Get a head start on coffee chats and informational visits before summer internship recruiting starts...

Merry Christmas all!

If you're reading this, it means that you're committed to landing that summer internship at Goldman, Morgan, UBS, McKinsey, BCG, or another great firm.

Summer internship recruiting starts in about a month's time.  However, do NOT leave your applications for the day before.

The cover letters and resumes that stand to get a first round interview reflect strong personal reasons for wanting to work at firm X in position Y.

Which begs the question: How do you convince someone who doesn't know you that you are not only highly qualified for the position, but that you are also the one they should hire?

One tried and true way of communicating your interest is by setting up coffee chats and informational visits with the firms that you want to apply to.  Do these at least a week before your application is due!

You'll likely get a tour of the company, a brief overview of what a full time analyst/consultant does, and have at least 15 minutes to ask questions about whether this is the right company/role for you.  It really doesn't get better than that...if you are an awful match, you'll know that too, so you can save yourself the time of writing an application to a job you don't really want.

So how do you set these up?

1.  Look at linkedin for alums from your college/high school who work at those firms.  First target junior to mid-junior people.  Don't bother the MDs unless you have an existing personal connection (a good friend's parents)

2.  Write a very succinct (no more than 4 sentence) email that describes who you are, any group that you were both a part of, and an open question of whether he'd have time to briefly talk to you about applying?

3.  Expect to hear from 1 in 5 people (or even less...)  Analysts and Associates are busy.  Some are more willing to offer help than others.  Once you get a response, reply saying thanks and being very specific about when you are free to talk (give them lots of options).  Also, if you live close to where they work, offer to do it in person at the Starbucks  across the street, for example.

4.  Study the website and talk to your classmates/juniors/seniors who just worked there.  Ask your friends how they did well and what they did to form a positive impression.

5.  Have the coffee chat / info visit -- dress up, be professional, have a resume in hand, have at least 5 good questions to ask that you can't get answered elsewhere (The worst is to have boring questions like "what does a good analyst have to do.." that you can get answered from forums)

6. Follow up with a thank you note and mentioning that you'll be applying and hope to cross paths soon.

And that's it!!  Get started sending emails this week and the first week of the new year.  That will build in some time for you to get ready before school starts.

Best of luck and feel free to reach out with questions.  Happy holidays to all our readers!

A success story

We worked with a talented individual who was trying to land a full time position at an investment bank, without having worked in finance in his previous summers. The candidate faced several obstacles:

• no personal connections
• no finance experience of any kind before recruiting
• no connections through school

We helped the candidate craft a strong resume and stellar story--which were instrumental to helping this candidate land many first round interviews. Yet with no advancement to final rounds, and full time recruiting ending, the candidate did not have an offer in hand.

Continue reading to see how this candidate started the resume process early, remained level-headed, and pursued unconventional methods to overcome the odds.

Your critiquing team started the entire investment banking recruiting process for me last summer, and I would not have been able to achieve this without your service. Thank you so much for your help.

It has been quite the journey and one hell of an experience. I screwed up the few front-office interviews I did manage to get…things were looking very bleak. I was very pissed off and disappointed at myself after October went by without an offer. If I learned anything from my failures, it is to always hustle and to stay humble. I definitely lost sight of that and took many opportunities for granted. I decided to take some time off to reevaluate and didn’t try to recruit again seriously until early March.

This time around, I stepped up my networking game and began meeting random strangers in investment banking. If there was an email on the firm website, I’d send an email. If I saw someone interesting on LinkedIn, I’d add him. If I couldn’t get them to meet in person, I would try to get them on the phone. Probably ended up speaking with at least 20 professionals.

The position I landed all started through a cold-email to an MD and things just evolved from there. Three weeks later, I was signed.

This was an incredibly well-deserved accomplishment. Congratulations!

