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

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 Alex,

Hope you are well.

Congratulations for getting invited for PST / Imbellus test. This means you have successfully passed the CV screening phase, which is a significant hurdle in itself.

To answer your questions:
1) I believe this is not the case. Getting invited over a PST means you have already passed the CV screening. Given the very large pool of McKinsey prospective candidates who goes through CV screening and PST, the HR team would unlikely have the team to categorize the profiles in terms of priorities, unless for a clearly distinctive ones.

Even considering this, the fact that you have been invited to sit on the PST within a very short timeframe previously would actually indicates you are on the priority pool.

What causes the delay is the rescheduling request you have asked to the team. Again, mind that there are enormous number of profiles going through CV screening and PST. If one profile cannot attend a session, they would still need to process the other profiles waiting on the pipeline, hence the profile that requested rescheduling, will need to be pushed to the back.

This action in effect displayed meritocractic traits of the Firm, where they treat everyone equally at the PST stage. Rescheduling of one profile should not mean pushing back the long array of other profiles on the queue.

2) Yes, you will. The HR team had to process a great number of profiles on the pipeline, hence delays for rescheduling is to be expected. Also, it is completely fine to follow-up and remind them occassionally, as it would serve as a reminder to them and easen up their workload. Since it has been 3 weeks, reaching out to them at once is advisable.

3) I do know a number of prospective candidates and Firm members who experienced similar situation in the recruitment process.

Fingers crossed you will get a confirmation on the test soon.
Hope it helps.

Kind regards,
Nathan

Hi,

I can answer for the UK offices. As you suggested, the competition is fierce, however I personally know several employees in MBB in London who graduated from Bocconi University and are not EU citizens (thus they require sponsorship).

Bocconi is a reputable university, and thus, with the right GPA / relevant academic experience, you may stand a chance to be invited for interviews. Referrals would also help increase your chances.

Best,

Deniz

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, Alex,

the two options are relatively similar in terms of brand. However, I think that market analysis is a little more relevant prior experience for MBB than accounting.

However, I would generally advise you against choosing a job only because you want to join MBB. You have no guarantee that it will work out at MBB later on, so I wouldn't adjust my life too much to it. If you want to do consulting, try MBB now (or one of the other companies).

Best regards
Marco-Alexander

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