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Boston Consulting Group Interview Questions & Reviews
Getting the Interview 320 Interviews
Interview Experience 288 Ratings
Consultant at Boston Consulting Group
No Offer – Interviewed in Philadelphia, PA – Reviewed Dec 31, 2012
Interview Details – I applied for the consultant position at an office overseas via MBA on-campus recruiting. I was interviewed by an international recruiting team (not from the office I was applying for.) Round one had two interviews. Each interview lasted 45 minutes and included a few fit questions and a case. One interviewer was a Project Leader and the other was an Associate Principal. (Both men.)
Interview Question – Unexpected fit question: "If I took your resume and removed the name at the top, what line on your resume would make your friends read it and recognize you?" View Answer
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Analyst at Boston Consulting Group
No Offer – Interviewed in Boston, MA Sep 2012 – Reviewed Dec 24, 2012
Interview Details – basic behavorial question and a case given a pie chart and told which company is more likely to be at a loss. Case study was only for 30 mins and is pretty easy. People were very warm and cheerful
Interview Question – Everything was pretty straight forward Answer Question
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Associate Consultant at Boston Consulting Group
Declined Offer – Interviewed in Houston, TX Oct 2012 – Reviewed Nov 30, 2012
Interview Details – Career center resume drop, followed by invitation to first-round interview, and finally a second round interview.
Interview Question – Case questions are structured, but definitely requires thinking outside of the box. Answer Question
Reason for Declining – Had a better offer elsewhere
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Consultant at Boston Consulting Group
No Offer – Interviewed in New York, NY – Reviewed Nov 27, 2012
Interview Details –
First round interview was in Boston; two 45-minute interviews - one with a Consultant, and one with a Project Leader. Both interviews had a similar format - a little bit of chit chat, a couple of more formal fit questions, and then the case. The cases were reasonably tricky, requiring a structured approach and also some logic/insight.
Moved on to a final round interview in New York. Nearly identical format, but this time with Principals/Partners. Fit questions were a bit less formal (no "tell me about a time when..." questions), and one of the cases was quite unconventional. I felt that the interview went pretty well, but got a rejection call a few days later. Main feedback point was that I didn't do a good enough job of highlighting why I was interested in consulting. I was disappointed by the outcome, but left with a very positive impression of the firm.
Interview Questions
- How do you deal with stress? Answer Question
- Tell me about a time when you had to deal with ambiguity. Answer Question
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Full-time Consultant at Boston Consulting Group
No Offer – Interviewed in Boston, MA Oct 2012 – Reviewed Nov 26, 2012
Interview Details – It was a very pleasant process overall. Great working environment. I interviewed right before Halloween so the office was decorated in orange with cobwebs - something I did not expect to see. Very smart, driven and friendly employees. The interviews consisted of two case studies. Expect to see the BCG matrices. Standard resume questions - what is your educational background? What type of leader are you? How do you fit into BCG culture, etc.
Interview Question – How is your personal vision aligned with BCG? Answer Question
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Consultant at Boston Consulting Group
No Offer – Interviewed in Chicago, IL Oct 2012 – Reviewed Nov 21, 2012
Interview Details –
Ph.D. , participated in Bridge to BCG was given first round interview. Overall had great experience at BCG. But realize one thing about BCG fit trumps all. I had two interviews one by Principal and a Project Leader.
1) PL: Tell me about yourself? Why Consulting? Working in teams, what people you get along with? Strengths and weaknesses? The interviewer somehow didnt connect with me and kept interrupting me in between and didnt allow me to complete any single answer.
2) Principal: Time when you solved difficult situation/ persuade a team? . Tell me about your research?
Overall, i thought did well, but after three days got call from HR person giving new that i wont go to next round. Feedback was very deceptive and not true of what even happened in interview. Overall neutral experience.
Interview Question –
Case 1: Simple case on shampoos where a chain had lower margins than competition becuase they didnt have store brand (higher margin product)
Case 2: Difficult Case: Your client is cheese maker, they are seeing fluctuating milk prices, help them think if they should buy contract for milk at price below market for next 5 years.
Answer Question
Helpful Interview?
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Associate at Boston Consulting Group
No Offer – Interviewed in Philadelphia, PA Oct 2011 – Reviewed Nov 25, 2012
Interview Details – I was invited for the first round interview for the Southeast Asian offices and BCG basically paid for the trip and accommodation. to Philadelphia. The interviews were rather hectic since BCG was trying to finish their first round interviews for the international offices in a week. My interviewers were extremely tired from the daily interviews and jet lag. One of them was even dozing off during the interview!
Interview Question – The cases were rather standard. just be confident in what you have to say! Answer Question
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Consultant at Boston Consulting Group
Declined Offer – Interviewed in Boston, MA Oct 2012 – Reviewed Nov 10, 2012
Interview Details –
First round consisted of two interviews, one with a Project Leader and one with a Principal. A few fit questions and then moved into the case. The cases have lots of exhibits and are usually very unstructured.
The first case was a market entry and financial analysis with lots of exhibits to look through. The second case was a profitability analysis.
Second round consisted of four interviews - 3 partners and 1 principal.
One case just a bunch of confusing exhibits to sort through and talk about. Another case was about profitability and another was about growth strategy. The final case was written - they gave me an annual report for a company and an industry report and asked me to piece together a few talking points to brief the partner who was going to meet with the client CEO. They gave me half an hour to do it and walked in after 22 minutes to say wrap it up.
Interview Question – Most unexpected question was what I think about the European debt crisis! Answer Question
Reason for Declining – Not flexible on pay and position
Helpful Interview?
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Associate at Boston Consulting Group
Accepted Offer – Interviewed in New York, NY Oct 2011 – Reviewed Nov 11, 2012
Interview Details – 3 Interviews
Interview Question – Presented Interviewees with graphs that we needed to analyze in a split second. Answer Question
Negotiation Details – They were amazingly flexible and open--I was incredibly impressed.
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Intern at Boston Consulting Group
Accepted Offer – Interviewed in Boston, MA May 2010 – Reviewed Nov 1, 2012
Interview Details –
Very interesting: they called me right after my application to come by for interview.
Just prepared myself a bit with case in point, after all they don't want you to use a predefined framework, they want you to create a framework on the spot. The first round was rather hard, while the in basket case in the second round wasn't too hard.
Btw, you always need some luck to survive :)
Interview Question – How did you persuade people one time? Answer Question
Negotiation Details – no
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