BCG Associate Consultant Interview Questions, Process, and Tips

Interview preparation tips for other job seekers - Do prep for case study , puzzles , guesstimated . It is all required for this role .

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: My resume was shortlisted only twice but thankfully that was all I needed. First for Deutsche Bank (Corporate Finance summer internship, August 2013) and second for Boston Consulting Group (October 2014). I was confident about my academic interns, projects and position of responsibility. However, I was little bit unsure about my CPI which doesn't stand well among my peers. Overall, my experience for resume shortlisting has been plain and uneventful.
Tips: In order to overcome this section, one can find the following advice useful:Your resume should convey a story about you. At least, you should be able to narrate a story about yourself during HR interviews. When I say 'story', it means that your resume points shouldn't contradict each other. For example, if you are/(show in your CV) a research oriented student, then every POR you took should be justified and shouldn't reflect that you were simultaneously interested in pursuing corporate career. There should be at least one pillar in the resume which can catch the interest of the interviewer (obviously during the short listing because I believe resume isn't of much use during the personal interview).Stringent Editing ( CV 101) - Minimize the blank spaces and resume should look ordered; Things important to you (Foreign internship/positions of responsibility/summer internship/publications) should be mentioned in the 1st half of the page. You can change the order of the heading (Scholastic Achievements/Position of responsibility/Summer Internships/Publications).If you have more than 2 points under a sections then it's better to use tabular presentation format i.e. use tables Usually, I have noticed in many shortlisted CVs that it would be beneficial to show your interest in particular subject either via 'Courses undertaken/Area of interest/Academic projects'.
Get your resume reviewed by at least 3-5 distinguished seniors excluding Placement cell guides etc. It is of utmost importance.

Skill Tips: Case in point is best for Case study. Guesstimate problems can be easily found on internet. However, I learnt guesstimates from my wing mates and it was the shortest way to gain the knowledge
Skills: Case study Solving, Leadership, HR skills, Finance Current affairs, Guesstimation, Macroeconomics
College Name: IIT KANPUR

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: This part is frustrating; especially while getting reviews after you've made a draft. However, after heavy editing based on advice from seniors, it gave me a good head-start and confidence to move on to future preparation towards placements.
Tips: Management consulting shortlist is very strongly resume based. Hence the resume is the most crucial asset for getting a shortlist in the first place. When you know the success rate for getting shortlisted is less than 10%, you better make sure your resume makes the cut.

Detailed instructions and tips on how to make a good consulting resume can be found in many books(I referred to 'Killer Consulting Resumes' by Wetfeet which is good to get your basics); It is too extensive for me to elaborate here hence I will avoid the commonly available knowledge about peaks, focus, etc. 

Summarizing the most important aspect which according to me is - Make sure every bullet-ed point has three things - 'WHAT you did, WHY/HOW you did, and the RESULTS'. All 3 should be included in one single line of text in the most robust use of words making sure you convey these. Another extremely important step in making a resume is getting reviews from seniors and alumni in firms where you are applying. This part is irritating and frustrating at times because you will need multiple iterations till the resume is refined. The key is not to get affected while getting reviews from different people and stay as objective as possible - trust me, this is not that easy as it sounds, it gets demotivating when people are critiquing on what you did in your life and how should it be portrayed on paper. This process of getting comments will never stop even after multiple iterations because of difference in opinions among the reviewers; you need to stop when you have knowingly turned down several comments keeping your own perspective in mind till you are content with your resume.

Finally make sure you complete your resume well before deadlines to avoid blunders and dissatisfaction and make sure a printed copy looks aesthetically appealing.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: General format for all the case study rounds was: (1) Tell me about yourself : I had prepared a list of what I wanted to speak about and memorized the key points to present a 2 minute monologue. However, I very keenly made sure to strike a conversation on any part where the interviewer interrupted me out of interest to ensure it sounded more like a conversation between two colleagues rather than a speech by a candidate to an interviewer. (2) Case: Coming back to the case mentioned in the question above:I considered 3 factors:(1) Market size for each geography and their growth rates(2) Market capture from competition(3) Profit per unitInterviewer: Using 1 graph each and nothing else, represent all of the 3 factors mentionedI drew the 3 most relevant graphs that came to my mind for each of the 3 factors mentioned. (3) Questions for the interviewer: I used to generally ask the guys outside the interview room to give me a brief introduction of the interviewer before the interview started. I used to use that information to ask a question to the interviewer in this part of the interview hoping to strike a chord with him before leaving.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Ask objective of driver? – Higher returns

·        
Calc returns (profits) for each case as your driver and as a Meru cabs driverSalary 15000 per month + bonus of 1 month salary annually.

