than undergraduate candidates. This may be because PhD candidates are used to doing higher level math using statistical software rather than doing simpler math calculations by hand.

Therefore, PhD candidates will likely need to brush up on their basic math skills to perform calculations quickly and accurately during their interviews.

Making things simple and easy to understand

One of the key skills in consulting is to make things simple and easy to understand. This is important in order to make clients understand their business situation and act on the recommendations that the consulting firm has provided.

PhD and advanced degree candidates deal with complex and intricate problems that are often difficult to explain to the average person. To be a successful consultant, PhD and advanced degree hires will need to practice explaining complex things in a simple way.

Not focusing too much on the nitty gritty details

In a PhD program, you go very deep into one particular area or topic. To become an expert in the field, you typically read all of the scientific papers published on the topic and know all of the details.

Consulting is less focused on the nitty gritty details. Consultants will learn just enough about a particular topic or area in order to be able to solve the business problem.

Focusing more on the overall business problem and focusing less on minute details is one skill that PhD and advanced degree hires will need to learn and develop.

PhD / Advanced Degree Consulting Recruiting Process

Some consulting firms, such as McKinsey, BCG, and Bain, offer programs that specifically help PhD and advanced degree holders apply and transition to consulting. Participating in these programs will help you build connections and increase the likelihood of receiving an interview.

These programs are fairly competitive and require you to submit an application in order to be accepted into the program.

• McKinsey Insight Program : This program provides an overview of management consulting and McKinsey, an opportunity to connect with consultants that share a similar background to you, and a mock case study.
• Bridge to BCG Program : This program provides an overview of consulting and what makes BCG special. You’ll have the opportunity to solve a BCG case in a case team simulation, network with consulting staff, and participate in social activities.
• Bain ADvantage Program : This week-long internship immerses candidates into life at Bain and a career in consulting. You’ll have a full day of training followed by four days of a staffing assignment on a real case team. If accepted into this program, you will receive a guaranteed final-round interview for a full-time Consultant position.

Outside of these programs, the PhD and advanced degree recruiting process looks like the following:

• Submit your consulting job application
• Pass your first-round consulting interviews
• Pass your final-round consulting interviews
• Receive your consulting job offer

Submitting a PhD / Advanced Degree Consulting Application

Consulting firm job applications typically have three components: the resume , cover letter , and the optional referral.

We’ll briefly cover each of these components of the application over the next few sections. Each section has a link to a more comprehensive, in-depth guide that you should read.

Consulting Resume

Your resume is the single most important factor that decides whether or not you will receive a consulting interview. Consulting resumes are quite different from the type of resumes you would use in a PhD or advanced degree program.

For example, you will not need to list publications you have contributed to or conferences that you have attended. You’ll also need to simplify the topic of your research so that the average recruiter can understand what you have worked on and what you have accomplished. Finally, make sure to focus less on the details of your work and more on the overall accomplishment and impact.

Make sure to tailor your resume so that it follows the structure and format of a consulting resume.

In short, keep your resume to one page and quantify the impact of your accomplishments.

Consulting firms like to see:

• High grades
• Prestigious schools that you have attended
• Brand name companies that you have worked for
• Significant impact in your work experiences
• Meaningful leadership positions in your extracurricular activities

For a step-by-step guide to crafting the perfect consulting resume, check out our comprehensive resume guide .

Consulting Cover Letter

The cover letter is less important than your resume, but can make the difference between receiving a consulting interview and not receiving one if your resume is on the borderline.

Your cover letter should be concise and straight to the point. Introduce yourself and then briefly explain why you are interested in consulting. Spend most of the cover letter explaining what qualities you have that would make you a great fit for the firm.

To avoid having a generic cover letter, include specific reasons why you are interested in the consulting firm you are applying to. Mention former or current employees that you have spoken to and what aspects of the firm you find most attractive.

For a step-by-step guide to crafting the perfect consulting cover letter, check out our comprehensive cover letter guide .

Referrals are not part of the official application process for consulting firms, but they are a quick way to make your application stand out.

If you have a friend or colleague that works at the consulting firm you are applying to, ask if they would be comfortable giving you a referral.

Getting a referral means that someone at the consulting firm will send your name and resume to the recruiter that is in charge of resume reviews. Your application will get a closer look and be viewed a bit more favorably.

Referrals are not required to get interviews, but can help a lot. For the McKinsey Insight Program, Bridge to BCG Program, and Bain ADvantage Program, referrals can make a big difference given how competitive these programs are.

Passing Consulting Interviews with a PhD / Advanced Degree

A few weeks after the application deadlines, you’ll receive invitations from consulting firms for the first of two rounds of interviews.

Passing First-Round PhD / Adv. Degree Consulting Interviews

At most consulting firms, the first round of interviews consists of two separate 40- to 60-minute interviews. These interviews will mainly focus on case interviews, but you will also get a few other types of questions.

There are three types of consulting interview questions :

Case Interviews

• Behavioral Interviews

Why Consulting? / Why this Firm?

We’ll briefly cover each of these types of consulting interview questions over the next few sections. Each section has a link to a more comprehensive, in-depth guide that you should read.

Case interviews are a special type of interview question that consulting firms use to assess a candidate’s potential to be a great consultant. In a case interview, you’ll be placed in a hypothetical business situation and asked to develop a recommendation or answer to a business problem. A case takes about 30- to 60-minutes to complete.

Here are some examples of case interview questions:

• How can Coca-Cola increase its profitability?
• What should Netflix do to increase customer retention?
• Should Facebook enter the smart phone market?
• How should Apple price its new iPhone?

Case interviews begin with the interviewer reading you the background information on the case. You’ll then get the chance to ask clarifying questions to better understand the business situation and case objective.

Next, you’ll develop a framework to help you solve the case. A framework is a tool that helps you structure and break down complex problems into smaller, more manageable components.

You’ll then be asked to answer quantitative and qualitative questions to build support for a recommendation. You may need to calculate expected profitability, interpret charts and graphs, or brainstorm and prioritize different ideas.

At the end of the case interview, the interviewer will ask you to deliver a final recommendation to address or solve the business problem.

Behavioral Interview Questions

Consulting behavioral interview questions ask you to give an example or story of a time when you displayed a particular quality, such as leadership, problem solving, or resilience.

Here are some examples of behavioral interview questions:

• Tell me about a time when you exceeded expectations
• Give me an example of a time when you had to persuade someone
• Describe a situation in which you resolved team conflict
• Give me an example of a time when you failed to meet expectations
• Describe a difficult or complicated problem that you solved

To prepare for these questions, develop a list of five different stories or examples that cover a wide range of positive qualities. You should select stories or experiences that are the most impressive and impactful.

When asked a behavioral interview question, mentally run through your list of prepared stories and select the one that is most relevant to the question that is asked.

You’ll want to share your story or experience by using the STAR method to ensure that you answer the question in a clear and structured way. STAR stands for Situation, Task, Action, and Result.

Situation : Provide a brief overview of the situation and any context that is needed to understand the story better. Keep this section as concise as possible because it is less important than the other parts of the story.

Task : Describe what you were asked or required to deliver or achieve. Again, keep this section concise since it is less important than the other parts of the story.

Action : Explain what steps you took to handle the task or meet the goal or objective. This is an important part of the story, so focus on sharing exactly what you did.

Result : Describe the outcome that your actions had, quantifying the impact. Also describe your key takeaways from the experience and how it impacted or influenced you as a person. This is the most important part of the story.

For a step-by-step guide on how to best answer all consulting behavioral and fit interview questions, check out our complete guide on consulting behavioral interview questions .

You will almost certainly be asked the “Why Consulting?” question at some point during your interviews. Interviewers want to know why you are interested in consulting to see if you know what you are getting yourself into and whether you are genuinely interested.

As a PhD or advanced degree candidate, you will need to provide compelling reasons why you are choosing to pursue consulting instead of the field that you have spent years studying.

There are many reasons you can give for why you are interested in consulting:

• You want to make a larger impact on the world by working with large companies to solve their most challenging business problems
• You see consulting as the quickest way to develop the skills to transition to the business world and become a business executive
• You enjoy working closely in teams to solve challenging business problems
• You value the mentorship and personal development opportunities that consulting provides
• You want to tackle a wide variety of different problems and consulting allows you to work on projects in many different industries and functions

Use the following structure to answer this question:

• State that consulting is your top career choice
• Provide three reasons to support this
• Reiterate that consulting best fits your professional needs and goals

In addition to the “Why Consulting?” question, you may also be asked “Why this Firm?” This question assesses whether you are genuinely interested in working at the consulting firm that you are interviewing for.

Again, there are many different reasons you could give:

• You have loved the people that you’ve met from the firm and would enjoy working with them
• The firm has an empowering work culture where you feel you would thrive
• The firm has deep expertise in a particular industry or function that you are passionate about
• The firm places a heavy investment in mentorship and personal development, which you value tremendously
• Several of your mentors and role models have worked at the firm and have recommended that you work there

Make sure to structure your answer to this question so that your answer is clear and easy to follow. You can use a similar structure to the “Why Consulting?” question:

• State that the firm you are interviewing for is your top choice consulting firm
• Reiterate that the firm best fits your professional needs and goals

For a complete guide on answering this question, check out our "Why consulting?" article.

Passing Final-Round PhD / Adv. Degree Consulting Interviews

Consulting final round interviews typically consist of two to three separate 40- to 60-minute interviews. You’ll see the same three types of questions that you saw in your first-round interviews.

There are three main distinctions between consulting first-round interviews and consulting final-round interviews.

First, your interviewers will be more senior people. This means that the case interviews you receive may be less structured and feel more like a qualitative discussion. You and the interviewer may just be discussing your opinions and ideas on a business problem.

Second, there is more of an emphasis on assessing your personality and cultural fit with the firm. Interviewers will not only assess whether you can solve case interviews, but they will also assess whether they would want to work with you on a team. Interviewers want to see if you are coachable, collaborative, and easy to work with.

Third, your interviewers may read the notes that your previous interviewers wrote about you. If there is a particular area of the case interview that you struggled with, interviewers may specifically test you on it again to make sure it is not a weakness.

Overall, you should still use the same strategies that you used in your first-round interviews for your second-round interviews.

