All questions tagged BCG - Consulting Q&A - PrepLounge.com

Hi Anonymous,

both the groups are top for reputation in their respective sectors (of course, in tech companies it would depend on what exactly you do, as there are more roles than in MBB). For exit opportunities however, while tech companies’ reputation would come handy in the tech world, MBB reputation would come handy in every sector, as exit options are broader there.

There are several other differences between the two worlds:

Tech companies plus

• Less hours and comparable compensation till a certain level of seniority
• IT interaction (not only business one)
• More learning about innovation
• Less formal environment in terms of hierarchy, dress code, etc

Consulting plus

• Multiple clients and industries
• Faster career growth after the initial 3-4 years
• In general, more strategy projects, less operations
• Extremely broad exit opportunities

In general, I would not choose based on reputation only (for which all the companies you mentioned would be great), but for the kind of experience you would like to have based on the previous points, and where you see yourself in 5-10 years.

Hope this helps,

Francesco

Hi Anonymous,

if your goal is to eventually land an MBB offer, I don’t see reasons why you should not try to get it now. I would not decline the Amazon offer though; if you have an explosive offer, the options that you have are:

1. Call McK and BCG, mention you have an offer from another company and ask if you can accelerate the process – if feasible they are usually happy to accommodate
2. Ask Amazon to wait more – usually difficult to justify though
3. Sign the contract, continue the process with McK and BCG and drop from the hiring process with Amazon in case you receive an offer – you have to consider if this works for you from an ethical point of view.

Best,

Francesco

Hi,
it depends on your seniority and on the role are you applying for. It's important to stress in your CV leadership or entrepreneurial experiences, but they do not have to be necessarily related to working environment as a manager.

Hope it helps,
Anto

Hello there,

There are 3 primary differences on the interviews among the 3 firms:

1. Interview style: Typically, Roland Berger and Bain would utilize "interviewee-led" case across all their interviews. McKinsey would commonly use "interviewer-led" case for their first rounds and "interviewee-led" case for the subsequent rounds.
2. Case format: Roland Berger and McKinsey use 1-on-1 "oral" case interview throughout all sessions. Bain uses 1-on-1 "oral" case interview for their early rounds and a "written" case for their final round.
3. Industry / function topics: Roland Berger is very strong in operations sector (e.g. manufacturing, production, energy & power generation, automotive, capital goods). Bain is a leading entity in financial sector, particularly Private Equity / Investment Banking (a lot of due diligence project). McKinsey is typically stronger across the board with strong proficiency across social sector (govenrment projects), infrastucture, energy, basic materials, TMT & digital, and financial sector.

Hope it helps.

Kind regards,
Nathan

Hi,

It really depends on when do you have a market sizing question. There can be two options:

• Market sizing as a standalone case (You ask relevant clarifying questions (e..g. to exclude b2b) make a very detailed structure. Use 2-3 deep segmentations while solving the case, etc)
• Market sizing in the middle of the case (You do it as fast a possible - 80/20, capacity / occupancy instead of complex segmentations)

It's less about different types of the problems but rather about the tools that you use:

1) First of all, there are 2 ways to structure market sizing:

• Formula - basically a math formula to come up with a solution. The problem with the formula is that it is easy to forget something or get lost.
• Tree - same as with regular cases you build a tree. A very simple example: you need to calculate the number of dogs on manhattan. A number of dogs = share of households having a dog * # of households. # of households = population / average household size. In the end, you'll have a pyramid where you have to fill the numbers on the base of the pyramid. This approach is much easier and help you track all the numbers

2) You should learn the key market sizing techniques:

• Making assumptions based on personal experiences (Use the example of your house where out of 100 apt-s 10 have dogs)
• Adjusting numbers (NY is a busy city thus fewer people have dogs)
• Sanity check - try to apply your calculations to the real environment
• etc.

3) You should learn the key tools:

• Using age even age split (suppose life expectancy is 80 years. Assuming even age split we have 4 mln people in US of each age)
• Using 80/20 split (suppose 20% people earn 80% wealth and the average salary is xx...)
• Using approximations (Length of NY-SF flight and plane speed to calculate US length)
• etc.

