Prior to attending Darden School of Business, I worked in international development. Like many people, I went back to school to switch careers. McKinsey’s Emerging Scholars program presented the perfect opportunity to find out more about management consulting, in particular McKinsey, early on in my MBA experience (before it event started!).
The access I had to McKinsey consultants throughout the program was incredibly helpful. After becoming a scholar, consultants reached out me and offered generous tips on how to survive business school, transition careers, and think about my own growth, development and advancement.
As a scholar, I was privileged to learn McKinsey’s culture before school even started. It’s one thing to read about culture on the internet and another to experience it for yourself. The Emerging Scholar interview process taught me a lot about McKinsey’s values and environment. I came to better understand the importance of structuring my thoughts in a mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive way (MECE), which is one of McKinsey’s most applicable frameworks. Thinking about options this way helped me with the interview process and my school work at Darden.
Thanks to the Emerging Scholars network, preparing for my interviews wasn’t very stressful because I had such a robust support network of consultants and fellow scholars behind me. They were always willing to answer my questions and talk through my concerns. They were also there to celebrate with me when I received an offer to intern in McKinsey’s Atlanta office this summer. Their genuine care for me has made me feel like I’m already part of the Atlanta family.