The BCG case interview. It's a beast like none other.
And many people think BCG is the nice firm. BCG is the kind firm. BCG is the
creative firm.Which means I don't have to practice, I can wing it, and I can roll in
and rely on my amazing personality. But none of that is true. For BCG we actually
think their interviews are the hardest in the case interview in total. And there
are many reasons why. There are 4 things that you have to do right to shine at a
BCG case interview. And this cocktail is quite unique in the case interview universe.
First, you have to make sure that your structure is rampantly creative, but
still very data-driven. What does that mean? It means that you need to never
rely on an off-the-shelf structure. You can't use our four structures. You can't
use Victor Cheng's structures, or Marc Cosentino's Case-In-Point structures. You
cannot use anyone else's structures, copy them, and bring them into the interview.
BCG prides themselves on being a tailor-made firm. Custom projects that
they work on for each client that are unique and different. Within your
structure however, in order to not go totally off the map, you have to make
sure that the second level of your structure for BCG, is data-driven, but
still creative. What does that mean? It means that you will never have a
structure for two BCG cases that sound the same, and use the same data. But you
do have to be data specific about the things that you're looking for. The
second thing that you need to do to shine an a BCG case interview, is drive
the case. And what's surprising about this when you have this creative
structure, is that your goal is not to cover a width of ideas. Your goal is to
prioritize your structure for BCG and identify the first category that you
want to look at, and the primary data that you will need to solve the problem.
If you do that, your first category and the data that supports it are the
most important thing that you'll need to solve the problem. That will help you
extract what you need from the BCG
interviewer. And just a little peek here behind the BCG curtain, when BCG creates
their cases, individual consultants who actually worked on the projects create
their cases. They design a one-page brief where they walk in with a prompt, with
some data, and with some concluding ideas or guidance for the case. And sometimes
with a couple of charts. If you use a great structure upfront, you will drive
them through your structure, to extract the data from them, off of that piece of
paper. And being self driven inside a BCG case is incredibly important because
creativity only works when you're able to actually build enough structure-
enough of a fence around it to still solve the problem at hand
effectively. The third thing that you need to do in a BCG case ties to the data.
Some data you're gonna nail, every time. You're
gonna put it in the beginning of your structure, you're gonna get it off the
paper, and you're going to use it to solve a problem that will drive an
insight. But not always. Sometimes BCG will surprise you by releasing, let's
say, a chart or a graph or something similar, as they're walking through the
case information. When you get that graph or that chart from them, you still
have only five minutes to walk through what you see, and what the insights are.
And we still recommend our four-step math approach for that. Where you
identify what the information is, where you provide a recap for that in step one.
Where you identify what your structure is or what the structure of the graph is,
what it's saying. Where you do calculations on the graph. And then
finally, where you provide your insights, both level one and level two. So you still
need to understand how to do that. And if you have never seen the complex,
intellectual, creative, BCG charts like the BCG growth-share matrix,
you won't understand how to lay out one of those problems. So that needs to be a
key part of your practice, and a key part of preparing to shine at a BCG case
interview. That's three tactical things. The first,
is build this rampantly creative but still data-driven structure. The second
is to lead and drive through the case. And the third is to prepare yourself for
the kinds of graphs and charts and data that you'll get from BCG. But the
fourth thing is actually probably the biggest differentiator. BCG has a
reputation as the nicest firm. Out of all of the MBB firms, BCG people are the most
approachable. They're delightful. They're fun to work with and clients comment all
the time about how enjoyable it is to work with folks from BCG. What does that
mean for you? It means that you need to be delightful, enjoyable, and you need to
be enjoying yourself as you're going through the case interview. BCG looks
for that, x-factor, beyond just the ability to dive seriously into the
information. To build a strict structure at the beginning. They're not like
McKinsey and they're not wild like Bain, they're somewhere in between. So you need
to make sure that you're smiling at your interviewer, that you're pulling in
anecdotes and information from your background, and that you are a hundred
and ten percent on and engaged for the interview. If you do these four things,
build a rampantly creative but very structured beginning, drive yourself
through the case, identify specific data and charts that you are likely to get at
BCG, and finally just enjoy yourself immensely,
you're gonna shine at a BCG case interview. If you're looking to prepare
for a BCG case interview, we have tips, tricks, and great coaches that can help
you prepare. We'd love to give you more information at www.managementconsulted.com
or on social. Here's a quick bonus tip if you made it
to the end of the video, for BCG they score you after you walk out of the room,
not as you go. So make sure that you finish strong. A lot of people are
surprised when they go through a BCG case interview. They feel like they're beaten
down, questioned, and run through the ringer. But then afterwards they get a
call back. This is because BCG looks for how you perform mentally and emotionally
toward the end of a case, we you have had a lot of pushback. So just keep that in mind if you feel
like you're suffering through the BCG case interview, but you're trying really
hard, and you're engaged the whole time, and math goes well, and your insights are
strong. It's probably because they're pushing you and testing you, and they're
gonna score you at the end. So just make sure that you don't forget that as
you're working on concluding your BCG case interview.