Hi!
I'm in the process, like many before me that attended a top-tier university, of determining which MBB company fits best with my personal preferences.
A standard thing to do is look on their website, but I find this not very helpful. All MBB use the same kind of terms, goals and description of their consultants on their websites..
So what would you guys suggest is a good way of finding out more about the culture within those companies? (besides doing an internship or speaking to actual employees of the firm)
Any useful websites/articles/books etc?
Thanks :)
You really have to meet with people at the firm to get a good sense of the culture. There's not any other good way. And, keep in mind that culture can vary from office to office even within a firm.
NoName is right, the variance in culture between each firm's offices is far greater than the variance in culture averaged across firms.
MBB all pulls from the same sources and all do roughly the same types of work. Everyone works hard, plays sort-of hard, the young folks like to hang out with each other on weekends, the older people are generally open to mentoring young people, etc.
Completely agree with the above - culture varies significantly with geography. Also looking at the websites will tell you absolutely nothing. You need to speak with people who work at the firms (and in the offices) that you are targeting.
I agree with all the comments above. I think you can also learn a lot about the culture of the firm from the interview process itself: from the campus events, to the recruiters and interviewers you meet - all the way to how the interview itself is actually carried out. Let me elaborate on the last bit:
With McKinsey, I was greeted at reception by the recruiter and led directly to a plain boardroom - then I was just left there on my own waiting for my interviewer. I stayed in the same room the entire time and didn't meet anyone else (neither other interviewees nor consultants). When I was done, I was showed the way out and that was it. It was very impersonal and transactional.
This stood in stark contrast to how BCG and Bain did their interviews (for the same round) - when we came in, we were greeted into a hospitality room where we got to chat with other interviewees and consultants who popped by to say hi. The interviews took place in different rooms and we got a short break in between. At the end we also got an office tour. The whole experience felt a lot more personal.
In terms of the interviewers - I was a bit shocked that at both McKinsey and Bain they had relatively junior people doing interviews: at Bain it was a 2nd year AC and at McKinsey it was a Consultant who had just joined the year before. They were nice but were not able to fully answer all of my questions at the end, it was a bit disappointing. In contrast, at BCG - all of the interviewers (in all rounds) were at least Project Leaders with 3 years of experience in the firm. In fact, my first round was with a Principal who had been at the firm for over 8 years. I think this shows a lot about the firm and how much investment they put into recruiting the next generation.
Prior to the interviews, I had met with and spoken to a lot of people at all three firms so I had a pretty good sense already of what the culture in each firm was like (so definitely do as others suggest). However, for me, the interview process was the final clincher.
The seniority of the people who are interviewing you isn't necessarily a good proxy for how much they care about "recruiting the next generation." It's just a different philosophy of interviewing, and it shouldn't be that shocking that people who are in the position that you're applying for would interview you. After all, they know way more about job than the principal or the partner.
All firms invest heavily into recruiting--they just do it differently. Your interview experience, even within the same office, also depends heavily on which school you go to and how the logistics are for that day. For some schools, it's on campus; for others, it's at the office or at a hotel. So while it's fair to judge the PEOPLE you meet during the interviews, I think you're reading way too much into the space issue.
I had the exact same experience with the three firms, haha!
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