Meeting McKinsey
McKinsey’s twitter account for GSB recruiting is where I first learned about coffee chats with Lauren Ullman (Stanford MBA ‘07), this year’s McKinsey campus ambassador for the GSB. In my mind, it makes a big difference talking to alums versus corporate recruiters. Alums have hands-on context for both the school and the role, so conversations can be super specific.
The chat was useful and fun. Topics ranged from the GSB and McKinsey’s San Francisco office, to elephant polo, to my cousin who at the time was trapped on a cruise ship in Antarctica.
While I learned about the company from McKinsey alum in my class, chatting with Lauren offered a helpful peak into life at firm in the Bay Area from a GSBer two years out.
Lately I’ve been interviewing people for my blog, both to go a level deeper in my interactions, and to share what I’m picking up. Lauren was kind enough to oblige and more about Lauren and her experiences at the GSB and McKinsey is below:
Note: Our interview was in November. I got sidetracked with holidays and am late posting. My bad :p
About Lauren Ullman:
I grew up in Northern Ireland and got a Masters in Chemical Engineering at Cambridge University. After graduating I spent a year traveling, then worked in McKinsey’s London office for two years as a Business Analyst. I came to Stanford GSB, class of ’07, then returned to McKinsey in the San Francisco office (hard to leave the Bay Area!) where I’m an Engagement Manager. I’ve been married for two years and live in San Francisco. One day we will get a kitten and a puppy.
Above: Lauren Ullman (Stanford MBA ‘07)
What’s been your career experience before and after the GSB?
Before the GSB, I spent two years as a Business Analyst in McKinsey’s London office, which I joined after undergrad and a year’s traveling. I spent a great two years getting a huge range of experiences, from working on a (successful) Olympic Bid, to oil drilling strategy, to supermarket operations. After the GSB I returned to McKinsey’s San Francisco office as an Associate, and since then I have again had great opportunities to work in a broad range of industries, from wine to fashion, to landscaping! I am now an Engagement Manager at McKinsey, and starting to specialize in Operations across industries—I’m particularly partial to consumer retail and industrial.
What were your highs and lows at the GSB? What have they been in your new role?
The GSB is a very special place. Highs included the continual inspiring discovery of just how incredible my classmates were, both informally and through classes and "Talk ’07". The trips with classmates to Brazil, New Zealand, Mexico and a bunch of other places were all fantastic in very different ways. And the learning is amazing – Joel Peterson’s Managing Growing Enterprises was a particular highlight for me, and some of the "View From The Top" series were wonderful—Colin Powell is one that really sticks in my memory. Lastly I would have to mention my wedding (to my classmate husband—we met at admit weekend) – we had a bunch of classmates out in Ireland for the occasion and had a very special time! In terms of lows at the GSB, really the only one was the realization after graduation that I had to leave.
At McKinsey, one of my favorite parts is actually similar to the GSB—the endlessly impressive and fun colleagues I get to work with every day. And I love those occasional days at the end of some big engagement or meeting when I look back and think "wow, there’s no way I could have done what I just did 2 years ago" and realize how much I’ve learned—those keep on happening, so it never stops. There have been some great moments with clients, for example when the president of a company who’s Board had asked us to serve had begun the study basically saying she didn’t want us or need us there, and ended up loving the work and being really excited to implement it. That’s so rewarding. Thankfully the highs tend to outweigh the lows. The low points for me usually involve some combination of a very early start, a very late night, a delayed flight, and errors in someone’s Excel model!
What GSB classes or activities have been most useful in the workplace?
I found all the core classes really useful and interesting: before school I had learned and applied various principles from those classes (economics, accounting, corporate finance etc) in a piecemeal way, based on whatever the particular project required, so I found it really useful to get a much fuller view and complete context for those topics. Additionally some of the "softer skills" we learn at the GSB have been useful as I manage my teams, my clients and the McKinsey partners…
Growing up, how were you different from others?
Hmm. I was a bit nerdy at school and loved maths/physics, and all things related to engineering. There were not many girls on my course at Cambridge… I loved animals (was almost a veterinarian) – I wrote to the zookeeper at Dublin zoo when I was 6 to ask if I could please get a monkey. Alas he replied no. I was always competitive and really hated not doing a good job at whatever I did. We always traveled a lot when we were kids, and I still love travel. I probably had worse (or at least weirder) taste in music than most. And I think I was a bit of a wuss as a kid (wasn’t into huge rollercoasters) but then had a phase after college when I couldn’t get enough of skydiving, bungy jumping, whatever else I could find to make me nervous.
What in your past experience helped prepare you to lead in your current role?
Since my past experience was mostly McKinsey I’ve had a lot of prep time for my current role. One more thing that was useful—during the GSB, I summered at Expedia—it was great to get to work within an "operational" company (as opposed to consulting) for a while—it has helped me understand the client point of view better, and hopefully makes me a more effective consultant for my clients.
What kind of people succeed in the role you’re in now?
One of the things I love about McKinsey is that it’s such a diverse place—there’s a huge range of backgrounds, skills, personal styles and approaches—I think it’s one of the things that helps us come up with really great solutions to our clients’ problems. So it’s very hard to say what traits lead to success here. There are a few commonalities though—great leadership and effective people skills (although effective can be very different things for different people) and super problem-solving. An appetite for having fun at work usually helps too…
Needless to say I was impressed by Lauren and McKinsey. I’m fascinated by companies that consistently draw top notch people for decades on end—and certainly this includes other top firms like Bain, BCG, etc.
Particularly interesting was finding out the most popular Myers Brigg Type Indicator profile at McKinsey. I’ll let you ask about this yourself, but as a hint, the company boasts the world’s largest network of alumni CEOs 
