Bain referral

Question

Hello preplounge community,

I managed to get a person who is ready to refer me and has asked me for the office preference.

I am an experienced hire who is currently based in India and do not have citizenship of any other country.

The person who is going to refer me is based in USA. Philadelphia to be specific.

My CV is pretty strong and I had passed the CV screening last year but could not get the interview due to less demand because to COVID.

I do not want to work in India. After researching every office I would like to go for Chicago, Toronto, Dallas, Singapore, Boston, Los Angeles. This is based on Culture and industry practices.

1- She is an Associate Consultant and been with the firm for 9 months. How strong the referral would be? Should I network more and approach senior people?

2 - Which office should I target? I do not have visa so I am planning to go for Toronto as getting the visa in Toronto would be pretty easy in compare to other US offices.

Looking forward to your guidance.

Answer 1

Hi there,

Well done getting the referral and passing screening next year!

Now, firstly, you can opt for 3 offices. I would put office #1 as your stretch/preferred, #2 as your “safety” and #3 as another safety.

If you have any relevant experience in any of these places (for example, in Asia for Singapore, or Oil & Gas/Energy for Texas), you should apply there. May not be a bad idea to do one US office, Canada, and Singapore.

You should consider what country she works in.

Good luck!

Answer 2

Hello,

Congratulations on getting the referral! To answer your questions -

1. If you think there's a chance you could get someone more senior to refer you soon (i.e. you are talking to them and think you can get the referral within a few weeks), I would say go for it, but otherwise a referral is a referral. Once you have the link, you can go ahead and apply. I don't think you necessarily need a more senior person's referral if you already have someone willing to refer you. That being said, is the office that she works in one of the offices you were interested in? That could be helpful for getting an interview if so.

2. As Ian mentioned, you can typically select 3 offices you are interested in. The immigration process can be quite tricky though. Once you have the referral, I highly recommend reaching out to a recruiter and ask to be put in touch with someone in their immigration team (for US and for Canada) to better understand the feasibility of getting a Visa. Having more insight into this process is crucial as it is definitely easier getting a work Visa in some countries than in others.