Receiving your PhD / Adv. Degree Consulting Job Offer

After finishing all of your interviews, all you have to do is to wait. Consulting firms typically call candidates to tell them whether or not they are being extended a job offer.

Some candidates receive a phone call with good news on the same day of their final-round interview. Other candidates receive calls within a few days.

Be patient while waiting to hear back from consulting firms. If you have not heard back within a week, you can send a polite follow-up email with the recruiter to ask for an update.

When you finally get your call, all that is left to do is sign your offer letter to secure your consulting job!

Recommended PhD / Advanced Degree Case Interview Resources

Here are the resources we recommend to learn the most robust, effective case interview strategies in the least time-consuming way:

• Comprehensive Case Interview Course (our #1 recommendation): The only resource you need. Whether you have no business background, rusty math skills, or are short on time, this step-by-step course will transform you into a top 1% caser that lands multiple consulting offers.
• Hacking the Case Interview Book   (available on Amazon): Perfect for beginners that are short on time. Transform yourself from a stressed-out case interview newbie to a confident intermediate in under a week. Some readers finish this book in a day and can already tackle tough cases.
• The Ultimate Case Interview Workbook (available on Amazon): Perfect for intermediates struggling with frameworks, case math, or generating business insights. No need to find a case partner – these drills, practice problems, and full-length cases can all be done by yourself.
• Case Interview Coaching : Personalized, one-on-one coaching with former consulting interviewers
• Behavioral & Fit Interview Course : Be prepared for 98% of behavioral and fit questions in just a few hours. We'll teach you exactly how to draft answers that will impress your interviewer
• Resume Review & Editing : Transform your resume into one that will get you multiple interviews

Land Multiple Consulting Offers

Complete, step-by-step case interview course. 30,000+ happy customers.

How to transition from PhD to consulting?

Going from PhD to consulting can feel intimidating. It's hard to know which consulting firms recruit PhDs, and at which level. And it can also sometimes feel unclear if you'll be using your PhD skills at all or completely starting from scratch.

So let's walk through how you should manage your transition from PhD to consulting step by step. From which firms to target to how much you will be paid and how to ace your applications and interviews.

Click here to get expert help on your resume from a consultant recruiter

Which companies recruit phds and at which level.

Consulting firms help clients solve some of the most difficult problems they face in their business. As a consequence, firms like McKinsey, BCG and Bain have always been competing with each other to recruit the smartest talent possible. Historically, top consulting firms were mainly hiring MBAs but that has changed over the past few decades and they now also target undergraduate and PhD students.

However, not all firms recruit PhDs at the same level. Some firms like Bain or Oliver Wyman recruit PhDs at their undergraduate entry level which they respectively call Associate Consultant and Consultant. This recruiting approach can feel a little bit frustrating as a PhD given you've spent much more time studying and also usually have more work experience than a typical undergraduate.

But the good news is that some firms have started to recognise this issue and to hire PhDs at the level just above the entry level one. This most notably includes McKinsey and BCG which respectively hire PhDs at Junior Associate and Senior Associate levels. As you can see in the graph below, these are equivalent levels despite the fact that the two firms call them differently.

As you've probably understood by now, McKinsey and BCG are great firms to target as a PhD because you will get in a at higher level than other firms which has got a few advantages:

• First, you'll receive a higher base salary from the start. ~$95k instead of the typical ~$80k for undergraduate entry level.
• Second, you'll be further along in your career and be given more responsibility from day one.

If you want to target these two firms, we would recommend taking a look at the recruiting events they regularly organise for PhDs: the McKinsey Insight Programme and the Bridge to BCG Programme . Both are one to two day workshops during which you get a chance to network with people from McKinsey / BCG , participate in realistic case experiences and get a better feel for whether you'd enjoy being a consultant. We would definitely encourage you to apply if you can.

In addition, if you have done a PhD in life sciences, we would also encourage you to take a look at consulting firms which have a strong focus on healthcare and pharma. This includes LEK , ClearView , Navigant and ZS Associates among others. These are smaller firms than McKinsey or BCG in terms of size but they have a strong culture of hiring PhDs and could be a good addition to your list.

Finally, McKinsey, BCG and the other consulting firms we have mentioned above take part to the PhD to consulting conference every year in the UK. We would recommend attending if you are based in London.

Why should you become a management consultant?

Consulting is intense and your interviewers will want to make sure you have carefully thought about why you want to become a management consultant . In our experience here are the top 3 aspects of management consulting that are most relevant to PhD students.

First, management consulting is not completely unlike doing research. A big part of a management consultant's job is to solve client problems. Going to work for firms like McKinsey or BCG will therefore give you the opportunity to continue using the skills you have developped while doing your PhD: from gathering data, to breaking down problems into manageable pieces and to articulating your ideas in a structured way. Here are a few case examples if you want a more precise idea of the type of projects consultants work on.

Second, one of the differences between management consulting and academia is the pace at which things go. You typically go less deep in the problems you solve in management consulting. But you are asked to solve them much faster. There's an emphasis on speed over depth. The bright side of this is that you will typically see the results of your work much faster as a consultant. On some projects you could even see your recommendations being implemented and have a direct impact on revenues / profits while you are still working at the client site.

Third, if you've decided academia isn't for you and are attracted to the business world, consulting can be a great stepping stone. McKinsey, BCG and Bain are sometimes referred to as " CEO factories " because a lot of their alumnus go on to manage Fortune 500 companies. For instance, both Sheryl Sandberg (Facebook COO) and Sundar Pichai (Google CEO) are former McKinsey consultants. Not all consultants go on to do great things but some do!

Having a clear idea of why you want to be a consultant is important because it's a demanding job which often involves long hours and a lot of travel.

How to land and ace consulting interviews?

Now that you know what firms to target, let's talk about the consulting application process. For most firms it looks something like this:

• Resume and cover letter
• Maths and logic test
• 1st round interviews
• 2nd round interviews

Each round of interview typically includes 2 to 5 interviews where you will be asked a mix of case questions and fit questions .

The first hurdle you will need to overcome is writing a great PhD consulting resume (template available here) . Our four main tips to achieve this as a PhD student are as follows:

• First, you should use a consulting specific structure for your documents: "Education", "Work experience", "Extra-curricular achievements" and "Additional skills". There's no need for specific sections on your publications or the conferences you attended.
• Second, you should write result-oriented bullet points. This means all your bullet points should start with action verbs (e.g. lead, analyse, etc.) and quantify the impact you've had as much as possible (e.g. lead a collaboration between 4 researchers which resulted in 3 publications)
• Third, you should work hard to simplify the topic of your research. The person reviewing your resume won't know more about your field than the average Financial Times reader. You need to dumb it down for them. They don't need to understand what you did in detail. Conveying a high level idea of your field is often enough.
• Finally, some recruiters have small prejudice against PhD students. They think they are good problem solvers but lack soft skills. In your resume, you should therefore make every effort to show off your soft skills. Two easy ways to do this are to talk about the different collaborations you've worked on, and the different presentations you've made at conferences.

Once your resume and cover letter have been accepted you will need to start preparing for case interviews . This type of interviews lasts about 30 minutes during which you will analyse and solve a business problem. These cases are usually inspired from past consulting projects your interviewer will have worked on.

For example, your interviewer could ask you: "Your client is Coca-Cola, and their profits have been declining in recent years. Can you help find the root-cause of the profit decline and turn the situation around?"

We've helped more than 20,000 students prepare for consulting interviews in the past and in our experience the following four-step approach makes for a great preparation.

• First, you should aim to develop fast and reliable maths skills . All case interviews involve some maths but PhD students in sciences often underestimate that part because they are used to doing more complex maths in their research. But doing simple additions, subtractions, divisions and multiplications QUICKLY and ACCURATELY is a completely different skillset to solving complex integrals (as an example). It requires some practice!
• Second, the real secret to case interviews is CONSISTENCY. You will have 5 to 10 interviews before getting an offer. In order to succeed you therefore need to consistently crack cases. In our experience, the best way to achieve this is to always use the same step by step method. We've developed our own method which you can learn about in our case interview programmes. Or you can also develop your own.
• Third, you should practice as many case interviews as possible. Practicing with peers and playing the role of the interviewer / candidate in turns is extremely helpful. But in addition, we would also recommend practicing by yourself as this gives you more time to think about the questions and about the perfect answer you can give. In addition, some candidates also use a consulting interview coach to fine-tune their preparation.
• Finally, you should not forget to spend some of your preparation time on fit and PEI questions . These are questions such as " Why McKinsey? " or "Tell me about a time you lead a team through a difficult situation?" These are often overlooked by candidates but carry an important weight in interviewers' final decision.

Consulting can be a great stepping stone for PhD students who aren't willing to go into academia and would like to enter the business world. McKinsey and BCG are particularly active in the PhD recruiting space. And so are other smaller firms with a strong presence in healthcare and life sciences such as Navigant, Clearview or ZS Associates. Getting an offer in consulting can be a bit challenging but if you follow our guidance on resumes, cover letters and case interviews your chances are actually quite high.

Here's how much you'll make at McKinsey, Bain and BCG in the U.S.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought on a big freeze in salaries in the consulting industry as participants cut costs, bringing to an end the generous pay rises of precedng years. 

The 2021 salary report from industry coaching firm  Management Consulted shows that salaries at the top three firms – McKinsey,  Bain  and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) – known collectively as MBB, remained flat compared with 2020. This is confirmed by the latest Harvard MBA employment report, which puts salaries for Harvard MBAs going into consulting at $165k for 2021, the same as one year previously. 

Until this year, however, pay at the big consulting firms had been climbing. Management Consulted says the rise was most notable in 2019, when firms hiked salaries as they fought a war for talent with tech firms.  Tech firms haven't gone away, so consulting firms have taken measures to soften the blow of stagnant pay. U nlimited paid time off (PTO) (E&Y), profit sharing (L.E.K.), and one-time work-from-home bonuses have become more common.

Below is an analysis of pay at the MBB firms: McKinsey & Co., Bain & Co., and BCG. The figures are drawn from Management Consulted. 

Undergraduate hires

Salaries and signing on bonuses for undergraduates remained flat at the MBB firms compared with 2020.  The only big difference was that McKinsey doubled the threshold of its maximum performance bonus to $30,000.

