Request for Guidance and Language Preference for Upcoming BCG Internship Interview

Question

Hello,

I have an upcoming consulting internship case interview with BCG for a position in Madrid. While I am Italian and speak English fluently, my Spanish is not yet at a business level. I would greatly appreciate any resources, such as videos or platforms, that could help me improve my Spanish skills in a short period of time, specifically for a business context.

Additionally, I was wondering if it might be possible to conduct the interview in English, given my proficiency in the language.

Thank you in advance for your support.

Answer 1

Hi Cecilia,

First of all, congratulations on the invitation from BCG!

I would be happy to share my thoughts on your question:

First of all, I would advise you to contact the recruiter directly to find out if the interviews can be conducted in English. However, I am pretty sure that BCG Spain requires (temporary) employees to speak the local language at C1 level.
Moreover, I would advise you to focus on improving your Spanish business vocabulary and practicing cases in Spanish instead of doing a lot of listening and reading.

You can find more on this topic here: How to succeed in the final interview round.

If you would like a more detailed discussion on how to best prepare for your upcoming BCG interviews, please don't hesitate to contact me directly.

Best,

Hagen

Answer 2

Hi Cecilia,

I would focus mainly on speaking rather than watching videos as you want to internalize the right phrases and communication strategies. Also, watching non-case related Spanish videos (even in a business setting) would not be very effective.

Rather:

Think through each part of the case
Think about the relevant communication items and write it out
Learn and internalize these phrases - at the end of the day cases are very formulaic and the same phrase/communication items come up over and over again
Practice it with peers and on your own
Don't overthink it - it's okay to make mistakes in the language if its not your native language. Focus on content and confidence > small language mistakes
If you don't remember a word or phrase, say the English word
If you want to fast-track this, engage a coach to work on the language and communication with you

Usually, it's not possible to change the interview language on request.

All the best and fingers crossed,

Florian

Answer 3

Hello there,

It is highly unlikely a request for having the interview in English would be granted. Also, they should expect you to be comfortable speaking with clients in Spanish so it’s part of the test.

My suggestion is that you get a coach or experienced case interviewee that can give you cases and peculiar business expressions in Spanish. You should record these sessions so that you can play them back to further identify your repeated language gaps so you can address them in a targeted manner during solo practice between coaching sessions.

All the best,

Fathu