BCG Perks
Keen to know what kind of perks and expense policy i can expect at BCG London. Have heard it's more lenient than McKinsey and Bain.
- Can I expense dinners and taxis home after a certain time? Would a taxi home cover an hour journey from the office? Does it have to be from the BCG office/client site?
- Is there a protected evening each week i.e. leaving at 6pm on a Thursday? Is it largely respected if told about in advance?
- What's the expense policy like for travelling?
- On projects involving travel, do you fly business class/stay in 5* hotels? Or is it usually Economy class and a decent 3 or 4* hotel?
Based on the most helpful WSO content, here’s what you can expect regarding perks and expense policies at BCG:
Dinners and Taxis Home:
Protected Evenings:
Travel Expense Policy:
Additional Perks:
If you’re looking for a balance of flexibility, perks, and a supportive culture, BCG is often highlighted as a strong choice.
Sources: 2019 MBB Comparison (Interview Process, Locations, Responsibilities, Perks...), Q&A - Leaving Deloitte Strategy Consulting After 2 Years, Q&A - Leaving Deloitte Strategy Consulting After 2 Years, What’s the difference between McK, Bain & BCG (serious question), Some Thoughts on Managing Multiple Offers (Consulting / MBB)
I was a partner in the US, not in London, so won’t attempt to address specifics.
But here’s the general guideline: you will be a highly paid professional. There is huge upside in the comp trajectory. It will always be higher NPV to spend time doing better at your job (thereby improving your chances of getting promoted) than trying to nickel-and-dime the expense policy.
People who spent time litigating “well, this uber ride to my girlfriend’s apartment cost the same as what it would have cost to go home” or whatever were never successful.
Hotels were driven 95% by availability and convenience rather than price. I do industrials, and I’ve stayed in a lot of shitty hotels, because that’s what’s in the small industrial towns where industrial companies are. When I was in a major metro I tried to stay in nice hotels.
I mean this in the kindest possible way — wondering about this stuff is not a good use of your time. Don’t try to game the expense policy. At best it puts a few quid in your pocket, at worst it gets you fired. Spend your time getting good at your job.
I could tell you were definitely not fun to work with.
The top 3 questions aren't about gaming the system, but making sure they are abiding by the rules / know how the expensing works
When I was an associate at another MBB firm, I didn't know what was allowed vs. not allowed at first and asked other people in my associate class - so I didn't pay for something I thought would be expensed and getting stuck with the bill, or erroneously filing expenses (which is a BIG headache).
If you live in the outer SF Bay Area but work in downtown SF, it's fair to ask if Ubers back home will be covered if it will be a 1 hr+ ride back home. Same if you live in Brooklyn and work in Manhattan.
These jobs are hard and there's a reason why they provide the benefits they do. After working a 12-14 hour day, it's great that these firms expense dinner and an Uber home for you.
I could tell you you’re wrong, but I probably shouldn’t bother.
I could tell you that I founded my own firm, that my old teams quit their jobs to come work with me, and that at my firm we literally don’t even bother with an expense policy beyond “don’t steal from the firm” but I suspect you’d just double down on being wrong, because my words made you feel bad.
The literal first sentence asks about how “lenient” the expense policy is. Context clues matter. These are questions about how much you can get away with. One of the questions asks if your cab ride home has to be from the office to home. Be honest with yourself.
You have a literal training on what’s allowed vs. not allowed during orientation, but yes, it’s entirely reasonable to have questions about the edge cases. What’s less reasonable is the mindset that BCG’s policy is “more lenient” than other firms. The expense policy is not intended to enrich you, it’s to make your difficult job less difficult while also complying with IRS guidelines (almost everything stupid about BCG expense policy, like you can’t expense a sandwich on your way home from the airport, is actually driven by tax law issues).
Sure, but within the same question there’s also an ask if that ride needs to be from the office to home.
That could be a reasonable question — what if you’re going to your girlfriend’s house, or what if you need to go to the hospital to see an ill family member, or whatever? The BCG I was a partner at would have said that’s absolutely fine, do what you need to do.
But it can also be a question about what you can get away with — I’ve had associates say “well I’m going out after work, so I’m going to expense an uber to the club since that would cost the same as what it would cost to go home”. That is an expense policy violation.
And here’s the thing — I don’t particularly care. An $80 uber doesn’t matter in the context of the firm’s revenues or the project budget. But ultimately, the client is the one paying that cost and they are not going to like the idea that they paid for a 24 year old associate to go to a nightclub on a Friday night.