While MBB firms froze salaries, they offered other perks, and there are some differences here.  Bain offers relocation of $5,000, a housing allowance of up to $5,000 along with 20 days paid time off (PTO) vacation per year.

BCG offers relocation expenses up to $8,000, profit-sharing of up to $4,400 and 15 days a year PTO.

McKinsey which offers the biggest total comp package for those who hit the top performance bonus of $30,000, provides up to $10,000 in relocation expenses and 19 days PTO per year.

MBA/PhD hires

For MBA and PhD hires, salaries and bonuses for the MBB firms remained unchanged, with Bain and BCG edging ahead of McKinsey in terms of total compensation for the second year running.

Again, there are some nuances when it comes to perks for MBA and PhD hires. 

McKinsey was a bit more generous with retirement assistance, setting aside 7.5% of salary for an employee's 401k.  BCG held its  retirement contribution a $10,312, after a big hike in 2019 – while Bain has kept its contribution steady at $8k.

There is also some variance over the size of relocation packages, with Bain being the most generous.  It offers $8,000 for relocation distances of less than 400 miles, and $16,000 thereafter. BCG offers between $2k and $8k, while McKinsey upped its allowance slightly to a maximum of $10k. McKinsey also offers to pay 50% of MBA tuition for returning interns.

Overall, i f you want to work for the top three consulting firms then there’s not much in it. 

Download our full salary and bonus survey here.  

Have a confidential story, tip, or comment you’d like to share? Contact:  [email protected]  in the first instance. Whatsapp/Signal/Telegram also available (Telegram: @SarahButcher)

Bear with us if you leave a comment at the bottom of this article: all our comments are moderated by human beings. Sometimes these humans might be asleep, or away from their desks, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. Eventually it will – unless it’s offensive or libelous (in which case it won’t.)

These 2019 salaries are pretty accurate for first year hires who just graduated with their MBA/PhD. They are slightly higher for 2020.

The comments below seem to miss the point that the salaries provided were for newly hired MBA/PhD students who just graduated. The article did not discuss the specific tiles that each of the three firms uses.

agree, these aren't close to the actual salaries you earn (particularly at the senior levels).

These aren't remotely accurate and aren't even the correct job titles.

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Alternative careers for stem phds: life science consulting.

With the increasingly competitive job market in academia for STEM PhDs, graduate students across the country are struggling to find employment commitments by the time they graduate. With the exception of computer science majors, the output of STEM PhD graduates far exceed the amount of jobs available . Furthermore, the predominant job opportunity for graduates in life sciences, physics, or chemistry is a post-doc position with a minimal $40K salary. It’s no wonder that so many STEM PhDs are leveraging their credentials toward alternative careers such as consulting .

The fast-growing consulting industry has an estimated global market value of US$250 billion . The consulting industry is segmented into various fields such as pharma, healthcare, or retail and hires at various levels of education including bachelor, MD, and PhD. To better understand the nature of the consulting industry and the mindset of STEM PhDs entering consulting, I spoke with Jesmine Cheung , an associate at DeciBio, and summarized 6 takeaway points at the end of the article. DeciBio is a boutique life science consulting company based in Santa Monica, California. Jesmine is a UCLA Biochemistry PhD graduate who studied mechanisms of mitochondrial protein import in the Carla Koehler laboratory. 

When in grad school did you begin to pursue this field? What caused you to change your career path?

I think it was about my second to third year that I really decided I did not want to do bench work for the rest of my life. The end goal would have been to graduate with a PhD and then do a post doc somewhere, or maybe work in industry. Ultimately, I felt research in either an academic or industry setting really isn’t for me. So I asked myself, what else could my PhD be used for? This is when I looked more into alternative careers and consulting was one of them.

What about consulting with a STEM PhD appeals to you?

At first I had no idea what consulting really was. My impression was that it was primarily for people with prior business expertise. But after looking deeper into it, I found that there are a lot of niche-based consulting companies such as in pharma or life sciences. Given my several years in academic research, I thought I would be more suited for those types of consulting jobs.

Do you think it offers a lot of leverage having a STEM PhD?

Absolutely, especially in niche related consulting firms that are science based. But beyond that, earning a PhD really allows you to harness your critical thinking, analytical, and problem-solving skills, which are essential in consulting. Though I wouldn’t say it’s required to have a PhD, because there are a lot of business majors that get into consulting early on. But having a PhD can really help.

Many see consulting as a stepping stone into business-oriented job opportunities. Do you feel consulting is sustainable as a long-term career? What other careers do you think it prepares you for?

Well it really depends on the company. At larger firms like Bain, McKinsey, or LEK, I don't believe the lifestyle is really so sustainable. Consultants tend to work long hours, with an average of 60-70 hours per week, and the turnover for people is around 3 to 4 years. But smaller firms like mine seem to have much more reasonable hours. In terms of careers, a lot of consultants often end up working for one of their clients, which isn’t so surprising. Usually after gaining experience as a consultant you can get a foothold in various markets or research fields. Also, you end up growing your own network considerably because you’re constantly talking to and interviewing people. So consulting can certainly prepare you for a career in managing or marketing as well as lead to those types of opportunities.

What traits—personality or otherwise—do you feel are most suited for a career in consulting?

Having people skills is particularly important because you will be interacting with people all the time. This includes clients, colleagues, and experts in the field to which you are asking questions, emailing, or presenting throughout the day. Communication and teamwork skills are also highly desired because you are typically working on a case together, collecting data, analyzing and finding the best ways to present your findings to clients. This also means you need exceptional managing and analytical skills to apply the data and obtain meaningful outcomes.

I think we may have covered a little of this, but how do you feel having a STEM PhD helps you in this industry, if at all?

Analytical or critical thinking abilities are highly desired and obtaining a PhD, particularly in the science fields, helps to develop those skills. As a PhD student we are faced with challenges every day when things don’t work, or data isn’t reproducible. Then we must step back and find solutions to those problems. At some point it becomes natural to us and those abilities are essential in consulting. Also, presentation skills are important, and we get a lot of experience as PhD students from being TAs or presenting our work at seminars or conferences.

For many fields we don’t always have prior experience or knowledge yet. It’s usually through diligent research, interviews, and data collection that we become well-versed in the field and are able to provide useful advice

Now that you are in this industry, is there anything about it that you didn’t expect or that surprised you? Positive or negative?

No, not really actually. I had a pretty good idea about what it was, especially from doing interviewing and practicing case studies. You have to have a fair bit of understanding of what consulting is before you can be hired.

Is there anything you miss about research or wet lab work?

No, but I’m sure some people would. For me, research is often so focused on a very small area for long periods of time. After a while you start losing interest or motivation to find the answers. For consulting, a project lasts only weeks or months, and you can have a more definitive answer while quickly moving on to something else. I find that much more satisfying.

What does a normal work day look like for you? How has this changed from your days in research in academia?

No pipetting! It’s completely different from research. No experiments or lab work. Rather it’s a very office type of work. You go from meeting to meeting, contacting different experts in the field and emailing experts to gain insight. Ultimately, the output is basically a PowerPoint, which we present to the clients.

How did you prepare yourself for a career in consulting? Specifically, how did you prepare for the interviews?

The interviews are generally split in two parts. The first part is behavioral like most jobs to see if you’re a good match, personality or otherwise. The other half is the case interview, where you are presented with a mini or simplified case you would typically see at the firm, to see how you can think through a problem. For that you will have to practice a lot. But there are plenty of case books out there that you can read. And it’s always best to practice with somebody or in a group. There are usually consulting clubs on campus that meet and do cases that help with those things.

What about other ways to prepare your resume for a consulting job?

Well, any other activity aside from research or science, if you’re getting your STEM PhD to help your resume. Things like participating in case competitions or venture capital activities. Or if you’re able, try to find an internship somewhere in consulting or the biotech industry.

What advice do you have for those with STEM PhD’s and want to pursue a career in consulting?

Think hard if this is something you really want to do toward the beginning of your PhD and make a decision then. It’s very hard to start building your resume and getting ready for a consulting career when you are about to graduate.

• STEM PhDs have an advantage when applying to consulting companies specializing in a market related to their degree.
• Consulting projects are much shorter than research projects, lasting on average weeks to months, as opposed to years.
• Boutique companies offer better work-life balance.
• Unlike research at the bench, a main component of the job requires interactions with stakeholders.
• Taking part in case competitions and practicing case studies are key to a successful interview.
• If you think consulting is for you, build your experience and resume with relevant activities before you graduate.

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McKinsey PhD Salary: What to Expect in 2023

Are you considering pursuing a PhD with McKinsey? Get a glimpse into what your salary could look like in 2023 with our comprehensive guide.

Posted May 18, 2023

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Table of Contents

Are you interested in embarking on a career at McKinsey & Company with a PhD degree? If so, it is important to know what kind of salary you can expect, and how it compares to other consulting firms. In this article, we will provide a comprehensive guide to McKinsey PhD Salary and what to expect in 2023.

Introduction to McKinsey PhD Salary

McKinsey & Company is a global management consulting firm that serves clients across various industries and sectors. The firm is known for its rigorous analytical approach and draws top talent from around the world, including PhD graduates.

For many recent PhD graduates, McKinsey offers an exciting and rewarding career path. One aspect that may be of particular interest is the salary. McKinsey PhD Salary is highly competitive, and the firm offers various benefits and incentives to attract and retain top talent.

In addition to competitive salaries, McKinsey also offers its employees a range of benefits and incentives. These include health and wellness programs, retirement plans, and opportunities for professional development and advancement. The firm also places a strong emphasis on work-life balance, offering flexible work arrangements and generous vacation time. Overall, the combination of a competitive salary and comprehensive benefits package makes McKinsey an attractive option for many PhD graduates seeking a fulfilling and rewarding career in management consulting.

The Importance of Knowing McKinsey PhD Salary

Knowing what kind of salary to expect at McKinsey is crucial for making informed career decisions. The salary and benefits package can influence whether a job offer is accepted, and can also affect long-term job satisfaction and motivation.

Furthermore, having a good understanding of McKinsey PhD Salary can help candidates prepare for the rigorous recruitment process and better negotiate offers. By knowing what the competitive salary range is, candidates can enter negotiations with a clear idea of what they are worth and what they can reasonably expect.

