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McKinsey Ignite: Step-By-Step Guide to Getting In
McKinsey Ignite is a half-day program sponsored by the McKinsey Women affinity group to empower attendees to explore a potential career in consulting, join a personal strengths workshop, and have the opportunity to network with other participants and McKinsey women.
If you’re planning to apply for the McKinsey Ignite program and want to know how to give yourself the best chance of getting accepted into the program, then this article is for you.
In this comprehensive article, we’ll cover what is the McKinsey Ignite program, program requirements and deadlines, and application tips.
What is the McKinsey Ignite Program?
The McKinsey Ignite program is a highly selective, invite-only half-day program for undergraduate women to learn more about consulting, meet McKinsey women, and improve leadership skills.
Participants in the McKinsey Ignite program should expect to:
- Learn more about McKinsey’s culture, work, and people
- Strengthen their leadership skills
- Hear from McKinsey women leaders through presentations and breakout sessions
- Interact with inspiring McKinsey women
- Network with other program participants
McKinsey will cover all event-related expenses for this program.
The McKinsey Ignite Program is one of four programs for undergraduate students. The other three programs are the Up Next First Year Leadership Summit, El Futuro First Year Leadership Summit, and LAUNCH Leadership Incubator.
For further questions on the McKinsey Ignite program, you can contact [email protected].
McKinsey Ignite Program Requirements
To be eligible for the McKinsey Ignite program, participants must be a first year, second year, or third year undergraduate student that is enrolled in a four-year university or institution in the US or Canada. Additionally, candidates must have an interest to connect with the McKinsey Women affinity group.
In other words, the McKinsey Ignite program is targeted towards students that identify as women.
Non-US citizens are eligible to participate in the program as long as they are currently enrolled in an undergraduate institution or university in the US or Canada.
McKinsey Ignite Program Application Deadline
To apply for the McKinsey Ignite program, you must indicate interest in the program through the Connect with McKinsey form. The previous deadline was March 17, 2024. You should check the McKinsey undergraduate diversity website to confirm the deadline for the upcoming year. Expect the next McKinsey Ignite program deadline to be March 2025.
The McKinsey Ignite program typically follows the timeline below:
- March 17: deadline to complete the Connect with McKinsey form in order to be considered for the McKinsey Ignite program
- March 24: deadline to complete the McKinsey Solve online assessment
- Early April: invitations sent out to accepted participants
- Early April: deadline to RSVP to the program
- Mid-April to May: program hosted during this time period based on your school
Not being invited to the McKinsey Ignite program does not impact any future applications for roles or programs at McKinsey.
We've also put together an article that compiles all McKinsey application deadlines for their internships, full-time positions, and other programs.
McKinsey Ignite Program Application
To apply for the McKinsey Ignite program, you must complete the Connect with McKinsey form. There is no separate application for the McKinsey Ignite program. While completing the Connect with McKinsey form, you are allowed to opt in to more than one program.
The Connect with McKinsey from will ask you for: basic information, education, interests, and additional questions. After completing the form, you’ll be invited to play McKinsey’s innovative assessment game, the McKinsey Solve.
Basic Information
You’ll be asked for your name, email address, gender, phone number, physical address, languages spoken, LinkedIn profile, and resume.
Education
You’ll be asked for information on your school and university, degree, major, start date, and graduation date.
Interests
You’ll be asked to indicate your potential geographic preferences. You will be able to select up to three different McKinsey locations around the world.
Additional questions
McKinsey will ask you for your SAT score and ACT score.
You’ll also be asked to indicate any functional practice interests, such as digital, marketing & sales, operations, private equity, product development & procurement, risk management, and strategy & corporate finance.
You’ll also be asked to indicate any interest in tech roles, such as data science, software engineering, product management, data engineering, experience design, agile coaching, and digital marketing.
Afterwards, you’ll be asked to indicate your affinity interests, such as Access McKinsey, Access Parents, Asians at McKinsey, McKinsey LGBTQ+, Hispanic and Latino Network, Indigenous at McKinsey, McKinsey Black Network, McKinsey Women, PRISM, and Veterans@McKinsey.
Next, you’ll be asked to select the undergraduate diversity programs you would like to be considered for. These programs are the: El Futuro First Year Leadership Summit, Up Next First Year Leadership Summit, Ignite, and LAUNCH Leadership Incubator. We highly recommend selecting all programs that are relevant for you.
Lastly, McKinsey will ask for your hobbies, interests, and any additional information that would be helpful for McKinsey to know.
McKinsey Solve
To complete the Connect with McKinsey application, you’ll be asked to complete the McKinsey Solve online assessment.
