Bain London office interview format?

Question

Hi everyone,

The impression that I get after my quick online research is that Bain London office uses a combination of both interviewer and interviewee-led case formats? And for their interviewer-led format, they are not as structured as McKinsey formats. What do you guys think? Any previous expeirence?

Thansk all!

Answer 1

Hi there,

Here is an overview of the full process:

Online tests: these are sent to all applicants as part of the pre-screen - standard CEB/SHL tests, Quantitative + Verbal reasoning

First round interviews: 2 interviews, one with an AC or SAC, one with a Consultant or Case Team Leader. First interview is a pure market sizing + competency, second interview is just one full business case (but if you finish the case early and depending on the interviewer, could also have a small competency element at the end).

Final round interviews: 3 interviews with Managers and Partners. 2 standard interviews with full business case + competency. One interview is a "written case" - you essentially get a pack of information and some questions to solve, and are provided a blank slide deck to fill out. Part of the exercise is math, the other part is making a recommendation based on various facts from the pack.

In terms of location, no interviews are done on campus. First round interviews are either in the London office or over Video Conference if the candidate is too far away (usually outside of Europe). Final round interviews are always in the London office (i.e. Bain will fly you out from wherever you are to attend the interviews).

Hope this helps!

Alessandro

Answer 2

Hi Anonymous,

Even though candidate-led cases are the most common types of cases at Bain (this applies for any office) you will find occasionally also interviewer-led cases. Regarding the interviewer-led cases, they are in general very similar to the McK format but to some extent less structured. As a matter of fact, at Bain you would probably receive a couple of slides from real cases (sanitized of course) to be interpreted or to use as an input for calculations.

Long story short, be prepared to crack both candidate and interviewer-led cases.

I hope this helps,

Jacopo

Answer 3

Dear A,

Actually, the process is quite similar to McKinsey format. But all the differences Alessandro nicely explained in his answer.

Best,

André

Answer 4

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