Boston Consulting Group Interview Questions & Reviews

Interview Details – The process had 4 parts:
1st: CV Selection
2nd: Analytical Test: 20 GMAT style questions in 20 mins.
3rd: First round of interviews with 3 consultants.

-->First part was CV and fit questions, they really want to know you know your story. Typical questions at this stage where 'tell me about this on your CV' and 'why consulting and why BCG'.
-->The second part of the interview was a 30 to 35 min case. The cases are challenging and you have to be very fast with numbers and very organized with the process! I got 3 cases 1 about reevaluating a distribution channel, a loyalty program strategy for a retailer and finally a case about opening a manufacturing facility for a food producer.
--> Last part you get to chat a bit with the consultants and ask them questions. Be prepared they expect smart questions.
-->The consultants where very accomplished, smart and friendly people, very open and willing to help you through the cases. Nevertheless you should expect them to be hostile at some point since they also want to test your boiling point.

4th: 2 Interviews with partners.
-->For the second round The process follows exactly as with the consultants but partner cases where much more difficult. They are more abstract and open ended.
--> For the partner cases I felt that you really need to excel when you organize your thoughts, be very creative for brainstorming and show that you can be left alone with a client.
-->The Partners are very smart and have a wide understanding of business (Almost seems like they have seen it all in the business world), they are also very friendly and helpful they wont let you fail in the case, they want you to crack it! i really enjoy their cases. It was clear to me the way they where assessing me.

Interview Details – First round interview on campus went well, was very professionally done with lots of different staff interviewing many students. 2 45-minute cases.
Second round interview in the office was a similar 2 interview format. Oddly enough, both cases were the exact same basic question "Should we invest in x?" My interview with the senior partner was very difficult and he often attempted to derail the case by asking irrelevant questions. He was very short and gave the impression that I was wasting my time. When I asked him questions at the end, he refused to answer them or would only answer "I like all my projects. I can't tell you about any specifics" which was bizarre.

It appears that the Internship interviews are mainly just a form of recruiting for full-time positions. Do not go into them expecting to actually receive an offer. Out of 4 other students who interviewed from my college, none were extended offers and all were encouraged to apply for full-time positions.

Interview Details – Applied online with NY office as my third choice. Received invitation via e-mail a few weeks later to come to a 1st round interview in the Tel Aviv office on behalf of NY. I was living in a nearby country at the time, but they flew me out and put me up in a hotel (odd -- though nice -- for a 1st round).

1st round consisted of two one-on-one case interviews with BCG Project Leaders. Each interview began with a few motivation/personal questions (why BCG, why the NY office, walk me through key points in your resume, etc.). Interviews were difficult and the cases did not have obvious solutions. It's really important when trying to isolate the problem in the case to think holistically about the business at hand and how it works and its operating cycle, etc.

Eventually solved both cases (with some help from interviewers). Interviewers were very friendly and super helpful in answering my questions. Very positive experience.

Found out a week later that I did not pass to the final round. Feedback was that once I had set up structures/frameworks, I then strayed from actually using those structures to solve case. Also my suggestions were not very creative and I relied too much on the interviewer to drive the case's progress (probably a function of my having recently done McKinsey interviews which are interviewer led). Also, my motivation for consulting was a little too general and unspecific. Definitely have a clear connection ready to share for why consulting will help you meet your career goals.

Having interviewed with McK, Bain, and BCG, I think BCG's cases are the hardest and require the most creativity and "out of the box" thinking.

Interview Details – Very nice people throughout -- very focused on balance of quantitative and qualitative strengths; one alone will not get you the position. As is true with most firms of this caliber, people are impressively intelligent, interesting, passionate, and driven, while managing to remain bizarrely (seemingly) down to earth. Very few are larger than life, but everyone is remarkable in their own right. Did not secure the position, but left with a positive impression of the company and its people.

Interview Details – - Great and friendly HR people
- Considered as potentialy part of the company and well thus welcomed

Process

1 Interview with a senior consultant and face to face case study (Business Case)
2 Computer case study
3 two more interviews and case studies but didn't get that far.

You have to prepare a lot for this process, work on case studies books and apply it in smaller consulting companies.

Interview Details – Applied online and got an offer to attend a first round interview day at the London Office (international recruitment - applied for BCG Germany). The first round consisted of two 1:1 interviews and a numerical test. Test was pretty easy and a little bit more 'interesting' than the standard SHL numerical reasoning tests. The interviews consisted of ca. 15min personal questions, 25min case study, 5min questions one could ask the interviewer (case 1: lean production/instant coffee manufacturer; case 2: analyzing potential for increasing profit margins of a mining company). The first interviewer was really tough and asked very aggressive questions; second one was nice and easy going but also a bit more boring.
Got invited for a second round of interviews a few days later, which I attended ca. 1 month after the first round in Germany. This recruitment day consisted of 3 case interviews, a round of 3 smaller tasks (called BCG real life) and a late lunch with a principal from the Munich office. The cases were probably a little bit more difficult than the ones in the first round (1 pharma, 1 non-for-profit, 1 I don't remember) but not much harder than in the first round. The real life tasks were quite challenging as one usually had only 5min preparation time and 5min execution time (e.g. present this written information to me and draft a powerpoint slide). Overall, my impression of the interviewers was a bit less positive after the second round than after the first one, as everyone somehow seemed to be very similar (no exceptional characters).
I did not get the job but got good feedback on the same day. If I had to go for the same interview again I would pay attention to take time myself during the case studies: one major point of criticism was that I should have come to conclusions on my own, meaning without being asked to do so because the time was up. So if you're going for an interview with BCG soon make sure to keep an eye on the watch. Also, I would probably rather apply for an internship as I understood that most of the entry level positions are basically given to former interns and the interview process for internships is a lot less tedious.

Interview Details – The interviews are very much focused on the analytical skills of the individual.
For experienced hires, there is first a serie of 2 1:1 interviews with a consultant and a project leader.
During the second appointment, there is a 2 hours paper case to prepare and present to a partner. Then there is another live case with a partner.

Interview Details – Two rounds of interviews, first round involved 2 interviews with project leaders and second round 3 interviews with principals and partners. Standard management consulting interviews with half time spent on case study and other half spent on your personal story/background. Very tough interview, but overall a very pleasant experience with a great group of people.

Interview Details – Tough but manageable cases. Very dependent on the mood of your interviewer. Even if you ace all the cases, if one interviewer doesn't LOVE you you will not get an offer (words direct from the HR Director). Seems arbitrary, but they have had a lot of success in the past so who are we to question their methods. Do LOTS of case prep and know your behavioral answers cold before you go in.