Following are tips from a BCG new hire that you might find useful in your case interview prep.
I would just like to thank you very much for the wonderful resources you have provided on your website. I have just begun work for BCG in Australia and I would not have gotten through the case process without your help.
I applied outside the main recruiting period (BCG takes applicants all year round) and so my process was dragged across 3 months. I had three rounds with two case interviews in each.
The last two rounds were via video conference. Interestingly, I’ve found a lot of colleagues have applied off cycle, and this is fairly common.
In particular, I found your case videos and frameworks to be very useful. They provided me with a great foundation of knowledge. Equipped with your structures, I personalized and developed them to suit my own style.
With more and more practice I found myself becoming less and less reliant on the frameworks and I tended to create my own. However, if I was ever completely stuck, I came back to these and they provided a good way forward.
Interestingly, in my final round interviews, with one partner, rather than looking at a business case, we analyzed organizational challenges that I had faced in a youth organization that I had led.
This was completely different to anything that I had done before, and it was a sort of ‘role play’ where I had to brief the interviewer in what I saw as the biggest current organizational challenges.
We then spoke about how I could address these, how I had addressed past challenges and, in some way,it was an analysis of how I had used ‘consulting thinking’ to solve problems in the past.
From what I’ve heard this is fairly common in the final round and partners often like to pick things out of candidate’s CV’s and flesh these into a case.
Some of my key learnings:
Don’t be scared to ask for clarification and/or help during the cases. My interviewers were extremely friendly, supportive and happy to assist. Even if you don’t know the meaning of an obvious term, get it clarified rather than proceeding ahead.
With video conference interviews, remember to look at the camera (rather than the screen) as far as possible.
Be bold, honest, and embrace your unique experiences and what you have to bring. Rather than going for the typical answer, seek ways to be creative and give out of the box responses.
Toward the start I was a little apprehensive about this- as I thought there was a ‘consulting mold’ that companies were looking for, but I soon realized that diversity and the different perspectives that come with this is truly valued.
My diverse and non-traditional experiences were some of my greatest assets (e.g. rather than interning during my summers, I had travelled, run projects overseas, etc.) So definitely embrace all your experiences.
Thank you again Victor, the time and effort you put into CaseInterview.com is very much appreciated. I have passed your website to many friends who have or are planning to apply for management consulting jobs and I am sure they will benefit greatly also!