Do you have some heavy personal fit questions BCG asks?

You did it! The lengthy interview preparation period is over, you've passed the tests before the actual interview and now you are sitting here in front of your interviewers. Your goal is, of course, to master every single question with excellence and to leave a positive impression.

The Personal Fit Part of the Consulting Interview Is as Important as the Case Study PartConsulting is a people's business and the interviewer's objective is to determine whether you would be a right fit for the firmThe importance of ‘Fit interviews’ is usually underestimated because of the much-feared case interview. Although the fit portion generally only requires 10-15 minutes during the real interview process, it requires deep thinking from the interviewee's perspective and therefore needs meticulous preparation. The schematic below shows the flow of the consulting interview process.  To be successful during the interview, you have to understand the thinking and the evaluation process of the interviewer. *article-lock-trigger*Typically, the interviewer has three primary questions in mind1. Would the interviewer like to work with you 12 hours a day on a project - sympathy2. Would you be able to support the team and make the work easier for the team - leverage3. Would you be happy with the decision to get into consulting in the long run - happinessYou are more likely to get an offer when the interviewer is confident about you encompassing the above three key qualities. Thus, remember to communicate these qualities to the interviewer with your personal fit stories!Let us understand the preparation process for these categories of questions:1. Would the interviewer like to work with you 12 hours a day on a project? It is challenging to prepare for this part because this component serves as a function to display your character and mannerisms. Just be aware of it and present the best of you at the interview without trying to change who you really are and try to find a good balance (eg. being self-confident but not arrogant).2. Would you be able to support the team and make the work easier for the team?The underlying question is whether you would be a helpful addition to the project team by integrating well with the team and by being self-reliant after a short period of time.So, how does the interviewer check this aspect?The interviewer generally has two ways:1. By doing a case interview with you in order to determine how you think and approach a complex problem (please see the Case Cracking Dimension)2. By asking you fit questions that assess whether you have a wide variety of skills necessary to be a successful management consultant Specifically, what are the most important skills?Four skills or personality traits are indispensable, which must be demonstrated during the interview:Flexible - being able to easily cope with changesProblem solver - being able to break down a complex problem into its component partsDiversified team player - being able to work with diverse personality typesHard worker - being willing to go an extra mile3. Would you be happy with the decision to get into consulting in the long run?The company you would start working for will be investing a lot of time and money in your training. If the firm senses that you don’t like to travel, have an intense work lifestyle, have the service business attitude, or that you might quit after a few months on the job, it would not make sense for the company to hire you. Therefore, the fit questions would try to probe your personality and determine if consulting indeed is the right fit for your personality. The fit portion of the interview must also be delivered in a structured fashionJust as a case interview, the fit interview must also be developed in a structured fashion. Think of the fit interview as a case study. If you can’t afford to be unstructured during a case, then why should you be unstructured while talking about the most important experiences of your life or the rationale behind your decisions? Therefore, the objective is to be structured when answering Personal Fit questions. Following this approach will demonstrate that you already possess the skills needed to be successful as a management consultant.Key takeaways:The fit interview is underestimated by the majority of the candidates, but it is a crucial component to receive an offerYou must spend time to prepare your fit stories and know what you want to say in a structured fashionThe interviewer is interested in learning about three things about your personality:Would the interviewer like to work with you for long hours on a project - sympathyWould you be able to support the team and make their work easier - leverageWould you be happy with the decision to get into consulting in the long run - happinessBe structured and provide well-thought-out answersThe next section will focus on the application of the concepts learned in the three common questions. *box-open*Do you want to focus your preparation further on the personal fit part of the interview? We recommend you to:Answer our stress questions while the timer is running! We have prepared 110+ unexpected questions that can await you during your interview. If you want even more questions to practice with, you can also check out the mock interview tool Interview Fox.Have a look at our cases focused on personal fit! You can find more useful tips and interesting questions to go through.Go through the Integrated FIT Guide for MBB by Clara! You can use this guide to master personal fit interviews at McKinsey, BCG & Bain. It addresses the specifics of each company and combines key concepts with hands-on techniques. With 50+ real questions, 20+ examples, and special frameworks and worksheets, you will be guided step by step and can prepare your FIT stories perfectly.*box-close*

The Majority of the Personal Fit Questions Will Fall into One of the Three Categories:1. Why management consulting?The majority of the time, candidates would include common answers such as opportunities of working in different industries with interesting people, solving challenging problems, and traveling. When the interviewer asks why they want to work in different industries, with interesting people, on different topics, travel, and work on challenging problems, the answer is nearly always: self-development.As a consultant, you would put the answer first, then explain the rationale behind your answer (this communication style is also called pyramid principle):For instance, if you are interested in honing your skills and talents for self-development, you need to think deeply about how you could achieve these goals. Usually, four major areas can lead to your self-development in management consulting:Industries (whether it is trying out a variety of industries or a specific industry based on the firm's expertise)TopicsCulturesPeopleMake sure to explain how management consulting will help you achieve the above goals through personal stories. An example schematic is shown below.  *article-lock-trigger*2. Why [Name of company]?You will most likely get asked why you want to work for the company during the interview. Apart from slight differences, the bigger companies (e.g., McKinsey, BCG, and Bain) are very similar in their work, and it is usually their culture that is the differentiating factor. Therefore, it is crucial to talk about the unique culture of the company and how its values align well with your personality. Think of experiences that will convince the firm of your personality and its alignment with the firm's culture. In addition to culture, you can talk about your long-term goals and how the company is going to help you achieve them. Most people don’t stay in consulting in the long run, and it is important to know the general direction of your career and the role of consulting to help achieve these goals. 3. Tell me about yourself! This is another very common question, and it is important that you don't read out your CV here. The interviewer has seen your CV and if he/she has further questions, you can always back them up with more details. The key to answering this question is to provide an answer that leaves a vivid impression about you and ideally gets the interviewer really interested to learn more about you. Here, you have a chance to shine and talk about interesting things regarding your personality that ultimately are linked to consulting. Ideally, the interviewer would want to know more not only to evaluate you but also because he/she finds you enthusiastic!One approach is to pick 2-3 things that are really important for you and that show well how you think and approach situations, perhaps your CV-Highlights.Another approach is to describe “the person behind the CV” using three adjectives (could be 3 key strengths) that really define you and that you can back up with anecdotes and examples (See our example exhibit).So, those are the three most probable fit questions you would get during your consulting interview.  Most companies are interested in learning about your past actions in scenarios such as working in teams, resolving conflicts, challenges, and other scenarios that reflect on your problem-solving skills in a "client-friendly" manner.   Key takeawaysMake sure to know the company really well including their culture through networking with consultants who work with the company and researching the company through their career pageKnow how to talk about yourself by providing a brief and interesting introduction of who you are, either by the “3 Milestones approach” or with the “3 adjectives” described aboveMake sure to seriously practice fit interviews with a friend or another aspiring consultant*box-open*Do you want to focus your preparation further on the personal fit part of the interview? We recommend you to:Answer our stress questions while the timer is running! We have prepared 110+ unexpected questions that can await you during your interview. If you want even more questions to practice with, you can also check out the mock interview tool Interview Fox.Have a look at our cases focused on personal fit! You can find more useful tips and interesting questions to go through.Go through the Integrated FIT Guide for MBB by Clara! You can use this guide to master personal fit interviews at McKinsey, BCG & Bain. It addresses the specifics of each company and combines key concepts with hands-on techniques. With 50+ real questions, 20+ examples, and special frameworks and worksheets you will be guided step by step and can prepare your FIT stories perfectly.*box-close*