McKinsey & Company Hi all,
I just graduated with my masters in Public Health from Columbia University and offered a Business Analyst at McKinsey with a salary of 105K. I also have 2 years of industry experience in Life Science’s prior to my graduate degree. With my education and work experience, could I attempt making a case for a Senior BA position instead (given that I lack a business school/work background) and/or also push for higher starting salary? I don’t have any other offers to leverage McKinsey & Company
I was in similar position when I joined. Had two Masters but no work experience and it wasn’t a MBA. I was asked to join as a BA.
I had to swallow my pride (definitely felt I had much more to offer than equivalent campus hires).
From my experience it’s better to be ahead of the pack than in the middle/below. I wouldn’t try to push for Senior BA or anything. If you join on equal terms as other BAs you will likely outperform others, get better performance review, resulting in higher bonus, and more opportunities from being know as somebody that is good at their job. You will set yourself up for a potential better and faster journey.
Generally, McKinsey doesn’t do a lot in terms of salary negotiations for campus/early tenure colleagues. They try to make it as standardized as possible l
I thought our experienced hire BAs started higher than that? 105k feels more in line with campus hires. I would go back and ask if you should be considered an experience hire BA based on your prior work experience. That feels like a very reasonable ask
Just received offer 2 years post undergrad as EP: $115k start in NYC
From what I’ve heard it takes anywhere from 5-7 years WE (without an MBA) to get to Associate. So if don’t come in as an SBA, my guess is that you’d only be a year away
Yes, experienced hires is 5+ yoe
Likely won’t change but could cost your offer. There are very specific policies on levels and experiences.
If you approach this conversation in a kind and collaborative way, they’re very unlikely to rescind your offer. I forget the exact number, but it costs in the tens of thousands for each candidate we give an offer to (based on time from recruiters/Partners, etc and marketing spend), so once we have a candidate with an offer, we wouldn’t just rescind their offer if they respectfully ask for more salary given they’re in a unique position
Your experience will help you but won’t substitute tenure at the Firm - sad reality.
So pushing for SBA likely will result in you not getting in now.
If you’re keen to join the Firm and can survive with that money for 1-2 years, I’d take it. If all works well, you’ll get to SBA soon and potentially straight to EM (or SBA—>MBA—> Associate, which is also very decent $$$).
Another path is, to get more experience (3-5 yrs more) and join as an Associate (experienced hire program).
Sorry dumb question but is your MPH a 1 or 2 year program? Thinking that could help you leverage a higher salary. I don’t think they hire people in as senior BAs (that’s just a title given based on tenure but doesn’t actually mean anything), but you might be able to negotiate for a higher salary. I think the new BA salary is $100k (not sure exactly), so you could probably negotiate for a second year BA salary (maybe $120k?). I’m not a BA so I don’t know these numbers.
Thinking if you have 2 YOE and a 2 year masters degree, you could argue it being equivalent to at least 2 years at the firm and should be comped as a BA with 2 years of experience. They likely won’t budge THAT much but I think they’d be able to come up to 1 year of experience at the firm.
If not, think through other issues you could bring in (eg location, PTO, specialty) that they might be able to give you if they can’t give salary