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

Hi Anonymous,

I don't think there are black and white answers, it depends.

Why were you rejected? Did you maybe apply for any special program for which there was no vacancy left?

Best regards
Marco-Alexander

Hi Anonymous,

6-8 months is definitely unusual for MBB, however some offices may have a longer timeline due to lack of projects in pipelines. There is no regular schedule related to when you may have a first and final round in that timeline. Some of the candidates I helped had to wait several months between the two rounds, but you may also have to wait a few months for the first round and then have the final right after that.

The best thing you can do to speed up the process is to apply to other companies as well, if you manage to get an offer from a top competitor, McKinsey will likely accelerate the process.

Hope this helps,

Francesco

Absolutely not! There are instead lots of initiatives to make sustainable the work-life balance (e.g. part-time, extra time-off, maternity leave).

In most countries MBB reach 50% BA women and organize women events for applicants (e.g. look for "McKinsey women lunch" around you).

Best,

Antonello

Hi,

Each office has it's own deadlines, so you should check it with the local recruiters

Best!

Hi there, sharing some of my views from personal experience.

Mentally, don't overthink it about male vs female. For any consultant, your work speaks for you. Gender doesn't matter that much. I worked in Industry Goods practice mostly. A lot of times I found myself the only female in the room with another 10-15 males during the steering co meeting. It is sad to see that and I think the clients should do something about it. But at the same time, people focus on the content, the work we produce, not whether it is presented by a male or female.

Admittedly in some occasions in a male dominated space, there might be small things that could make a female uncomfortable, e.g. more F-words and cursing during work esp when things get touch. As long as it is not personal, don't take offend. Telling them directly in the face if the male colleagues are making you uncomfortable, is actually more acceptable than you might think. Just be "thick-skin" as they could be.

In action, if you are a small size lady like I am (5.2ft), you can consider using some simple tips to create more "presence" in the room. E.g. using wider hand gestures when speaking, standing up during presentation instead of sitting, etc.

Not big difference when it comes to networking etc.

Be proud as a female consultant!

To add to the points already here, some things to keep in mind

1. Be genuine : I cannot tell you the number of times I hear things like I take on too much work or I like being perfect in my outcome. These dodge the real question which is what do you need to work on to improve. No one is perfect so giving the impression that you are is not helpful. Some examples I did like include - I can be reserved/shy especially in group settings and the way I am approaching that is to do xx and yy. That shows both self awareness and genuine desire to improve on your weaknesses. You need to spend actual time thinking through your weaknesses and finding those that are genuine. Make sure you run the answer a few times past a friend or someone in the industry to get their feedback.

2. Think about how best to phrase it - don't just state a weakness, give the context as to how you learned about it (maybe at a review, maybe someone told you that), the impact it had on you and how you are addressing it

3. To re-iterate do not pick ones that are crucial to consulting such as - not enjoying working in a team environment, not good at analysis etc.

All the best,

Udayan

Hi Anonym,

I worked at BCG until recently.

If you like, we can have a call on it? Feel free to write me.

Best regards

Marco-Alexander

Hi,

I have uploaded both test samples here (Online test is about airlines). I've also added BCG written case sample (Next round) and Bain written case:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zor4m49eyx5qxal/AABeUN6mtiGkWhEklRjszX2Oa?dl=0

(PM me for a password)

As for particular recommendations for online test:

1. Try to find as many people in your country as you can who have done the test. Ask them for the topic, industry, and questions they remember. For example in one of the countries there was a test about airlines and reading a couple of articles / company reports / wikipedia articles with industry terms could significantly improve performance
2. Try to practice tests with strict time-management. McKinsey PST from the official web site and all mck and bcg -like tests you can find online
3. Additional resources can be GMAT Integrated reasoning from the official guides and apps if you feel that you are not p[erforming well
4. As far as I remember calculator is allowed on BCG test. Make sure you know how to simplify calculations and use it fast

Best!

I assume you gonna have at least two interviews each at least half an hour but usually it takes longer. Normally, they’d provide you with two ordinary case studies and, in addition, an online-case. Be aware of brief math tests since they are very popular there. And what your interviewers love to ask you in order to throw you off the track is whether you remember having a huge problem in your life and how you managed to solve this specifically.

One of my clients went through this in the Munich office just a few weeks ago (and yes, she got an offer). The real life portion of the interviews were 3 12-minutes live cases where you basically have to think on your feet and do these mini-cases in a very short amount of time. As far as I can tell, this is brand new since earlier clients (think 6 months ago) only told me of a written portion.

Without much specific intel on the live cases, I'd expect the scenarios and expected answers to be very similar to a normal case, just without the benefit of time to think and write down your framework on paper.

Congrats on getting a 2nd round - this indicates BCG already believes you can do the work. At this stage in the process, you are probably 1 in 20; the final round is just a way for additional BCGers to look at you again and decide among 3 or 4 people who the lucky candidate who receives an offer will be.

