How to Get Breakthrough Results Through Networking
I get asked a lot about networking and whether you should network with McKinsey people. Should I get to know a McKinsey consultant, and so on? Let me tell you a little bit about what works and what doesn’t work. First of all, you should be clear in your head what you want to achieve with networking, and what it is not good for. The organization of a large consulting firm is built on a meritocracy — job performance is everything — and the hiring process is highly structured. They hate nepotism — jobs for pals. They will hate it if somebody tries to push a candidate through some channel, or lobbies for a candidate, and so on. So, if you do networking just in order to have a better chance in the application process, you’re on the wrong path. It doesn’t help you at all. The process is super-standardized, but… there’s always a but! There are a couple of things that networking is good for.
First of all, in the opening paragraph of your cover letter, you should always write about why McKinsey is amazing. You should be able to name people and topics and articles that have been written by McKinsey consultants on the topic of your interest. So, it’s a good idea to network with people who have actually published an article. McKinsey people publish a lot of articles, and if you’ve gotten to know one or two of these people and you’ve emailed back and forth, or you have had a Zoom call with them and discussed stuff, you’re on the right track. This shows that you are interested in the firm, and you have to show this in your application and in the interview conversation because they will always ask you, “So why do you want to join McKinsey?” At this point, it’s ideal to say, “I talked to this and that person. I thought this person was amazing and inspiring. Plus, the work they were doing was amazing and inspiring, and overall the company is amazing, and all I want to do for the rest of my life is work for this company.” This is the kind of thing you have to say.
Secondly, if you meet any consultant, you should squeeze them as hard as you can for information. What is the work like? What areas do you focus on? What is the application process like? What was your application like? What is your secret? How did you do it? What would you recommend?
Don’t stop asking questions until that person says, “I can’t take any more questions. I have to go now.” Do not be polite here. I mean be polite, but don’t be timid. This is your chance to get to know more and to extract as much information as you can. These are the best people to ask. They have done it, they know how it works, so extract their knowledge.
The third part — and to my mind, this is the most important part — is mindset work. You have to wrap your mind around the fact that the people who get hired there are the same as you. They’re just normal people who have done a few things okay — or very okay — but they’re not in any way different or super-special. The biggest hurdle in the whole process of coaching people into this is the mindset. What do people believe about themselves?
Your task, therefore, is to network with as many consultants as possible, so that at the end you’ll say, “I’ve met twenty of them, and they were all sort of like me, and they were all sort of normal.” So that when you go into the interview, your mind doesn’t say, “Oh my God, here’s this interviewer, and now I have to be perfect.” Instead, your mind says, “Oh, another one of these guys. Hey, glad to see you. Let’s talk” — like you did twenty times before. You become at ease, and this is the most important part of networking.
Networking doesn’t help you by giving you a leg up in the process, but it helps you to understand the process better, to get your mindset right, and to be better able to articulate why you want to join the firm. These are the three areas why you want to network. Let me be a little bit more specific about what I mean here when I say that networking doesn’t help you in the process. It is possible for me — as a McKinsey consultant or partner — to get people into the interview process, in circumstances where I think the CV looks good. This is one thing that a senior person at the firm can do, but nothing more than that.
You have to then network with the partners or one below partner. These people have to have been with the firm for at least five or six years, then they may be able to assist you. Project managers typically don’t have that much of a voice in the application process. But finding someone to try to influence the application process for you is probably the least important thing about networking — and it always looks odd. It always looks like you want to weasel your way in instead of going through the process the right way. So, I don’t think it’s that important and could be counterproductive. But if you do know somebody and you’re really personal with them, then, of course, they may be able to help you to get an interview — but it won’t help you at all in the interview itself.
Another important aspect of networking is, how should you network? How do you go about doing this? Here are another few secrets. First of all, you need to work at it ten times harder than you’re currently doing it. How do I know this? Because I’ve seen a lot of young people trying to get a foot in the door, and you’re not doing it hard enough. It is really easy to get in touch with the right people to network with. You know the format of the email addresses, they have publications, and you do not risk anything by getting in touch with these people. “Hey, I’ve read your article. It was really interesting. Can we talk about this for fifteen minutes?” Or, “I’m really interested in the firm. Could we maybe have a quick Skype call, maybe sometime late on a Friday? Or sometimes when you’re in a taxi perhaps you can give me a call, or I call you?”
Always remember, three years ago these people were like you, and they’re still like you. Actually, when you think about it, consultants don’t get too much public recognition. We work a lot for our clients, and we are at the client’s side, but rarely is anybody ever interested in our work. So, if I think back if you called me and said, “Look, I’ve read this article of yours and I’ve got two or three questions. Would you mind if we have a chat?” I would probably have said yes. There aren’t that many of these requests. These are under-networked people. You can address them, and you can find them.
Find people from your regional LinkedIn. You have nothing to lose, so go for it. Get to know them; find them. Typically, the email addresses are published somewhere in the same article. Go to the recruiting events. There are people there — squeeze them ten times harder than you’re currently doing. You’re all too timid. You’re not positioning yourself; you’re not asking enough questions. If you approach me and you tell me you’re interested in the firm, and then you do not have at least twenty questions for me, I won’t believe that you’re interested. You’re just one of these wishy-washy people who say, “I like strategic work and I like variety.” Nonsense.
If you can’t think up twenty questions — rapid-fire questions — how about these? Critical questions — what about working hours? What about travel? What about social impact? What’s the CEO’s footprint? But also, what is the firm doing in my area of interest? What can I do there? How would my career run? What is this about the “up or out”? All of these types of questions.
Go start networking, and report in the Facebook Group on what you found out by networking. Help the others. Help each other out. Send me feedback. Have a good day and go be great as you always are.
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