After taking the solve test, I was contacted by a recruiter to interview for the Pakistan office even though in my application I had added Dubai and Riyadh offices as preferences. I'm wondering if this is because I'm based in Pakistan and I hear they encourage candidates to consider the offices in country, or because other offices I added as preferences are not hiring at the moment. And if it's the former, is there precedent for negotiating around that?
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Hello! Does anyone know if McKinsey is hiring for its Dubai and Riyadh offices nowadays?
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Hi there,
Middle East offices are hiring, but your intuition is correct - they would first contact you for the office where you are based in / where your home country is.
You can of course say you are exclusively interested in Dubai or Riyadh, but undoubtedly your best chances of getting into consulting, in your case, would be in Pakistan. This is something I would also double-check with the recruiter if I were you (and it is a fair question to ask).
So it is a matter of trade-offs on what matters more and risk appetite (location, but lower chances or the job itself).
Hope this helps,
Ariadna
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Hi there,
Yes, I have candidates for both offices in the pipeline at the moment. They are hiring yet the process is a bit slower than usual.
It's likely a combination of both factors you mentioned though as demand for Middle East offices is currently higher than the supply of jobs.
I would engage the local HR and discuss the situation openly with them. If they only offer you a position in Pakistan and you still want to move to the Middle East, you might have to play the long game and start first, and make a move later.
All the best,
Florian
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Hi Ariadna, That's super helpful, thank you! Though would that mean, in the Middle East, candidates are only being considered for offices in their respective countries? Would you know if there are exceptions to this? And if so, on what grounds? I imagine offices in Dubai/Riyadh would have individuals from across the world. Thank you in advance!
You are right that the respective ME offices have a lot of diversity and definitely far from having a majority of locals. But that's exactly why they are also very competitive :) But they might have preferences, depending on their current project demand & already existing supply of consultants, e.g., looking to hire now just people with X years of experience in sector Y. This is a random example, but goes to say that it would be very company and office specific and totally worth checking with the recruiter. As always, be mindful how you phrase your questions to them, you don't want to close any doors :)