How does differentiate the expert hire path in BCG, McKinsey, and Bain from the classical entry?

Question

Dear all,

I am interested to learn more about the expert hire path in BCG, McKinsey, and Bain.

For example: What are the differences comparing to the classical consulting entry from the following perspectives:

1) Possible roles in the daily life and growth potential (E.g., musst the expert travel every Monday to the client? Would he offer internal or external consulting? Is there any specified career path for this segment of consultants? Is there any differences in the offered salaries?)

2) Interview process

Thanks,

Answer 1

Hi,

It depends on the role you are applying to:

Experienced hire for a generalist position
Research expert
Expert hire in a particular practice (e.g. implementation coach in Digital)

1. Experienced hire for a generalist position - this is basically the same as the generalist. Your expertise will help you with staffing on particular projects

2. The research expert is a supporting (non-consulting) role. Here are the implications:

You are specialized in a particular industry sector
You may or may not be assigned to a project. In most of the cases, you will have limited client-facing activities.
Lower salary
No international staffing, though lots of remote work with other offices

3. Expert hire in a particular practice - it's a more client-facing role:

You are specialized in a particular function
You will be assigned to a project. You'll have quite a lot of client activities
Salary might be comparable to consultants
International staffing opportunities

Answering your second question, you will have 3-4 case interviews with FIT and some industry-specific questions. You should know:

Latest trends in your field
Key analytics instruments and examples of how you applied these tool in your past
Applicability to different industries

I think the best way to prepare is to find the relevant technical articles and knowledge nuggets on McKinsey official site - they have plenty of them.

You may also be hired for some data-science positions. In this case make sure that you know how to work with excel and databases (sql, Python, etc.)

Good luck!

Answer 2

Hi,

The Expert Track in BCG differs from the Generalist Track in BCG in terms of pay, scope of work and eventually KPIs.

Happy to have a more detailed chat on this with anyone who is interested.