| Topic Name: |
McKinsey in decline? |
| Message Name: |
Exactly |
| Date Posted: |
01/31/2006 |
| In Reply To: |
Well this leads us back to the question about how you define the best and the brightest.
I think the very b&b from my Wharton undergrad class '06 are not going for mainstream consulting. I think b&b get special offers from special firms like Blackstone group. The fact that they pretty much only interview people with a cumulative 3.9 (and no there is no grade inflation here, that's Princeton) and still manage to burn through most of those applicants, means they must end up with pretty distinct people. The fact that 25% of a graduating class goes into consultancy means to me that those are not the most special people in that class. |
| Message: |
Thank you for your post. You put my idea in better words than I could. I fully agree that when a firm recruits 10 % of a class or a profession recruits 25% of a class, it just cannot be recruiting only "the best and the brightest".
One interesting statistic is the percentage of graduates from the MBA programme at Harvard that joined McKinsey. Over 30 years, it has gone from approximately 4 percent to around 10 - 12 %. Assuming that "the best and the brightest" are typically the top 1-2%, you can draw your own conclusions.
Traditional consulting firms are no longer recruiting just "the best and the brightest" and, conversely, the "best and the brightest" no longer feel attracted to firms that recruit so many "average students"
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