BCG - No News Post 2nd-Round

Question

Hello,

I have recently interviewed with BCG on their final round. I am an experienced hire candidate and also an ADC.

After the interview last Friday, the recruiting team said they will get back to me “at the earliest on Monday, at the latest on Tuesday", which was an oddly firm promise. However, I have not heard anything since then.

In terms of the substance of the interview, the case with a MDP went very smoothly while the case with a Principal was a bit rough (though I wouldn't say I bombed it).

My questions are the following:

1. What could be happening behind the stage that is causing the delay, despite the rather firm promise made by the recruiting team?

2. Based on empirical observations, is there a general trend towards yay v. nay when decisions are delayed? I understand that there are no hard and fast rule but want to see trends and tendencies.

Thank you!

Answer 1

Hi there,

This is not uncommon. To get straight to the point:

HR is gathering all scores & comments from interviewers regarding your performance in all interviews. This can take a while, especially when Partners need to be chased down. Once everything is consolidated, a decision is made as to whether an offer will be extended. You will not be compared to others and nobody is waiting for anybody else's results. The decision is solely based on your individual performance.
Indeed, there are no rules. You can get quick rejections and late offers and vice versa. However, as a general rule, it's not a great sign the longer it takes. But hey, it has only been a couple of days over and this is not uncommon at all!

Hope this helps a bit! Best of luck!

Answer 2

Wishing you all the best. Answers to your question

They maybe evaluating multiple candidates and need some time to come to a decision. Or there might be other logistical issues like getting everyone on the same call to discuss the feedback for all interviews. Either way it is not a reflection of your performance.
Generally a positive decision is conveyed sooner, however I have had candidates wait 10 days to get an offer so do not read so much into it just yet.
Lastly you can always ask HR for more information

Best,

Udayan

Answer 3

Hi there,

In general, this is nothing to worry about - just wait for the feedback, even if delayed.

Regarding your questions:

1. In a normal case it means that one or more interviewers have yet to submit their scores or that the integration (alignment of interviewers post every round) has yet to happen / recruiter is out-of-office. Alternatively, could also be (depending on the geography), that the firm waits for all the candidates in a batch to have completed the resp. round, before they communicate a decision.

2. As it's typically a process topic rather than performance-related, there is really no tendency here - nothing to worry about.

Hope this helps.

Regards

Answer 4

Hi there,

1) What could be happening behind the stage that is causing the delay, despite the rather firm promise made by the recruiting team?

The truth is, no one knows. There could be several reasons why they are delaying the call even in case of an offer. For example:

Partners got busy and cannot align
HR got busy and did not manage to call

2) Based on empirical observations, is there a general trend towards yay v. nay when decisions are delayed?

No. Usually if they give feedback the same day/day after is good news, feedback within a week is “neutral”, feedback after one week is a bad sign. But there could be exceptions.

Good luck!

Francesco

Answer 5

Hi there,

It constantly shocks me how often they promise this and don't deliver!

Honestly, if I were a betting man, any time a candidate told me HR said they'd get back to them by x date, I would bet that they would get news after x date.

Sit tight and be patient. After around 2 weeks wait feel free to reach out and see if there's an update.

Early calls tend to be positive while late calls tend to be negative, however, that is by no means saying a delayed call means you're going to get a rejection.

Fingers crossed for you!

Answer 6

I got my offer on Monday when I was in the same situation last year. In general, I think they like to get the good news out sooner so it's not looking good, but it's also possible the partners haven't been able to meet yet to compare performance and make a decision. Or they might be on the fence and trying to decide if you need one more interview etc. If the recruiters mentioned you will get the news by a certain date, it's completely ok to follow up and ask for an update.

Answer 7

Hi there,

I am also an experienced hire and I can confirm the timelines are hardly met, particularly if you are off-organized-wave recruit. The delay is usually given that all people that interviewed you must submit their feedback and this can take long as everyone's agenda is extremely packed. So delay doesn't mean anything bad, it is just an organizational thing. Still, I would strongly recommend reaching out to HR and asking for an update and a new timeline.

During my recruiting, I had another offer and I couldn't delay more (my recruiting process with BCG took 4 months and I was chasing them!) hence I pressed BCG to give me feedback by a certain time and despite that, it was hard for them, they stick to that (I got my offer).

Good luck

Lucie

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Answer 8

Hi there,

Nothing to worry about. In simple terms, after the interviews are all done, the people who saw you need to get on a call and make a decision. Because this involves multiple busy people finding a slot as soon as possible while also handling many other things at the same time, it usually takes a few days for the call to happen. There's no correlation between the time they take and the confidence with which they make the offer. For me it took a week to get the call. A veeery long week.