What consulting companies are hiring / interviewing right now?

Question

I've heard that BCG postponed all of their interviews right now from some candidates and that confused me quite a lot. Since I don't know when will this end and when will the companies start hiring I don't see the purpose of practicing cases endlessly and improving a skill that I don't find very transferable to other areas of my life. My questions are:

a) Are McKinsey and BCG interviewing candidates now (in Europe)?

b) Now that lockdowns are starting to go down (again in Europe) when can we expect to get F2F interviews back?

c) Are they even hiring with starting dates before 2021.?

Thank you in advance!

Answer 1

Hi there, two points to add:

1) You could view challenging times as a reason to stop trying. Or, it could be all the more reason to hustle hard. Even in the best of times, the odds of an individual getting into BCG were in the single digits. If those odds have changed to be the lower single digits does that really make you want to stop? Casing can take many months to perfect...if anything this has bought you time.

2) Learning to case has an incredible amount of transferable skills. Not to mention, it's actually interesting. If you do casing right (and never get an interview), here's how you will be way more valuable to employers:

Clear, concise, succinct, communication
Ability to quickly digest information (quantitative and qualitative)
Ability to take a lot of information and boil it down
Intimate knowledge of every industry
An understanding of how businesses operate
Comfort with the unknown, and an ability to make it known
Ability to drive your own work
Quick maths

And this isn't even the full list...

Answer 2

Hi there,

please find my answers below:

Not sure about entry-level, but I helped people for both McK (Italy) and BCG (Germany) for experienced hire positions in the last weeks.
Probably in some months at earliest. It depends a lot on local regulation and the specific situation of a country
I know some tentative starting dates are set after summer in 2020. However, there are no guarantees that they may not be updated further

I agree with Ian that the skills you learn with case prep are useful in many other areas. In terms of your prep, if you are committed to MBB my suggestion is you don’t give up your prep completely but simply adjust your calendar. Case prep is similar to learning a language or going to the gym – if you stop completely it will be a lot more difficult to gain momentum again compared to keeping a minimum level of practice at regular intervals.

Best,

Francesco

Answer 3

Hi,

1) Yes for generalists. Postponed some interviews for Digital, Experts, etc

2) Nobody knows. I would not think about it at all since both types of interviews have pros and cons.

3) Yes, they are. 3-6 months of wait time before the start date is not something extraordinary and it's happening even in the normal times. Again, the problem is not with Covid. The problem is the economic downturn. These companies will be always hiring, but in the recession, the number of offers will be much lower.

Best

Answer 4

Dear A,

In fact, it depends on the company and on the regions, so McKinsey, Bain and Roland Berger are still hiring, but BCG, Oliver Wymann, Strategy& and AT Kearney stop hiring for the moment.

I hope that in Europe that hiring process will resume again in summer, most probably in June-July, and, yes, company will be looking for some candidates for fall 2020.

If you need any help, feel free to reach out.

Best,

André

Answer 5

Hello there!

Here are my toughts:

Depends on the office. For instance, BCG Germany has frozen. However, McK Germny is ongoing. Can you clarify which office?
Nobody knows, but common sense tells that is highly unlikely.
Check in each company, but I would assume everything is now cancelled and waiting to see how the situation evolves.

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Answer 6

Hi there,

I certainly think there is a tremendous amount of value in continuing to practice cases especially if you plan to be recruiting anytime in the near future.

And if you plan to work in business in general, cases are highly transferable in teaching you the most important skill of communication, and conveying information in a structured way.

That said, whilst the market has slowed down to an extent, there are pockets of the sector recruiting highly. Whilst some classic programmes may be delayed 3, 6, 9 months, some insights I've gathered from my personal network are:

Recruiting has picked up in some Asian markets for S&
Roland Berger appears to be recruiting again in Germany

Overall, I would recommend continuing to practice as recruiting may commence with short notice and you want to be in the best position to seize the opportunity when it comes up!