·        
Meru cabs: Aggregator (no cabs of their own)
Driver need to get his own car and register on Meru cabs.

·        
Cost on EMI: new car – 30000 p.m. Old car –
15000 p.m.

·        
Cost of maintainence of old car: Rs 1.5/km

·        
Meru promises 15 pickups of 20 km each day at Rs
30/km. There is an additional 50% driving distance which is not paid by client

·        
Cost of fuel = Rs 72/L. Mileage 12 kmpl

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: I typically had never expected a case of this sort as it was too broad and undefined to give in an interview. However, it clearly looked like a case of organisational reconstruction and portfolio management. In the little time I had, I decided to give an idea of how I would proceed to solve such a case rather than really solve the case by using the BCG matrix. I clearly explained the matrix making sure I had conveyed that I knew what is actually was rather than just throwing jargon around.

I don't really know how the interviewer took my approach(as it was too text-bookish);he could neither object since it was an established case solving technique nor appreciate it as there was nothing creative in it.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Use costs and discuss – final problem was increased R&D costs for customization of various gears while adding new clients

Skills: Problem Solving, Pressure Handling, Communication , Logical Thinking, Hardwork, Presentation skills
College Name: IIT BOMBAY

Round: HR Interview
Experience: The first interviewer asked me some standard stuff about Mood Indigo and my internship at ITC. He also later asked me about a course project I had mentioned in my resume and what impact it had. The case he asked me was one where there were different markets for a certain product, each with its own prices and size. I was asked to explain which market should the firm invest in and why. The second interviewer had a case about a tractor company in Maharashtra whose profitability was going down. He gave some data as I asked and one had to work his way to the fact that of lately the tractors being produced were not up to the mark. He had modified the case data differently for different candidates, so for someone else the case involved figuring out that the soil in Maharashtra was of a certain kind where a better tractor was required which a competitor was able to launch, etc.
Tips: I think at times I wasn't being myself, I normally solve cases aggressively and quickly come to a certain conclusion. But I was trying to be over careful and hesitating to state the obvious without thrashing out the case in full detail. I felt maybe the interviewer would have preferred me to stick to the former method. However, in the other company I felt exactly the opposite. Hence I think it really depends on the interviewer and the case in consideration, but my advice would be to try and be more & yourself than adopt some method suggested by seniors which you are not really comfortable with

College Name: IIT BOMBAY

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Interview 1: This was a good case study and it did take me some time and help to get to the answer. The client was in the air conditioning business. It was barely break even while the competitors were making profits. Why and what could be done about the situation? Initial discussions revealed that the client had 2 products ; room air conditioners & central air conditioning systems. The central air conditioning systems were profitable but the room air conditioners were making losses. We went into a lot of details but whatever cost cutting we did, could also be achieved by the competitors in course of time. So there was no core differentiation that would give our client the edge. The competitors were multinationals like LG, Samsung etc. but the reason they were making profits were not because of economies of scale but because these companies have much lower marketing costs as they normally market a brand (eg LG) and not a product alone. This edge could never be achieved by our client as he was only in the air conditioning business. So it was a good idea to exit the room air conditioning market and focus on our strength in the central air conditioning market. Interview 2: The second interview had a case on valves. But we never got to the end because of shortage of time. Interview 3: This was a very interesting case study. The client is a cement manufacturing company which has to choose the best sales person of the year. There were four candidates A, B, C & D. Now what criteria should we use to choose the best sales person? The interviewer explained me how the sales business works in the cement industry. You have dealers who do the selling. The sales people negotiate deals with the dealers who have a commission on every sale. This gave us multiple criteria for judging a sales person ; total sales, best deals, maximum % of sales in the city, incremental sales since last year, presence at best dealers, good margins etc. The interviewer made sure that every criterion gave a different answer. So in the end there was no clear answer to the question. So we decided it would be a better idea to state the criterion in the beginning of the year and choose the best sales person accordingly.

College Name: IIT BOMBAY

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: The trick here was to recognize that even though the firm had several hundred clients in each city, it was a few big clients that contributed to most of it's revenue and a distribution network targeting these few clients was the expected recommendation.
Some standard HR questions were asked, about what I would consider my most significant achievement, why consultancy etc.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: The task was to explore possibility of synergy in this acquisition. The case was based entirely on common sense and elementary mathematics. The interviewer wanted me to write an equation showing how costs would reduce if two companies merge.
HR questions were about my strengths, weaknesses etc.

General Tips: 1.Work on your communication skills.
2.Consultancies look for "spikes" in your career. spikes are the areas in your resume where you have shown outstanding performance.
3.Practice the case studies in groups. Avoid technical jargon and frameworks.
College Name: IIT BOMBAY

Round: HR Interview
Experience: 3 interviews, Went extremely well, better than McK as far as I was concerned. Resume questions, very curious about my technical projects.Why consulting? Future plans? Case. I am the director of a firm and am giving out an award for Best Salesman of the Year. How will I choose?

