BCG final round interview preparation

Question

Hi everyone,

I went through my first round of BCG interviews (for the Associate position) last week and will have my three final round interviews later this week. I am currently in the recruitment process in the Nordics.

As final round interviews can be very different from first round ones (especially when it comes to the case), do you have any recommendations on how to prepare for more “untraditional” cases? I did not get any feedback after my first round and was just told to “keep doing what I am already doing” but find that I sometimes struggle to come up with a structure when presented with more “untraditional” cases.

Any tips on how to improve on this (or any other common mistakes made in the last interview round) would be highly appreciated!

Also, I was wondering if BCG uses any particular type of cases more often than others (especially in the last round)?

Thanks a lot in advance!

Answer 1

Hi there,

All interviews can be different from all interview interviews - this isn't reserved to final round interviews :)

That said, to prepare for nonconventional cases you need to have an objective-driven mindset. You need to practice solving unconventional cases and learn how to approach any problem on any topic in any situation in a structured, objective-driven way.

Happy to coach you through this as it's not something that is just read and learned in a few days!

Answer 2

How do you prepare for unconventional cases? Well, the same way you should be preparing for conventional cases. Thinking about the specific problem you have to solve and how to break it down into smaller parts, on what would be the decision drivers and how you can come up with a structure that is relevant for that. As Ian points out, be “objective-driven”. If you are thinking only through pre-made frameworks, you will have a major problem.

You can, of course, just practice unconventional cases. There are many out there (or you can just watch the news and think on how you would solve the different problems they are discussing).

Regarding last round cases - sorry but no, there's no particular type to expect.

Good luck for the interviews.