2018 APD MBB Full Time Recruiting

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Chicago Bain is sending out interview invites currently (as in I got one 10 minutes ago). Looks like their interview day is August 24. Not sure about other offices. Best of luck to all!

Adding some more stats so people in the future might find it helpful (and hopefully encouraging!)

Background: Liberal arts undergrad (very much non-target), PhD STEM Target

McKinsey: Insight participant, 1st round early September, final round very end of September. Offer same day.

BCG: Had interview for Bridge and was not successful, invited to early 1st round despite this. 1st round mid-July, 2nd round Late August, Offer same day

Bain: Applied out of the blue right before the deadline. First round late august, final round 1 week later, turned down 3 weeks later (not sure why, but there was no way I would take the offer even if I got one, so not going to worry about it!)

Things that I think can really help you stand out in interviews: Building connections with your interviewers as quickly as possible, pausing during fit interviews to let them interject, writing out equations for your math and explain reasoning out loud, and taking time to think after every question(esp. with McKinsey).

Also, don't be overly forward/intense/combative. This comes off to me (and from what I've heard to others and interviewers) as very off putting. You definitely want to be excited, but listen to what your interviewer is saying. Don't be defensive if they challenge you on something (decent chance you made a mistake so listen!!). In my first round at BCG, I made slight math mistakes in both interviews, but I picked up the hints from my interviewers that I'd missed something, and was able to fix the issue quickly. In my feedback, they mentioned how they loved that I did that and was able to quickly adjust. I know that Bain also really values this.

Some things that I found very helpful in my prep 1) Practicing with as many people as possible, and then figuring out who you mesh well with (and who gives good feedback/isn't combative) 2) Meeting with career people at the university to go over fit stories 3) Practicing stories out loud to myself 4) Speaking with as many consultants as possible for tips but also this can really flesh out the question why company X? or why consulting?

If you don't have an econ or a business background (I did an econ major in undergrad and my school has a mini-MBA program for STEM Phds), I would definitely make sure you're familiar with some basic concepts. I've talked to a few people who got rejected because they made some conclusions that didn't make business sense, so just work on building that intuition!

As for how people have done in general...I know a few people with Bain offers out of Advantage, two other BCG so far, and one McKinsey. But I'm in the midwest though, and McKinsey is still doing 1st round interviews there and quite a few BCG ones (both 1st and final) are still going on too.

Best of luck to everyone this year and in future years!