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Couple of things to add: McKinsey has a weird structure where there are too many cooks in the kitchen. Everybody there is reviewed on client impact, meaning i
by OptionOfT 7mo ago
Couple of things to add:
McKinsey has a weird structure where there are too many cooks in the kitchen.
Everybody there is reviewed on client impact, meaning it ends up being an everybody-for-themselves situation.
So as a developer you have little guidance (in fact, you're still being reviewed on client impact, even if you have 0 client exposure).
Then a (Senior) Partner comes in with this idea (that will get them a good review), and you jump on that. After all, it's all you can do to get a good review.
You work on it, and then the (Senior) Partner moves on. But it's not done. It's enough for the review, but continuing to work on it doesn't bring you anything, in fact, it will actually pull you down, as finishing the project doesn't give immediate client results.
So what does this mean? Most products of McKinsey are a grab-bag of raw ideas of leadership, implemented as a one-off, without a cohesive vision or even a long-term vision at all. It's all about the review cycle.
McKinsey is trying to do software like they do their other engagements. It doesn't work. You can't just do something for 6 months and then let it go. Software rots.
The fact that they laid off a good amount of (very good) software engineers in 2024 is a reflection on how they see software development.
And McKinsey's people, who go to other companies, take those ideas with them. Result: The UI of your project changes all the time, because everybody is looking at the short-term impact they have that gets them a good review, not what is best for the project in the long term.
- steve1977 7mo ago> McKinsey is trying to do software like they do their other engagements. It doesn't work. I mean, it doesn't work for their consulting gigs either. There's a reason McKinsey has such a bad reputation.
- _doctor_love 7mo agoBut it does work for them? They make tons of money.
- operatingthetan 7mo agoAs an ex-consultant: consulting at that level is kind of a grift. They over-promise and under-deliver as SOP. It's ripe for AI disruption, whatever that looks like.
- steve1977 7mo agoIdeally, executives will get replaced by AI soon. Which should actually be easier than engineers. That will kind of solve the consulting problem automatically.
- skeeter2020 7mo agoThis would be terrible for McKinsey as they sell exclusively through executives who then punch all their wisdoms down on the plebs
- steve1977 7mo agoSo it would be great for the rest of mankind.
- steve1977 7mo agoWell, fair point. It doesn't work for their clients.
- Spooky23 7mo agoTheir model works great. It’s really about bypassing the existing power structure of the company. Competence of the work itself is a secondary objective. Most in-house initiatives can be slow rolled by management. The fresh faced consultant with 2-3 steps to access the CEO neutralizes that. It seems grifty but is really exploiting bugs in corporate governance. The current fad of firing the managers is a riff on this. Every jackass C-level is coming up with the novel idea of flattening.
- steve1977 7mo agoThis somehow implies that initiatives or strategies from consultants are somewhat successful. This is not the case in my experience.
- Spooky23 7mo agoThey reflect the will of the principal who hired them. Success is in the eye of the beholder.
- entrox 7mo agoNo, you misunderstood. It is not about their output, it almost never is. Most of the times, the business decision has already been made long before McK is hired. It’s all about legitimizing that decision and making it happen. You can also wield them as a weapon against internal competitors or opponents. Look up how they were used to kill off Cariad for example.
- gavinray 7mo agoWhy would anyone work there, then, unless that's the only place they could get hired as a dev? And if the latter is the case, then that sort of stamps the case closed from the get-go...
- dmbche 7mo agoGreat money?
- ng12 7mo agoAccording to levels the pay band caps out around $250k and a principal title. It's good but probably not enough for most to put up with the culture long term.
- john_strinlai 7mo ago>[...] the pay band caps out around $250k [...] probably not enough for most [...] an absolutely wild statement to 99.9+% of the world
- anonMcKinsey 7mo ago99.9% of the world doesn't live in the US with a 4.0 GPA from a top ten university. They're not very bright, most of them. But they're very hard workers and high achievers. They stay for the resume candy or the health care.
- john_strinlai 7mo ago>[...] US with a 4.0 GPA from a top ten university. They're not very bright, most of them. the top students from the top ten universities in the US produce... mostly not very bright people? this is getting even stranger to the rest of us plebians. sometimes i am left in awe of how different my world is from some of you here
- 7mo ago
- yard2010 7mo agoI'm far from being an expert, but it sounds like this company needs some consultancy.
- munk-a 7mo agoCan McKinsey fund McKinsey by consulting for McKinsey? Could we oroborus corporate consulting so that those consultants could be trapped in a loop and those of us doing useful work wouldn't need to interact with them anymore?
- skeeter2020 7mo agoHave you seen current AI deals? This IS the future, but so much more efficient than requiring OpenAI, NVidia, MS, Amazon, etc. all be involved.
- wuschel 7mo agoWhat do you mean exactly?
- itsnotme12 7mo agoThose comments are spot on. McKinsey was on a spree to become the best tech consulting company and brought a lot of great tech talent but the 2023 crisis made leadership turn 180 and simply ditch/ignore all the tech experts they brought to the firm. All the expertise has left the firm and now they are more and more becoming another BS tech consulting firm, with strategy folks that don't even know that ML is AI advising clients on Enterprise AI transformation. The tech initiative was a failure and Lilli's problem is just a symptom of it. I wonder what was the experience at Bain and BCG
- two_tasty 7mo agoI previously worked at BCGX, their tech arm. It's not quite as bad as you point out here, but tech workers are very much second-class-citizens. There's a "jock" vs. "nerd" dynamic between BCG business consultants and BCGX tech folks, even at senior levels. I think it's changing, but it will take a long time and many technical folks being admitted to the partnership.
- quantum_state 7mo agoThey sold their way of working to many idiotic companies which are in the process of destroying themselves …
- CobrastanJorji 7mo agoMan, that's terrible. Have they considered bringing in some sort of business consultant to help them reorganize and restructure?
- keeganpoppen 7mo agothis is why working at mckinsey seems like a horrible proposition to me, personally