Recruitment of Junior Attorneys

In addition to the previous comment, I would add that, as for all the fit interview questions, it would be important to have a proper structure to apply in the answer. A good framework for the classical “Which are your three top weaknesses” would be the following:

1. Say which is a "good" weakness, that is, a weakness which is not a red flag (you may also use terminology as “One of my points of improvement”, instead of “My first weakness is” to soften it a bit);
2. Say what you are doing to improve on it, giving a concrete example (eg, don’t simply say “I am working on it”, but rather “I am doing XYZ and ABC in order to get better in this”).

Choosing the right words, this framework could help you to deliver a good impression and show proactivity for several weaknesses. Let's make an example for someone who would actually consider himself/herself a perfectionist, using though different words and this structure:

One of my point of improvement is that sometimes I tend to dig into too many details in a particular task, eg for something that may be done in 1h at "ok" level, I may spend 1h30m or 2h, trying to cover more details. That’s not always the best thing to do.

There is something that I am doing to improve on that. Every day, before going to sleep, I write down the three top things I should do the next day, allocating the time to do them. When I am in the middle of the first thing I would naturally have the tendency to be willing to spend more time than the one allocated. However, since I committed to do other things in advance, this often allows me to stick to the time committed. I still have to improve on it, but I am confident I can get better in the next months applying this method.

The main issue for many candidates would be to identify the weakness to use at point 1. So, how can you find a proper weakness?

The best way to find a “good” weakness is to avoid standard answers (so yes, it would be better not to use the previous one either;)). Rather, it would be more useful to go through the following approach to identify real weaknesses:

1. Write down a list of all your weaknesses.
2. Eliminate those who would be clear red flags in consulting (all those you may not be able to change quickly or ever – eg no fluency in a certain language, no strong education background/ relevant experience - or clear problems in consulting – eg missing deadlines, poor communication with teammates, not being on time).
3. Think how you could actually improve on the remaining. Select the best three and apply the previous structure.

This should allow you to have “natural” weaknesses to use, which would also show personal improvement.

Hope this can be helpful.

Best,

Francesco

Hi,

The general framework for pricing is: Cost base - Value based - Competitor based - pricing strategy

1. Cost based - you actually check what are the costs and apply standard industry / target markup

2. Value based pricing can be done in 2 ways:

• For existing products you compare the value proposition and features of your product vs. the VP of your competitors. If you have a significant difference in value prop - you have to define how much value you propose to the customer in $ terms.
• For new products you have to calculate the value of the closest alternatives and think how much additional value we provide by replacing them. Think of the discount airlines compared to trains or buses

3. Competitor based pricing - basically it's benchmarking against competitors. Make sure you take into account the segment (i.e. in premium higher price may be the proxy for quality)

4. Pricing strategy - here you define how you will price the product taking into account 1,2,3 and your company strategy. Maybe you decide to have a zero margin if you can crossell other services. Or maybe you would like to subsidize to win the competition. Also think of price differentiation and having different pricing tiers (e.g. basic, premium or even fremium) and how it helps to drive price perception and fulfill strategic goals

Good luck!

Hi,

1) You proactively ask in the beginning, even before drawing the structure (something like "What kind of products / revenue sources do we have) and then split the structure into price, qty, product mix. Distribution and customers I usually check within qty part

2) Not sure if I understand the question. Your company does not necessarily replicate industry trend, so you have to look at it separately

Hi Kay,

this is indeed one of the fundamental things that you need to learn in order to rigorously disaggregate the value drivers of a business. The driver tree allows you to identify the numerical drivers and sub-drivers of profits. The qualitative elements (such as consumer demand, market structure, company operations, etc.) then have to be mapped to the sub-branches of the tree!

Hence, your analysis has two steps. Imagine you want to run a diagnostic on why profits have fallen. First you need to identify the numerical driver of the problem (e.g., customer base is shrinking). This gives you an understanding of the WHAT. The second step is the understanding of the WHY! To do this, you have to examine the qualitative elements that link to the "number of customers"-sub-branch in your driver tree (e.g., competitive situation, market entries, new substitutes, relative price point, customer preferences, product/service properties vs. competition, etc.)

You can think of these qualitative elements as the typical business situation framework elements (see V. Cheng et al.) - but here, they are not hanging in the air, but they are embedded in a rigorous thinking frame which emerges from the disaggregation of value drivers and linking it to qualitative reasons.

Cheers, Sidi

Hi Anonymous,

I do not have direct experience with the recruiting process with Bain London, so I will leave to someone else to provide specific information on the timeline for the first round. I wanted instead to recommend you two things that may be useful for your current and future applications:

1. As also mentioned by Oleksandr, you may want to call the recruiter at the office and ask for the status of your application if they do not provide feedback after one month (in my experience that should be a sufficient time). This will not give you any negative result, while could be beneficial in some cases. As an example, after my application at Oliver Wyman initially I did not receive any feedback. After approximately one month I called the recruiter and asked which was the status of my application. She looked at my CV while we were talking over the phone, she liked it (it sounded she actually never saw it before) and invited me on the spot for an interview. In the end I received an offer from Oliver Wyman, and I am pretty sure that if I would have not called them that day I would still be waiting for a reply.
2. You may want to try to find a referral for your future applications to help you in the process. This will allow you to increase the chances to receive an invitation for an interview and also to have someone in the company that may follow up HR asking for news in case they do not provide feedback on the application process. As mentioned in a previous post, there is a specific method to receive a referral, even when you do not have any current contacts in a firm. The steps are:

• Identify who are the people who could more easily help you
• Write them a customized cold email
• Have a call with the consultant, and indirectly ask for a referral

Each of the previous steps should be structured in a proper way to maximize the chances of moving to the next one. I applied this method, and managed to get six invitations out of six applications for McKinsey, Bain, BCG, Oliver Wyman, Roland Berger and Strategy&.

Hope this helps.

Francesco