Breaking into firms with referrals

Which of the firms are easier to break in through referrals for full-time recruiting? Anyone have any experience? and for consulting does it matter office location to location?

13 Comments
 
FrabjousBCG - referral gets you the first round. No less, no more.

McKinsey - referral gets you the first round (test) and also provides some fuel for follow-up interviews (referr...ee? has to write "why he/she is suited to McKinsey"). Don't know if it's worth something.

Bain - no idea.

Not true in my experience. I had a referral at Mck and didn't even get 1R. No referrals at Bain/BCG and I got an offer.

"'In summary, people are morons and who cares. Make a shit ton of money. I've never seen a Ferrari paid for by what people think.' - ANT" -rufiolove
 
acronym
FrabjousBCG - referral gets you the first round. No less, no more.

McKinsey - referral gets you the first round (test) and also provides some fuel for follow-up interviews (referr...ee? has to write "why he/she is suited to McKinsey"). Don't know if it's worth something.

Bain - no idea.

Not true in my experience. I had a referral at Mck and didn't even get 1R. No referrals at Bain/BCG and I got an offer.

I am not surprised that you got the call from Bcg/Bain without referral - it's not like a referral is a must and I said nothing about that.

I am kind of surprised by McKinsey not calling you, though...when I got one, the guy (Engagement Manager level) was pretty sure I would get called. As your resume must have been strong, it wasn't even an issue of referral not being sufficient to overcome a bad resume...so dunno. McKinsey has some weird HR practices sometimes (as in, saying that they are hiring when they are not).

Or perhaps I was just wrong, lol.

OP: sorry, but know nothing about the Tier 2s. I could assume that them having less structured HR policies, there is a lot of volatilty among offices/partners/period...a referral may get you nothing in some cases and 50% hired in others...dunno.

 

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