Alle Fragen zum Tag and Bain - Consulting Q&A - PrepLounge.com

Hi Alex,

The question you need to ask is this: in which job will you get more responsibilities, more opportunities to prove yourself and more exposure to the senior management? I would go for a position in a small team where as a junior team member you can make a real difference. This kind of experience you can then really sell to MBB as your value proposition. On the contrary, if you work in a big team with hierarchical structures and little exposure beyond your immediate boss – this will be a hardly unique growth experience. So, in a nut shell: think of which one of those will be more exciting for you and which one will boost your professional development more and go for it. As regards the function it doesn't really matter that much.

Hi Alex,

T1 Consulting is a great opportunity and can provide you many good chances. However, if you focus to much on this single way and get blind for everything else, you loose a lot of other good chances.

If it didn‘t work, try T2 consulting or inhouse consulting. Thus, you will make more progress than if you just wait for another try at T1.

Best regards

Marco-Alexander

Please make good use of Google, thanks.

Hi Anonymous,

the rumored score for the PST is at least 70%, thus you should reach at least 19 to be sure to pass. It is not really possible to assess what you are doing wrong without additional information, however below you can find some tips on how work through the PST:

1. Try to find at least 5-6 practice cases online. There are several available for free, if needed you can purchase additional ones
2. Do one of the tests immediately to check your score. As the passing score is above 70% and you have 26 questions, your target score should be at least 19 (keep in mind you are likely to score a bit less in the actual test than your average score at home due to time pressure/nervousness). In the first test you are likely to score lower than that - don't worry, that's pretty normal.
3. Identify the type of questions where you made more mistakes. There could be different reasons why you are doing mistakes and there is probably a predominant type of mistake you are doing (eg slow math or weak critical reasoning). You have to identify the reasons for the mistakes and a way to fix them.
4. Continue the preparation with the remaining tests. After you have identified the main reason for mistakes, you can continue the preparation with the other tests before the interview - I would allocate them at a regular time distance, with an increase in frequency closer to the day of the test.
5. Go again through the questions where you did mistakes at regular intervals. Be sure to keep a "failure" spreadsheet, where you report all the mistakes and classify the reason for them each time.

The key areas where you may do mistakes and may need to practice are the following:

1. Time management. Commit to an amount of time for each question, and go on if you surpass that time. If you do not set discipline, you will end dedicating too much time to some questions (these tests are sometimes structured with questions which are supposed to be skipped and reviewed at the end). If time and test allow, you can then go back to the questions at the end.
2. Quick math. I would recommend practicing with online tools on a daily base to improve. It is better to allocate a small amount of time daily rather than to practice intensively few days only before the interview
3. Quick reading. Get a Harvard Business School case or an equivalent long one, give yourself 2 minutes and check how much information you can absorb. Then repeat until you get a sufficient level of accuracy. You can also check speed reading tactics (eg Tim Ferriss ones) and see if they work for you.
4. Graph interpretation. You need to practice on how to derive quickly insides from graphs. Take some random graphs, give yourself 30 seconds and check if you can get the main insides from them. Then repeat until when you get a sufficient level of accuracy
5. Critical reasoning. The GMAT critical reasoning section should be a good support as practice

Hope this helps,

Francesco

Hi Alex,

In the PST you face 3 business cases across 26 questions in 60 minutes (usually when English is not your native language they allow for 15 extra minutes).

If you think about the structure of question for each case, it closely resembles a project: understanding the scope; obtaining results; giving a final recommendation.

According to sources online the passing grade is around ~18 correct answers which roughly equates to 70% passing score.

When you look at number of submissions an office receives per year will be well into the hundreds (maybe even thousands). You obviously need some screening otherwise consultants wouldnt be doing anything other than interviewing people.

So, the screening starts by the CV/CL review, claiming victims ~2/3 or so. Than you move to a math exam which is very cheap for a company (some even have it online like OW), claiming victims ~2/3 of the remaining. So, in just to simple steps we are left with ~10% applicants and we havent even started interviewing anyone. These numbers are a bit exagerated but I would say real numbers would be more on the ~high 20s%.

So coming to your point, PST is so hard to screen out weak performers. You can then rebuttal and say "hey, but maybe some of the people that failed were possible top performers!". True, but when you get hundreds of applicants PER OFFICE PER YEAR you can definitely be willing to lose some.

As a reference point, I'm a senior consultant in a tier 2 consulting firm conducting final rounds in my office and we roughly give 1 offer per 100 candidates applying, MBB would be even lower.

Just my 2cents :)

Hi Arty,

Partner any day of the week!

Pay: MBB generally better (not considering hourly)

Exit: MBB better

Solid: This is totally subjective and depends on what you what as your career.

Both options seem like great paths. You should really reflect on which of those two futures excites you the most!

Also, it's not quite clear if you've been given an MBB offer yet or not. I may not hurt to simply apply and go through the process on the side - through the process you'll get more information to help your decision!

Hi Alex,

Face to face is ALWAYS better - no matte rwhat try and make this happen. As already noted, you should eitherbe reimbursed, be directed to book directly in their systemm or have the flights booked for you. (Accomodation in a very nice hotel should also be covered if it's an overnight situation)

Hi,

I have a few that I could show you. We could then work to edit yours to be of the same calibre. Shoot me a message and we can work out a time to go through it!

Best,

Ian

Hi Karthik,

In the US, it is very uncommon for MBB to serve companies with less than $1B in revenue. Exception being PE owned companies looking for a turnaround.

This is mostly because of the high fees (7 to 8 figures), but also because these companies believe in providing 10x impact. I have seen a McKinsey Senior Partner reject an engagement proposal from a medium scale company because he believed we could not provide more than twice the impact of our fees. Very inspirational!

Thanks,

Nirmit

Hi,

I completely agree with Guennael: from a global/general perspective the differences between the 3 firms are negligible but differences are significant depending on geographic location. A few insights from a global/general standpoint:

• Selection process: all 3 firms target and attract similar profiles. Recruiting processes might be slightly different depending on firm and location (e.g. written presentation at some Bain locations; interviewer-led case at Bain and BCG vs. candidate-led case interview at McK) but they aim at testing the same skills (do a quick research on this forum if you want to know more)
• Kind of engagements / assignments / clients: all 3 firms have grown so much that they compete on all levels and no longer specialize in certain practices (again expertise varies significantly depending on geographic location)

In addition to the above elements you will have to consider your preferences in terms of approach, scope, and exit opportunities. A few differences that come to my mind:

• Approach/Culture: McK has a more top-down approach, and not very collegial culture. The organization itself is structured and formal, and everything from attitude and attire at McKinsey reflects that. BCG puts a strong focus on innovation, teamwork and individual contributions. Because they build support bottom-up with the client they sell against McKinsey more often than Bain. Bain is somewhere in between McK top-down approach and BCG collaborative approach. The culture at Bain, where the local office culture is strong, focuses on teamwork. In terms of recruiting, Bain often beats BCG thanks to its culture but loses to McK because of prestige
• Size/Scope: McKinsey is the largest firm with ~9k consultants, followed by BCG with ~6k and Bain with ~3k They have comparable portfolios in terms of industries served but McKinsey’s technology practice is an important differentiator as neither Bain nor BCG offers anything like it. Bain is the leader in Private Equity
• Alumni: McK has the most prestige, the biggest and the most active alumni network. BCG is doing a great job with their alumni network. Bain has some areas of improvements when it comes to organizing its network but when it comes to alumni they are the most available (because their culture is so strong)

I hope this helps,

Jacopo