Incoming BCG Associate: How to best prepare before joining and for the first months?

Hello, congrats on the offer!

You’ve received great feedback already. As someone who spent the last four years working 60+ hours in consulting and truly enjoyed it, my most important advice (as trite as it sounds) is: REST. Take a long vacation, do a trip you’ve always dreamed of. Consulting is a great industry, but once you start, the intensity ramps up quickly.

In your first few months, I’d focus on two things:

1. Be helpful on projects. At first, it can feel like joining a Formula 1 team, everyone is fast and efficient. What matters most is becoming someone the team can trust. Be proactive, even with unglamorous tasks, deliver on time, and reach out to teammates to ask how you can help (e.g. once you are done with tasks from manager, ask other team members how can you support, I really liked as some juniors helped me save critical hours in the evening!). This builds trust, relationships, and leads to more senior responsibilities
2. Know when to ask questions. There are no stupid questions, but timing matters. In partner meetings, speak up when it clearly adds value. Often, it’s better to test ideas or questions 1:1 with your manager first. Partners are extremely busy, and meeting time should be used efficiently to move the project forward

Happy to share more :) Also, more long-term but worth thinking how to build consulting long-term in order to secure great exits

Congrats!

These are great questions. 

I've actually collected learnings for your questions specifically in the following guides:

Expert Guide: How to Become A Distinctive Consultant

Expert Guide: How to Manage for Lifestyle in Consulting

Have a read through them and reach out if you have any follow-up questions. 

The most important thing is to be open to feedback. And when you don't understand the feedback, be open about that too and ask for further explanations. This is the only way in which you get better. 

I'd also encourage you to focus less on developing 'hard skills' e.g., R coding, and rather learn more about emotional intelligence and working with clients. This will make a much bigger difference over the long run. 

Last but not least, it's also fine to do absolutely nothing before joining aside from enjoying time off. You know have a great job starting soon and can just smell the roses for a while. Travel, read, spend time with friends - do whatever you've been wanting to do for a long time. 

Best,

Cristian
 

Congratulations on BCG. That is a big deal.

Here is something that might surprise you. The best thing you can do before joining is not what most people think. Most incoming associates go into overdrive with case books and YouTube videos, trying to get ahead. You don't need any of that. BCG has a structured training program. They will teach you their way of working. Trying to learn it beforehand is like studying for an exam with the wrong textbook.

What actually helps before day one

Rest. Seriously. Travel, spend time with family, recharge. The first six months are intense and you won't get this kind of free time again for a while. I have seen people join already exhausted from over-prepping and it shows.

If you want to do something productive:

• Get fast at Excel and PowerPoint. Know your shortcuts, build simple models cleanly, make slides that tell a clear story. Being slow at these eats into your evenings.
• Read broadly. Not case books. Read the Financial Times, the Economist, follow major industries. The goal is to not feel lost when someone mentions a trend in healthcare or energy on your first project.

Once you start

Your first project is about learning, not impressing. Pay attention to how the team works, how your manager likes updates, how partners think about problems. People who struggle early are usually too focused on their own output and miss how things actually run.

Ask for feedback early. After your first week, ask your manager "what is one thing I could do better?" Almost nobody does this, and it shows you are coachable.

Don't try to be perfect. You will make mistakes. You will send a slide with the wrong number. That is normal. What matters is how fast you flag it and fix it. Don't hide mistakes. Your team would rather know early.

Take care of yourself from day one. Set small boundaries early. Go to the gym, keep a hobby, stay in touch with friends. The people who do well long term are not the ones who worked the most hours in month one. They are the ones who built a pace they could sustain.

Go in curious, stay humble, and enjoy the ride.

Huge congratulations on the offer—that is fantastic news and a massive achievement. The impulse to prep is perfect, but I strongly advise you resist the urge to dive into technical skills like advanced Excel modeling or obscure frameworks; the firm will teach you those on the job.