4) Learn key numbers: populations, gas price, gas consumption, Boeing speed and nmber of seats, average salary, # of gates in the airport, GDP growth rate, inflation, etc.

5) Practice 10-15 cases and you'll be fine. Almost all casebooks have good market sizing examples and the solutions

Feel free to PM for clarifications

Good Luck!

Hello and congrats!

Don´t be mistaken, working hours don´t not be necesarily better in tier 2. However, for sure salary and exit options are worse.

For me it´s a no brainer!!

Hi Moose,

As a former BCG consultant at the Dubai office, I can tell you that you need to wait a minimum of 12 months to apply again.

Even if you attempt to apply via a referral by a principal/partner, you would need to mention that your application was recently rejected, and you need to leave them to make a decision regarding submitting your application or not.

In rare circumstances, the typical ban period of 12 months can be waived (which happened to me as well, when I only waited about 9 months), thus it may be worth trying, but I wouldn't get my hopes high.

Best,

Deniz

Hello!

ATM coaching people for McKinsey Bogotá.

I don´t agree with what the rest of the coaches say: the process is slightly different from the one in Europe (particularly the FIT part)

Best,

Clara

Hello!

You have nothing to worry about: the application is not only grades and averages, but it´s considered as a wholistic thing. There are no such things as "below X GPA they don´t even consider you, they only hire the top 20% of the class, etc.". If your reasons are good, this won´t be a problem.

As you mentioned, the cover letter is the place to talk about those mitigating circumpstances that you mention.

Cheers!

Hi!

It's totally fine. Just call ther recruiter to check

Best!

Hi,

I suppose your question is: will I have a better chance to get an offer if I choose an internship over a full-time role?

If I understand your question well, my experience is that it is usually easier to get an offer for an internship role given the less competition and the lower number of case interviews. And you can do your best while working as an intern to receive a full-time offer.

Best,

Deniz

Hi,
I am totally with you: during the preparation, it is crucial to focus on case interview but also on the fit part, which will influence even the rest of the interview (i.e. the case).

Congrats for getting the offer :)

All the best,
Antonello

Hello Ishani,

Consulting CV typically have specific characteristics which are standardized across all firms.

When you have a tailored CV for one of the MBB firms, the same document can be used effectively across all other consulting firms, with the exception if you are applying to a specific practice or as an expert in a particular industry or function.

Kindly find below an example of a CV structure which is suited for consulting:

1. Display achievements across 3 key areas:

• Academics: competitive GPA, test scores (e.g. GMAT, GRE, SAT), scholarships/ fellowships, dean list, research publications, other and academic awards
• Extracurriculars: experiences on winning a variety of competitions and leading several organizations / initiatives (showcasing your interests and flexibility across different topics, which simulates consultants ability to work across industries and functions)
• Professionals: internship experiences, full-time work experiences, part-time projects

2. For extracurriculars and professional experiences, state the following information:

• Work description in active verbs
• Results quantification (e.g. 20% increase in EBITDA)
• Stakeholders involved

3. Includes additional information / interesting skillset which might differentiates you from other candidates (e.g. hobbies, language skills, etc)

• Consulting firms like candidates that is active not only at work, but have life outside of it
• Including this will assure them that you have a comprehensive profile as a person and will aid in excelling the 'airport test'

For specific expertise applications, emphasize experiences on the particular industries and functions within your CV while retaining similar structure.

Hope it helps.

Kind regards,

Nathan

Hi Alex,

Hope you are well.

Congratulations for getting invited for PST / Imbellus test. This means you have successfully passed the CV screening phase, which is a significant hurdle in itself.

To answer your questions:
1) I believe this is not the case. Getting invited over a PST means you have already passed the CV screening. Given the very large pool of McKinsey prospective candidates who goes through CV screening and PST, the HR team would unlikely have the team to categorize the profiles in terms of priorities, unless for a clearly distinctive ones.

Even considering this, the fact that you have been invited to sit on the PST within a very short timeframe previously would actually indicates you are on the priority pool.

