Rejected by BCG with referral

Question

Hello everyone,

I just received a rejection letter from BCG after finishing the Pymetric game test. I am so surprised to be rejected at a very early stage.

I study at a target school with a 3.9 GPA and was awarded a scholarship. I have extensive internship experience and also founded my own company. I applied with a referral from a manager in BCG and my CV was pre-reviewed by several consultants and HR. I thought the referral would guarantee me at least one round interview. I really wanna know what could be the potential reasons to be rejected and how does referral works in the recruiting process.

Answer 1

Hey there,

While the referral definitely helps to

increase your chances
speed up the process

it is never a guarantee to make it to the first round, unfortunately.

All the best!

Cheers,

Florian

Answer 2

Hi there,

Sorry to hear you got rejected. Unfortunately a referral increases the chances but cannot guarantee an invitation. In any case, given what you mention it seems your CV and referrals were strong and I suspect the reason for the rejection may be due to the Pymetrics game test.

If you have a good connection with the person referring you, you may ask if that was indeed the case as he/she may have insights on that.

Best,

Francesco

Answer 3

Hey,

Sorry! But hope you are dealing with this well, rejection is part of the process and pretty much everyone faces this. Remember- neither are you a good fit for every firm nor is every firm a good fit for you. So, every rejection gets you closer to where you really need to be :).

And a referral doesnt guarantee any interview success and/or the job. You have to prove yourself and sounds like you have a lot of good things going on in terms of profile. Try and understand what didnt work out and fix it- am sure you will have a gut feel about this. If there is no feedback coming from HR or recruiting manager, go back to basics and work on every aspect of your interview prep.

All the best and keep going forward! Move on from this.

Answer 4

Hi, I confirm referral only helps to accelerate the process. Unfortunately, the parameters about the minimum entry score for the tests depend on the period

Best,
Antonello

Answer 5

Sorry to hear the disappointing outcome. It sounds like you did everything you could where it really came down to the CV and test score. A target school is often defined quite loosely but assuming it is one of the top schools where you see a meaningful proportion of the intake class attend, its also important to remember that there is naturally going to be comparison between your peers. With a strong profile, I am sure you are getting invitations to interviews from other MBB firms too. Good luck!

Answer 6

Hi there,

I'm really sorry to hear this! However, please remember that not only is nothing gaurenteed in this life, but that referrals absolutely do not gaurantee an interview by any means....they're super important in increasing your chances, but they are never a lock!

You could have been rejected for any number of reasons including:

Lack of demand
Poor Pymetrics results
A sub-optimal resume (I've had candidates tell me their resume was reviewed by other MBB consultants only to discover it's not in good shape...think about incentives/time availability here!)