I was an associate and engagement manager at McKinsey during Rajat Gupta's time. The article rings true. 1: Rajat Gupta was a very straight guy, and the firm

I was an associate and engagement manager at McKinsey during Rajat Gupta's time. The article rings true. 1: Rajat Gupta was a very straight guy, and the firm was an incredibly straight place. His actions after he left the firm are completely inconsistent with his actions at McKinsey and the expressed beliefs of the firm. Perhaps he was always a bit self-serving and the firm provided the guidance he required. Who knows, but overall this is pretty devastating. 2: While McKinsey, Bain and BCG are recognized as the top tier, McKinsey stands alone in most people's minds. Nobody from my school with multiple offers selected any other consulting firm over McKinsey. (I had 2 other offers). It's like Harvard for MBA schools - we can say what you like if you went to another school (like I did), but Harvard will always be the benchmark for MBAs. The better the firm, the higher the quality of the people around you (I knew only one "hiring mistake" and the support staff were outrageously amazing), the better the clients (I dealt with companies with hundreds of billions at stake) and the better the engagements (though there are still good and bad ones within that). Even so the culture and clients did depend a lot on the office, and on the economic climate at the time. I saw my office go from great to not so great in less than 3 years. 3: Client Impact was critical at McKinsey - we were constantly asked to prove that we were earning our fees. Partners and Directors had to do it all, but making rain was not as important as the quality of the client impact. I agree that the work can be awesome. McKinsey hires "insecure overachievers" and ensures that they are operating near the edge of their ability. However while your learning curve is amazingly steep, you also need to be able to step out in time. I'd still recommend McKinsey to anyone, there is no better school to learn business.