Got Rejected from BCG Internship Application

Question

A bit background:

Currently 1st year student at M7. Did undergrad in Engineering from one of the old IITs.

Prior Work ex: Financial services : Private Equity for 1 year, 2 years ibanking and Pre-MBA gig in fintech VC.

Had my own startup in Healthcare as well.

Networked with Atlanta office at least 6-7 folks and had done enough outreach.

Would anyone be happy to help where I am going wrong or missing something?

Link to Resume: https://docsend.com/view/qcbijx2u2r2nkrqd

Pymetrics went well except the card deck exercise.

Was invited to Casey and I think I bombed the recommendation otherwise have answered 6/7 questions correctly. (Again being conservative here).

Is there anything else I can do?

Also note do not have any big brand name on my resume prior to M7 MBA given VC and PE is difficult to get into and I couldnt get into large known ones.

If anyone has any ideas and improvement, do let me know.

Answer 1

Your resume is pretty stellar so I don't think that has anything to do with the rejection. It could be a few things - Casey plays a role given the high number of applicants that could have aced it outright. There are other intangibles as well. For example - how were the networking calls? Were the partners at bcg excited by your profile? Did the conversations touch on any topics that didn't go well? Even if one partner doesn't feel good about you it has an impact.

The other reality is that firms are slowing down hiring a lot as of now especially and with a higher impact on those that may need sponsorship. Some years just are better for hiring vs others. It may make sense to try for the best possible firm for now and switch in a couple of years should you still want to.

Answer 2

Hello,

Sorry to hear that you couldn't succeed at your application!

After reading your question, there are a couple of things that could have gone wrong:

1- The mistakes you made in Casey/Pymetrics could have been a deal breaker. BCG usually has a score cut off and scoring below that could have let to an automatic rejection

2- Not sure about your citizenship, but if you're an international applicant in the US, there could be a “quota" of international folks, beyond which they wouldn't be open to hiring

3- The office you chose was very competitive this year which is why they had to pass on good candidates like you

What you can do now:

1- Ask for feedback: it's unlikely that they will give you a reply, but if you have some friends in the local office, they might try and help you

2- Apply again to an office that's more open to international folks: e.g. London, Middle East

If you do plan on applying to London/Middle East - feel free to reach out to me and I can help you :)

All the best!

Rushabh

Answer 3

You have a great CV, so you'll find your success road.
The only things I can see are:

Your CV shows that you changed a lot, this is usually negative
Does Atlanta's office hire at the moment?
How what actually your test? Nowadays competition is really high and places available really a few
You sound very colloquial, did you use this approach in networking? It is somethings “strange”
For which position did you apply?

The answers to those questions may plain your rejection.

Answer 4

Hi there,

I can't see your resume, but your application comes down to the following:

Strength of overall background
Strength of resume
Strength of networking
Strength of screening tests

You need to revisit 1-4 and look at what went wrong (We can't tell you).

Additionally, please remember this is all an odds game. You could have had a “perfect” application and a 60% chance of being invited, and your die roll just fell on the wrong side.

This is a numbers game…make sure to not lose hope and 1) Apply to a ton of other firms 2) Apply again to these firms next year

Answer 5

You sound mental.

You should have much better stuff to do than preparing for a consulting interview. That is what your CV tells everybody,

So, there is something else going on; And that turns people off.