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

Hi there,

First: Read the 25 tips in my consulting handbook here: https://www.spencertom.com/2018/01/14/consulting-survival-guide/

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Second: In terms of things you can learn/do to prepare beforehand:

1) Daily Reading

• The Economist, The Financial Times, BCG/Mskinsey Insights

2) Industry deep-dives

• Learn, in-depth, how the industries/companies your office advises, work. (PM me for an industry overview template)

3) Analytics tools

• Alteryx, Tableau, etc.

4) Excel

• Pivottables
• Working with data
• Key fuctions (vlookup, Index match, count and sum if/ifs, sumproduct, concat, etc.)
• Hotkeys (i.e. use keyboard more than your mouse)
• Financial modeling

5) Powerpoint

• Wireframing
• Lead-in titles
• Best practices/standards
• Different layouts
• Quickly editing/updating slides
• Thinking in PowerPoint

6) Presentation skills / sharp communication

• There are some online/virtual classes for this

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Third: In terms of doing well in your role when you're there:

1) Understand the context/prompt (what role are you in, what company, who's watching, etc.)

2) Understand the objective (what, specifically, is expected from you...both day to day, and in your overall career progression)

3) Quickly process information, and focus on what's important - Take a lot of information and the unknown, find the most logical path, and focus on that.

4) Be comfortable with the unknown, and learn to brainstorm - think/speak like an expert without being one

In summary, there will always be a flood of information, expectations, competition etc. and not enough time. Find out which ones matter when. (i.e. be visibile and focus efforts on the things that people care about)

Some Excellent Q&As

What to expect in the first 90 days (and how to thrive) - https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/first-90-days-as-associate-business-analyst-consultant-7185

What to prepare/learn beforehand - https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/how-to-best-preppare-for-a-consulting-position-if-you-have-a-couple-of-months-of-free-time-7164

How to improve your ability to remember details - https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/how-to-improve-ability-to-remember-details-is-it-important-in-consulting-6998

How to be confident - https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/how-to-build-up-confidence-and-look-smart-and-sharp-in-a-consultant-role-6955

Notetaking effectively - https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/note-taking-7215

Hi Ukasha,

It's hard to help when it hurts my eyes to read! Kindly upload a clear image :)

I believe they've just finished recruting the incoming summer BA cohort for McKinsey London this year. In terms of your question, I would say just go with both where the summer BA intake is highly competitive (even within McKinsey) and so every little bit helps!

Hello!

I would always recommend you to give it a shot and then post it here, this would help you the most.

This is a very typical market sizing case, where the key steps are:

• Calculate the total population
• Calculate # people in a household (~3) and # of houses owned per household
• Calculate the # of transations per year
• Estimate growth

Calculate the % of the total adressable market that any firm in particular could have -in case it´s asked only-.

Hope it helps!

Cheers,

Clara

Hi there,

Teach yourself:

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/learn-excel-resources

Q&A: https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/free-online-resources-to-learn-excel-basics-6946

Pay for a Course:

https://www.udemy.com/share/101Wde/ (Udemy is excellent. $15...basically free)

Important Tip: Don't just learn formulas etc. Test yourself! Download a free data set, ask yourself a question, and try to solve for it. Play with actual data solving real questions and building a real dashboard etc. Don't just passively take lessons :)

Hi A!

Here are my thoughts to your questions:

1. Given that you have done so many cases already, I think you should apply right away. Spending so much time for case prep, especially since you don't work in parallel seems excessive.
2. There are always exceptions, but I'd say typically between 2 weeks and 2 months.
3. See above: I would apply right away and use the time until the interviews gets scheduled to prepare.
4. I would suggest to either apply at the same time or apply tothe T2 firms only 1-2 weeks earlier. Thay way you can schedule the interviews with short time between each other and in increasing order of your priority. That way you can wait for the final interviews before the first offers expire and use the additional practice from the real interviews for the more important firms.
5. There is a lot you can do without a coach (of course professional feedback is of course preferrable). For example: reach out to friends or class mates that work/have worked in consulting firms to practice with them. When you're invited, ask HR if they offer practice sessions with junior consultants.

