Hi there, 

from my experience as a trainer of a newly joined BCGers, I would estimate half of the candidates are not coming from a business background or business education which is the strength of the MBB. 

To your questions:

1. yes from my point of view it would count

2. at least at BCG fresh PhD. starts as Associate/Senior Associate

Lucie

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Hi there,

here my thoughts…

1. Can pro-bono consulting be considered as Consulting experience?

It won't be considered a fully-fledged consulting experience, but definitely allows you to look dedicated with genuine interest in the industry. In short, it helps a bit, but not too much. At the same time, prior consulting experience is not a pre-requisite for a strong consulting candidate profile anyway, so don't worry too much.

2. Do firms count work experience / advanced degree?

Yes, that calibration happens, and consultancies are quite experienced at doing so, i.e. identifying the appropriate career level and tenure for a given profile with certain academic as well as work experience. In your specific case, you'd likely be equalized to a post-MBA / pre-manager level across most consulting firms.

If you have further questions or would like to know how to polish your CV to optimize your chances to secure interviews with your given profile, please feel free to reach out via PM. Happy to take a quick look and discuss. 

Hope this helps.

Cheers, Andi

Hi there, 

Interesting background. Let me take them one by one.

1. Yes, pro bono counts and you don't need to proactively mention it was pro bono on your resume. Just highlight that it was a consulting gig and what was your impact there. That's an important element to have on your CV.

2. Academic doesn't really count unless you're going for some expert track. Most likely since you have a PhD you'll be going in as an Associate. You can always reach out to HR and discuss your profile with them and they can recommend the most appropriate track for you. 

Best of luck!

Hello!

For sure you should mention your consulting experience, even if was a rather small side gig. 

Regarding the experience, I would apply to what in McK would be a junior Associate, and take it from there. If HR likes your CV, they can re-direct the application to the opening they consider most appropiate. 

Hope it helps!

Cheers, 

Clara

Hi there,

1) Yes 100%! In fact, this is something I always recommend to my candidates who don't have particularly consulting-related resumes/backgrounds. Getting a few pro-bono consulting projects to put on there is one of the best/quickest things you can do to boost your resume.

2) There are a number of PhD programs (like Bridge to BCG). I highly recommend you try to become a part of these PhD to consulting  “bridging” programs