It is important to note that McKinsey PhD Salary can vary depending on a number of factors, including location, years of experience, and specific role within the company. Candidates should research and consider these factors when evaluating potential job offers and negotiating salary.

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What is McKinsey & Company?

McKinsey & Company is one of the world's leading management consulting firms, with offices in over 130 cities and a diverse and talented workforce comprising over 30,000 consultants. The firm works with clients from a wide range of industries and sectors, such as healthcare, financial services, energy, and technology.

A career at McKinsey can be both challenging and rewarding, providing opportunities to work on high-impact projects, gain exposure to top clients, and develop valuable skills and expertise.

McKinsey & Company has a strong reputation for delivering innovative and effective solutions to complex business problems. The firm's approach is based on rigorous analysis, deep industry knowledge, and a commitment to collaboration with clients.

In addition to consulting services, McKinsey also offers a range of other business solutions, such as digital transformation, organizational design, and leadership development. These services are designed to help clients achieve their strategic goals and stay ahead of the competition in a rapidly changing business environment.

Overview of McKinsey PhD Salary in 2022

The McKinsey PhD Salary varies depending on several factors, such as location, experience, and academic background. According to Glassdoor, the average McKinsey PhD Salary in the United States is around $191,000 per year, while salaries in Europe and Asia range from €80,000 to €150,000.

In addition to a base salary, McKinsey offers a performance-based bonus, which can range from 10% to 30% of the base salary and varies depending on individual and team performance. The firm also provides various benefits and perks, such as health insurance, retirement plans, and generous PTO.

It is worth noting that the McKinsey PhD Salary is highly competitive within the consulting industry. In addition to the financial benefits, McKinsey also offers its employees opportunities for professional development and growth, including access to training programs and mentorship from experienced consultants. This makes McKinsey an attractive option for PhD graduates who are looking to build a successful career in consulting.

Factors That Affect McKinsey PhD Salary

Several factors can influence the McKinsey PhD Salary, including:

• Location: Salaries can vary depending on where the consultant is based, with higher rates in major metropolitan areas.
• Experience: More experienced consultants can command higher salaries, with McKinsey offering several levels of seniority.
• Academic background: McKinsey places a premium on intellectual curiosity and academic excellence, and candidates with PhDs from top programs may receive higher offers.
• Performance: McKinsey operates on a "up or out" model, meaning that consultants are evaluated regularly based on their work and those who do not perform well may be asked to leave the firm.

Another factor that can affect the McKinsey PhD Salary is the industry or sector in which the consultant is working. McKinsey works with clients across a wide range of industries, including healthcare, finance, and technology. Consultants who specialize in high-demand industries may receive higher salaries due to the increased demand for their expertise. Additionally, consultants who work on high-profile projects or with high-profile clients may also receive higher salaries as a result of the prestige associated with their work.

Trends in McKinsey PhD Salary over the Years

McKinsey PhD Salary has been steadily increasing over the years, reflecting the firm's commitment to attracting and retaining top talent. In recent years, however, the firm has also faced criticism for its lack of diversity and inclusion, prompting efforts to address these issues.

Some experts predict that in the coming years, McKinsey may offer more flexible work arrangements to retain talent and improve work-life balance, while also leveraging new technologies to deliver more efficient and innovative solutions to clients.

Additionally, McKinsey has also been investing in sustainability and social impact initiatives, recognizing the importance of corporate responsibility in today's business landscape. The firm has launched several programs aimed at reducing its carbon footprint and promoting diversity and inclusion in the communities it operates in. These efforts not only align with the values of many of its clients but also help attract and retain talent who are passionate about making a positive impact on society.

Predictions for McKinsey PhD Salary in 2023

While it is difficult to predict exactly what McKinsey PhD Salary will be in 2023, it is likely that they will continue to be highly competitive and attractive for top talent.

As the firm adapts to changing market trends and client needs, it may also offer new benefits and perks designed to attract and retain diverse talent and promote work-life balance.

One potential factor that could impact McKinsey PhD Salary in 2023 is the increasing demand for expertise in emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain. As McKinsey continues to expand its capabilities in these areas, it may need to offer higher salaries and bonuses to attract and retain top talent with specialized skills in these fields.

How to Prepare for the Recruitment Process at McKinsey & Company

The recruitment process at McKinsey & Company is highly competitive and rigorous. PhD candidates interested in applying should prepare well in advance, researching the firm's values, culture, and client work, as well as brushing up on key consulting skills such as data analysis and client communication.

McKinsey also places a premium on intellectual curiosity, so candidates should be prepared to demonstrate their passion for learning and innovative thinking in interviews and case studies.

It is also important for candidates to network with current and former McKinsey employees to gain insights into the firm's culture and values. Attending information sessions and career fairs hosted by McKinsey can also provide valuable opportunities to connect with recruiters and learn more about the recruitment process.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Working at McKinsey & Company

Working at McKinsey & Company comes with both advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages include exposure to top clients and projects, opportunities for rapid career advancement, and a supportive and collaborative culture that promotes learning and growth.

Disadvantages include a demanding and high-pressure work environment, limited work-life balance, and a lack of diversity and inclusion in some offices.

Another advantage of working at McKinsey & Company is the opportunity to work with a diverse group of colleagues from different backgrounds and experiences. This can lead to a more well-rounded perspective and a better understanding of different cultures and industries.

Comparison of McKinsey PhD Salary with Other Consulting Firms

Compared to other consulting firms, McKinsey PhD Salary is highly competitive and attractive for top talent. However, it is worth noting that salaries and benefits packages can vary widely depending on the firm, location, and seniority level.

Some other top consulting firms for which PhD graduates may consider applying include Boston Consulting Group, Bain & Company, and Accenture.

It is important to consider not only the salary and benefits package, but also the company culture, work-life balance, and opportunities for growth and development when evaluating consulting firms. McKinsey, for example, is known for its rigorous and demanding work environment, while Bain & Company places a strong emphasis on teamwork and collaboration. Ultimately, the best consulting firm for a PhD graduate will depend on their individual priorities and career goals.

Tips for Negotiating a Higher McKinsey PhD Salary

If you are interested in negotiating a higher McKinsey PhD Salary, here are some tips:

• Research comparable offers from other firms and have a clear idea of your worth.
• Be prepared to demonstrate your value and unique skills and experience.
• Be willing to compromise on other aspects of the offer, such as benefits or relocation packages.
• Approach negotiations in a collaborative and respectful manner, focusing on mutual benefit.

It is also important to consider the timing of your negotiation. If you have just started at McKinsey, it may be more difficult to negotiate a higher salary. However, if you have been with the company for a few years and have consistently demonstrated your value, you may have more leverage in negotiations. Additionally, it can be helpful to have a clear understanding of the company's salary structure and policies, as this can inform your negotiation strategy.

Understanding the Benefits That Come with Your McKinsey PhD Salary

Aside from the competitive base salary and performance-based bonus, McKinsey offers various benefits and perks to its employees. These can include health insurance, retirement plans, paid time off, and professional development opportunities.

It is important to understand and take advantage of these benefits, which can help enhance job satisfaction and well-being.

Conclusion: Is a Career at McKinsey & Company Worth It?

A career at McKinsey & Company can be both challenging and rewarding, providing opportunities to work on high-impact projects, gain exposure to top clients, and develop valuable skills and expertise.

While the demands of the job can be significant, McKinsey offers a supportive and collaborative culture that promotes learning and growth. Furthermore, McKinsey PhD Salary is highly competitive and attractive for top talent.

Ultimately, whether a career at McKinsey & Company is worth it depends on individual preferences, goals, and values. By understanding the company's culture, values, and compensation package, PhD graduates can make informed decisions about their career path and achieve their professional aspirations.

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• CAREER COLUMN
• 08 April 2024

How we landed job interviews for professorships straight out of our PhD programmes

• Violeta Rodriguez 0 &
• Qimin Liu 1

Violeta Rodriguez is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Qimin Liu is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Boston University in Massachusetts.

By staying organized in their job hunt, both authors received several job offers. Credit: Getty

We met during the last year of our PhD training, after securing placements at the University of Illinois Chicago’s Department of Psychiatry for our predoctoral internships — the final step of our clinical doctoral programmes. V. R. came from the University of Georgia in Athens and was pursuing a PhD in clinical psychology, and Q. L. came from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and was working towards a PhD in clinical science and quantitative methods. It was amid the academic rigour and personal stress of the last year of our programmes that we became friends. We bonded over being immigrants and not speaking English as our first language while navigating the complexities of academia. We both wanted to forgo postdoctoral training and instead immediately become junior professors. Now, we’re assistant professors: V. R. is at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Q. L. is at Boston University in Massachusetts.

The odds we faced in the academic job market had seemed insurmountable, particularly to immigrants, and we had been cautioned by mentors and even junior faculty members about the challenge ahead. But we succeeded: we received a combined total of 27 in-person interviews, leading to 15 tenure-track assistant-professor offers across departments of psychology, paediatrics or psychiatry, schools of education and academic medical centres. (You can check out our hints for nailing job interviews in our other article .)

How to move labs

Despite the positive outcome, the process was stressful, fast and unpredictable. Our friendship became a sanctuary: amid the daunting job market and our own self-doubt, we understood and encouraged each other. We want to offer what our friendship provided us — understanding, support and encouragement — to researchers hoping to stay in academia after earning a PhD, so we are sharing our reflections and insights.

We must first make clear: no amount of job-search tips and tricks can substitute for good science and a strong publication record. To gauge our readiness, we looked up the CV of the most recent hire in each department that we applied to. We also made sure we had backup offers of postdoctoral positions. While navigating this process, we learnt that institutions were interested in candidates who planned to pursue external funding.

Qimin Liu is now an assistant professor. Credit: Qimin Liu

We had both obtained federal and private funding before — making us more competitive. We urge aspiring professors to prioritize their research contributions, external fellowship and grant applications and academic achievements above all.

To readers who’ve successfully navigated this process, many of our reflections and insights could seem obvious. However, this kind of advice can be the hardest to follow during a fast-moving job hunt, with several moving pieces involved and new considerations and job offers or advertisements emerging unexpectedly. Treat this as a checklist before beginning to fill out job applications.

Tips and tricks

Start your search early. Allow ample time to prepare for the job hunt; research potential options, such as jobs in academic medical centres, standard department positions or tenure-track jobs in related fields; and submit applications. Plan to reply to job ads long before the first deadline. Starting early gives you time to collect and incorporate feedback from mentors and colleagues.

