BCG practice area recruiting

Question

Hello,

I've been approached by BCG's practice area recruiting team for a PL role. It seems I will have 2 rounds of interviews, both business cases from my industry of expertise. Does anyone have any experience recruiting for a practice area? Do they go easier on you on the cases? It looks like it will be Principals who will be doing the first round of interviews.

Answer 1

Hi there,

Congrats on getting approached!

You're likely to expect a bigger difference in the standard of recruiting because you're going for a PL role rather than because you're applying for a Practice area.

What you can expect to be different because you're applying for a PL role:

They will focus less on the numbers / analytics and more on the qualitative / conceptual. They are aware that as a PL you're rarely be the one handling the model (and if you are, you have bigger problems to work on), so they are rather interested in how you structure and think through complex conceptual issues. This is closer to what will be expected from your role, rather than that of an analyst / associate.
They will focus more on personal fit part of the interview and less on the case. They want to understand more about your experience in leading a team, managing complex situations and handling difficult clients. They care less about you structuring calculations. This might explain why I worked with some EMs in McKinsey that had trouble multiplying but were amazing with clients - and I'm saying this lovingly :)
They will focus more on your industry knowledge than general cross-industry experience. Ideally by the time you're PL you should have deeper functional or industry experience. Needless to say, they will test that this is focused on the Practice you are applying for.

Aside from this, if I were you I would reach to the recruiter to understand whether the cases they will give you will be exclusively or partly from the topic of your target Practice area. This will help you customise your preparation.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you and do reach out if you need any help. I've coached several candidates who successfully went into PL/EM position in the past, so I have a very good understanding of the expectations from the role.

Best,

Cristian

Answer 2

Hi there,

Congrats on getting the interview!

So, for both practice area recruiting and Pl interviews, you should expect a much larger focus on that topic.

In particular, at your level they are looking to see if you truly have domain expertise in the area. Expect a number of brainstorming questions, follow-up questions, and deep-dive discussions on current hot topics.

Of course, you do still need to prepare for fit/behavioral and casing, just like everyone else, but be more prepared to have an interview that goes more down the “unstructured” or unconventional pathway and is more conversational. Across all of this you still need an objective-driven, structured approach to thinking and communicating.

Here's some case reading for you: https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/how-to-shift-your-mindset-to-ace-the-case

And some fit reading: https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/tell-me-about-yourself-interview-question

Answer 3

Congratulations on getting an interview!

I don't think they go easier on you on the cases per se, though given that you've been told that the cases will be from your industry of expertise, that should be helpful. In addition to general casing skills, I think you also want to be demonstrate subject knowledge about your industry.

Answer 4

Congratulations on your interview!

As others have said, the interview format will be broadly the same, but they will have more interest in your understanding of the industry that you're interviewing for.