Bain Hiring Freeze? (Middle East)

Question

Hi there,

I had put in an application to Bain and did the SOVA assessment.

That was on the 27th of March.

Since then it has been radio silence. I wrote an email to recruiting@bain on April 9th and received no response. I then wrote an email to the regional recruiter for associate consultants on April 25th and again received no response thus far.

On top of this, my career portal on the Bain website shows no active applications at all, and there are no “open jobs” available in Dubai or Abu Dhabi.

Is Bain in a hiring freeze? What happened to my application? How did it just randomly disappear from my portal? What do I do?

Any insights?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Hi! There are two points:

There is no strict hiring freeze (my mentees received 3 MBB offers in the Middle East in April), however the firms are indeed slowing down interviewing. The start dates of the offers also get pushed to beginning of 2024 already! So I am expecting a significantly reduced number of interviews taking place until around September.
The Middle East MBB recruiting departments are EXTREMELY disorganized and slow in their processes! This has been true for many years, and there is no improvement in sight. They tend to lose track of candidates, mis-schedule interviews, ghost candidates for months and then reach out again to suddenly schedule an interview, send out rejection e-mails, even though the candidate later gets a congratulations call from the partner, etc. The list is endless. So there is always value in following up with them and “helping” them to keep sight of your application! I had several mentees in the past where such consistent follow-ups eventually resulted in offers (they would have fallen through the cracks otherwise).

Cheers, Sidi

___________________

Dr. Sidi S. Koné

Former Senior Engagement Manager & Interviewer at McKinsey | Former Senior Consultant at BCG | Co-Founder of The MBB Offer Machine™

Answer 2

Hi there,

Most consulting firms in most regions have slowed down hiring. However, hiring is still happening.

Remember that, even in the best of times, your application is far more likely to be rejected than accepted.

Did you network before applying? Did you get your resume professionally reviewed?

The #1 thing you can do right now is apply to lots of other firms. You should be networking with and applying to 30+ firms if you can. Forget about Bain for now…you don't have control over that situation.

Here's some reading to help (tips apply to full time and internship): https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/how-to-get-a-consulting-internship-tips-and-tricks

Answer 3

Even if there is a hiring freeze, you should get a response from them. So you should reach out to HR.

Answer 4

Dear candidate,

great you applied and all the best. Do not worry. This can happen. You can inquire any time and even prep for the conversation and convince them to keep it open.

Best regards

Answer 5

Hi there,

This is rather strange.

I'd suggest you drop them an email to ask for an update on your application. Don't assume the worst just yet.

Best,
Cristian

Answer 6

Hello,

As far as I know there is no hiring freeze, although recruiting is much slower than usual.

It's strange that your application disappeared without you getting a notification one way or the other. I would try to reach out to HR - reach out to a specific recruiter at the office you applied to, preferably over the phone if you can, to try to get an update about your application. The most likely outcome is unfortunately that your application was rejected and you didn't get a notification for some reason. But it's worth reaching out to make sure in case there's an alternative explanation, and keep applying to other firms in the meantime!