Bain waitlist vs. McKinsey exploding offer (NA)
I am in a very privileged position to have received a McKinsey offer for the associate position in NA. Previously, I had attended the Bain summer program for advanced degrees but unfortunately bombed the final case interview and did not receive an FT offer. The recruiting manager communicated that I was placed on a pseudo-waitlist and that they will reach out to me at the end of August or early September. Now I am in a bind. I know it is easy to just accept the McKinsey offer and never look back, but Bain has always been my top choice and I really felt at home with all the Bainies during my mini internship. My interactions with McKinsey have so far been more business-focused/professional, which is fine but I just didn’t feel the sort of connections that I had at Bain. Therefore, I have two questions for the more experienced folks here -
1. Would it be possible/smart to leverage the McKinsey offer to try to push Bain HR or would this seem unprofessional?
2. Since the McKinsey offer “expires” in two weeks, would it be an option to ask for an extension? How bad would it be to accept the offer but eventually renege?
Thanks in advance for any tips or suggestions!
"A Bird in the Hand is Worth Two in the Bush"
You'd be an idiot to not take the McK offer. Once (IF) you get the Bain offer, you can then start comparing. Until that, just be happy that you broke into MBB during these times. Also - Congratulations!
You say "I really felt at home with all the Bainies during my mini internship" and "My interactions with McKinsey have so far been more business-focused/professional, which is fine but I just didn’t feel the sort of connections that I had at Bain".
For what it's worth thought, the Mckinsey people liked you more....because they put their money where their mouth was and gave you an offer. Bain didn't.
So as much as the "feels" are one thing...the best gauge of real feels is an offer.
That’s overly simplifying. At the likes of Bain or McK, it takes one single skeptical opinion to go from “offer” to “denied”.
It could be that the person who happened to interview you at that specific time had a particularly bad day. It could be that you got a case interview about casinos and your fellow candidate just happened to know much more about casinos than you. Etc.
A rejection doesn’t mean that the whole firm (and more specifically, the people at the firm) doesn’t / don’t like you or that your feelings about them is an flawed—that’s bs and way too short-sighted.
100% ask Bain how much longer you can expect to wait to hear back form them, and mention you have a competing offer from McKinsey (also tell them when it expires). Mentioning that will definitely motivate them to give you an answer! And if they still don't, you're not losing anything since you still have McKinsey.
If you were more hesitant between Bain and McKinsey the answer might have been to just take McKinsey, but it sounds like you feel you're a better fit at Bain, and that's important!
I used to work at Bain and my POV is you should absolutely tell them you have an offer with McKinsey that expires on X date, but would really prefer to work at Bain because of its culture. Probably the two more important things Bain cares about in its recruiting process are: 1) They get candidates to choose them based on culture and 2) They don't lose high-caliber candidates to McKinsey/BCG. If you tell them about the McK offer, they'll get get back to you with a decision by the expiration date. Could still be a no, but you should tell them.
Thanks everyone for the advice - I really appreciate it!!! I ended up receiving and accepting the Bain offer! Without going into too much detail, I wanted to my experiences throughout the process in case it would be helpful to others in the future -
Thanks again for all the helpful advice telling me to be honest about my situation to Bain - it was really really helpful to me. I would be happy to share some more specifics of my situation on a more individual bases if that would be helpful!
I'd be curious to know what were your deciding factors in choosing Bain over McKinsey/BCG (not sure if BCG was in the picture)? How did you make your decision? For someone also deciding between offers :)
Don't know who threw the MS since this is a valid question.
I applied to the Bridge to BCG program (which is BCG's version of the three-five day summer program available to advanced degrees) but unfortunately, didn't get invited. All the BCG people I've met were really nice and friendly so frankly, I really don't know what I would have picked if BCG was in the equation. It also seems like BCG, at least for now, are not recruiting for any advanced degrees outside of its bridge program participants so while I did apply, I have not heard back at all and am not too optimistic.
Regarding factors for the Bain vs. Mckinsey decision, I guess the biggest factor was just the people I met. Rationally, I know that each company has good and bad apples and it is sometimes up to luck on which people you meet during the limited recruiting process. However, the sense of comradery I felt with Baines just wasn't there in my interactions with Mckinsey and thats what eventually drove my decision.
Another factor that was unique for me was mentors. Some of my friends and mentors are in IB/PE or some form of finance and through my discussions with them regarding consulting - they all spoke very highly of Bain in terms of culture, network, and type of work (many of them were ex-Bain). While PhDs are often taught to "not care about money", it is an important consideration for me and my family. I wanted to keep that door to finance open and Bain seemed like the best path for that. I know Mckinsey is also great for finance exits, but I kept having a (somewhat irrational) fear that I was going to be only assigned to life-science projects since that's what my PhD is on. Bain feels more generalist? Actually I don't know too much about this - it was just the feeling I got during recruiting.