Bain case interview, any advice?

Bain & Company
Recent activity on Apr 22, 2019
2 Answers
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Anonymous A asked on Apr 03, 2019

I have an interview at Bain in a month. Any ideas (apart from be prepared for cases)?

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Serhat
Expert
replied on Apr 22, 2019
BCG | Kellogg MBA |82% Success rate| 450+ case interview| 5+ year consulting | 30+ projects in ~10 countries

Being ready for following fit questions:

  1. Tell me about yourself
  2. Why MBA at that point of career?
  3. Why Your school?
  4. Why consulting
  5. Why Our Company?
  6. What would you be doing as a consultant?
  7. What is the most important consulting skill?
  8. When did you demonstrate it?
  9. When was the time when you demonstrated team skills or team work?
  10. What was the most important thing you learnt in your earlier job? What skills did you gain in your earlier job which would prepare you for consulting?
  11. When did you have to work with data? How are your data analysis skills?
  12. Why should we hire you?
  13. Have demonstrated all 4 skills that you look for (use examples above)
  14. What is the most important thing I should know about you that I cannot learn from your resume?
  15. How would a friend or professor / colleague who knows you well describe you?
  16. What serves as your biggest motivation? What are the key metrics for measuring success?
  17. When did you receive constructive feedback?
  18. What are your weaknesses?
  19. Which boss / mentor has had a clear influence on you? What do you admire about your previous boss?
  20. Follow-up: Constructive feedback –
  21. How do you work in a pressure situation / short on time / short on resources
  22. What has been your biggest achievement?
  23. Link this answer to leadership / problem solving
  24. Tell me about a leadership experience
  25. Tell me about a time when you had to analyse data
  26. Tell me about a time when you had to analyse financial information
  27. Tell me about a time when you had to face a challenge
  28. Tell me about a time you have failed
  29. What are your short term and long term goals?
  30. Tell me about a time when you set a goal for yourself and what steps you take to achieve the goal?
  31. Describe a situation when you were unable to reach a goal?
  32. Tell me about a time when you overcame failure?
  33. Have you ever had to change your priorities to meet another person’s expectations?
  34. Tell me about the time you had to compromise
  35. Tell me about a time when you didn’t meet a deadline
  36. Tell me about a time when you had to multi task
  37. Tell me about a time when you had to adjust to a project schedule because you did not have enough resources
  38. Describe a situation in which you used different communication styles to influence stakeholders with differing perspectives 
  39. Tell me about a time when you had to be assertive to get your point across
  40. Difficult situation that required careful communication (Crisis Management)
  41. Describe most rewarding customer experience
  42. Tell me about a time when you had to accept an unreasonable request from a client
  43. Dealt with a customer that tested your patience
  44. Tell me about a time you took a difficult decision and had to explain it to others / Tell me about a time you took an unpopular decision
  45. Tell me about a time you took a quick decision
  46. Tell me about a time when you identified a problem and then solved it
  47. Tell me about a time when you built a rapport with client / colleague
  48. Tell me about a time you resolved a conflict in a team
  49. Have you led a team where different members of the team do not work well together? How did you deal with this situation
  50. Describe a time you gave constructive criticism to someone
  51. Tell me how did you determine priorities / Handling multiple deadlines at the same time? How did you handle the situation
  52. How did you deal with ethical dilemmas?
  53. Team experience that you found rewarding / Tell me about you had to work in a team to accomplish your goal
  54. Team experience that you found disappointing
  55. Describe a situation when you were a member of a team (not leader) of a team and conflict arose. What did you do?
  56. Team member not pulling his weight. What did you do?
  57. What is important in a job environment?
  58. Why do you think you can put up with long hours?
  59. Tell me about your college experience
  60. What else do you do at school apart from studies?
  61. How do you manage stress in your life?
  62. Favorite Class and grade you got in it
  63. What do you read?
  64. Fun fact
  65. What do you hate the most?
  66. Favorite website?
  67. Tell me full names of people who interviewed you before
  68. Do you have any questions?
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Vlad
Expert
replied on Apr 03, 2019
McKinsey / Accenture Alum / Got all BIG3 offers / Harvard Business School

Hi,

First of all - almost all Bain cases are interviewee led. Thus you have to drive the case and you have to come to a certain number and the conclusion in the end.

It may seem to you that these 2 types of cases are different, however, the interviewer-led type is just a simplified version of the interviewee-led case. My advice is to prepare a lot in the interviewee-led format so that you could solve both easily.

Here is some information according to 100+ Bain cases my candidates had on the interviews. However it may be not representative geographically, but according to my experience:

Most common types of case:

  • Private equity (due diligence)
  • Synergies
  • Profitability + market sizing as a part of a case
  • Market Entry

Most common industries:

  • Retail
  • CPG
  • Airlines
  • HORECA - hotels, restaurants, coffeeshops, etc

At Bain, they'll give you printed charts and tables, so the cases are quite data heavy and have a particular answer (are not open-ended)

Best

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