BCG Rejection and Advice
Hello,
I am a rising senior at a non-target school who was referred to apply to BCG through diversity channels. I was invited to apply and 5 days later I received a generic rejection email from BCG. I know I go to a non-target and recruiting in this cycle is pretty slim, but I was assuming that with a referral I could at least land a first-round interview.
I am wondering if it is a good idea to reach back out to the recruiter and ask if there was some kind of mistake, or if there is another way I can be considered.
Any advice here? Thanks
don't have any advice for you but wanted to let you know you're not alone, was 90% sure I was going to receive an interview based off a pretty senior level person at the firm but was also rejected.
i reached out to thank the person for the help and let them know the situation without any expectations of them being able to do anything, don't think it can hurt.
I wouldn't overanalyze it - I think BCG is extremely limiting their full time hiring. I was pretty sure I would get an interview - Ivy target, 3.9+, senior referral, and still got rejected. Don't put it on yourself.
to add some color to this, heard from a MDP that certain offices weren't doing FT recruiting at all
Rejection is a part of life, kid. Even when someone goes to bat for you, it sucks and I totally know the feeling. Happens to us all, so chin up and keep going.
Good Luck
honestly getting rejected is a part of life.
My wife's boyfriend wont let me watch them anymore. Such a bummer
Quality answer
trying not to be an asshole here...
This comes off as very entitled -- let's zoom out for a minute. You got rejected from one of the most selective companies in the world. I cannot speak to your competitiveness as a candidate except for the information you have provided (non-target, diversity recruiting), but it is pretty shocking to me that you feel so wronged to have been rejected by BCG that you wrote a post on WSO.
Again, not trying to be an ass, I'm genuinely curious; did you think that you were an outstanding applicant that should have received an interview? Were you referred by a senior member of your local office? I'm just trying to wrap my head around why you are so shocked that you got rejected from BCG, especially in a year when FT recruiting is diminished.
Wishing you all the best and I'm sure that you will make something happen. Keep those applications flowing and don't let off the gas!
This is spot on.
I think I was particularly shocked when OP said 'ask if there was some kind of mistake'. Also not trying to be an asshole, but sounded to me like the guy who yells "Do you know who I am" to everyone.
I think because BCG gave out guaranteed FT offers to its interns, quite a few of the offices won't even be doing FT recruiting. This is what I implied from an email I received from BCG's recruiter, telling me (a McK summer) recruiting this year will be "very competitive". And now, I received an automated rejection email. Also, BCG didn't even come on-campus for my target school for FT recruiting, I guess this all adds up now...
Work at MBB, have sent ~10 referrals to HR this year from my non-target alma mater. My guess is 2 will actually get interviews. I feel bad telling kids this, but if you don't have a 4.0, a 2350+ SAT, 3 internships at brand name companies, club consulting, pro bono consulting, and some interesting other stories on your resume, and are a diversity candidate, you're not even in the top 10 resumes I've seen from my non-target this year.
The target schools in a non-covid year (though TBH covid isn't effecting our hiring this year at all, in fact we're desperate for more kids), will have 1 / 10 applicants get an interview. My guess is the non target schools probably only 1/20 or 1/30 get in, irregardless of diversity channels.
The right way to look at it, is if you DO get an interview, and you're a 4.0 student, you're incredibly lucky.
interesting, i'm assuming you're at M.
from the second paragraph, are you implying that even with 100% return offers and near 100% conversions that there may be even more spots open for full-time (desperate for more kids).
also can anyone else give perspective as to the 1/10 figures? seems pretty extreme especially considering maybe 20% of all interviews get an offer (again correct me if I'm wrong). Penn shows 30 for c/o 2019 at BCG. That would mean using my 20% figure that 150 got an interview and 1500 applied which is ~40% of their entire undergrad class in 2019.
1. Totally possible. We're completely sold out (I think MBB are all sold out), and are desperately trying to pull later starting kids forward. My area specifically is also growing super fast, and have historically (at least this past year) realized we needed to fill 1 - 2 seats well after recruiting was finalized.
2. The %s here vary significantly by firm, by geography, and by applicant's school, so it's pretty hard to get you more than a really wide range. I know my firm has ~1% acceptance rate of all applicants world wide, and that the US is a little bit more selective than other countries. A couple thoughts:
(a) I would from what I've seen at my firm, and from what I've heard from others, the acceptance rate through interviews is probably closer to 10% than 20%. This puts the math further off
(b) Interns and non-general-pool-recruiting fills up more of those than you would think. I would say ~1/3 full time spots are returning interns. Unfortunately don't have real numbers for that outside of which of my colleagues interned, nor do I know how competitive those seats are.
(c) Penn, Harvard, Stanford are going to be naturally the higher end of interview hit rates, even for target schools, potentially 1/5? My 1/10 number is coming from a top ~15 school that is a direct target but not Ivy, and I know it for sure. Maybe it's just larger and less prestigious. Would love to hear other's thoughts on this as well.
If you use those numbers, then 20 seats becomes 200 interviews, is ~1000 applicants. That still sounds on the higher end but is definitely more reasonable.
3. I just went through resume's today and the SAT number I quoted is the one that's farthest off. The lowest GPA that is getting an interview (again, non-target) is 3.7, SAT's got as low as ~1450, but internship / on campus experience were all very very competitive. We did turn down a few 4.0's, and a fair number of high 1500's, it's hard for these numbers to really explain an application.
Take the L and move on man. Sounds like you were a long shot anyway.
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