Development and exit opportunities for BCG knowledge analysts

Question

Hi everyone,

I am currently interviewing for the knowledge analyst position at the knowledge team of one of BCG's practices. I am quite excited about the industry covered by the practice and about BCG, however, some of the details about the position are not clear to me and it's hard to find information about knowledge analyst positions so I decided to ask several questions here.

1. Is there any client facing or its strictly back-office research duties?

2. Is it possible to develop into a consultant, if yes, after what period?

3. Do knowledge analysts have similar exit opportunities as consultants (especially withing the covered industry)?

Thank you in advance!

Answer 1

Hi,

Sharing my perspective on this:

1. Is there any client facing or its strictly back-office research duties?

It is highly weighted towards back-office research duties
Sometimes knowledge team is embedded with the client facing team, but this is rare and even then your opportunities to engage the client are on average less than the consulting team

2. Is it possible to develop into a consultant, if yes, after what period?

Some have made the switch - but again this is rare
Normally after ~2+ years of proving yourself first

3. Do knowledge analysts have similar exit opportunities as consultants (especially withing the covered industry)?

No, I would argue that knowledge analysts have less prestigious / wide array of exit opportunities versus consultants

Answer 2

Hi,

1) It depends on the project. Mostly it will be back-office research. Sometimes you are assigned for full-time to the teams

2) It requires support from consultants and partners you worked with from. I would expect that it takes 1.5 years yo build that relationship. But you should be a top performer

3) Exit opportunities are more industry related. I would expect some standalone role, while for consultant it is much easier to find a role where you will be leading a team.

Vlad