How do I prepare best for my upcoming partner interviews?

Hi there,

final partner interviews vary depending on company, region, office and the individual partner of course. However, it is not uncommon that partners won't go through a case exercise with the candidate again but rather test their suitability in terms of business competence, team fit and perceived presentability to clients. 

At the partner stage, candidates will have gone through a series of successful case interviews already. Partners still need to “validate” this pre-selection. While some might like to do brain teasers or small cases, they also tend to favor talking about the industry/functional area they are active in. They try to see how the candidate is able to engage with those topics and often even try to sell the candidate on the firm during the final round.

When preparing for such interviews, it makes sense to research the interview partners up front (if their names are provided) and check what recent publications and/or conference contributions they might have. It is also good to know about the main trends and drivers in their respective industry/functional areas. Other than that, everything you did to prepare for the previous rounds still holds true.

Hope that provides additional perspective.

Hi,

first, congratulations on getting through to the Partner round!

While I don't know Helsinki office of BCG, usually the following holds true:

• Relax - When you made it to the final Partner round, you have almost always solved multiple cases, which went satisfyingly well. Hence, partners are curious about you and are looking forward to getting to know you, so relax.
• Personal fit - Partners are more interested in things like your fit into the firm, your motivation and whether they can put you in front of clients - i.e. "soft factors". Hence, I would reflect on those aspects, e.g. clean up your story, practice your presentation skills and work on a confident communication style.
• Case types - Partners like to give cases that they have recently worked on, so they tend to be a bit more high-level/strategic since partners are oftentimes not as involved in the details as consultants on the ground - depending on the individual partner of course. Also, make sure you read the newspaer, since partners like to discuss current issues.

Hope that helps.

Best regards

Hi,

In the final round, I would expect a bit more structured and demanding approach to the fit part. The partners in the last round are more experienced and they will challenge every single detail of your story. So make sure that you have a couple of backup stories. Thus:

1) Make sure that you've prepared everything: A story about yourself, motivational questions and the main FIT stories. Also, don't forget about your questions to the interviewer - you'd rather have an interesting conversation and score some point instead of a simple Q&A session

2) Then go through each story and think of the additional questions the interviewer may ask. It’s important since additional questions will take up to 50% of the interview. Try to remember the main details and facts and make sure that you know how to explain the key concepts quickly. Test your stories with your friends, ideally consultants, and ask for their feedback. There can be multiple groups of additional questions:

• The interviewer may be interested in details about the context
• He may want to check whether this was your effort or more sort of a team effort. 
• “Have you faced any difficulties while implementing your solution?”- Typically an interviewer would like you to tell him how you’ve overcome those difficulties. 
• Your interviewer will check how real your story is. You should be ready to provide even more granular actions, key milestones and a breakdown of potential effects.

3) Now work on 3-6 backup stories. During your interviews, you can then use these stories or adapt these stories to the additional questions your interviewer asks you.

He there,

First, don't worry, in my experience, BCG partners are very friendly and approachable people. I would not expect a very different interview than your first interview. On the other hand, make sure that you are super ready for behavioral questions. For the case, I guess you already practiced a lot. Happy to have a free 10 min call to share my thoughts for free. Please reach me if you are interested.

Cheers

Serhat

How did it go for you anonymous? Will have a final interview with the Helsinki office myself and would be glad for some insights!

Hi A,

First of all, do not get too concerned and better invest time in preparations. This round might be challenging, so you have to prepare some personal fit stories and make sure you can manage the behavioral part.

I would also recommend to work on some backup stories you could adjust to the interviewer's questions.

Be calm and confident, use left time for practicing and preparations.

I wish you luck!

Best, Andre