Training: Free course on peer review

Prepare your networks. The academic job market can be unpredictable, with opportunities emerging unexpectedly. It is important to think about who can write letters for you — sometimes at short notice. Most of our applications required three letters of recommendation from all applicants. Others requested letters from only shortlisted candidates.

Plan ahead. The final drafts of materials took, on average, one to two months in total to prepare and polish. The initial drafts took about 8 hours, and the research statement required a total of 16 hours. (The research statement summarizes your research programme, the work you’ve done so far and what you plan to pursue in future. It can also highlight why a particular institution is well-suited to support your work.) Preparing drafted statements in advance made it easier to adapt them to different positions later — tweaking materials for specific positions took 30–60 minutes per application.

Research potential job opportunities. Don’t just rely on word-of-mouth or googling specific positions to find things you’re interested in applying to. Use online job boards (such as HigherEdJobs or Nature Careers ), and tap into your professional network by sending e-mails or LinkedIn messages to your mentors and colleagues, letting them know you’re on the job market. Scour social media and department websites to find available positions. We both posted on X (formerly Twitter) that we were job hunting, and several people reached out with opportunities.

Develop job application ‘templates’. Create a set of well-crafted templates for your application materials, such as cover letters and statements, on which you can easily fill in your name, relevant details and where you’ve previously worked. Having adaptable documents allowed us to respond quickly to new postings.

Tailor your application materials. Templates can take you only so far. Take the time to customize your application materials, including your CV, cover letter (each of ours was one page long) and research statement, to highlight your relevant skills, experiences and research contributions. Tailoring your materials to each position demonstrates genuine interest and increases your chances of standing out to hiring committees. Generic applications are easy for hiring managers to reject. Mentioning centres or institutes that align with your research; available resources, such as early-career programmes, that you want to take advantage of; and the names of people whom you are interested in working with can help to personalize your application materials.

Stay organized. Maintain a well-organized system to track application deadlines, requirements and submission statuses. Be ready to remind your letter writers to submit their recommendations. Keep a calendar or spreadsheet to ensure that all required materials are submitted on time and to track when to follow up. An example spreadsheet is provided below.

Practise for interviews and job talks. Run mock interviews with your peers or mentors. Practise answering common interview questions and develop concise, compelling responses that highlight your expertise, teaching abilities and fit. Treat these seriously — you’re likely to be nervous in the real interview, so try to recreate that while rehearsing, perhaps by inviting a relatively unknown colleague or professor to join the practice runs. V. R. recorded her job talk on Zoom and sent it to others for feedback.

Practising your job talk — a presentation of your academic research that is often a spoken version of your research statement — until you know it backwards and forwards will prepare you for the unexpected. In addition, rehearsing how you plan to respond to different questions, and practising saying that you want people to hold their questions until the end, can be helpful.

Prepare a start-up budget to get your lab running. Many academic positions include a start-up fund for incoming faculty members. It is typically used for summer salary and staffing or research costs. You might be asked for an estimated budget before, during or after the interview stage — so you should have one ready in advance. When preparing your budget, keep in mind the spending norms at the institution and for your discipline. Ask for more than you think you need, because this amount will often be reduced during negotiations.

As we look back on our job-hunting experiences, we are reminded of how much we grew in this process, in ways that are not related to just our jobs — and this growth continued in our interviews .

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-01044-1

This is an article from the Nature Careers Community, a place for Nature readers to share their professional experiences and advice. Guest posts are encouraged .

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6 Steps to Land a McKinsey internship

An early route to get your foot at the door of McKinsey – one of the three most prestigious consulting firms , is to successfully land an internship and compete for a full-time offer while at the job. With a 1% acceptance rate and uncompromising recruitment criteria, how do you stand out as the cream of the crop? In this article, I will explain two types of internships at McKinsey, and reveal the six steps that you can follow right away to break into McKinsey as an intern.

Table of Contents

McKinsey internship overview

McKinsey Internships are divided into two main tracks, undergraduate internships and MBA internships . This internship typically lasts 10 weeks, sometimes one week more or less. Salaries are as high as that of major tech companies like Google or Amazon (at nearly $7,000 per month ). The work of consulting interns is very similar or identical to first-year full-time consultants. There are six steps to land an internship at McKinsey:

• Step 1: Build up skills and qualifications

Step 2: Build networks early on

Step 3: pass resume and cover letter screening.

• Step 4: Pass the McKinsey PST test 
• Step 5: Pass the McKinsey PEI interview 

Step 6: Pass the McKinsey case interview

Mckinsey internship – recruitment & salary.

Take a look at the snapshot below where I’ve summarised salaries, duration, application deadlines, and eligibility criteria for the two routes of McKinsey internships – Undergraduates and MBA:

The particular features of an internship are reliant upon many factors. For instance, compensation or consulting work may depend on the office you applied to, the business function you are assigned, and your work experiences.

Regardless, these differences normally spread along a discernable line. To summarize, there are three essential facts about McKinsey internships that you should know in advance.

McKinsey internships are divided into two main tracks

McKinsey internships typically fall under two tracks: undergraduate internships and MBA internships .

Undergraduates are recruited into Business Analyst Intern positions, whereas MBAs are recruited into Associate positions. If you’re unfamiliar with these titles, check out this article I’ve written on the career path in consulting for a visual overview.

For now, keep in mind that Associate positions are one level above Business Analyst positions at McKinsey, although this might not be the case at other consulting firms because of different namings.

McKinsey internships typically last 10 weeks in the summer

For both Undergraduate and MBA routes, an internship at McKinsey lasts about 10 weeks , not always but usually in the summer. This is why deadlines for McKinsey summer internship positions are very early (typically 7 months prior to the internship).

At the undergrad level, you need to submit applications around mid-October . At the MBA level, your applications should be submitted in the first couple days of December, if you enrolled in an MBA program in the US .

McKinsey intern salaries are extremely competitive

For the Undergraduate Internship, McKinsey pays its interns around $6,700/month, adding up to nearly $17,000 in total for the 10-week period. This rate is extremely competitive, being just slightly under rates at famously well-paid tech companies, such as Facebook, Amazon, or Google.

8 highest-paying internships

Source: Glassdoor

For the MBA Internship, McKinsey compensates its interns an impressive total of $32,000 for 10 weeks, a similar rate at  Big 3 consulting firms . To put into perspective, this means that in just 10 weeks, a typical MBA intern at McKinsey makes approximately 70% of how much a typical American in any industry makes a year .

Now that you have an overview of the essential facts about McKinsey internships, the next step is to understand a typical intern’s work and the skills needed to do well. Having a deep understanding of what you will actually be doing is very useful because you can tailor your application to what is expected of you.

If you make it into the case interview round, you can even leverage these insights in solving cases to show the interviewer you can get work done, excellently. This will undoubtedly give you a better chance of getting an offer.

McKinsey Business Analyst Internship (Undergrad)

At the undergraduate level , successful candidates are often assigned into the main track of the McKinsey Internship program – the Business Analyst intern role.

Nature of work

By nature, Business Analyst interns’ work is very similar to full-time Business Analysts . In general, Business analysts oversee the “manual” work of a project, while Engagement Managers manage the big picture.

Specifically, when interns first receive a new project, they start collecting data about the client company and industry. They then meet the client, interview the client, and gather more insights using data from the client and from similar cases in the past. Data collected is typically used as input for excel models to analyse the problem and find root causes.

If this all sounds generic, check out this video where I broke down detailed work processes of my first project as a McKinsey Business Analyst intern.

Responsibility & report line

In a project, Business Analyst interns are usually assigned to support a senior Business Analyst or Associate with a big workstream. In some rare cases, interns can lead a small workstream. If you, as an intern, are assigned to support a Business Analyst or an Associate, you will report directly to that person. If you lead a small workstream, you will report directly to the Engagement Manager (EM).

McKinsey Business Analyst Internship (MBA)

At the MBA level , successful candidates are often assigned into the Associate Intern role. Again, your work structure is very similar to that of full-time Associates.

Just like Business Analyst interns, the work of Associate interns and full-time Associates are similar. Interns do what real consultants do, typically the “manual” work of a project, whereas Engagement Managers oversees the big picture. For more in-depth insights, check out this video .

The Associate intern position is an interesting position. Upon their entry, Associate interns are already much more senior than other interns. Hence, even though Associate interns are technically newbies in the McKinsey world, the company will make sure they enter senior positions very shortly .

Specifically, McKinsey does this by assigning more responsibilities to Associate interns: they typically get to lead or semi-lead a workstream . One common practice is that the Engagement Manager will assign another lower-ranked yet senior employee , e.g. a Business Analyst , to help show the McKinsey way around. Throughout the project, Associate interns report directly to Engagement Managers.

Six steps to land a McKinsey internship

Now that you have grasped the key information about McKinsey Internships, let’s dive straight into the 6 steps you can take to land one of these lucrative offers.

Step 1: Build up skills, experiences, and qualifications

Here’s the cold hard truth – you need to be the “creme-de-la-creme” to even have the slightest chance at the top consulting firms. This is ESPECIALLY true at McKinsey, a firm often considered a league of its own even among the Big Three consulting firms (MBB) .

Apply only when you’re ready! McKinsey, like many other consulting firms, has a 2-year ban on failing candidates. That’s why it’s important to start early and devise a strategy to maximize your chances beforehand.

Prepare as early as possible

Consulting prep is ideally a long process. You may spend a year or even more learning the fundamental skills and embracing the mindset, and at least 2-3 months preparing for the resume screening , the tests and case interviews.

I’ve had customers who passed the recruitment process with very little preparation, but that’s more the exception than the norm. So if you are running out of time, you might still have a chance – by quickly learning the “killer tips” offered in the Case Interview End-to-End Program . But in general, it’s always good to start early.

To equip yourself with the most well-rounded skill set for consulting, read up and practice on the following topics:

• Management Consulting : Job, firms, industry and culture (especially the firms you target)
• Consulting Math: Math in business context, mental math, and chart-reading
• Tests: McKinsey PST , BCG Potential Test , Bain Online Test , etc.
• Case Interviews: Interviewer-led and candidate-led case, tips and techniques
• Fit Interviews: stories to suggest your outstanding, consulting-fit qualities

Devise a strategy to maximize your chances

Top consulting firms often recruit from the big brand name educational institutions such as the Ivy League in the US or the equivalent in other countries, and McKinsey is not an exception.

