I have my interview with Bain next week and am mostly concerned with the high-level "Why consulting" and "Why Bain" question. I've long deliberated on those questions and have written down my thoughts but they seem quite long and generic. How do I keep my replies succint (how short exactly do I have to be?) and engaging. My main issue is that if I include stories to make it engaging, my responses end up taking a long time.
(editiert)
Hi,
These answers are not supposed to be engaging. They are supposed to demonstrate that you know how consulting works and how the particular company works.
“Why consulting?”, “Why McKinsey” or “Why BCG” questions are used to assess your motivation to be a consultant in general and to work in that particular firm. They will check how you have done your homework and what you’ve learned about them. They also want to make sure that you have a clear intention to work in consulting.
Why consulting
When answering “Why consulting” questions, provide three reasons why you want to pursue a career in a consulting firm. A general rule is to find the reasons that are important for you and logically fit everything you have done before (e.g. you want to grow further in financial services and get exposure to these clients). You can always use some personal rationale like your experience of working with consultants on a client side.
Why our company
It should be your personal research since the reasons may vary in different geographies. Here are some ideas of what you can use to structure your thoughts:
Good luck!
Hi Khalid,
I agree with Vlad that you don’t need stories equivalent to those used for leadership, drive, impact etc. for these questions, although you can definitely put some personal elements in them to make the answer more interesting. In general I won’t need more than one minute to deliver a good answer, you can use a timer to be sure you don’t go too long when practicing.
For “Why Bain”, you can find some suggestions at the following link:
Hope this helps,
Francesco
Besides being great at case cracking you also need to convince the interviewer that your personality fits into a case team or in the company as a whole
In order to repeatedly demonstrate prerequisite skills under the pressure of a real case interview, you need to learn the basics and practice cases.
1 Q&ATell me of a situation where you had an opinion and no one seemed to agree with you. What was your goal when you decided to join university / work / clubs / a sports team? Did you have a goal that you were not able to reach? What did you do? What do you want to be remembered for and how are you ... Ganzen Case öffnen
What arouses your interest when you are working / studying / doing another activity (from the CV)? Tell me of a time where you had no idea what you were doing. When did you use an uncommon approach to do something? Have you ever had responsibility for other people? Tell me of a situation where ... Ganzen Case öffnen
Tell me about a difficult situation you had to cope with. Tell me of a task which you didn’t like doing and explain why you performed it nevertheless. Why do you do things? What do you like doing most / What is your favorite hobby? Walk me through a situation where you showed leadership skills ... Ganzen Case öffnen
Questions Tell me something about your background. Why should we hire you? Describe a difficult situation and how you handled it? What did your boss or colleagues criticize about you? Do you rather work in a team or independently? Ganzen Case öffnen
What books/films have you enjoyed recently and why? What is the worst thing that you have ever gotten away with? How do you define and evaluate successful work? Do you fear anything? How would you rate me as your interviewer? Ganzen Case öffnen
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