What do the COO of Facebook, the CEO of College Board, and the CEO of Google have in common? Aside from changing the world, they all worked at McKinsey & Company!
For those of you who don’t know, McKinsey is a global management consulting firm that serves the world’s most important businesses, governments, and NGOs. They’re brought in to help clients when they need to improve their performance, hit a goal, or rethink their strategy.
Beyond being an amazing place to work (pst, they’re hiring on WayUp!), they also are a place where you learn from the best of the best, which is obvious when you look at the people who used to work there, many of whom now hold #BOSS positions at companies around the world. Coincidence? Definitely not; in fact, a study by USA Today found that McKinsey alumni have the best chance in the world of becoming CEO of a public company.
Here’s a peek at three McKinsey alumni who have likely impacted your life today,.
1. Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook COO
Not only is Sheryl the COO and right-hand-woman for Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook, but she also was a former VP at Google, and—you guessed it—a former McKinsey employee! She went there to be a Management Consultant after graduating from Harvard Business School. And as if that wasn’t impressive enough, Sheryl is responsible for a global movement of women #leaningin. The lady boss of all lady bosses, indeed!
2. Sundar Pichai, Google CEO
After getting an undergraduate engineering degree from IIT in India, an M.S. from Stanford, and a casual MBA from Wharton, Pichai worked at McKinsey as a Management Consultant. Pichai later went on to be a Product Manager at Google, but because of all of his business skills that he picked up at McKinsey, he was an obvious shoo-in for CEO of the Googs once Larry Page stepped away to become CEO of Alphabet (Google’s holding company).
3. David Coleman, College Board President and CEO
Remember that test you took not too long ago to get into college? Well, the SAT and AP exams are designed annually by College Board, which just happens to be run by a McKinsey alum who is now College Board’s President and CEO, David Coleman. Since taking over, Coleman has made it a priority for the College Board to expand access to education for minority and low-income students who demonstrate potential. But how did he get experience in education in the first place? While at McKinsey, he was able to do some pro-bono work for school districts!
These are just three of the many alumni who are total #bosses and learned how at McKinsey. But the list doesn’t stop there: You can read more about McKinsey alumni here, and you can become a McKinsey employee yourself by taking the first step and applying on WayUp!