Recruiters like big names under the assumption that only super high achievers get into the top schools. More importantly, big names impress clients.

Now what does this imply? It means if you’re from one of the target schools, congrats, your chances are already much higher than the people who aren’t. However, if you’re from a regular school, it means you have to put extra effort into networking and practice . That said, even if you come from a target school, consulting prep is always a challenging process.

There is no official statement from any firm about their target schools, but we can make fairly good guesses. Below is a list of top schools contributing significant percentages of consultants at McKinsey – according to a 2018 analysis of Wall Street Oasis users.

Percentage of McKinsey consultants by Universities/Colleges

Source: Wall Street Oasis

Why is networking early on so important?

A big part of the McKinsey internship selection process involves case interviews conducted by managers – these interviews are expensive because they take away revenue-generating hours from said managers.

To make the most out of these expensive interviews, consulting firms highly favor candidates with positive reviews from inside the firm or the alumni network – hence the importance of networking in the initial rounds. If you can find a mentor – a current/former consultant at your target firm – all the better, because besides the referral, he/she can provide you with invaluable insider advice.

Now you can find a mentor here at MConsultingPrep with our coaching service. You can have a personal meeting with veteran coaches who will tell you about their own experience at consulting firms and give you sound advice on how to get a McKinsey internship. Let’s find your own coach!

When to start networking?

So when should you start networking? As early as possible – relationships take time to build.

If you’re still in school, network a year before career events to be one step ahead of the competition, then try to get referrals. Referrals increase the chances of your CV being reviewed by recruiters in the first place.

Who to network with?

Anyone from any practice can refer you, so don’t worry too much about applying for one practice while being referred by people from other practices.

What really matters is the seniority of your contacts. Often, one referral from a Partner is equivalent to multiple referrals from non-partners. So the bottom line is: if you can’t get a referral from a Partner, be sure many non-partners in that office are willing to vouch for you.

How to network for a McKinsey internship?

Now, how do you go about networking?

Often overlooked, the most effective way to network is to build connections with alumni at your school’s consulting clubs, who got into McKinsey. Connections made through this channel are easy to access and quite personal, giving you good chances of getting mentorship and referral.

• Networking through acquaintances: Start with the consultants you know, followed by anyone your colleagues, friends and family can introduce. The biggest limitation is accessibility – you might not find any potential lead.
• Networking through events: This method is most convenient for applicants from target schools. Consultants here are complete strangers, but they do expect applicants to approach them after the events, so you do have a higher chance than the next method.
• Cold-emailing/Cold-calling: The least effective, but the most scalable method. You find them through LinkedIn or similar means, send emails to establish contact and request for a meeting. Most of the time, you will be rejected, but if you play the cards right, you will get someone on your side.

Whatever you choose, once you set up an appointment, you need to be concrete about when and where to meet, what you want out of a meeting, and how you will get it (i.e.: what you will ask). Being explicit with your contact will increase the chance of them saying yes to you, and make a good first impression ( consulting culture values being explicit).

After networking (or you might bypass this step and apply through online portals – which is more convenient, but much more competitive), the next step is to prepare for all the parts of the consulting recruitment process.

Read the full guides here: Consulting Resume / Consulting Cover Letter

The first step in the McKinsey internship recruitment process is resume screening, and even this early, your resume and cover letter must be written in the consulting style. In both of these papers, explicitly but objectively show off your consulting attributes: leadership , achieving and problem-solving .

The content

Whatever stories you tell in your resume and cover letter, they must emphasize the three attributes – they must either be about leading and influencing people, doing analytical work, achieving the extraordinary, or any combination. More importantly, you must be  highly specific and result-oriented . Instead of rambling on with your list of experiences, show the screener quantifiable results of your work, which shows you are the best.

For example, even if you flipped burgers, say something like “Set the new speed record for flipping burgers, surpassing the previous record by 50%”. Specific statements are thoroughly more impressive and more trustworthy – even outside the consulting industry.

The presentation

Format-wise, there is no other option but black-and-white . Keep it absolutely formal and professional. Fancy-looking resumes might get you creative jobs, but will get you cold rejections in the conservative consulting industry . Same goes for the cover letters.

Structure-wise, every bullet point in your resume must contain similar parts. The language of these bullets must be totally formal as well. Communication must be top-down, both in resumes and cover letters.

Step 4: Pass the McKinsey PST Test

Read the full guide here: McKinsey PST Ultimate Guide / McKinsey Imbellus Game Guide

What is the McKinsey PST Test?

The Problem Solving Test (or PST) is a paper-based test used at McKinsey & Company to select candidates for the case interviews. The PST is conducted after resume screening and assesses candidates on data interpretation, mental calculations as well as verbal, numerical and logical reasoning.

How to prepare for the McKinsey PST Test?

The key to preparing for the McKinsey PST Test is to break down the question types and learn how to answer each type individually. Do this while reinforcing your verbal, numerical and logical reasoning skills.

Breaking down the question types helps you learn quickly and efficiently, while skill training ensures long-term flexibility should the test format be changed (which is unlikely in management consulting – a highly conservative industry).

After you have practiced thoroughly with each question type, the next step is to do mock tests to self-assess and develop a test strategy. I would advise you to select mock tests harder than the actual tests – if you can do them well, the real ones will be a breeze.

These are the same approaches taught in all of my test-related products – McKinsey PST Comprehensive and BCG Potential Test Comprehensive .

How to prepare for the McKinsey Problem-Solving Game?

McKinsey rolled out the new Imbellus Problem-Solving Game in 2020.

This test works as follows. First, it collects data about a candidate’s skills and behaviors throughout the testing process to build a profile. Second, it compares the profile to that of employees in the firm – the more similar a candidate is to the best employees, the more likely he/she is selected.

This is a game-changing move because the emphasis is no longer on getting the right answers, but to look like a consultant in the process. However, the basic approach remains the same – decipher the mechanisms and identify efficient strategies, while also working on improving your consulting skill set.

Step 5: Pass the McKinsey PEI Interview/ Fit Interview

Read the full guide here: McKinsey Case Interview

McKinsey interviews usually consist of two parts:

• The PEI or Personal Experience Interview (10 minutes)

Back when I first joined McKinsey, fit interviews were not that important. Now the game has changed – even though case interviews are still the key to an offer, you must also excel in PEIs, to show that you’re a good fit.

What do they ask in the McKinsey PEI?

As suggested by its name, the Personal Experience Interview is about “that one time in your life” when you did something extraordinary.

In the 10-minute PEI, the interviewer will ask you to tell one story, then drill down to extract insights about your soft skills and personal traits.

• Tell me about a time when you overcame a significant challenge
• Tell me about a time when you convinced people to change their viewpoints
• Tell me about a time when you resolved an important disagreement with your teammates
• Tell me about a time when you lead your team through extraordinary hardship
• Tell me about a time when you successfully handled conflict within your team

Variants of the question “Why consulting/Why McKinsey?” might also come up. You don’t need a story for these, just give them a valid and authentic reason. Do research, understand the industry, the company, and how they fit with your own values and capabilities – that’s how you get the best answers for these questions.

How to prepare for the McKinsey PEI?

Sometimes, each question type above will be used for the same kind of story. This means that, even if you draft 10-12 stories, 2-3 for each question type, you may only use only one story for every question.

Instead of preparing on a question-answer basis, a more efficient approach would be to focus on the stories. My take on the PEIs is to prepare three to five stories  and make them as detailed, all-rounded, well-presented as possible. View them from every possible angle, each corresponding to a trait required by McKinsey , or to one of your personal values.

With such an approach, you also gain flexibility – with well-developed stories, you can respond to ANY kinds of questions, even the unexpected ones, and you’ll have more stories per question type (3-5).

How can you prepare such stories? Spend your efforts on three layers of a story – the content base, the plot, and the style

For best practice, let’s do fit questions with consulting experts. At MConsultingPrep, you can choose from a selection of former consultants. These coaches will reveal must-know answers to fit questions that help you overcome McKinsey PEI.  Get yourself personal coaching today!

What are case interviews?

Case interviews are job interviews where the candidate is asked to solve a business case or problem. At McKinsey, case interviews often last 30-45 minutes each, and candidates often go through 2 to 4 case interviews.

What are McKinsey case interviews like?

McKinsey case interviews are often interviewer-led. At the most extreme of this format, the interviewer “leads” the problem-solving process by asking separate questions related to the case context. The candidate cannot decide how to approach the problem. In actual cases, however, the candidate may be given some autonomy depending on the interviewer.

McKinsey case interview questions

Case interviews in McKinsey internship recruitment can be methodically prepared for by arranging the possible questions into the following 8 predictable categories. 

• Framework/issue tree questions
• Market-sizing and guesstimate questions
• Brain teasers
• Chart insight questions
• Value proposition questions
• Information questions
• Math problems
• Solution-finding questions

I have written a detailed guide on these question types – you may want to check out that article for more insights. For each type of question, there is one example – suggestions and answers are at the end of this section, but try to answer them on your own first!

How to prepare for McKinsey case interviews?

To prepare for McKinsey Case Interviews, I recommend following this track:

#1: Familiarize with interviewer-led case examples

To grasp how McKinsey cases “flow”, I encourage you to go out there and find as many examples of interviewer-led cases as possible. There are four such examples on the McKinsey website with suggested answers.

• Diconsa Case
• Electro-Light Case
• GlobaPharm Case
• National Education Case

Here at MConsultingPrep, we also have a few interviewer-led case examples in our Case Interview E2E Secret Program , complete with detailed feedback on every aspect from content to presentation, all in video format.

#2: Practice consulting math

Consultants work with quantitative data dozens of times a day. It simply takes too long to pull out a calculator every time they need to calculate something, and doing so in negotiations looks really bad. This is why interviewers place such high emphasis on the  mental math skills of prospective consultants.