Round: Behavioural Interview
Experience: Something about yourself. We talked a lot about my background, family, etc. Case – don't remember, was simple. After 2 interviews they called me back and told me they were very interested and that I should hang around.

Round: Other Interview
Experience: Case – Asked for three independent solutions : I am a large firm and I am trying to decide whether or not to buy a smaller one (some details on the technology patented by the smaller firm were given). I laid out the bones for three evaluation strategies. He stopped me from going into details and encouraged me to ask questions about the firm. Finally I was asked - before we make you an offer, where do your priorities stand : McKinsey or BCG? Since I had given a written choice and preferred Mck, I did not lie. I tried to give a diplomatic answer but ended up being frank in the end. It was a risk.

General Tips: As per the limited feedback I have received, no particular mistake. I personally felt that i should have responded slower and surer to avoid the numerical mistakes in my third McK interview. Also, should have written more during case studies. One specific point – While solving case studies, make sure you listen carefully to the question. Do not present a recommendation unless asked for one. You might just be asked to list out the issues and not the solution. If you make a mistake here, it reflects extremely badly on your personality in general. Also, do not interrupt the interviewer. Ever. Don't shop alone or at the last minute. I don't think too many girls make this mistake, but guys!! Take help. Look the smartest and the best you can to build confidence.
College Name: IIT BOMBAY

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: A) I put a lot of thought into it. A LOT. I started top-down. In a sense, I always knew I was gonna target only 2 types of companies: Consulting and Banking. So made my 2 resumes accordingly. Basically I conveyed what needed to be conveyed. For this, I talked to a lot of people in Oct/Nov and researched a bit from previous editions of BePrepared. Being a DD helped. And then I spent a lot of time thinking how best to convey it. For example, I knew that my success in strategy competitions was crucial for Consulting Firms, hence I put those above my projects/extracurrics. 
b) Sent it to many people for feedback. Some of the points were accepted, some not. Its always our call in the end. But more often than not, external views make up the MOST important part of Resume Making.
Tips: Advice: Make a rough copy first and then start thinking. If you think without it, it will take up a lot of time. DON’T LIE IT WONT HELP YOU IN THE INTERVIEW. Be very serious in your resume. Avoid any kind of humor. Also don’t try to squeeze in too much.. you wont be coherent. Know what you want to convey and convey exactly that. At the end of it.. Look at your resume page by page. And see what it conveys at a VERY MACRO level. For ex: In my resume, Page 1 conveyed Decent Acads with Success in Strategy Competitions and Page 2 conveyed A lot of positions of responsibility with decent results and excellence in dramatics.

Round: Interview
Experience: BCG was 4 rounds, 30 people shortlisted initially out of which 14 were shortlisted after round 2. 4 offers were made.
BCG was very collegial in interviews. The partners were warm. In my first interview he asked me about my DDP andsummer internship. Then jumped on to a case wherein a cement manufacturer was losing profit. I had to dig around and realize that ultimately the costs of power were increasing due to the government’s load-shedding. I was also then asked to solve a basic LP optimization problem (the manufacturer had different plants at diff. locations. He wanted to know how much should he make at each plant). He told be a bit about BCG and the kind of work they did.

Round: Interview
Experience: I got 2 cases in this one. One was pertaining to a tractor manufacturer whose revenues in Maharashtra were very low. The key was to recognize that Maharashtrian soil is harder which causes the pin connecting the plough and tractor to break. The second case was about why amongst 2 refrigerator manufacturers in Pune, ones transportation costs were much better than the other. Again a LP problem was formed. He asked me if I had any questions. I asked a few. I got a case about a realty developer tying up with a bank for home loans in his project. The bank wanted to know how much should they pay him. I did finally solve this. I recalled the concept of Opportunity Cost right at the end. I kept blabbing a lot about risk/return/maturity in general. He steered me back on track every time. He spend 40 minutes trying to convince me about BCG. I was very tired by now. The case was about a retail chain who wanted to enter India. I had to advice on the potential. I analyzed the case. I tried to structure my thoughts and delve into different sections. He wanted precise, specific answers. I gave some of them. The interviewer appeared disinterested. Being tired myself, I think I kind of messed up this one. I was told that I would not be given an offer by BCG.