Questions on MBB office changes

1. What exit opportunities do you get if you are coming from a smaller office, not in NY or SF?

This answer depends on the office that you are in. If you are in Chicago or Boston, you may have similar overlap in terms of your experiences with those who come fro NY/SF. This is due to the fact that the nature of work in Chicago / Boston / other mid-large sized cities is on larger, Fortune 500 corporations. If you are coming from McKinsey Stamford, Detroit or Pittsburgh, you certainly won't have the types of exit ops someone from Chicago / Boston / NY / SF people would.

2. How easy is it to switch offices once you start your job full time?

At one of the MBB, I've seen at least 5 coworkers do it near the first year mark. The wwitch depends on how strong a performer you are and second what your reason is (e.g. personal, near family, etc. that stuff is weighed more heavily than just "I want to try a different city")

3. Can you switch offices after being sponsored for business school?

Yes. However, keep in mind, though you are not obligated to go back, you may be encouraged to. There are some plus sides to being in a smaller office: you know more people in the office, if you are a true stand out you could get promoted earlier, etc. As a generalization, the people in NY/SF can be a notch higher, so the competition is less at places like McK Pittsburgh, etc.

Standing out through your cover letter

For consulting, the cover letter is looked at closely as there are only a few internship positions, and recruiters like to see students who have spoken with people at the firm and done their research as to how each of the MBB is differentiated.

95% of cover letters from MBB are generic and are recycled for each firm, except for a couple sentences changing the title, firm name, and a few buzz words each consultancy uses.

In our experience at MBB reviewing resumes from target schools, the cover letters make a difference for students who are not at the top of the pack of resumes. Those students who have 3.9+ GPAs and stellar internships or campus experiences will most likely get the interview slots, unless a glaring error or negligible effort was put into the cover letter.

Of the many students who are a cut below, the cover letter is often a deciding factor. As an example, an outstanding cover letter for an above-average (but not top) applicant mentioned conversations the applicant had with consultants at the firm, specific examples of interaction he had with their people, and the industry and capability areas where that firm was leader. In this case, the cover letter made the applicant a "second priority" to a "priority" for the interview.

Getting ready NOW for full-time management consulting positions

1. How do you overcome having a good, but not stellar, GPA for MBB?

The point is to get strong experience your junior summer -- even if it is not a consulting position, the stronger the brand name the better positioned you will be for full time. Places like Bain and AT Kearney look favorably upon any experience at JPMorgan, Credit Suisse, other banks as well as industry roles at Google and the like. Those positions are still open for applications so definitely apply there ASAP. The more private sector experiences you have on your resume, the less hesitation recruiters will have about a good (albeit not stellar) GPA.

2. How much more competitive are the junior internships for MBB than landing the full time positions?

McKinsey takes a handful, usually less than 8, for the larger offices. By contrast, for full time, they have around 30 BAs in those offices.

Bain and BCG take from 2-10 interns an office. By contrast, Bain has 25-30 ACs in the larger offices for full time. At BCG, the numbers are slightly less.

This goes to show that it is VERY difficult to land internship positions as summers, but the prospects for full time undergrad recruiting are easier (though comparably to finance still difficult).

Choosing a placement desk in sales & trading

Congratulations to those readers who've sent us the good news on summer offers!

The next question for them is often: "How should I rank my preferences for certain desks? Which desks are best for landing the full time position?"

There is no right answer here. There is also an element of science behind choosing the desks that will set you up for a full time offer. (Note: some of these points apply to placement in investment banking and other finance positions as well)

Questions to ask alums and other contacts you have at the firm:

1. Has the trading desk hosted interns in past summers? If so, how many interns landed offers?
2. Are there desk-specific projects that interns typically complete on those select desks?
3. Is the culture of the desk that interns can easily approach the senior MDs and VPs, or do they tend to work with the other analysts and associates?
4. For those people who end up leaving their full time jobs at the desk, where do they go - to other hedge funds that specialize in that product, or do they place at particular firms that do not have product specialization?

More positive results come in

Many of our readers have reached out to us for resume and interview help. Here are more responses from those who worked with us:

"Thank you so much for your help! Admittedly, I was hesitant about spending a $100 as an undergraduate student, but I can easily say you guys have exceeded all of my expectations."

