Q&A: Former Bain ACI / Incoming Bain AC
I've benefitted greatly from this forum the last two years and, given that recruiting/interviewing season is coming up, I'd like to pay it forward.
I interned in the private equity group last summer at one of the major offices (NYC/BOS/LA/SF/DC) and am returning to the same office. I recruited from a semi-target school. I interviewed with McK, BCG, Bain, Deloitte, PwC, and Simon-Kucher. I received offers from Bain and BCG. I did ~50 or so cases over the span of six months, which in hindsight was more than needed. I spent a year as a paid case interview coach, so I've run quite a few cases and given feedback on many resumes.
I'm happy to share my journey through recruiting, my internship experience, and nitty gritty stuff like benefits, firm culture, exits, etc. I'd appreciate if people avoided asking questions that can be answered in a five second Google search.
The consulting club at Cornell has a list of free resources here. Some people swear by one of the physical books for prep (Case Interview Secrets by Victor Cheng or Case in Point by Marc Cosentino) -- personally I wasn't a fan of them, but you can find a free PDF of Case in Point online pretty easily. Here's a link to the 7th edition.
Some case books have helpful intro guides/primers at the beginning. Here's Darden 2019 for example.
My favorite case books were Wharton 2008, 2010, and 2017, Kellogg 2011, and Darden 2019.