What causes the delay is the rescheduling request you have asked to the team. Again, mind that there are enormous number of profiles going through CV screening and PST. If one profile cannot attend a session, they would still need to process the other profiles waiting on the pipeline, hence the profile that requested rescheduling, will need to be pushed to the back.

This action in effect displayed meritocractic traits of the Firm, where they treat everyone equally at the PST stage. Rescheduling of one profile should not mean pushing back the long array of other profiles on the queue.

2) Yes, you will. The HR team had to process a great number of profiles on the pipeline, hence delays for rescheduling is to be expected. Also, it is completely fine to follow-up and remind them occassionally, as it would serve as a reminder to them and easen up their workload. Since it has been 3 weeks, reaching out to them at once is advisable.

3) I do know a number of prospective candidates and Firm members who experienced similar situation in the recruitment process.

Fingers crossed you will get a confirmation on the test soon.
Hope it helps.

Kind regards,
Nathan

Hi,

The best way to prepare is the following:

1. Prepare for a regular case interview - it helps a lot. Basically, prep lounge website is about it
2. Practice making slides. Look for publically available MBB presentations for reference. Good books are "Pyramid Principle" and "How to make it with charts"
3. Practice reading cases fast and prioritizing the information. I found useful two sources:

• Written cases you'll be able to find in google or in case books. I've seen a couple in "Vault Guide to the Case Interview" and "Insead Business Admission Test"
• Harvard cases - either buy or try to find online. You can find a couple of MIT cases here for free: https://mitsloan.mit.edu/LearningEdge/Pages/Case-Studies.aspx Unfortunately free cases don't have the prep questions.

• I've uploaded some written case samples here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zor4m49eyx5qxal/AABeUN6mtiGkWhEklRjszX2Oa?dl=0 (ask me for a password)

While preparing for the panel discussion you'll have to:

• Read quickly the info provided and prioritize it
• Make the relevant calculations
• Create the mini-slides on the flipchart

Make sure that your presentation has the following:

• Slide for Context, Objective, Summary of Recommendations
• Slide for each analysis / area of analysis
• Next steps or risks & mitigation

Good luck!

Hi,

You can use them for the following points:

• Typical type of projects they do i.e. functional area and industry -> so that you know what to expect
• What he/she likes about the office -> so that you are sure of the culture (as it varies greatly as per the location of each consulting company)
• Any tips on the final rounds i.e. more emphasis on case vs. fit, partners you will be speaking with etc.

You can also ask if he/she can spare some time to do a mock interview with you so that you can get feedback and be better prepared for the interviews.

Best,

Deniz

Hi,

To address your questions:

• It is uncommon to ask for grades after the interview. But maybe the office you are applying to is following a certain procedure (say a digital form), where they need to input your grades
• I highly doubt that your grades will change the outcome

Best,

Deniz

Hi,

In addition to the insights provided by other experts here, I can also tell you that you can ask a question regarding the staffing model in the office (it's quite office-specific, thus it may not be possible to understand online). Staffing model would include the following:

• What are the typical industries and functional topics covered
• Whether you will have a say in being staffed in projects of your preference
• Whether the clients are typically in the same city, different city or country

Best,

Deniz

Hello Oisin,

BCG operations in this case might referes to the Operations practice within BCG's organizational metrics. Each MBB firms are organized around industrial and functional metrics within which specific project allocations, capability building, as well as knowledge development are conducted.

I presume the firm sees a strong correlation of your experiences as well as fit to the Operations practice, hence allocating you to a conversation with the specific practice. Note that for many of the firms, Operations constitutes the largest chunk of their revenue in recent years, even compared to the core corporate strategy function.

For your further reference, BCG does have other separate arms as follows:

• BCG Platinion: providing consulting services focused on the development and implementation of business-critical IT architecture and digital solutions
• BCG Gamma: advanced analytics and data science consulting arm

If your allocation is not within these other consulting arms, then you will be part of the core BCG consulting body, but rather than starting as a generalist, you'll be allocated to a specific practice since the beginning.

Hope it helps.

Kind regards,

Nathan