"I've used other resume services in the past and I can say, without a single doubt, that your service and product far surpassed any other help I've had in the past. Other services merely changed a few words around, and gave generic comments that were hard to translate into an improved, revised resume. By contrast, your team was responsive, attentive, patient, and actionable in your comments and revisions. You gave concrete examples, directly rewriting the language of 75% of my bullets so that it conveyed business language and insight. I was recently offered a full time position at BCG (after failing to get an interview for the junior summer internship). I couldn't have done it without your help."

"I'm sad that I didn't discover your site sooner. After some hesitation to use an online service, I decided that I needed expert feedback. You were understanding in finishing the resume and interview preparation within a span of 3 days, which allowed me to put my best application forward to both banks and consulting firms. (better yet, you guys didn't charge additional fees for the quick turnaround). I have already received several interview invites!! Wanted to share the fabulous news and say thank you."

Consultant internship interviews

On campus recruiting for juniors and sophomores are in full swing.

Some of our readers have reached out to us with questions on how to stand out in a pile of resumes. Moreover, they want to know what additional characteristics firms like McKinsey and Bain look for in their candidates in the summer internship rounds.

The summer internships at McKinsey, Bain and other consulting firms are notoriously difficult to land. This is due to the limited number of spots: at certain offices in their system, McKinsey or Bain will only have 2 to 8 interns at each office every summer.

So, cutting to the chase, what common threads can be found among those who were fortunate enough to have a summer internship offer at a top management consulting firm?

• Strong academic credentials: At one of the most competitive offices of MBB, summer interns boasted an average SAT of 1540 on Math and Reading. The average GPA was over 3.8.

• Significant and prestigious campus leadership: Some students were on the lower end of the academic performance curve. However, they stood out by being class presidents, university representatives on boards, and the like. MBB look for these "class captains" because after their summer internships, they return to campus and serve as ambassadors for the firm -- they are the big people on campus and often convince their network of friends and classmates to apply for full-time.

• Other outstanding accomplishments: Beyond the buckets listed above, those who land summer internships may stand out for other reasons. Some were star science researchers in undergraduate / postgrad labs, had done policy research in developing countries, designed afterschool curriculums for disadvantaged students, or have done other significant experiences that catch recruiters' eyes

That being said, it is certainly possible to get an internship or job in consulting without being extraordinary on all of these fronts. When it comes down to it, a resume needs to be well-written, polished, and make you memorable during the interview screening. Having the above experiences will no doubt help, but there are other ways to merit favorable consideration - by doing common tasks (your academics, some extracurriculars, and networking very well).

Last, an interest in consulting is a must. Consultants often pass on stellar resumes when they don't feel that an applicant really understands what the industry, job and firm are all about.

Feel free to keep those questions coming.

Case Interview pet peeves

We recently conducted interviews at target schools for first and final rounds. After seeing thousands of resumes and nearly 50 interviews, we noticed the following case interview mistakes coming up very frequently (even among the best candidates). The aim of sharing these tips is to help many of you who are still interviewing for consulting gigs.

1. Students who force fit frameworks -- if you recite Case In Point, you'll get the ding.

2. Students who ramble on and on with no structure -- as a business analyst or associate, you'll need to communicate your thoughts when you're walking with a client to a conference room. If you can't communicate the most important messages under pressure, you won't get the offer.

3. Students who communicate creative, but impractical, strategies and solutions -- the main job of an entry level consultant is to get the analytics right. By trying to be too creative, students' recommendations become unfeasible for clients. And you only have 30 minutes or less to impress the interviewer with strong business insights. Overly florid strategy recommendations may detract from the "test" of the case interviews.

Good luck with the recruiting season!

