Rejected from Bain (CV round)!

Dear A,

There is so many factors that might be limiting factor. It may also depend on unfavorable market situation or HR decided to close all the applications. Then it means only bad luck for you. Nevertheless, try again.

Happy to help you.

Best,
André

Hi there,

There could be many reasons why you were rejected. I suggest you try to apply next time with a referral.

By the way, could you send me your CV for better understanding?

All the bestm

GB

Outstanding responses already. Don't forget also that networking can help at this stage as well: if a member of the hiring taskforce has met you and remembers you well, it can help to move to the next level.

PS: Luck definitely plays a role. This is real life - for better or for worse. Being lucky helps. May you be lucky

Consulting interview pass #s depend on a number of things and strength of resume doesn't always win the day. There are a few big factors the Office considers:

1) New hire demand: The single biggest factor is Office demand. Each office performs a "reverse waterfall" analysis. They start with a discussion with the Office Manager, who has already had a discussion with most of the Office partners to gauge upcoming demand for analysts and associates. The recruiters then pull all the historical data for accept rate, 1st/2nd round offer rate and then start with the demand # and just work backwards to figure out how many interviews they need to conduct. If the Office is in a slump, they may not interview many people.

2) Campus vs experienced hires: The philosophy of the Office can go through cyclical changes. Some of the partners will prefer experience hires that have backgrounds in the specific industry vertical or horizontals where the Office is focused and will want to cut back on University hires. I've seen it multiple times where as the lead Partner of recruiting at McKinsey's Boston Office, I cut back University hires drastically

3) Strong class ahead of you: This is less likely but ocassionally, the Office will overhire in the year before yours. To make things worse (for you), the class performs exceptionally well and doesn't have the normal attrition rates. Therefore, there are an unusually high number of lower tenured analysts and associates.

Your situation is a little unusual but not unheard of because of all the external factors that prevent firms from hiring the standard # of consultants every year. I received my MBA from MIT Sloan and for the previous 8 years, McKinsey had hired ~30-35 summer interns from MIT. For my year, they hired less than 10. I hope this helps.