Hi PrepLounge Community!
I am a local from the ME, and I was moved to my final round interview with Bain as a summer associate. I am curious about how different the second-round interview is from the 1st one in terms of difficulty. Does the second round emphasize more on the fit part? Any tip in this space would be highly appreciated!
Hi Bray,
congratulations already, that‘s big!
Based on my experience with BCG, the focus and evaluation will be exactly the same.
In fact, at BCG - at least in my system - we just do one round (two interviews) for summer associates.
If I were you, I would not think about it too much and just continue to perform just like you did in the first round.
Good luck
Stephan
Hi Bray,
I know you want to hear that you need to do x, y, and z differently for the final round so that you can take action and prepare in a measurable/demonstrable way.
That said, any differences that may exist are truly not large enough to worry about. Keep doing what you're doing - you are assessed in the same criteria and much the same way. Don't “expect” anything in particular, but go in flexible/adaptable.
For Fit, have a read here:https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/tell-me-about-yourself-interview-question
For general casing mindsets have a read here: https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/how-to-shift-your-mindset-to-ace-the-case
Good luck!
Hi Bray,
I can speak only from BCG experience, but I would say there won't be large differences. Overall the interview structure as well the difficulty of the case is the same as during the 1st round, the only difference is the seniority of the people that will interview you: usually in the 2nd round you have more senior interviewers (including Partners that you won't have in the 1st round).
Wishing you all the best!
Lucie
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1. It's the same difficulty… on average. You may get more experienced interviewers but doesn't mean a tougher interview. Sometimes it is actually the opposite, as a better interviewer can better guide the candidate through the case, and also because you may get a simpler case as you were already evaluated on a few things before and you may be spending more time on PEI.
Now the key word here is “average”. You just don't know. It may be much harder. Or much easier. There's no way to find out.
2. Yes, tt should have much more PEI. Particularly if the 1st round didn't have much.
Hey. Congrats on passing the first round. I am wondering how long after the interviews did you hear back from them? Thanks.
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