Pre-Associate

Who You'll Work With

Driving lasting impact and building long-term capabilities with our clients is not easy work. You are the kind of person who thrives in a high performance/high reward culture - doing hard things, picking yourself up when you stumble, and having the resilience to try another way forward.

In return for your drive, determination, and curiosity, we'll provide the resources, mentorship, and opportunities you need to become a stronger leader faster than you ever thought possible. Your colleagues—at all levels—will invest deeply in your development, just as much as they invest in delivering exceptional results for clients. Every day, you'll receive apprenticeship, coaching, and exposure that will accelerate your growth in ways you won’t find anywhere else.

When you join us, you will have:

• Continuous learning: Our learning and apprenticeship culture, backed by structured programs, is all about helping you grow while creating an environment where feedback is clear, actionable, and focused on your development. The real magic happens when you take the input from others to heart and embrace the fast-paced learning experience, owning your journey.
• A voice that matters: From day one, we value your ideas and contributions. You’ll make a tangible impact by offering innovative ideas and practical solutions, all while upholding our unwavering commitment to ethics and integrity. We not only encourage diverse perspectives, but they are critical in driving us toward the best possible outcomes.
• Global community: With colleagues across 65+ countries and over 100 different nationalities, our firm’s diversity fuels creativity and helps us come up with the best solutions for our clients. Plus, you’ll have the opportunity to learn from exceptional colleagues with diverse backgrounds and experiences.
• World-class benefits: On top of a competitive salary (based on your location, experience, and skills), we provide a comprehensive benefits package to enable holistic well-being for you and your family.

Your Impact

You will work in teams of typically 3 - 5 consultants, playing an active role in all aspects of the client engagement.

This includes gathering and analyzing information, formulating and testing hypotheses, and developing and communicating recommendations. You will also have the opportunity to present results to client management and implement recommendations in collaboration with client team members.

You will gain new skills and build on the strengths you bring to the firm. Pre-Associates receive exceptional training as well as frequent coaching and mentoring from colleagues. This support includes a partner assigned to you to help guide your career as well as several weeks of formal training in your first two years as a Pre-Associate.

Additionally, you will receive guidance and support from your local office in the selection of client projects, helping you to develop your skills and build your network.

The Pre-Associate position is the beginning of a rewarding, challenging, and highly flexible career for you here at McKinsey.

During your first few years with the firm, you will serve as a Pre-Associate on multiple client engagements and work with a number of colleagues and clients in a range of industry and functional areas.

We encourage you to explore different content areas or geographies through a year-long rotation with one of our practices (e.g., corporate finance, social sector, healthcare, operations) or global offices; many do this after two years as a generalist Pre-Associate.

Following your Pre-Associate tenure, assuming good performance, you will move into a post-graduate school role. Some Pre-Associates will take advantage of the opportunity to get outside experience through a secondment (externship) with a private sector or social sector client with the firm’s support. Others may choose to pursue graduate school with support from the firm.

You will join our Paris office and will be part of our Generalist practice in a wide variety of disciplines, across industries and functions.

When you join McKinsey as a Pre-Associate, you are joining a firm that will challenge you and invest in your professional development. While you are a Pre-Associate you will be working on a team to help organizations all around the world solve their most difficult problems. You will have the chance to work in the private, public, and/or social sectors.

Your Qualifications and Skills

• Master's degree
• 2+ years of work experience after completing your undergraduate degree
• For less than 2 years of work experience, please apply for the Business Analyst level
• 4+ years of work experience, please apply for the Associate level
• Outstanding record of academic achievement
• Demonstrated aptitude for analytics
• Proven record of leadership in a work setting and/or through extracurricular activities
• Exceptional analytical and quantitative problem-solving skills
• Ability to work collaboratively in a team environment and effectively with people at all levels in an organization
• Ability to communicate complex ideas effectively – both verbally and in writing – in French and English
• Willingness to travel

Key skills/competency

• Analytical Thinking
• Problem Solving
• Client Engagement
• Communication Skills (French & English)
• Team Collaboration
• Leadership Aptitude
• Strategic Consulting
• Hypothesis Testing
• Information Gathering
• Quantitative Analysis