BCG Associate Consultant Interview Questions, Process, and Tips

Round: Resume Shortlist
Experience: I went through the resumes of some seniors, searched through the net for general tips on resume writing , looked upsites of companies in which I was interested and then posted my resume to seniors for proof reading. I attended the Pre-Placement talks of the companies I was interested in. They served the purpose of telling me more about the Companies Work Profile. But I thought they took too much time and also the main source of information about the company on our campus was and will be seniors in jobs. PPTs cant match up to that!
Tips: Read the case studies. That helps.

Round: Interview
Experience: BCG had two rounds of interviews, followed by a short-list and then another two rounds of interviews after which the final offers were made. Five people were made final offers out of an initial list of about 30. I was asked about what distinguished me as a person, some major achievements of mine and the main hurdles I had faced in my four years at IIT. I was also asked to elaborate on my primary failure here. They asked me about what made me different and what attracted me to Consulting. There were also a few light questions on my passions in life, my favourite music band etc..! Other than that were the case studies I was given to solve. In my first round I was asked about a case involving a bank selling housing lone, striking a deal with a contractor and determining the percentage to be paid to that contractor. I thought I messed this one up and the fact that I was really impressed by my interviewee&s profile didn't help ! :P
Tips: I got together with another friend of mine who had made it through BCGs short-list and we solved a few cases together from the Case Study Files sent by our seniors. These included Kellogs and Whartons Guides. I read up on what Case Studies typically are and how to tackle them from similar Case Books. In all I solved 5-6 cases on my own. As for HR questions I asked a few seniors about typical questions, went through Be Prepared and looked up the net a little for sample questions. I didn't prepare any ideal answers, just marked out for myself the points in my resume that I wanted to highlight. I prepared in a group of two people. I think Case Studies should typically be solved in groups of 2 or 3.

Round: Interview
Experience: Then I decided I had to cover up on the first interview and geared up for the next! The following round involved the study of a Cement company and a re hauling of its distribution chains. After much NBD and some slices of Pizza the shortish was out and I had made it to the next round! My third interview was very non bookish wherein they asked me about how a Consulting Firm would advertise itself. Frankly, I was quite stunned and blurted out whatever struck me. With some prompting and imagination I came up with decent answers finally!

Round: Interview
Experience: Then the last hurdle, I was asked a question apparently asked to Ghoda the year before (so you might actually get one of our questions for your interview :P!). It was about a Company manufacturing coffee cups wanting to increase its market share. After which I got my offer! :)

General Tips: I realized that a LOT amongst these interviews depends on the day you give them. So you need to be cool, confident and come across as a pleasant person. Do not over count on your preparation. I did not have any stress interviews,enjoyed all four of my interview rounds and probably that is what clicked. Also do not try and second guess the interviewee, you can never make out how well/badly its going. I still do not know why my company took me! In the HR rounds, be genuine and don't fabricate every answer, it shows. I don't think I made some major mistake, I just enjoyed myself throughout the case solving, was true in projecting before them the person that I am, told them that I had aped and was confused in life and they hired me ?
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

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: 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