In the beginning, consulting math can be difficult for some; nonetheless, I have a few tips for you to ease the process and still practice effectively: 

• Use Your Head: Do all your daily calculations mentally unless an EXACT answer is required.
• Flatten the Learning Curve: At the start, a piece of scratch paper and a 5% margin of error really help; once you are confident, discard the paper and narrow down the margin.
• Establish a Routine: Allocate some time for daily practice this may seem hard at first, but once you’ve overcome the inertia, you can literally feel the improvement.

#3: Develop business intuition

Having business intuition significantly sharpens your performance in case interviews.

Working on any kind of intuition is a gradual process that takes practice every day. You can improve your business intuition in two ways:

• Written Sources: I suggest reading business papers daily; you can also visit McKinsey, Bain, and BCG websites for their excellent articles. Beware though – it’s not the pages you read that count, but the insights you draw from them.
• First-hand Experience and Observations: Don’t just come to your workplace to work; try to examine what senior managers are doing – what’s the rationale for their decision, and how has it impacted the organization?

#4: Learn the case interview question types

The key to conquering interviewer-led cases is in methodically mastering each and every basic question type; then you will be ready to tackle the more complex and less predictable ones.

For each type, there are always tips and techniques to deliver an ideal answer; you can refer to the previous section, or check out an even more comprehensive guide in our Case Interview Questions .

The key takeaway is to treat interviewer-led questions like mini-cases, and take a structured, MECE approach to each.

#5: Perform mock interviews

The best way to train on something is to do it.

Well, you CAN’T simply come to McKinsey and ask them for a case interview, but you CAN find a partner to conduct mock interviews for you. It’s better if you can find a former consultant to do it – they’ve been through countless case interviews, both mock and real.

Make the best of every mock interview you do by recording them, then replay again, and again, and again. You’ll realize a lot of mistakes you made, and how you can fix them.

Just a few years at McKinsey completely changed who I am, both personally and professionally. In a positive way, that is. I also see it changing the lives of almost all the colleagues I ever know. I sincerely believe you can and you should do it. Nobody said you have to stay there forever. But the lessons, the toughness, the desire, the structured mindset, etc. will remain.

It’s ridiculously difficult to even get your foot in the doors of the top management consulting firms . Most applicants don’t even get to see the interviewers, and the few that do must undergo the most strenuous, high-stake job interviews existing on this planet.

However, with systematic and careful preparation – in the same manner that consultants approach their projects – I believe anyone can make it to consulting.

Are you a believer?

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McKinsey is offering some staff 9 months of pay and career-coaching services to leave the firm: report

• McKinsey is offering some managers money and career-coaching services to leave, The Times reported.
• Managers could spend up to nine months searching for a job while being on payroll, the report said.
• Staffers would also have access to McKinsey's resources and career-coaching services.

The management-consulting giant McKinsey is dangling career-coaching services and nine months' worth of pay to staffers keen on leaving the firm, the British newspaper The Times reported on Saturday.

The Times reported that managers for McKinsey's UK offices could spend up to nine months searching for a job instead of working on client projects.

Besides continuing to receive their salary, managers would have access to McKinsey's resources and career-coaching services, per The Times. But staffers would still have to leave McKinsey even if their job hunt proved unsuccessful.

Related stories

The offer has been extended to managers working at McKinsey's US offices, though the pay duration could be different, The Times said, citing people familiar with the situation.

A spokesperson for McKinsey did not confirm the specifics of The Times' reporting but told the outlet that the company's mission was to help staffers "grow into leaders, whether they stay at McKinsey or continue their careers elsewhere."

"These actions are part of our ongoing effort to ensure our performance management and development approach is as effective as possible, and to do so in a caring and supportive way," the spokesperson continued.

This wouldn't be the first time McKinsey has tried to trim its head count amid a slowdown in the consulting industry . The consulting giant last year said it would cut about 1,400 jobs, or about 3% of its staff, per Bloomberg .

In February, Bloomberg reported that McKinsey had given 3,000 employees poor performance ratings . The report said employees who received such ratings had about three months to improve their performance or they'd be "counseled to leave" McKinsey.

Bloomberg also reported last week that McKinsey told some senior employees they had only about 2 1/2 years to be promoted — amping up the pressure on staff to move up or out.

Representatives for McKinsey did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.

Watch: Marketing leaders from Amazon, LinkedIn, Lego Group and more tell Insider what pandemic-fueled business changes are likely to stick around

• Main content

How health systems and educators can work to close the talent gap

Every patient who engages with a health system has a team of healthcare workers supporting and administering care, whether in hospitals, clinics, ambulatory surgery centers, or other settings. Attracting enough qualified employees in nursing, allied health, and many other roles has posed a meaningful challenge for the healthcare sector since before the COVID-19 pandemic.

About the authors

This article is a collaborative effort by Brandon Carrus , Connor Essick, Martha Laboissiere , Meredith Lapointe, and Mhoire Murphy , representing views from McKinsey’s Healthcare Practice.

Resignations among healthcare workers have increased steadily from about 400,000 per month in 2020 to nearly 600,000 per month in May 2023. 1 “Job openings and labor turnover—July 2023,” US Bureau of Labor Statistics, accessed August 20, 2023. The vacancy rate—the difference between the number of job openings and hires—has also increased during this period, with about 710,000 vacant positions as of May 2023 (down from a high of more than a million in December 2022). 2 “Job openings and labor turnover—July 2023,” US Bureau of Labor Statistics, accessed August 20, 2023. Other factors compound the challenge, including workforce demographic shifts and changing care needs.

Attracting enough qualified employees in nursing, allied health, and many other roles has posed a meaningful challenge for the healthcare sector since before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Health systems could take a decade or more to make the adjustments needed to address some of these pressing workforce challenges. Moreover, reskilling and upskilling can help build workforce resilience and job security (for example, by avoiding obsolescence as automation takes over roles) while ensuring that skills align with employers’ evolving needs. In the meantime, the US healthcare sector is facing multiple headwinds that threaten affordability, access, and industry economics. 3 Addie Fleron and Shubham Singhal, “ The gathering storm in US healthcare: How leaders can respond and thrive ,” McKinsey, September 8, 2022.

Health systems are actively designing and planning for workforce models that are more sustainable, including by innovating care models, increasing the use of technology, and boosting efforts to attract, recruit, and retain workers. 4 “ Care for the caretakers: Building the global public health workforce ,” McKinsey, July 26, 2022. They are also becoming more involved in efforts to expand the pool of qualified talent in nursing and allied-health professions through education. These efforts can take many forms but can be clustered broadly into three models: health systems creating or acquiring their own education entities, health systems and educational institutions creating equal partnerships to educate the workforce, and health systems partnering with education providers to develop (at least in part) the talent supply they need.

This article explores workforce shortages in healthcare, describes the three educational models, and examines five design elements that could improve the likelihood of success, regardless of the chosen model.

The challenge of securing essential healthcare talent

The workforce shortages confronting health systems executives are well documented. 5 “ Nursing in 2023: How hospitals are confronting shortages ,” McKinsey, May 5, 2023. Aside from baseline demographic shifts (even the youngest baby boomers are nearing retirement age), challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic prompted workers, especially women, to leave healthcare in droves. 6 Gretchen Berlin, Nicole Robinson, and Mayra Sharma, “ Women in the healthcare industry: An update ,” McKinsey, March 30, 2023. Moreover, a McKinsey survey of nurses found that more than 30 percent are thinking of leaving direct patient care, even though they find the work meaningful. 7 Gretchen Berlin, Meredith Lapointe, and Mhoire Murphy, “ Surveyed nurses consider leaving direct patient care at elevated rates ,” McKinsey, February 17, 2022. Along with higher attrition, health systems are having great difficulty finding qualified individuals to backfill those roles.

These severe labor supply constraints come at a time of accelerating demand for care because of an aging population, rising disease burden, exacerbated chronic conditions, and worsening mental health, among other factors. We project there will be one million additional nursing care jobs by 2031, primarily for certified nurse assistants, outpacing the number of individuals expected to complete degree programs based on current capacity. 8 McKinsey analysis of Lightcast data; working with 2021 Lightcast data on US labor markets, we estimated potential workforce gaps based on projected annual job openings and completed degrees across different healthcare jobs. Yet across the United States, educational institutions lack the capacity to close the gap (exhibit).

Against this backdrop, health systems are thinking more strategically about the broader healthcare workforce pipeline, including by expanding their engagement with education providers. But these efforts are frequently unproductive and fall short of achieving the desired objectives for either entity. Health systems report a shortage of graduates in multiple professions, graduates who are not sufficiently productive in their early months of employment, and an overall system that fails to attract individuals to healthcare professions. 9 “Study projects nursing shortage crisis will continue without concerted action,” American Hospital Association, April 13, 2023; “A public health crisis: Staffing shortages in health care,” University of Southern California, March 13, 2023; Rob Preston, “The shortage of US healthcare workers in 2023,” Oracle, January 2023. Education providers report a shortage of clinical-rotation seats, challenges in securing qualified faculty, challenges in identifying sufficiently qualified and interested applicants, and an unfavorable financial structure in which many programs are net negative. 10 “Fact sheet: Nursing shortage,” American Association of Colleges of Nursing, last updated October 2022; Michal Cohen Moskowitz, “Academic health center CEOs say faculty shortages major problem,” Association of Academic Health Centers, 2007.

Varied educational models based on participants’ strategic priorities

Many health systems leaders are considering three models to address the talent shortage.

Health systems creating or acquiring their own education entities

Some health systems choose to build or acquire a new entity and create their own proprietary program and curriculums. Of the three models, this one requires the largest investment and strategic focus. For example, Kaiser Permanente opened its own medical school to train future physicians and healthcare leaders using its team-based approach. 11 Eddie Rivera, “New Kaiser medical school opens in Pasadena,” Pasadena Now , July 27, 2020. Additionally, HCA Healthcare acquired a majority stake in the Galen College of Nursing in 2020. 12 Jeff Lagasse, “HCA Healthcare investing $300K to improve access to healthcare careers,” Healthcare Finance , January 26, 2023.

This model is characterized by a focus on meeting the health system’s own workforce needs. In doing so, health systems are effectively running educational institutions. Each has a chancellor or president and a separate physical space or a campus. They compete with other educational institutions for students, face the same requirements for accreditation, and are subject to rules similar to those of other education providers.

