How common are foreign hires in the U.S. MBB offices?

Question

I'm from a non-English speaking country (Germany) and have worked in a boutique consulting firm in NYC for the past two years (note: I do not require visa sponsorship). My English is good, but you can tell I'm not a native speaker (e.g., I have a slight to medium accent, I sometimes make unusual word choices). To restate my question: How common are foreign hires in the U.S. MBB offices (specifically NYC)? Are foreign applicants welcome? Or would that be something that stands out as a negative (as in being another challenge to overcome) during the interview process? Thank you!

Answer 1

It's absolutely not a problem at all! As long as you can speak English fluently you are perfectly fine! (I mean, business fluency, even if you choose odd words on ocassion).

Answer 2

Given that you do not need a visa sponsorship your being foreign has no bearing on being hired. I am foreign, most of McKinsey New York is foreign born. Immigrants are the backbone of USA you will be fine.

Udayan

Answer 3

Hey!

during my time at McKinsey I met plenty US colleagues who were foreign hires, some of them have transferred to US (incl. NYC) after being with McK abroad (e.g. in India or Germany), some others joined directly, e.g. after an MBA.
If you have a suitable profile for MBB, I would not hesitate to apply if I were in your shoes ;-)

But maybe someone from our US experts can give you a few more first-hand insights :)

Best,

Simon

Answer 4

Hello,

I worked for McKinsey in San Francisco, and had plenty of foreign colleagues there. As Simon pointed out, it is common both to have people join directly post-MBA, and to have people relocate offices after having worked for McKinsey abroad. Foreign applicants are very welcome, and a slight accent and some unusual word choices shouldn't make a difference, as long as your communication is smooth on the whole. The only mitigating factor really is the visa sponsorship, which you don't require. So I don't think your citizenship will be a disadvantage in applying to US offices.

Answer 5

Hi there,

This is indeed an interesting question which is probably relevant for quite a lot of users, so I am happy to provide my perspective on it:

It is very common for MBB US offices to have many foreign employees for the simple reason that English is the world language so there are no language restrictions from the client side. There are people joining from foreign offices and people joining directly from business school (whether US-based or not).
You have already proven that your language skills seem to be good enough for clients thus there should not be any negative flavor to hiring you.

In case you want a more detailed discussion on how to best prepare for the upcoming MBB recruiting process, please feel free to contact me directly.

I hope this helps,

Hagen

Answer 6

Hi!

just last week Friday I had two mentees receive offers from McKinsey in the New Jersey Office. Both are foreign (European), no problem in both cases. :)

Cheers, Sidi

Answer 7

Hi there,

I'll keep it short and simple: Given you don't need sponsorship and assuming you're fluent in English, you have NO disadvantage in applying. Wish you the best!

Answer 8

Hi!

Foreign applicants are definitely welcome if they satisfy the requirements of the office, and it seems you are one of those candidates.

Good luck,

Anto

Answer 9

Your situation is a non-issue for MBB. Don't worry!

Employee diversity is an important target for companies like MBB. They shall evaluate you only on your performance and profile.