McKinsey & Company Interviewing for McKinsey & Company now. Just worried. How do you all survive off of 4 hours of sleep and having no life for at least 5 days a week if not more.

Specifically women.

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Ex-McK here. I usually had the opportunity to eat about half my meals without working and usually slept a satisfactory amount. Depending on the city I was in, sometimes I’d even be able to see my friends who live there for dinner / coffee. It’s not as bad as you describe

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YMMV. Best work life balance for me was pre PL/EM. After that I averaged 4 hours of sleep through the week, with frequent work on Sunday to prepare for the upcoming week

Opt for healthier meals when you’re traveling, and aggressively optimize for sleep before anything else after work.

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i sleep 7 hours most days
no life m-th though lol

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Do you go to bed right after logging off? Do you have time in the morning to do anything before logging on/going to the office?

You speak of big law. MBB should be able to get 6-8 hrs sleep and generally protected weekends. But yeah, limited social life/extracurriculars M-Th. If you want that, find a smaller boutique that offers it or exit MBB after a few years.

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I think only due diligence projects might work you that late on a regular basis. I would expect most folks on other projects wrap up in the 10-12 range M-Th, on average. And, if I’m working til 2am, I’ll pass out at 2am and wake up at 7:55 for an 8am meeting to maximize sleep (if WFH), hopefully can be off camera.

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60 hours a week. There isn’t much time for a life outside of work Mon-Thurs. Say that’s 12-14 hours Monday-Thursday and 8 hours Friday. So Mon-Thurs is 8-9 or so. Then 2 hours or so in the evening for gym, family, etc., and 1 hour for the start/end of your day. So then you still get 8 hours of sleep. Approximately. On average.

I usually woke up 30minutes before needing to be at the client site, was half half on whether I’d work straight or keep the evening flex time, and falling asleep is very quick too.

It’s not great, but it’s also not only 4 hours of sleep as you OP are describing.

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Thank you for the breakdown.

I showed this thread to my wife to help her better understand what I went through / sometimes still go through.

It gets a lot easier as you get more senior, have a niche, and a couple of client s

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Thanks for the insight

Why did you interview with it then OP?

Work hard for a few years and retire early is my plan. It makes me excited when there are challenges and the days go much faster.

Just get a few of those 25,000 agents to take some work off your plate

☠️

I mean, I slept 7+ hours most nights while there, though I definitely didn’t do tons outside of work. Draw your boundaries and decide when the job is no longer worth it. Lots of people will say “it’s not as bad as you think,” but being able to get a meal with friends every once in a while during the week shouldn’t be the exception imo.

But get the offer first.

Its been bad lately. 5 hrs a night pretty common. It is so hard

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