Good luck!

Guennael (ex-BCG Dallas)

Hy Anonymous

I am in a similar situation here in France and I think that one big asset of BCG is the fact that they communicate towards scientists, and particularly towards PhDs. Thus:

1) we can see that the firm values the skills that we developed during our scientific projects. As they are already used to recruitig scientists we can hope that once inside:

1.1 - our skills will fit to the firm's needs

1.2 - the firm will provide training in the areas that we lack knowledge

2) there is a big proportion of PhDs working at BCG, thus once we are recruited we know that we will easily integrate the team, and we will have many people to talk to if we need to seek advice, and thus we will work more efficiently

This is my point of view but maybe someone who works / has worked for them will argue differently

Good luck with your interview!

Hi,

There are 2 types of BCG tests:

1. GMAT-like test with questions similar to GMAT
2. Online Test that is based on a case and has the questions closer to PST

I have uploaded both test samples here (Online test is about airlines). I've also added BCG written case sample (Next round) and Bain written case:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zor4m49eyx5qxal/AABeUN6mtiGkWhEklRjszX2Oa?dl=0

As for particular recommendations for online test:

1. Try to find as many people in your country as you can who have done the test. Ask them for the topic, industry, and questions they remember. For example in one of the countries there was a test about airlines and reading a couple of articles / company reports / wikipedia articles with industry terms could significantly improve performance
2. Try to practice tests with strict time-management. McKinsey PST from the official web site and all mck and bcg -like tests you can find online
3. Additional resources can be GMAT Integrated reasoning from the official guides and apps if you feel that you are not p[erforming well
4. As far as I remember calculator is allowed on BCG test. Make sure you know how to simplify calculations and use it fast

Best!

The reason why BCG potential test is so difficult is because of the time constraint.

So what I did was work on any questions from the BCG potential test I could find and try to solve them super quickly. For example, this question should be solved in 30 seconds

"One of the biggest global airlines has decided to buy new aircrafts. The ratio of first class, business and economy seats in the new aircrafts will be 1 to 3 to 8 and the total number of seats will be 240.

Average ticket prices for popular destinations are expected to be €700 for first class, €300 for business and €150 for economy. The average duration of these flights is 3 hours.

First and business customers get free Wi-Fi on board but economy customers need to pay €2 / hour to use Wi-Fi.

Assuming that only 5% of economy customers use Wi-Fi all the time, what are the expected revenues from a flight to a popular destination using a new aircraft at its full capacity?

1. €56,048
2. €56,016
3. €56,480
4. €56,160"

Good luck on the test!

Hey Margherita,

I've done the BCG on-line test at the end of Sept within my university (Politecnico).There was no numerical test, only a study case with 23 questions / 45 min (or less).

Each question had multiple choice answers, and you had info material whit charts and data to read from - no calculator allowed.

Personally I found it tricky and quite difficoult, especially for the small amount of time available. After all I achieved a great "mark" and now I am through the recruiting process.

If you need further info PM me!

Carlo

Hi,

your profile is great! Nobody cares about highschool. GPA is important in MBB, but they evaluate your last experience, i.e. your PhD and maybe the MD graduation.

For any other doubt about your CV and Cover Letter, feel free to PM me. I have helped tenths of candidates in impactful preparation on it, based on the best applications I have seen these years.

Best,

Antonello

Hi,

I worked with trainees from Beijing, and I did not encounter a "mini-case" before. Most likely, it would be a short market sizing question given the small amount of time allocated.

Best,

Deniz

Hi Anonym,

I worked at BCG until recently.

If you like, we can have a call on it? Feel free to write me.

Best regards

Marco-Alexander

Hi Anonym,

normally, there is a personal fit part and a case part:

I would prepare the personal fit part and think about your answers. However, I think it does not make sense to read something from your notes. This would not have a good effect.

The case is always individual, but you can use some modular structure blocks, which will help you to get a good structure for almost every case. I train my coachees, who have problems in structuring, with a special checklist for this. They learn structuring really quickly and effectively in this way. However, it also would not make sense to use some notes here. You should really learn the approach to use it effectively (also regarding your other interviews).

Thus, I think notes would not give you an advantage here. The relaxed atmosphere of conducting an interview at home will be your advantage. Good luck for your interview!

Best regards

Marco-Alexander

Hi,

I would advise applying for the internship position for the following reasons:

• The difficulty of the internship interview will be lower (as the expectations are lower)
• The competition you will get will be less severe (as you won't compete with lateral hires, only uni students with limited experience just like you)
• You will have the chance to apply again next year if you are rejected (which happened to me as well, my internship application was declined, but I was invited for FT interviews next year)
• If you have the chance to do your internship with them, you can convert this to a FT offer if you perform well

Best,

Deniz