The most critical preparation you can do now is establishing resilient meta-skills and removing cognitive friction. This means setting up your systems now: practice inbox zero, get your calendar management tight, and develop routines (sleep, exercise, diet) that you can sustain under extreme pressure. Your first few months will feel like drinking from a firehose, and you don't want to be wasting cycles figuring out how to pay a bill or schedule a haircut. Also, spend time reading dense business publications (WSJ, Economist) focused on speed—the ability to quickly synthesize complex industry context is key.

Once you join, your singular focus for the first 90 days must be managing up and learning the unspoken rules of the engagement team. Analysts often assume success is defined by perfect technical deliverables, but it's not. It's defined by proactiveness and communication. Always clarify the "so what" behind a request, not just the mechanics. For example, instead of asking "How should I structure Slide 5?", ask "What decision is the Partner hoping to enable with the findings on Slide 5?". The highest leverage thing you can do is never, ever go dark. Provide proactive updates—even if you're stuck—so the Project Leader knows you're managing ambiguity.

All the best for a great start!

Firstly, huge congratulations on the BCG Associate offer—it's a remarkable achievement!

Here's my take (not the usual advice, but it's what worked wonders for every new joiner I've coached):

Pre-Day One

Work to sharpen your Excel and PPT skills through practice on real datasets or slide decks. This builds the rigor to handle "process" work flawlessly and efficiently on the job, freeing your time and energy for the real magic: hands-on problem-solving as you dive into BCG's world.

Once You Join

Act like the CEO of your module from day one—own it end-to-end with crisp logic, not just tasks. Partners spot this ownership immediately; pair it with confident execution and tangible outcomes (strong deliverables, solutions), and you'll quickly build trust for bigger opportunities.

Congrats! Current MBB consultant here with a few months under my belt. Here's what I wish someone had told me:

Before starting: The coaches above are right - rest is key. But one tactical thing that actually helped: practice synthesizing information fast. Read a long article, then force yourself to summarize the key points in 3 bullets within 60 seconds. This skill translates directly to client meetings where you need to quickly distill what matters.

First few months: The single biggest differentiator I've seen between new associates who struggle vs. thrive is not technical skill - it's attitude toward feedback. The best associates I work with treat every piece of feedback as a gift, even when it stings. They don't get defensive, they take notes, and they visibly improve the next day.

Also, build relationships with people outside your immediate team. The firm is huge - grab coffee with people in different practices, attend office events. Your network inside the firm matters more than you'd think for staffing on interesting projects.

Good luck - you're going to crush it!

Hi there,

Congrats on the offer — that’s exciting. A few thoughts based on what tends to matter most early on.

Before joining
You don’t need to pre-study cases or frameworks. The highest ROI things to build before day one are habits rather than technical skills:

• Get comfortable with clear, concise communication, especially writing structured emails and slides.
• Practice basic Excel and PowerPoint fluency so you’re not slowed down by tools.
• Build a habit of staying organized — to-do lists, notes, and tracking feedback.
• Rest. Starting well-rested is genuinely more valuable than over-preparing.

In the first few months
Your main goal is not to be brilliant, but to be reliable and coachable.

• Clarify expectations early on tasks and deadlines.
• Focus on getting the basics right: clean analyses, clear slides, and meeting timelines.
• Ask for feedback frequently and act on it.
• Learn how your team works and adapt quickly — style matters a lot at BCG.
• Don’t be afraid to ask questions, but show you’ve thought first.

If you do those things consistently, the rest will come naturally. The associates who succeed early are the ones who are easy to work with, learn fast, and improve week by week.

Best,
Evelina

Hi there,

Congrats on this next exciting phase!

Before day one, focus on a few simple things. Most of the useful skills you'll build on the job. Before that, it can be useful to get comfortable on the hard skills. MBB normally has their own add-ons on powerpoint to help build slides faster, so you can focus on getting comfortable with excel for when you have to build models. You can look at some BCG presentations and try to take note of how they organize things (e.g. tables on LHS or RHS, where are the bullets, where are the sources, where are the units, etc.).

In the first months, prioritize reliability and coachability over trying to be brilliant or perfect. Be responsive, communicate early and don't hesitate to ask questions, and show you act on feedback quickly. Learn how your team works, manage your time tightly, and always aim to make your manager’s life easier.

If you do these consistently, you’ll ramp up faster than you think.