Waiting for final rounds

I answered a questions similar to this yesterday. You can find it here.

https://www.preplounge.com/en/consulting-forum/scheduling-for-mbb-interview-920#a1801

To elaborate on your specific situation, first round interviews are conducted by Associates / Consultants and Managers / Project Leaders. Final Roungs are conducted by Prinicpals / Associate Partner, Partners and Senior Partners. In order to have a decision meeting where all of the final round interviewers have just interviewed the candidate and can make a decision that day, there have to be enough senior firm members around (usually 4 but can be less) to conduct the interviews on the same day. As you can imagine, scheduling 4 Partners to be in the office on the same day and to have availability on their calendar to interview and attend a decision meeting is no small feat. This is especially true if the office is small.

Depending on the number of partners and proximity of the the partners primary clients (therefore need to travel), it could take a while to align all of the calendars. I would say that 3 months feels on the extreme end of the spectrum. Having led Boston Office recruiting, I would say the longest I ever had to put off a general hire was 4 weeks and the longest for an experienced hire was probably 7 weeks (the pool of Partners interviewing for specific experienced hires was smaller).

Hi Anonymous,

as mentioned by Matthew, that could be due to a misalignment of the partners’ calendar on the recruiting day. I would add there might also be uncertainty for a big project to close and therefore HR needs, as 3 months is extremely unusual as a timeline for a final round from the previous one (the maximum I heard was 1 month).

As for what to do: there is a single thing you can actually do to accelerate the process, that is, manage to receive another offer from another consulting firm (even not MBB, although ideally a brand name - the more prestigious, the better). If you manage to do so, besides reducing the stress on the day of the final, you will likely be able to have the round anticipated. That’s actually what happened to me: I received the offer from Oliver Wyman, and then contacted Bain and BCG (with which I was in the process already, though not started yet with interviews) and completed the whole process in 4 days, from test+first round to final. If you have in pipeline other interviews with consulting firms, you can thus replicate that so far that you manage to get another offer and accelerate the process.

Hope this helps,

Francesco

I am a recent graduate

Thank you, guys, for your responses! But there is minor thing: I am from the country where there are no other alternatives to McKinsey and BCG for fresh graduates :) Yes, there are big4 companies, but the gap in material compensation and opportunities is very huge

Hello!

I would follow up again with HR so they don´t forget about you

As it has been outlined, its very similar, but :

• Cases you can expect are more "free riding" - less organized than the ones your found in the 1st round or most prep pages
• Stronger emphasis in the FIT part, as outlined before by other coaches.

If you are interested in deepening your knowledge and preparation on the FIT part, the "Integrated FIT guide for MBB" has been recently published in PrepLounge´s shop (https://www.preplounge.com/en/shop/tests-2/integrated-fit-guide-for-mbb-34)

It provides an end-to-end preparation for all three MBB interviews, tackling each firms particularities and combining key concepts review and a hands-on methodology. Following the book, the candidate will prepare his/her stories by practicing with over 50 real questions and leveraging special frameworks and worksheets that guide step-by-step, developed by the author and her experience as a Master in Management professor and coach. Finally, as further guidance, the guide encompasses over 20 examples from real candidates.

Furthermore, you can find 3 free cases in the PrepL case regarding FIT preparation: 

- Intro and CV questions > https://www.preplounge.com/en/management-consulting-cases/fit-interview/intermediate/introduction-and-cv-questions-fit-interview-preparation-200

- Motivational questions > https://www.preplounge.com/en/management-consulting-cases/fit-interview/intermediate/motivational-questions-fit-interview-preparation-201

- Behavioural questions (ENTREPRENEURIAL DRIVE) >https://www.preplounge.com/en/management-consulting-cases/fit-interview/intermediate/behavioral-questions-entrepreneurial-drive-fit-interview-preparation-211

Feel free to PM me for disccount codes for the Integrated FIT Guide, since we still have some left from the launch!