College Name: IIT BOMBAY

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: She had already marked points in my resume to ask questions on.
I asked couple of questions at the end.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: He didn't allow me to use the paper pad. I was a litte unnerved as I hadn't heard of the case before. He kept asking questions continuously and didn't seem to be too satisfied with the answers that I gave. Told me that the real life cases are much involved etc.
Asked me if I had any questions. I asked a few.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: We discussed numerous issues and he kept digressing to different topics. We stopped after 7 smaller sub cases.
I asked if this was the first case where the point in discussion changed along the case and does it happens normal in industry.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: The final solution was to redesign the cup so that more can be stacked in the same height. I asked a few questions .
Was made an offer. Final offers to 4 people.

General Tips: RESUME: Start working on this early and keep making improvements by taking inputs from seniors/friends.
PREPARATION HELP:
1.Prepare typical HR questions.
2.Prepare your resume well.
3.Prepare cases. Brush up DI.
4.Do your groundwork on the firms interested in.
College Name: IIT BOMBAY

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: Started working on it pretty early. Completed a first draft and sent it across to 5-6 seniors. Tried to get an opinion from
seniors of various profiles like consulting, finance and FMCG. Met them personally and took feedback. Reworked the same around 3 times. Made sure I only have things on my resume which I could talk on comfortably. Made sure the formatting was proper and concentrated on what value addition I did at various places rather than just describing the work. Did prepare my BTP and seminar well and studied up 1 course as the favourite course (did not need it though :D)
Tips: Yes attended all the PPTs (had to :P). It helps you a lot to look at the PPT as it gives a lot of idea on what a company is looking forward to and how exactly to prepare for it. Further it does give clarity to a great extent on the type of job being offered. Talking to seniors from companies you serious about helps a lot and PPTs are the best place to get to meet them. First of all the previous Be Prepared documents. Did not do any Puzzles/Technical/GDs. HR questions the usual ones available on the net. However had a couple of sessions with people who were good at this to get feedback. Cases practised in groups, did not read up any theory/cases. Just practised in the group. Used the Kellogg and Wharton case guides.

Round: Interview
Experience: BCG had 4 rounds of interviews and the initial short lists were 28, short list after second interview was 8, and final offers were 5. Cases and HR: In a group of 4 people. Ideal size should be 3-4 people. One person used to get a case and administer to all the other 3. This way we could check on what one is doing correctly and incorrectly. Constructive feedback is really important. While administering cases we made sure that we did couple it with a bit of HR so as to get an exact feel of interviews. Did somewhere around 6-7 cases exhaustively. Read a couple as example initially. Did not do any test preparations as had done some CAT preparation (which does help a lot) HR: Did some amount with group. But primarily analysis like future plans, why the company, strengths weaknesses etc with people who knew me well enough and could actually help me realize these.

Round: Interview
Experience: BCG1: Started off with question on Bridge. Then we did a case of an Air Conditioner Manufacturing company which was losing money. The case revolved around the way dealers were placing the product. Solved the case pretty quick and thus had another 10 odd minutes of HR on things like your biggest achievement till date and why a consulting career. BCG2: This was probably the most difficult interview I had all day (at least that is what I felt). We directly started off with a case. It involved a Tractor manufacturer who had below par sales in a certain region. I started off well but lost track somewhere in between. However I finally got to the conclusion of difference in kind of soil and thus the requirement of higher horsepower. Important point: I asked the interviewer to give me 2 minutes to analyse when I had lost track, took the 2 minutes and then instantly hit the point. Make sure that if you get stuck, you take your own time to understand rather than get hasty. This followed a small round of HR on one of my intern ships. I then had a 10 minute session in which I put forward my own set of questions on why I should go in for a consulting career.

Round: Interview
Experience: BCG3: Because of the session, the round started with whether I actually was keen on consulting. We then moved on to a case involving a cement company which had high transportation costs. The reasons that I found out were under loading on certain trips, high charges being levied by transporters. I even gave a suggestion on moving to trucks with larger capacity. Another small round of HR revolving about my work as Institute Placement Nominee and research paper.
BCG4: We started off with a case involving parameters to be accounted to give an award for best salesperson of a cement company. Numerical data like sales figures, growth rate etc. were given when asked for. Was asked to compare 4 different sales persons. Left the case in 10 minutes. Next 20 minutes we just had a talk where primarily I was asking on how my interviewer (a CA) had ended up in a consulting firm and the kind of work that we could expect.

General Tips: Ideally one should prepare Case Studies and a bit of HR. It doesn't make any sense to study any standard frameworks. Rather it is advisable to keep away from them. You need to try and get structure into the way you approach cases. The number of cases should be the amount till you get comfortable with them. Doing excess of it might even hamper your chances as your thinking starts getting directional and you kind of stop thinking as much as is required. As a matter of fact some of the people who did real well were the ones with the least amount of practice (not that this is suggested)
College Name: IIT BOMBAY