I have a question with which I have been struggling and I hope the board might be able to offer me an opinion on the matter. I began my job search several months ago. As an engineer, I applied to primarily engineering positions at various large companies. However, a friend of mine suggested that I apply to McKinsey and Company, which I did. At the time, I didn't really know much about the company and, given the volume of applications I was sending out as well as the low success level of candidates for that position, I didn't invest a great deal of time in the application. Nevertheless, I was blessed with one interview, and then another after that. I studied and reviewed as much as I could from the time I got the first invite, but unfortunately it wasn't quite enough to make it past the second round. While that could be counted as failure, I prefer to count it as success in that I learned a great deal about the field of management consulting that I didn't know before. This has led me to conclude that it is the perfect field for me. Therefore, I am applying to as many additional companies as I can identify as meeting my goals. However, I am concerned about how to write my cover letter! The McKinsey interviews were truly my introduction to the field. No one in my program ever discussed management consulting as a career path. Therefore, McKInsey is the principle reason I discovered I want to be in management consulting. Given the prestige of the firm and the (relative) success I had getting interviews, I would like to discuss this experience in my cover letter, but I'm not sure if that's a good idea or if it is, what a tactful way to bring it up might be. I need your help!