To accomplish its goals, the health system offers highly customized programs, including microcredentialing, 13 Defined as short, focused credentials designed to provide in-demand skills and experience. Microcredential courses can run from an hour to 16 weeks depending on the topic’s complexity. that align with the health system’s professional-development pathways. From a recruitment standpoint, this approach can be effective at attracting entry-level employees who can then progress in their careers to perform higher-skilled jobs. For example, a system could create an “imaging technician” program track that allows an individual with a high school degree or GED credential to complete an associate-level degree in nuclear-medicine technology, a profession that’s in high demand at many health systems. This pathway allows the employer to focus primarily on professions in which demand is great enough to justify the needed investments in curriculums and faculty while still providing the opportunity to engage in other models for low-volume demand.

Although health systems could diversify their portfolios into the education arena and train graduates for other health systems as a revenue-generating opportunity, they rarely do. Some believe this is a deviation from their core mission that dilutes their distinctive proposition and competitive advantage.

Health systems and educational institutions creating an equity partnership

Alternatively, health systems may choose to develop education programs through a joint venture with an existing postsecondary-education provider. For example, CommonSpirit Health and Global University Systems created a joint venture to provide online degrees and leadership training to clinical and nonclinical health professionals. 14 Dave Muoio, “Providence, Premier invest in CommonSpirit’s workforce development platform,” Fierce Healthcare , November 11, 2022. The joint investment in program development and operations demonstrates the commitment of both entities. This model offers the additional benefits of customization based on health system needs. The health system can make use of the education provider’s existing programs, resources, and competencies—including faculty, curriculums, assessments, enrollment protocols, and tuition and fee collection systems—while remaining focused on its core mission.

Health systems partnering with vendors to administer education

To promote educational advancement among workers without getting directly involved, a health system could pursue partnerships with education providers or education technology platforms such as Guild Education that aggregate online courses to curate specific programs. For example, Community Health Systems partnered with Western Governors University as its preferred education provider in exchange for discounted tuition rates for its employees. 15 “Tuition reimbursement benefits,” Western Governors University, accessed August 30, 2023. This model provides health systems with access to the full breadth of existing education programming and the ability to customize, particularly in cases in which the partnership is well established.

The value in partnerships for different stakeholders

Partnerships between health systems and postsecondary institutions can create substantial value beyond what each entity brings to the table, including in education quality, graduate preparedness, and the relationships that can result among students, health systems, and schools.

The value for health systems

Studies have shown that employees who use education benefits are more likely to stay with their current employer than those who do not. 16 “Evaluating employee education benefits: Tuition assistance, tuition reimbursement & more,” University of Massachusetts Global, accessed August 30, 2023. Education benefits can also help health systems more effectively compete in a tight labor market. Enrollees of corporate higher education programs are more than 80 percent more likely to recommend their employer to others. 17 “The dollar value of education benefits: 5 elements of ROI,” Guild Education, December 2020. One LinkedIn study revealed that companies can lower the cost of recruiting and retaining workers by investing in their employer brand. 18 Kaidlyne Neukam, “How to leverage companies’ employer branding to attract and retain tech talent,” LinkedIn, February 2, 2021.

Additionally, education is often connected with a more engaged and productive healthcare workforce. Workers who feel their employer is invested in their long-term success are less likely to disengage. Research shows that productivity among highly engaged teams is 14 percent higher than that of teams with the lowest engagement, and employees who are not engaged cost their company the equivalent of 18 percent of their annual salary. 19 Jake Herway, “Increase productivity at the lowest possible cost,” Gallup, October 15, 2020. Moreover, continual advances in medical technology have translated to a need for a nimbler and more advanced workforce. Boosting the skills of current employees and training them to perform new roles is more efficient and cost-effective than recruiting external talent.

The value for postsecondary-education providers

Higher education institutions derive value from a health system partnership through the following channels:

Access to clinical rotations for students. In most health professions, guaranteed, high-quality clinical rotations for students are both highly desirable and difficult to secure. Increased access to clinical rotations through a health system partnership could ease a large burden for higher education institutions and serve as a differentiator to attract potential students.

Access to a large pool of prospective students. Health systems could provide access to thousands of healthcare workers seeking educational advancement to boost their credentials or qualify them for other roles. A steady influx of students over a multiyear period could provide educational institutions with financial security in an increasingly competitive industry and help them shift their focus from recruiting to curriculum development and instruction. Moreover, students could gain access to programs that lead to careers they may not have known about.

Improved postgraduation outcomes. In general, better alignment between curriculums and workforce needs leads to better employment outcomes for students. There is a large gap between what students learn in healthcare education programs and the abilities employers are looking for in new hires. 20 Cheryle G. Levitt, “Bridging the education-practice gap: Integration of current clinical practice into education on transitions to professional practice,” Sigma Repository, July 28, 2014. Health systems can provide input to shape curriculums to meet their specific needs, thus enabling graduates to maximize their potential for employment success—more job offers, improved retention, and continued growth—and creating a virtuous cycle of upward mobility.

In 2019, INTEGRIS Health partnered with Southwestern Oklahoma State University to establish tuition support for first-year nurses. 21 Van Mitchell, “INTEGRIS Health partners with SWOSU in degree program,” Oklahoma’s Nursing Times , September 16, 2019. Licensed vocational nurses employed by INTEGRIS Health are eligible for tuition support and can work while taking classes. Upon completion of the program, participants transition to roles as registered nurses.

The value for communities

Partnerships between health systems and postsecondary-education providers could create value for individuals and communities. They could improve access to care, promote economic growth and vitality within communities, create more professional and higher-paying jobs, and pave career paths for the next generation of healthcare workers.

Educational partnerships also create opportunities for entry-level workers to gain critically needed and specialized skills so they can transition to in-demand careers in nursing and allied health—a financially advantageous career path. For example, the median salary for healthcare support occupations (such as home health and personal-care aides, occupational-therapy assistants, and medical transcriptionists) that require minimal educational requirements and credentials is approximately $30,000, compared with $48,000 for licensed practical nurses, $62,000 for respiratory therapists, and more than $77,000 for registered nurses with bachelor’s degrees. 22 “Healthcare occupations,” US Bureau of Labor Statistics, accessed August 30, 2023.

Additionally, historically marginalized people make up a disproportionate share of entry-level clinical and nonclinical workers in health systems. 23 Janette Dill and Mignon Duffy, “Structural racism and Black women’s employment in the US health care sector,” Health Affairs , February 2022, Volume 41, Number 2. Training these workers to perform higher-skilled jobs is one way to address long-standing racial inequities in healthcare pay and career trajectories. For example, many minority candidates see the licensed practical nurse (LPN) role as an entry point into clinical care because becoming an LPN is comparatively faster and cheaper than the more advanced credentialing necessary for registered-nurse (RN) licensure. Twenty-five percent of LPN positions are filled by Black women, compared with just 10 percent of RN positions. 24 Janette Dill and Mignon Duffy, “Structural racism and Black women’s employment in the US health care sector,” Health Affairs , February 2022, Volume 41, Number 2. The compensation differential between the two roles is also sizable, with LPNs earning just more than 60 percent of an RN’s annual salary on average. 25 “Healthcare occupations,” US Bureau of Labor Statistics, accessed August 30, 2023. Health systems can use education partnerships to help more LPNs train for and advance into RN roles.

Last, using partnerships to secure needed talent will likely expand healthcare access, which could disproportionately benefit underserved communities. According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, substantial disparities in access to healthcare exist throughout the United States but especially in rural states, where labor shortages are most acute. 26 2019 national healthcare quality & disparities report , US Department of Health and Human Services, December 2020. And despite gains in insurance coverage in the past few years, disparities persist: nonelderly Native American and Hispanic people have the highest uninsured rates, at 21 percent and 19 percent, respectively. 27 Samantha Artiga, Anthony Damico, and Latoya Hill, “Health coverage by race and ethnicity, 2010-2021,” KFF, December 20, 2022. With improved labor supply, severely underserved areas and populations would be more likely to receive care.

Five design elements that characterize successful partnership models

Based on our experience, reviews of partnerships, and interviews with stakeholders, we have identified five elements of effective education partnerships.

Education is designed to help students get a job and succeed in it. For health systems, ensuring that employees are ready on day one is a primary objective of any education partnership. This can be accomplished by collaborating to develop programs and course curriculums that provide the skills needed for proficiency in specific roles. Where possible, it can also be beneficial for the health system to play a direct role—for example, by offering clinical rotations, having staff serve as faculty, and participating in career days.

Job demand regularly informs education pathways. As labor markets shift, health system partners need to continually reassess their education programs. Optimal program choices typically mirror roles in highest demand within the health system in a specific geographic region. The most valuable partnerships go beyond providing a single certificate or degree: they support lifelong learning, retain a record of all learning completed, and promote career advancement.

Programs are accessible to a broad set of students. A successful partnership requires a clear path to recruiting and enrolling students as well as a differentiated value proposition compared with competitors. Moreover, the entry-level nature of many of these professions highlights the importance of a support system to help students navigate the demands of the educational system and transition to employment. This support system can be part of the education institution’s offering or available through a third-party collaborator that is equally committed to the outcomes of the program.

Education is affordable for students and financially sound for partners. Partnerships between health systems and educational institutions need to be financially sound for all stakeholders, including prospective students. To minimize the financial burden on students, educational institutions could create affordable programs and health systems could fund a substantial portion of the cost.

Partners make a long-term commitment. Partnerships require energy, commitment, and investment in resources. Partners can clarify their expectations up front to avoid disconnects that can strain relationships. For example, educators can explicitly state their expectation that the health system will support them with clinical rotations, faculty, and preceptors. Having aligned on objectives and priorities, the partners can take steps (for example, writing contracts and setting up a governance structure) to support their long-term mutual goals.

Addressing current labor challenges in healthcare and laying the foundation to collaboratively develop a more diverse and equitable workforce to meet future demand are dual imperatives. As health systems and postsecondary institutions consider partnership opportunities, they can bolster the likelihood of success by understanding workforce needs and the value at stake, choosing a partnership model that aligns with the health system’s priorities, and leveraging existing workforce development initiatives and affiliated stakeholders.

Brandon Carrus is a senior partner in McKinsey’s Cleveland office; Connor Essick is an alumnus of the Bay Area office, where Martha Laboissiere is a partner and Meredith Lapointe is an alumna; and Mhoire Murphy is a partner in the Boston office.

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