The McKinsey Solve is a 60-minute online pre-interview screening test consisting of two simulation exercises, ecosystem building and the Redrock case study. It assesses a candidate’s cognitive abilities including critical thinking, decision making, and systems thinking.
The test is similar to an ecology-themed video game where players engage in tasks like building food chains, protecting species, and managing ecosystems.
The McKinsey Solve assessment does not require any business knowledge or video game experience. The assessment is taken at home, allowing candidates to use resources such as pen, paper, and calculators.
The McKinsey Solve is scored based on the final answers submitted as well as the method used to arrive at them.
Each candidate receives a unique McKinsey Solve assessment. No two assessments are identical.
If you have already completed the McKinsey Solve within the last 12 months, you will not need to complete this online assessment again. Your previous score should be linked to your McKinsey profile.
McKinsey Ignite Program Interview
McKinsey does not conduct any interviews for the McKinsey Ignite program. Candidates will be selected based on their Connect with McKinsey application and their McKinsey Solve online assessment score.
Tips for Getting Selected for the McKinsey Ignite Program
1. Perfect your consulting resume
Your resume is the single most important component that will determine whether or not you are invited to participate in the McKinsey Ignite program.
Therefore, you’ll want to dedicate at least a few days perfecting your resume while also getting feedback from peers, your school’s career center, or even consultants that you know.
Make sure to follow the tips below to perfect your consulting resume.
- Keep your resume to one page only. If it is longer, you’ll need to make your resume more concise and less wordy
- Every bullet on your resume should start with a verb in the past tense to show that you have completed or achieved something
- Every bullet should have some kind of number or metric in them so that you can quantify your accomplishments and make them sound more impressive
- Your resume’s bullets should show a mix of quantitative skill accomplishments (e.g., analyzing data) and qualitative skill accomplishments (e.g., managing or working with others)
- Avoid using technical jargon, unfamiliar abbreviations or acronyms, and buzzwords with unclear meanings
- Your resume should prioritize showcasing your work experiences, particularly if you have worked at a brand name company
- Include personal interests at the end of the resume to give resume reviewers something interesting to read about
If you need professional help crafting the perfect resume that will land you consulting interviews, check out our resume review and editing service.
2. Prepare for the McKinsey Solve
The results of your McKinsey Solve assessment may determine whether or not you are invited to participate in the McKinsey Ignite program. So, it is important that you do well on this test.
It is also used to determine whether you will get a first round interview with McKinsey when you apply for a summer internship or full-time position.
There have been a total of six games that have appeared on the McKinsey Solve, though only the first two are used today.
- Ecosystem building: create a stable ecosystem by choosing a location for the ecosystem and selecting eight different species to inhabit it
- Redrock case study: ensure ecological balance in a nature reserve by optimizing the number of wolves in the four packs that live there such that wolves and elk can sustainably coexist
Below, we’ve outlined a video that explains what the McKinsey Solve is and walks you through exactly how to tackle the games you’ll see on your online assessment.
After watching this video, we highly recommend practicing playing these games before you take the actual McKinsey Solve. You can do this through PSG Secrets’ McKinsey Solve simulation. This simulation replicates the actual games you’ll be evaluated on in the McKinsey Solve.
3. Attend as many McKinsey events as you can
Take advantage of these opportunities to meet and interact with McKinsey consultants. The more McKinsey consultants you meet, the higher likelihood you are able to hit it off with someone and potentially get a referral when it comes to getting into the McKinsey Ignite program.
In addition, you’ll learn a lot about consulting and McKinsey, which will help you answer common interview questions such as “why consulting?” and “why McKinsey?”
These questions will definitely be asked during your first round or final round interviews with McKinsey when applying for a McKinsey internship or full-time position.
4. Prepare for consulting interviews
While you don’t need to pass any McKinsey case interviews in order to be accepted into the McKinsey Ignite program, it is advantageous to start preparing for consulting interviews early to give yourself an edge over the competition.
You will need to pass every single one of your McKinsey case interviews in order to land an internship or full-time offer with McKinsey.
A case interview is a 20 to 40-minute interview in which you are placed in a hypothetical business situation and asked to develop a recommendation to solve a business problem.
Consulting firms, such as McKinsey, like to use case interviews in their recruiting process because they can assess a variety of skills and traits that are required to be a successful management consultant.
If you’re looking for a step-by-step guide to learn case interviews quickly and save yourself hundreds of hours, make sure to check out our comprehensive case interview course.
In addition to case interviews, you should also prepare for consulting behavioral questions. These interview questions ask you to draw upon a time or experience in the past in which you demonstrated a particular quality or trait.
If you want to learn how to answer 98% of consulting behavioral and fit questions in just a few hours, check out our behavioral interview course.
Author: Taylor Warfield
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