Past applicants: Is it harder to get interviews from Bain and BCG than Mckinsey? (PHD/MD/JD)

Aura0505:

From what I've seen/heard, McKinsey is the most non-MBA advanced degree friendly. Then BCG. Then Bain by a lot. Bain is relatively under developed with its APD recruiting/hiring - in the past 5-6 years, there's been like 2 PHD hires at my office.

Agree, I have friends in McK and they are hiring quite a few postgrad non-MBA, mostly in Operations and Business Technology. In my case at BCG, in consulting, is not common at all. In the Knowledge Team it is the least you have to have to get into, unless you provide a bunch of years of experience.

I would largely agree with this assessment with the exception of the 2nd paragraph. I think both BCG and McKinsey "need" ADC consultants. As both firms try to maintain "quality" while growing the quantity of consultants (which will be almost directly correlated with revenue) ADC candidates are the clear answer. Bain given its mix of studies may have a different personnel requirement.

RE: interview experience, I can only speak with 2nd hand information. I've heard BCG/McK had comparable processes(touch points, smoothness, responsiveness, etc.) and the interview/case experiences were in line with above.

EHP72:

I'll answer this from the perspective of someone who went through recruiting last year and had friends at the same institution and other schools do the same.

McKinsey interviews a ton of people - the number of people they fly out for just 1 day to take a test (for IWIA) is pretty crazy to me but just goes to show the investment they put into recruitment. Their system in general is very smooth and robust from many years of experience in APD intake and it is evident in all three rounds.

I would say a BCG interview is slightly more difficult to get - both because they don't have the infrastructure to handle the McKinsey-sized interview classes and also don't need the McKinsey-sized ADC consultant classes. At the same time, they are clearly making the effort to close the gap and put more resources into ADC recruiting. I was especially impressed by the amount of effort they put into candidates between rounds in feedback and future prep.

I agree with Aura that the Bain system is not nearly as developed as the other two - they are smaller and maybe the amount of work they do in the FS/PE space places even more weight on MBA recruitment.

Lastly, comparing the interview process of McKinsey and BCG, I think they're equally difficult. Cases in BCG interviews are more difficult because they are interviewee led, while fit in McKinsey interviews are more difficult because their PEI system requires many direct probe questions that drive at specific qualities they look for but make it less of a conversation than a traditional fit interview.