Day-11: Some excerpts from the McKinsey Placement talk for Summer Internships.

Before I start with McKinsey Summer internship pitch, I would like to share one of the most fascinating event last night. IIM-A has its own Music Club and they keep on organizing some Programs as and when time permits them. Last night was a live performance of the Music band with a mix of Soft Rock, A.R Rehman and Mohammad Rafi songs. Sounds a totally unusual mix but that's what made it worth attending. The band was totally professional and it was as good as it can get. I was able to see some versatile students who were equally talented in each attribute. They could play drums, guitar and sing at the same time. It was difficult for me to judge what was the best. It was an hour of fun and masti. Then Me and Nirav went for a game of TT and this time the score line read 9-0. I was able to raise the bar of my game after the ignominy I faced the last time we played against each other. I came back around 12 and made the PPT for the presentation for Consumer based business strategy today on the topic Providing and Communicating value. My part was to discuss how advertising helps communicate value and what makes it ineffective. The examples given in the reading were of Volvo, Nike and Nissan. I managed to download the advertisements from the net and incorporated them in my presentation. This would have been the first time in this term that someone would had used video for the presentation however most of the time was spent on discussing Southwest Airlines case and what option should it go for out of the 3 options available. I think we have already discuss the case at AIM and so wont be going into details of the case.

Coming back to Mc Kinsey, I saw the ad on the notice board around 4 30 pm about McKinsey coming for a pitch for the futchas(firs year students) here for summers at 5 30 pm. Obviously with my interest in consulting I was not going to miss it. In the haste I was not able to take the permission from the placement committee here but they were kind enough to allow me to sit for the discussion. The placement committee has strict rules here and they operate by these rules. I was able to learn the various positions where a graduate MBA can find himself in consulting when he joins a firm like McKinsey. Mr. Prashant Gupta who is a partner at McKinsey was very frank in sharing how tough the job of a consultant is and what McKinsey does to help you manage the stress while you are on your job. They have a 60 hr work week which does not include the traveling. You are supposed to be traveling extensively as a consultant and should be prepared to stay away from home most of the time. The most impressive thing about McKinsey is that it encourages the new employees to have experience in various sectors and it is only after a year or two that the employees can choose either to work in a similar way or to focus on a particular sector. When asked about the the things that differentiates McKinsey from the rest, he spoke about two particular things:

1. Value system at McKinsey and.

2. The Salaries.

Overall the entire session was extremely interesting and enlightening. It lasted for more than two hours but I dint even notice that so much time has passed by. This session has added to my passion towards joining a Consultancy firm. Whether it is McKinsey or something else is to be seen. I hope Marcus can come up with some Miracle to bring McKinsey to AIM during the placement season.