Best way to prepare for a BCG interview after having prepared for a McKinsey interview

Hi there,

Sorry to hear about the rejection.

There are 4 main differences you will find between McKinsey and BCG interviews.

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1) Fit

• McKinsey includes the PEI (Personal Experience Interview) as part of the fit part. They will usually ask for one story out of three possible dimensions (Inclusive Leadership, Personal Impact, and Entrepreneurial Drive) in each interview.
• BCG may or may not ask for similar stories on those dimensions. Consequently, there is more variety in the questions they may ask.
• At McKinsey they usually go deeper into the dimension with follow-up questions. At BCG, they won’t usually ask as many follow-up questions even in case they ask for a similar question.

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2) Interview style (interviewer vs candidate led)

• McKinsey usually follows an interviewer-led approach. This means that after presenting the answer to a question, the interviewer will ask you the following question planned, irrespectively of where you want to move the analysis.
• BCG usually follows a candidate-led approach. This means you have to propose a plan of action and the interviewer will leave to you to follow that approach, only occasionally directing you (meaning you have to lead the case).
• The interviewer-led approach is easier to follow for most candidates, meaning that if you know how to manage an interviewee-led case you should not have issues with it. 
• The opposite is not true - if you only know how to navigate interviewer-led cases you may have issues driving a case in a candidate-led case. So if you are interviewing with BCG you have to learn how to lead the case.

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3) Initial Structure

• Given the format is interviewer-led and you may not have an option to go deeper in your structure later on, at McKinsey your structure should have several levels and expand all the possible drivers to answer the question.
• In a candidate-led case you could theoretically expand the drivers later. However, if you know how to do it properly you can structure with multiple levels also in candidate-led cases. The method that I teach is based on that and allows you to define the full roadmap at the beginning without any possible downside.

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4) Conclusion

• McKinsey cases often don’t have conclusions. 
• If you prepare for BCG, you should expect to structure a conclusion at the end.

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BONUS: Case content

• The interviews at McKinsey tend to be more standardized. They almost always include a structuring question, a math/graph question and a creativity/brainstorming question. 
• BCG has a flow that could be quite different. In one of my finals at BCG I had two market sizing questions and one brainteaser.

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If you are interested in the exact questions, I have a DB with 1500+ MBB questions for 60+ offices, you can check on my profile if I include them for the office you are interviewing with.

Good luck!

Francesco

Hi there,

#1 difference = case leadership

2nd major difference is that your stories need to be shorter, more natural, and more dynamic.

The hardest thing for you now will be case leadership. First make sure you have learned frameworking properly (most haven't), then use that as the building block/foundation for case leadership

Some case reading: https://www.preplounge.com/en/articles/how-to-shift-your-mindset-to-ace-the-case

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

Hello,

There are more similarities than differences in the interview styles between McK and BCG. You are correct in that BCG interviews are candidate-led rather than interviewer-led, however they will be assessing the same key skills of structured problem solving, creativity, quantitative aptitude, synthesis. The behavioral component is again similar: while BCG does not use the PEI model, they are generally looking for the same quality of leadership, entrepreneurship, people skills, inclusivity, so the stories you have been preparing should work for BCG too.

My advice in making the pivot would be to take any feedback that McKinsey has given you on board and adjust accordingly, and start practicing interviewee-led cases.