Consulting Q&A - Stelle Fragen rund um Deine Karriere in unserem Consulting-Forum

Hello!

I would try a combination between:

• "Public" reasons: referring to what can be found in the website, public sources... pick some of the things that BCG is great at and build a story arround it that relates to your background, to your objectives, etc.
• "Personal" reasons: referring to the people you mention you know, how the BCG has shaped them and made them grow, etc.

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Hi,

Unfortunately, the companies are doing that. It's not that they reject all candidates because they have no headcount. They would rather set the bar very high and will do a lot of hand-picking only taking the best of the best

The only way to know that is to ask your friends who work there. Additionally, If the particular economy is not doing that well, - be sure it's happening

The only solution here is being the best candidate and get accepted despite the high bar

Best

Hello,

I cannot imagine a scenario in which you are asked something like this in an MBB interview.

FIT questions are about leadership, impact and entrepreneurial drive, asked as behavioural questions.

Best,

Clara

Hello!

You should not be worried about yuor profile not being 100% business, if you got the interview is because they find it interesting. However, don´t commit the mistake of thinking that this is going to make it somehow "easier" or more "merciful" if you make a mistake, for the fact that you have not worked in business before.

The bar is the same for all candidates, regardless of the background, and it´s always very high.

It´s totally normal to be nervous even if you feel you are well prepared, so don´t worry and just make the most out of the time you have left to polish whatever you are struggeling most with.

Good luck!

Cheers,

Clara

Hello!

I did 3 M&A DDs in my time as a BA in McKinsey. 300 pages for 7 weeks does not seem as a long doc for me at all :)

The number of BAs depends on the project scope, but normally is 1-2, along with associates, an EM, maybe an AP and the partners.

The doc you read is normally drafted by the EM, and then populated by the findings of the whole team during the engagement. It´s done relatively soon (by the time 1/2 of the engagement is over) and then there are thounsands of iterations.

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

With multiple-factor multiplications like these it is often a good idea to change the order of operations and group the numbers more efficiently.

As a first step, I would propose the following:

((25 * 8) * 1.4) * 220 * 23 = (200*1.4) * 220 * 23 = 280 * 220 * 23

As a second step, the 280 * 220 can be simplified using the distance-of-squares method. Both numbers are 30 away from 250, so you can calculate the result as follows:

280 * 220 = 250^2 - 30^2 = 62500 - 900 = 61600

Please note that there is a shortcut for squares ending in 5 that I've used here - basically, if you square a number ending in 5, take the non-unit digit, multiply it with itself + 10, and add 25.

And now the calculation boils down to 61600 * 23, which I would treat as such:

61600 * 23 = 61600 * 20 + 61600 * 3 = 1232000 + 184800 = 1416800

Hope this helps!

Hi,

Only pure mathematical structures (e.g. profitability) can be 100% MECE. But MECE is not a requirement and it can not always be applied.

You should build a structure using your previous experience, based on:

• Objective (Should have a metric and time-frame)
• Context
• Type of the case

E.g market entry cases can have completely different objectives:

• Should we enter the market?
• Which top 3 markets out of 10 we should enter?
• Can we get xx% market share on the new market?
• Can we get xx ROI if we enter this market?
• etc

Depending on the Objective and the Context you should come up with a proper structure to address the problem. Of course, you may use the patterns that you've learned while solving the other cases.

There is a number of ways how you can approach the structure:

1. Mathematical issue tree (e.g. Total time spent on cleaning operation = # of people x Frequency x Hours per cleaning per person) or formula (e.g. output rate = total number of people being served / time to serve one person) or common industry drivers (e.g. revenues = # of customers x av. check) (e.g Passengers on the plane = capacity x Load Factor) or the industry revenue streams (Fuel revenues / non-fuel revenues for the gas station)
2. Drivers (e.g. drivers influencing the birth rate in a country)
3. Buckets structures (e.g. for the problems in sales : Sales strategy / sales people and allocation / motivation / sales process). Very often it's a real framework used by the consultants (e.g. the famous Bain Cap framework for PE due dills: Market / Competitors / Company / Feasibility of exit)
4. Frameworks (e.g. People / Process / Technology) (e.g. The famous McKinsey framework - People don't want to do smth / they can't do smth / smth prevents them from doing that). Even academical frameworks in the rare cases (e.g. Product / Distribution / Price / Marketing (Also known as 4P))
5. Value chains / Customer Journey / Process steps
6. Consecutive Steps of the project (Analyzing cost structure / Benchmarking to calculate the cost savings potential / Analyzing the processes to reach the potential / Calculating costs and benefits)
7. Etc

There is no magic pill to learn building the MECE issue trees. It comes with a lot of Practice and reflection and building proper industry and functional knowledge.

Best!

Hi,

The guidance here is - follow the local HR advice. Each country and office have their own policies and HR is the siruce of truth

Best

Hello Chris,

GMAT prep will be very useful (altough painfull too).

There are free exams in the internet that you can use for practice (the one of LBS MBA page, Verits prep, as well as some free trials for courses such as the one of The Economist (https://gmat.economist.com/)

Good luck with it, since it´s a bit of a pain!

Best,

Clara

Hi,

I believe you'll be the right fit since you have the relevant industry experience and MBA. You can choose one of the two:

• Expert track leveraging your Oil&Gas expertise
• Associate generalist

Taking into account your MBA +8 years of work experience - you are probably 32. It's not too late to be an associate - you can become a partner at 38

Best

Don´t worry at all!

The fact that you are nervous does not mean that you are insecure and not well prepared! It rather means that this is something you care for, for which you did hard preparation and now there is something at stake.

It´s super normal, we all felt that way!

Good luck!

Cheers,

Clara