2015 McKinsey insight and BCG bridge2BCG status updates for APD/ADC!
Hi everyone,
Thought I'd start a thread for 2015 McKinsey insight and BCG bridge2BCG status updates for advanced degree candidates. From the past years's posts, I expect McKinsey and BCG to be scheduling their 1st round interviews in early May.
Please feel free to post updates and indicate which programs in which region you applied to!
invited to interview for Bridge Dallas. rejected from Insight engineering. Anyone know what to expect from Bridge phone interviews?
Bridge phone interview was all fit last year. Make sure you prepare some questions as well, I was given 10 minutes at the end to ask questions.
Yes I went to Bridge last year. It was a great experience and I really enjoyed it. The program consisted of a 3-day case study in groups of about 5. They add a consultant to each group to assist and answer any questions. We also had several talks from partners about the work that BCG does and they organized a bunch of panels to ask questions. The evenings are filled with social activities (drinks, dinners, other fun activities in the city).
A nice bonus of attending Bridge is that you will get an early interview (late August for me). The interview process was pretty standard. First round consisted of case and fit interviews with consultants/project managers. Second round you get the partners and my interview questions/cases became less structured. I ended up joining another consulting firm but I believe BCG is a fantastic place to work. Good luck!
Half of the interview will be fairly standard fit/experience questions. The case will be similar to the example on their website, definitely have a good understanding of the drug development process as it will invariably help with answering the case. You may also be asked your perspective on issues within the biotech/pharma industry so I recommend reading up on recent articles on Fierce biotech/pharma just to have something to discuss.
Hi, I work at an MBB, and attended one of these programs before interviewing and joining, about a couple of years ago.
These programs are actually very informative if are considering consulting, but are skeptical that this would be a good move for you. For me, the most interesting take-away was just how many non-MBA, academic-types were partners and in other leadership positions. I probably had a skewed understanding to begin with, but the program shattered the wall-street douche-bag stereotype.
Getting into these programs is quite competitive, so congrats if you made it. However, note that the majority of the program attendees do not get an offer. The main benefit is that you will be interviewing earlier, when they are yet to fill an entire class (actually, not an entire class, since the Summers receive offers a year in advance).
Most of the PhDs who applied for the program were actually rejected, and then offered positions during the regular interview process. So don't give up if you're not selected.
If you are invited to the program, and are very serious about consulting, you should start practicing cases. Note, however, that case practice is not needed at all for the program itself. Just that the interviews will start pretty soon (~ 1 month?) after the program, so it pays to be ready.
If you are invited to the program, you will most definitely be invited to interview in the first round. At my school, getting a first-round McKinsey interview was not a big deal, but getting a BCG interview was actually quite difficult. Note that I'm not at all saying that McKinsey is less competitive -- it is not. Just that McKinsey tends to apply its first big filter between the first and second rounds, while BCG applies it before the first rounds (there are only 2 rounds total).
Be nice and polite to the recruiting staff!!
Finally, business at my firm (and I'm sure the other two MBB) is very, very good these days. This is most definitely the best time to apply since the crisis, and probably the best time in the past decade.
Good luck