BCG onboarding

Congrats on the offer! At BCG the onboarding is quite structured, though it varies a bit by office. In general, you can expect:

Intro week/day: You’ll start with an orientation in your local office. You will meet your cohort, local support staff, getting set up with IT tools, etc.

Initial training: Within your first 1-2 weeks you’ll usually join a local / regional training, where you meet new hires from other offices and go through case simulations, toolkits, basic excel, and lots of networking (incl. with practice areas).

First staffing: During that initial training week you will get typically get staffed on your first case. At my time this was a big reveal session where everyone was being told where they will be staffed - was quite exciting back then.

Ongoing training: There’s a steady cadence of “milestone trainings” (e.g. after certain promotions) to build skills as you progress. And in the first 6 months you will be part of "Feedback Foundations" - a program that focusses on helping your develop with less emphasis on numerical scores in your case evaluations


Feel free to reach out to me directly if you have further questions.

Best,
Lukas
 

Hi there,

Congrats on the BCG offer! The onboarding process is quite structured and supportive. Typically, it has three layers:

1. Local office induction – In your first few days you’ll meet your cohort, get an overview of BCG’s culture, policies, and admin setup (IT, benefits, HR). It’s also when you’ll get to know your “buddy” (a more senior consultant who helps you settle in) and often your formal mentor.
2. Regional/Global training – BCG runs a training program called “Start” (sometimes called “Entering Consulting”), where new hires across Europe are flown to a central location for 1–2 weeks. This focuses on core consulting skills: problem structuring, slide-writing, Excel/quantitative analysis, client communication, and team norms. It’s also a great way to build your global network early on.
3. Ongoing apprenticeship – Once you’re staffed, much of your learning is on the job. Team leaders usually invest heavily in coaching new consultants in the first few months. You’ll also have access to BCG’s digital learning platforms, internal playbooks, and optional specialist trainings.

Compared to McKinsey, BCG onboarding is often described as slightly less formalized but more flexible, with strong emphasis on peer support and mentorship. You should expect a steep learning curve, but also a lot of resources to help you succeed.

Best,

Evelina

Hey there :)

BCG’s onboarding is quite structured but also very people-focused. Compared to McKinsey, it feels a bit less formal and more about integration into the office culture. You usually start with a local office orientation (getting your laptop, meeting your cohort, introductions to HR, IT, and support teams). Then you join a regional or global training program where you go through consulting basics, tools, and case simulations, often in a classroom style with group work. There’s also a strong emphasis on networking, so you’ll spend a lot of time getting to know your peers and senior consultants in a more informal setting.

When I did the onboarding for my internship, it was a condensed version of the same thing, so the full-time start just feels a bit broader and more structured, with more training blocks and more time to really get to know the BCG ways of working.

If you’d like, I can also share what’s different from McKinsey’s process so you can compare.

best,
Alessa :)