Q&A: One year at MBB post-undergrad.

1) Could we get your background (school,gpa,internships)? 2) How difficult is it to get into MBB after being out of undergrad for 2/3 years without getting an mba? 3) Do you feel like the work you do is engaging and challenging or is it more like back office stuff that requires no real skill?

How many people do you know who did PE recruiting and what was their process like?/What type of firms?

Congratulations on reaching the one-year mark! I'll be starting a MBB in a month from now. Any general advice on how to approach the first few months?

Thanks for doing this.

1. What (work-related) skills did you improve upon the most in the past year?

2. What's the average case team composed of? Is there ever more than 1 pre-MBA consultant on the team (not including interns)?

3. I heard that for some of the MBBs, staffing for pre-MBAs gets hard after your first case, but before your first year on the job. Have you seen evidence of that at your office?

4. How much "networking" have you done with the partners at your office (excluding your official mentor)? Is that mostly to get staffed on the projects that the partners own?

Thanks for doing this.

Since you're at Bain:

1) Are you interested in pursuing the externship program? If so, why and what are you interested in working on? 2) What are some cool externships you've heard of colleagues doing? 3) Can you differentiate the role and responsibilities of Manager vs CTL? I know McK and BCG only have EM and PL, respectively. But it seems like CTL is a junior manager position. 4) Can you explain how the home office staffing model works? Are there still opportunities for international projects and how difficult is that process if you are interested?

for your male IB counterparts, what would you say are the differences in personalities, cultures, and motivations between top undergrad college students that go MBB vs IB BB? Those at my school that went MBB instead of banking seemed more nerdy, intellectual, and less bro ish.

1. How long did you spend prepping for case interviews? I had a case interview for my B4 strategy internship but did 0 in person practice, but I'm guessing MBB cases are much harder

2. Have you been involved with recruiting for your campus at all/other internal firm only initiatives?

3. Do you think B4 strategy would be viewed as good or neutral experience for applying to MBB for full time recruiting?

What kind of analytical work do you actually do? Is it simple stuff like basic market size/growth/share models or do you ever get a really nasty dataset and you are like "F..k, what should I do with this?"

Does your undergrad background impact staffing, for example will someone with a degree in math get staffed on cases with lots of quantitative analysis?

How strong of a reference do non-target undergrads need? Unfortunately, most of my contacts have left the firm and I'm left with one good contact, but is that enough?

Thanks for doing this.

I am from a non-target, got 2 partner referrals for both McKinsey and Bain.

What made you stand out during the interviews? Would you say you were stronger in the case part/fit section? How long did you have to solve the case?

Are there specific offices at Bain that have less travel / better lifestyle than others?

How much / what type of weekend work is expected at Bain?

Hi thanks for doing this! My question is a bit more specific to me, but I would really appreciate an anonymous and non-biased opinion (as I can't really ask someone personally for this).

Given your experience/involvement in campus recruitment, I want to hear your thoughts on the screening process and what you think about my background (i.e. based on paper alone, would you give me a first round interview?)

•At a top business school, but average marks (3.7 GPA, wish I did a bit better, but this is my biggest worry)

•Two summers of experience in an early-stage startup (lots of impactful personal results for the companies, but none are well-known names)

•Started my own company back in high school, ran it for 5 years and recently sold it for a decent sum of money

•Numerous leadership positions at school (including one President position of a club), particular focus on social impact work (as my 'story', if you will..)

Over this past summer, I've been invited to most coffee chat and meet-and-greet office events for the MBB and other top consulting firms. I hypothesize that I got invited to all these events by networking early on in summer with the right people... These events were application based (resume only) and thus, my worry now is that once I apply and they see my average marks... I won't get a first round interview. (p.s. assume I've established good relations, didn't shoot myself in the foot for any events I attended)

I'd love to hear your thoughts! Thanks so much and pardon the hefty post...

Thanks for doing this.

Would your colleagues who are recruiting/interested in PE have chosen to be an AC or start as an Analyst (with promotion to Associate after 2 years) at a well known MM firm?

Did you start in a new city? How much did you socialize with the other AC's vs. friends from school/not work?

Thanks