Bain & Company Associate Consultant Interview Questions, Process, and Tips

Interview preparation tips for other job seekers - Understanding of how consulting interview works and case practise

Round: Interview
Experience: Vietnam threw me off, but it wasn't rather relevant. Don't let a random case scare you, which you think doesn't fall in the standard profitability/market entry category.
Tips: 1. Clarify the problem statement always. What does maximize potential mean? Revenue/Sales?
2. Think broadly. Cover all possible internal/external factors, mention them even if you think they aren't important, show the interviewer that you thought it at least.

General Tips: Practise! Revise cases that you do. Make a separate book for your buddy cases and for practise cases.Note learnings from every case separately.Dont try fitting every case in a structure, will not work on the final day.Try practising random cases (what bid should ESPN file for Olympic viewing rights?) as it helps broaden your thought process
Skills: Lateral Thinking
College Name: IIT DELHI
Motivation: The people seemed great!

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: The first round of selection process for a consulting firm is generally resume shortlisting. So, it is a very important step in the process as the chances of getting shortlisted are less than 10%. I had spent about 25 days in making the one pager resume. 


First 10 days : Studied resumes of people who got shortlisted for consulting firms in last 2-3 years. Tried to grasp the similarities and patterns and what actually constitutes the word "spike".  
Started to prepare the first draft of the resume using my previous resumes and some new points.


Next 7 days (the most productive time):After preparing the first draft comes the time of self critique and analysation. Tried to go through in each and every paragraph to make it more impressive and easily understandable. Showed it to some close friends and seniors to give honest advice. 

Last 7 days (external advice):Showed the resume to seniors in consulting firms and tried to make changes according to their views. It's very important not to loose patience in these days. It become frustrating in the last days because you just run out of ideas. Took print outs to see if it looks aesthetically sound.
Tips: 1. Each subheading in your resume should contain points in the following fashion : (a) what did you plan to do/an overall objective of the project/internship (1 line). (b) how did you do it (1-2 lines) : show figures in this. (c) what did you achieve (1 line) : show figures/awards/impact/output. Part (c) is very important. If you don't have it under any paragraph, you might want to consider to remove it.


2. You should be ready to talk about each and every point in your resume for about a minute in the interview so make sure you understand each and everything before penning it down.


3. Double check for grammatical errors and aesthetics.


4. Make sure a lot of qualities such as creativity, teamwork, leadership are brought up in your resume.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: It started with the usual tell me about yourself. Tried to look enthusiastic in that part of the interview and maintained an eye contact with the interviewer. Moved to the case later on.It was a business situation which could fit in a structure. The interviewer tested my : 1. Understanding of the business ie if I am asking the right question at the right time. 2. Calculations and overall feel with numbers.  3. Confidence and communication skills.
Tips: 1. Make sure you look enthusiastic and happy (smile when you get inside the room).2. Be confident, its okay to make mistakes in a case but don't make a blunder.3. Ask questions in the end and seem interested.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: It was an unconventional case and you can expect that in Bain very often. Try to make the structure as MECE as possible. For example, how can you improve cleanliness :(a) you don't litter (b) you clean up the mess which already exists.This first level is very MECE. Then you dig deeper into both (a) and (b) and structure it further. 


When faced by such unconventional cases, think out of the box and take more time in the starting to understand the case and layout the structure.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: It was my final interview in Bain. If you have reached this stage of the process, its very likely that you will get selected. You just need to relax and have a conversation with the interviewer. It is more of a conversation on a flight rather than an interview. You have to appear professional, interesting and enthusiastic. The interviewer will give you enough chances to share your thoughts, beliefs, opinions and bring out your character.

General Tips: It has to be your day to get into the company of your choice. Things have to fall into place. Just believe in yourself!
College Name: IIT BOMBAY

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: The fact that I was advised by my seniors to start working on my resume even before the job semester started highlights its importance. It took me almost a month to come to the
final master resume draft from which I would pick the relevant details for a particular profile. I would send out my resume draft to seniors who have been through this process as it always helps to get inputs from someone who knows what can go wrong. Companies have a pretty well established system to shortlist resumes in which they typically look for spikes in multiple sections unless you bring out a really strong picture of yourself in any particular one.
Tips: This one pager is probably one of the most important document you prepare in your college life and often the most under estimated one too. It requires a lot of time to improve your resume post feedback from experienced people, hence devote the time it deserves instead of starting at the last moment. Make use of websites such as Vmock. Also be authentic; forged points don't go down too well with companies as people from the same college are probably working there too. Add value with each point, try leaving an impression so that you are remembered over your competitors.

Round: Interview
Experience: The interview started with the customary 'tell me about yourself' question. Nervousness on my part was evident and a few HR questions were followed by a guesstimate. Went through as a monologue; towards the end the interviewer asked me to think if I had missed anything in the approach taken, I pointed out a few things but ultimately he showed me where I had missed a figure. Post this I asked a few questions about the firm and also took some feedback about the interview to help in the subsequent ones.
Tips: The key to acing guesstimates/cases is practice, practice and some more practice. Do not get stuck to a standard procedure, make your own framework to go around the broad categories of problems such as profit and loss, market entry, M&A and so on. Think broad; do not assume anything without a basis; get all the doubts clarified with the interviewer; pen it down neatly; be receptive to input's from the interviewer, they are probably hints to guide you through. Maintain a book to study the cases you practice and make the most of the buddy program. Specifically for guesstimates, practice thinking at least 3 ways to approach each problem.

Round: Interview
Experience: Could have been easily mistaken for a chat over coffee. With higher stakes of course. My interests, my strengths, weakness, achievements, failures, everything was discussed. In short, the partner checked whether I was the person my resume reflected and who I was beyond that.
Tips: Be yourself, speak from your heart and experience, you won't mess this one up. But do your homework, know the incidents you would want to bring up to highlight a particular trait of yours. Do not learn answers or the introduction, it sounds pathetic when reproduced from memory, be natural and keep things short. Your answer will drive the interview, so take it forward towards your stronger points. Do a few mock interviews before the D-day.

Skills: Problem solving, Communication skills, Confidence
College Name: IIT Delhi

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: Around 30-40 people shortlisted at campus - largely based on academic and leadership record

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Bain does not recruit from IIT Roorkee and I mentioned I was placement coordinator. So the partner asked me what can they do to get Bain to campus. I built a case study around it - how average JEE ranks are good and how the top candidates would be very willing to join Bain - better than taking average candidates from other IITs

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: It was a typical market sizing exercise. It was based on new demand, replacement demand and the low penetration of mobile phones in India.

Skills: Problem Solving Abilties

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Practice with a couple of friends, the more you do the better you get.Enough resources available to guide you through the process.Read and make yourself familiar with many industry verticals and get a sense of how things work in a business environment

College Name: IIT DELHI