Reconsider your McKinsey offer

The Ross School of Business is among the most prestigious business schools in the United States. Only those who have proven themselves to be smart and well-rounded individuals get the opportunity to pursue business at the University of Michigan. Some of the most brilliant students at my high school ended up at the Business School, which is undoubtedly a substantial achievement. But why?

Well, it’s obvious! These students have essentially secured a financial safety net. Parents can send them off to business school knowing that after these four years, their kids will always be one job application from a high-paying job. It’s kind of nice to know that your kid won’t starve! 

But what does that tell us about universities? It tells us that they aren’t just a haven for academia. However, they are also no longer a means of “survival” in America, per se. You still find those who pursue topics out of genuine interest and passion at this university, but there’s a “concern” for students that want to obtain a Ph.D. This is a valid concern to have, given that there are examples of highly educated students who become underemployed; however, for a significant majority, higher education is viewed as little more than a stepping stone on the way to a job — a disturbingly myopic perspective on life and ambition.

This is readily apparent at business schools in particular, which can serve as a direct pipeline to some of the vilest institutions in the world. Sure, some business students are interested in starting their own businesses. Others view business school as an avenue for social mobility in a competitive, vicious economy. But then there’s a vulnerable group of business students that are pulled into big firms. Why? Because big companies capitalize on the general angst that students have about their careers at recruiting events. It makes it so that working at a big company can lead to a comfortable life — a means to an end, rather than an end in itself. This cultivates a Darwinian mindset that thrives off greediness and the exploitation of others. In that light, consulting, investment banking, venture capital and most other corporate or finance jobs all sound the same to me: making a buck in the most bureaucratic cesspools of society imaginable.

So, I’ve just laid out some combative accusations against the business majors. I obviously don’t mean all of them! Just the majority. 

What even is consulting? Google says: “the business of giving expert advice to other professionals, typically in financial and business matters.” That’s nice. But what does that entail? Who are these professionals? And what are the financial and business matters?

Take McKinsey and Company, one of the biggest consulting firms in the world. Business students hoping to consult for a living dream of working at McKinsey. And, look at Purdue Pharma, the pharmaceutical company that manufactured oxycodone (branded as OxyContin), a semisynthetic opioid used to treat severe pain that’s highly addictive. Sometime in 2007, Purdue Pharma worked closely with McKinsey to address the declining sales of oxycodone, their most profitable drug. McKinsey advised Purdue to deceptively advertise the pharmaceutical as non-addictive and encourage doctors to promote the drug. Following McKinsey’s advice, Purdue Pharma’s sales did increase, by like, a lot! So, the consulting firm was quite successful at what it did.

How did McKinsey do this? Well, mainly by exploiting language to obfuscate clearly unethical premises. In the presentation they pitched, they suggested the following: “Abuse and Addiction is an attractive market that could be a natural next step for Purdue.” Sounds like something the U-M Business School would tell students, right? Well, it’s the business language, a depraved but effective and mutually agreed-upon way to get your point across. But if you have a sliver of humanity, you’d realize this is morally bankrupt because it perpetuated the opioid epidemic and resulted in millions of deaths. 

Another unfortunate and blatant example is Bachstein Consulting. This “firearm technologies” consulting company has worked with the likes of the U.S. Army and NATO to manufacture the deadliest weapons known to humanity. Although this is a minor player in the technology consulting world, I think it’s interesting because of how ridiculous of an example it is. So, what is consulting in this context? 

Bachstein claims that “the majority of our experience is based on designing and testing products for professional use that exceed the highest performance standards.” I can think of a more cohesive mission statement that employs concrete language: “We focus on designing weapons and we profit when war happens.” Jobs in the weapons consulting industry are especially evil because when you design “innovative” and “reliable” firearm systems, who are you serving? Certainly not humanity. 

Observe the jargon they use. Calculated subtleties in corporate language can mask the atrocious realities of capitalism. It’s a form of symbolic communication that presupposes that people are naïve consumer units (“markets”) and we can obtain something from them (“profit”) by providing them a commodity (“product”). With such a rigid and dehumanizing framework that’s misconstrued to be “professional,” firms can pitch some of the most outlandish ideas in a seemingly ordinary way. We accept it because we’ve repressed in our minds the underlying notion of what capitalism really entails: profit over everything. The very grounds of American society are rooted in this exploitative reality, one in which morality cannot be legislated. The onus is on us to make the right choices.

I started this column by talking about the Business School because a lot of my Business School peers are pursuing careers at these companies, and an ideological rupture is undermining my friendship with them. It’s upsetting to see bright minds sell their souls for such a cheap price. Some of my friends are critically aware of the moral dilemma at play, and they’ll say things like: “Well, it’s just for the money. I don’t morally agree with the company.” But is this moral neutrality productive? I can’t help but think, “well, just how much individualism can our society handle?”

LSA sophomore Sara Lin weighed in on this: “Financial freedom is a critical factor to consider when choosing a career. But students should examine what they’re working for and avoid clear moral paradoxes. Awareness of a company’s unprincipled business (conduct) while choosing to work there is a feeble and self-centered cop-out.”

It’s especially ironic that after pursuing a liberal arts education and learning to think with an open mind, students will go into these big businesses. What’s the point of an education? Although there’s a comfort in having a job, students should strongly consider whether that job aligns with their values. A mild examination reveals that a lot of these companies are not just meaningless, but often utterly evil. 

It’s upsetting to think that we, the young generation, are feeding into this vicious capitalist loop. I’ve seen some of my most liberal friends betray their ideology when a little bit of money was on the table. A close high school friend who has voted for Bernie Sanders in the past is now working at McKinsey. Look, you can maintain a progressive façade, but in the end, your actions speak louder than your words.

Ammar Ahmad is an Opinion Columnist and can be reached at ammarz@umich.edu.