Below my general recommendation how to approach the practice. You're already way into the process with your experience from last year, so there is probably much less work required than you think.

In my experience, practicing 15-20 cases is sufficient, if you do it strategically. My recommendation is as follows:

• Read up on the typical approaches and standard frameworks to get the concept.
• Then, do 5-6 cases to get a practical feeling for what a case is like. Start with easier ones - e.g. market size mini cases, simple profit tree cases, etc. This will help you develop a rudimentary sense for how cases work
• The next 5-6 cases should cover cases from all major types and help you gain the experience and comfort with standard frameworks and the thinking required for solving the cases.
• Lastly, you will want to do 6-7 cases to hone your skills. Practice with people who understand what they are doing - experienced interviewers, coaches, etc. that can give you 1-2 main items of feedback after each case that you can then practice to apply and improve on in the next case. During this time, you should also practice to move away from off-the-shelf frameworks and tailor, or - even better - develop your frameworks specifically during the case.

The further you move towards the final interview, the more important it is to practice with experienced interviewers. While you can easily ask any friend or practice with peers for the first few cases, you should aim for qualified, professional feedback as you approach the finishing line.

However, keep in mind, that this requires a strong plan and strategic approach to the preparation. I regularly see people doing 30-40 or even more cases. While this can also lead to success, in my eyes, it is a bit of a waste of time, especially for experienced hires that often also have a regular job to do while preparing for the consulting interviews.

Let me know if this helps. I'm also happy to elaborate any of the above in more detail. DM me if you like.

Hi there,

Floyd has laid it out perfectly!

If you're looking for more practice you can go here:

• https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/bain-company-business-case-sample-3617
• https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/bain-question-business-case-sample-6975
• https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/bain-online-test-packaging-co-guidance-on-questions-6996
• https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/bain-online-test-answer-guidance-for-grocery-retail-co-6933
• https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/bain-business-case-9097
• https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/bain-business-case-9113
• https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/bain-business-case-9189
• https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/bain-business-case-9221
• https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/bain-business-case-9229

Hi Tabitha,

I will give my input based on my experience giving final rounds at a tier 2 firm as well as my own experience moving to MBB.

First of all it's important to take official feedbacks with a grain of salt.

(1) For legal and marketing reasons firms are very careful regarding the feedback they provide. I've been part of final round discussions with partners were we discussed interviewee's attire, the fact they have spouses or not, age, ... for obvious reasons we won't say that we didnt hire someone because you wore the wrong sweater.

(2) Depending on the season/office/position you apply the demand for new hires will be different and that will impact the threshold for giving an offer. A common myth is to think MBB will always hire regardless of their needs. I've discuss with a MBB partner that putted very blunt "at this period in the year we have reach our target quota, anyone can still apply but they will only be hired if they are a superstart, otherwise waiting until January is better."

Now, this is not to say that you should disregard your feedback. You have mention a specific point that you could focus on.

If I was in your shoes I would do the following:

1) Status quo. What other firms are you currently in process, what firms could you potential still apply and what is the timeline to do so

2) Honest assessment. Get an unbiased opinion on where you currently stand today. This means, PEI, case, Q&A, ...you only know how much work do you need to do if you know where you stand

3) Develop a "work plan" for the remaining of your time taking into account the feedback you received

Happy to discuss this on a call if you would like

Hi A,

This gamplified tool is designed tests 5 cognitive skills:

1. Critical thinking: the ability to make thoughtful decisions based on data.
2. Decision making: the ability to make the best possible decision with limited time and imperfect information.
3. Metacognition: The ability to use strategies such as hypothesis-testing to problem solve effectively.
4. Situational awareness: the ability to perceive what’s going on in a complex environment, what it means, and to make projections.
5. Systems thinking: the ability to understand multi-factor cause-and-effect relationships.

Best,

André

Historically there have been two official start dates, one in September and the other in Feb/March. For example, a recent offeree I coached is joining them in March 2021.

Hello!

Congrats! In most cases, you will have an online assesment.