No. That is a fundamental misunderstanding of how all this works.
These jobs are hard, so these firms have an expense policy that’s intended to make them less hard and give you fewer things to worry about. “These firms” don’t expense dinner — the clients do. The client pays for you to eat in the office because you’re there till 10pm cranking on work for them, not to be nice to you. They pay for the uber home because they want you to finish the work rather than leaving to catch the last train.
This distinction matters, because being a good steward of client dollars is why and how you buy yourself the flexibility to do things that are out of policy when they make sense. I’ve had folks spend $2500 on last minute domestic flights home from Ohio, and I defended them to the firm and to the client when the issue of policy violations was raised — there was a snowstorm and their original flights were cancelled and they had to buy last minute and that’s what was left, so they paid what it cost. But it’s hard to defend that to the client if the same person also expensed dinner for their girlfriend because “they went someplace cheap and it cost the same as what their usual dinner alone would have cost”.
You are spending the client’s money. You have an obligation to be worthy of their trust. Don’t ask how lenient the policy is, just follow the rules where possible and be reasonable where it’s not.
Get a life bro...who has time to write a full essay in the morning lmaoooo
OP here - I asked how lenient not to bend the policy but to just clarify whether the following would be allowed:
Hope that clears it up! Last question was just out of curiosity about hotels but was definitely not trying to bend any rules haha just trying to clarify the policies. Should have made it clearer in the original post!
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wtf? OP asked about the specifics about T&E policies on when is and/or is not appropriate to expense for certain items. You went on a tangential rant about going to some girl's apartment. Do you have reading comprehension issues? Given the fact you're a partner I would have expected you have the wherewithal to understand your applicable value-add.
What if I asked asked you what the dollar amount of per diem for meal reimbursement so it's not accidentally exceeded. To which you respond with "it's not the quality of the food but availability of food. The proceed to wax and wane about how you ate double patties McDonald burgers in backwater dumps, but lobster in metropolitan areas". Doesn't quite address the true underlying ask. Which firm do you consult for? Asking for prosperity so my firm don't accidentally hire you.
OP is asking about how to stretch the boundaries of the expense policy. That’s obvious to anyone with a modicum of reading comprehension.
Evidently, my reading comprehension issue is that unlike you, I actually have some.
I gave the most value-adding answer it’s possible to give. The fact that you don’t see that says more about you than it does about me.
What if your mom had wheels, would she be a bike? That’s not what OP asked. What OP actually asked was, “On projects involving travel, do you fly business class/stay in 5* hotels? Or is it usually Economy class and a decent 3 or 4* hotel?”
Amusingly enough, if you reconstruct OP’s question with this theme, your satirical answer is literally a direct answer to the question.
And FWIW, most BCG offices don’t (or at least didn’t when I was there) have a strict dollar limit for reimbursement. $100 might be a lot in bumfuck Iowa but insufficient in NYC. If you’re taking the client out and spending more than you would on dinner by yourself you could generally spend more and no one cared. The guideline was to be reasonable.
Don’t worry, I run my own shop and we’re sold out.
Came on this part of wso to make sure I made the right decision with going into banking over consulting. It did not take long for me to find a thread to satisfy that reassurance.
Yeah as shown by this former BCG partner, a lot of leadership in MBB firms is quite toxic. They hide behind a veil of "providing advice," but are just rude and fake.
There was nothing rude in my response and it’s the best advice OP will get.
Keep cranking on v176 of that CIM
For North America, meals and transport home are comped past 8.
When travelling, first class for 2+ hours and usually the nicest hotels are in policy. All meals and other misc transport are also comped.
There’s no strict dollar limit and the general guideline is be reasonable. Some cases/managers are tighter than others, but the general struggle will be keeping your weight down rather than affording a nice meal.
Ah makes sense- thanks for clarifying! Yeah haha would rather just have a decent hotel with a gym so I can keep in shape somehow lol
The partner's advice was spot-on for those mature enough to understand it. Juvenile responses by some posters suggest that those are not suited to professional responsibilities at this point.
They'll tell you all these things in your training week but people get fired for stretching expenses too far its not worth it (as people say above). The things you mention are all included (dinners, cabs, protected evenings)
Bruh nobody gets fired for expensing, unless you’re talking about expensing a 5000 Gucci bag or something. The policy is pretty generous. Even if you uber or order meal when ‘out of policy’ they don’t really audit and it’s very unlikely to get in trouble
BCG London perks: late-night meals/taxis, some protected evenings, economy travel with good hotels.
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