I have an interview at Bain in a month. Any ideas (apart from be prepared for cases)?
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Bain case interview, any advice?
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Being ready for following fit questions:
- Tell me about yourself
- Why MBA at that point of career?
- Why Your school?
- Why consulting
- Why Our Company?
- What would you be doing as a consultant?
- What is the most important consulting skill?
- When did you demonstrate it?
- When was the time when you demonstrated team skills or team work?
- What was the most important thing you learnt in your earlier job? What skills did you gain in your earlier job which would prepare you for consulting?
- When did you have to work with data? How are your data analysis skills?
- Why should we hire you?
- Have demonstrated all 4 skills that you look for (use examples above)
- What is the most important thing I should know about you that I cannot learn from your resume?
- How would a friend or professor / colleague who knows you well describe you?
- What serves as your biggest motivation? What are the key metrics for measuring success?
- When did you receive constructive feedback?
- What are your weaknesses?
- Which boss / mentor has had a clear influence on you? What do you admire about your previous boss?
- Follow-up: Constructive feedback –
- How do you work in a pressure situation / short on time / short on resources
- What has been your biggest achievement?
- Link this answer to leadership / problem solving
- Tell me about a leadership experience
- Tell me about a time when you had to analyse data
- Tell me about a time when you had to analyse financial information
- Tell me about a time when you had to face a challenge
- Tell me about a time you have failed
- What are your short term and long term goals?
- Tell me about a time when you set a goal for yourself and what steps you take to achieve the goal?
- Describe a situation when you were unable to reach a goal?
- Tell me about a time when you overcame failure?
- Have you ever had to change your priorities to meet another person’s expectations?
- Tell me about the time you had to compromise
- Tell me about a time when you didn’t meet a deadline
- Tell me about a time when you had to multi task
- Tell me about a time when you had to adjust to a project schedule because you did not have enough resources
- Describe a situation in which you used different communication styles to influence stakeholders with differing perspectives
- Tell me about a time when you had to be assertive to get your point across
- Difficult situation that required careful communication (Crisis Management)
- Describe most rewarding customer experience
- Tell me about a time when you had to accept an unreasonable request from a client
- Dealt with a customer that tested your patience
- Tell me about a time you took a difficult decision and had to explain it to others / Tell me about a time you took an unpopular decision
- Tell me about a time you took a quick decision
- Tell me about a time when you identified a problem and then solved it
- Tell me about a time when you built a rapport with client / colleague
- Tell me about a time you resolved a conflict in a team
- Have you led a team where different members of the team do not work well together? How did you deal with this situation
- Describe a time you gave constructive criticism to someone
- Tell me how did you determine priorities / Handling multiple deadlines at the same time? How did you handle the situation
- How did you deal with ethical dilemmas?
- Team experience that you found rewarding / Tell me about you had to work in a team to accomplish your goal
- Team experience that you found disappointing
- Describe a situation when you were a member of a team (not leader) of a team and conflict arose. What did you do?
- Team member not pulling his weight. What did you do?
- What is important in a job environment?
- Why do you think you can put up with long hours?
- Tell me about your college experience
- What else do you do at school apart from studies?
- How do you manage stress in your life?
- Favorite Class and grade you got in it
- What do you read?
- Fun fact
- What do you hate the most?
- Favorite website?
- Tell me full names of people who interviewed you before
- Do you have any questions?
Hi,
First of all - almost all Bain cases are interviewee led. Thus you have to drive the case and you have to come to a certain number and the conclusion in the end.
It may seem to you that these 2 types of cases are different, however, the interviewer-led type is just a simplified version of the interviewee-led case. My advice is to prepare a lot in the interviewee-led format so that you could solve both easily.
Here is some information according to 100+ Bain cases my candidates had on the interviews. However it may be not representative geographically, but according to my experience:
Most common types of case:
- Private equity (due diligence)
- Synergies
- Profitability + market sizing as a part of a case
- Market Entry
Most common industries:
- Retail
- CPG
- Airlines
- HORECA - hotels, restaurants, coffeeshops, etc
At Bain, they'll give you printed charts and tables, so the cases are quite data heavy and have a particular answer (are not open-ended)
Best