Most of the online tests are very similar, and test the same skillset. It´s a good thing, since you can prep for them with a very unified approach. Although this may not seem so at first sight since the formats may differ, what is important here -as well as when solving cases- is the core skillset they are tryng to test. This is common, and the most important skills are:

80-20 analysis: capacity to analize, interpret and extract conclusions quickly and in a agile way from a ton of data -of which not all is useful-

Analytic and critical thinking: many ways tested with graphs, charts and tables, that you need to understand and derive decisions or insights from

Mathematical skills: are always somehow present, for which you need to be fast int he basics

The way to get better is practicing as much as possible with similar exercises -those targeted at the same skillset-. Hence, I would strongly recomment you practice it with the Integrated Reasoning part of the GMAT exam.

There are free exams in the internet that you can use for practice (the one of LBS MBA page, Verits prep, as well as some free trials for courses such as the one of The Economist (https://gmat.economist.com/)

Furthermore, you can leverage the MBB tests (https://www.myconsultingoffer.org/case-study-interview-prep/bcg-online/, https://www.psychometricinstitute.co.uk/Free-Aptitude-Tests.asp, and many others)

Hope it helps!

Best,

Clara

Hello!

You have nothing to worry about: the application is not only grades and averages, but it´s considered as a wholistic thing. There are no such things as "below X GPA they don´t even consider you, they only hire the top 20% of the class, etc.". If your reasons are good, this won´t be a problem.

As you mentioned, the cover letter is the place to talk about those mitigating circumpstances that you mention.

Cheers!

Hi A,

both options are good because AUB is a target school in the Middle East. If you were to go London, I would rather think of LBS or LSE since they are even more prestigious than UCL.

Roughly 50% of my mentees are either coming from ME or want to move their. I have been working in Dubai for 2 years on my own and well connected there / have friends in all major consultancies.

If you need any help or advice, reach out.

Best,

André

The recruitment is on hold in the countries with strict lockdowns or the ones badly affected by the virus. However, recruiting continues for other offices with some noticeable changes in the process such as

• Majority of recruiting activities being done online
• Postponement of joining dates to a time when the situation is expected to have improved
• The interview process taking longer than otherwise

Hi Anonymous,

Specifically for McKinsey you can not apply for multiple positions at the same time technically (I guess other tier-1 players are the same, but I don't know).

Since you feel you would fit into 2 different positions, the way to go is to discuss it openly with HR into which position you would better fit from McKinsey's perspective (which is obviously the main perspective to consider here).

Usually your interviews are aligned accordingly for the chosen position. However, I also saw candidates who actually started in a different position than originally hired - but that's a rare occurrence though.

Hope that helps - if so, please be so kind and give it a thumbs-up with the green upvote button below!

Robert

Hi there,

it really depends on your goal:

• Do you see yourself working in VC/startups long term? Then the VC opportunity is definitely attractive.
• Are you unsure of what you want to do next? Then consulting could be a safer place.

In any case, the fact you are experimenting burnout is a sign you should probably look for a new opportunity.

Personally, I moved to VC after BCG and was the best decision I could make.

Best,

Francesco

Hi there,

This resource is quite good I find: https://www.jobtestprep.com/bain-co-test-prep

Hi Anonymous!

After the CV screening phase, SEA has recently started using a Hypothesis Planning Case. For that, you will get sent a case introduction. Then you have 30 minutes to develop a framework of detailed hypotheses, inlcuding data sources and analyses to test each of them. After the 30 minutes, you will have a call with an interviewer that you need to guide through your solution and who will ask detailed questions on your thinking behind the hypotheses.

If this will be applied to you, they will send you a detailed guidance including an example case with answers so you can prepare in detail.

I've helped candidates prepare for this in the past and I'll be happy to work with you as well, if it comes to that.

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,

It really depends on what's your objective.

1) If your objective is to to get a referral - the best way is to tell your background, ask if you fit and ask for their advice in prep.

2) If you are working on your fit interview prep - ask things like "why consulting"and "Why Company". It will be very useful to get the insider information about the particular office

3) If you are warping up with your prep - just do a mock case or test your fit with them

Best