Bain Associate Consultant role??

Hi there,

First of all, congratulations on the faith to take the next career step!

This is indeed an interesting question which is probably relevant for quite a lot of users, so I am happy to provide my perspective on it:

• Generally speaking, I would advise you to aim for a Consultant role for the following reaons:
  • Even if it is common for MBB (and all other consulting companies as well) to discount your experience, offering you the SAC role (meaning 1 year of tenure) would be a discount of 66% (considering that Bain would not acknowledge your industry experience at all) to 80%. I would advise you to think about how badly you want to start with Bain at all costs vs. to what extent you want to continue performing the tasks you did before. As an SAC you will ultimately work for a Consultant who works for a Manager, i.e. you will most probably perform the tasks of your colleagues from two levels below from your current standpoint.
  • Your assessment will be exactly the same. While it might be true that for (S)AC roles interviewers might ocassionally be slightly more leniant when it comes to case study performance, you will have the same interview dates, interviewers and case studies.

In case you want a more detailed discussion on how to best prepare your upcoming Bain interviews, please feel free to contact me directly.

I hope this helps,

Hagen

Hello!

Yes, I completely agree with you, but this is not going to be an easy fight for you tbh. 

The way that I would approach it would be to negotiate this only when you have an offer in your hands, and not before, since now you have literally zero leverage. 

Furthermore, you will have to interview to find a job sooner or later, and even if you dont make it this will be good prep. 

Hope it helps!

Cheers, 

Clara

Hi there,

It never hurts to aim higher! You may as well try to push for the consultant position and ask the recruiter if you can apply for the higher level.

Just remember that the odds of success are lowered slightly (as you are evaluated differently, no matter what people say). Given your background I can see either SA Consultant or Consultant.

Hi,

You should definitely bring up your thoughts with HR to see what role would be a good fit. 

I will say that Bain would not have randomly decided what role to select you for, they make the assessment based on your experience and where they think you would be a good fit. The advantage of getting into a junior role is you have the option to rapidly accelerate to the next rung and do so on a solid footing. If you join at or above where you can perform well it may impact your career progression at Bain and your ratings etc. as well.

Your past experience does count but remember every firm does things differently so there will always be a learning curve to overcome and you will need to prove yourself regardless in order to get noticed and staffed on the best projects. If you want to look at it from a longer term lens then a more junior role is not that bad a thing!

Best,

Udayan

You should approach them and try to understand why they are interviewing you for this rank (and make your case for the higher one). Unless for some reason your experience is not that valuable for them (which I doubt), I can't see why they wouldn't put you in a consultant role.

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