And the positive results are in

"Just wanted to say thanks to the whole team for helping me out with my resume/cover letter. I already landed 2 interviews (one BB and one Boutique) making it 2/3 on applications so far with many more responses coming down the line." --- Student at a target school

"Feeling a lot more confident now! Thank you and keep up the good work. Will definitely refer your service to my friends in the future." --- International student who broke into a bulge bracket

"I applied unsuccessfully for internships my sophomore and junior years. Finding your site was a gold mine: the insights were dead on. I incorporated your thoughts to my cover letters and resumes. Not only did I land 5x as many interviews, but I also made my resume appeal to my interviewers. I'm fortunate to say that I'll be working at Goldman Sachs IBD next summer! Keep up the stellar work!" --- Student who broke in from a non-finance background

"As you already know, I'm a career shifter, interested in either research/IB or MC. I feel that I have the skill set, acumen, but not the ideal pedigree. I came specifically to you so that you could help reposition my past experience in the most favorable light- you have done a fantastic job, and I can say that you have far exceeded my expectations." --- Experienced candidate who used our services to make the transition

Cold Calling

(1) Is there an ideal “plan of attack” for cold calling?

Be professional and persistent in every interaction. First exhaust any personal connections through family/friends/classmates/professors/alumni. You have a much higher success rate working through your existing network. Then turn your efforts to cold-calling. Also, don't give up if you aren't able to get through to a recruiter/hiring manager at a firm that you're excited about -- you can always try to talk to a banker (someone working in the position you want) and then keep asking for referrals until you get to the right person. Be flexible with your plan of attack because firms operate differently. Would be best to start as soon as you can.

(2) An American BB has an office located a few floors below in my building. I was thinking of developing a short elevator speech. Is this a good idea or should I stick to cold calling?

If you run into a banker at your building, make some small talk with them about something other than work. Once you've made a personal connection, then it becomes more appropriate to talk about your interest in banking.

Know Your Audience

We've spoken with readers who over the last recruiting cycle interviewed with Blackstone, JP Morgan, BoA/Merrill, Goldman Sachs, and others.

These were applicants who ranked at the top of their classes at target schools. Their resumes and cover letters were in top shape, yet they still didn't land offers.

What was the problem?

As good as these candidates looked on paper, they did not understand their audience -- the interviewers.

Here are some important insights on unsuccessful answers to the commonly asked questions in finance interviews.

(1) Why investment banking?

Unsuccessful responses:

"I want to work in an environment where I have social impact -- and given the level of capital and advisory services that your bank offers to clients, I will be in a great position to influence the financing decisions of clients."

"I like the excitement of working with smart people and contributing my background in science to conducting rigorous due diligence on target firms."

These responses, though true, do not convince the interviewers that you understand the significance of your role. Yes, banks in theory do have a social impact, but this is a macro-level view of IBD. The second answer is much more on a micro-level, but it doesn't convey a full perspective of what the IBD role entails.

In our experience, it's essential to communicate that you understand the nature of the IBD role. Here's a strong answer to the question (note that this response is more or less what we said to land offers at GS and other firms):

"As an analyst, I'm looking forward to excelling in a team culture where I get to deliver the highest-level quality in advisory and financing solutions to a broad base of clients. Moreover, from speaking with alumni who work here, I am confident that I will find the work intellectually simulating for the following three reasons..."

(2) Why Blackstone/JP Morgan/another firm?

Unsuccessful responses.

"Your firm is versatile in its specialties - from IBD to risk management."

"Blackstone is always on the top of the league tables."

If you're too broad, it becomes apparent to the interviewers that you didn't do intensive research on the bank and its reputation among those who work there.

If you're too specific, you risk the chance of being completely wrong. As the financial landscape changes, it's important to have the most current, up-to-date information on how the firm stands out.

The best way to understand your audience is to talk to people who work at the firm - get on the phone and speak with alums, friends of friends, and the like. You will pick up on what is important to employees, senior management, and ultimately your interviewers.

Preparing for Fall Recruiting

The journey to landing a summer internship at your desired investment bank or management consulting firm starts now.

There is usually a rush of students asking for help in August/September. It is better to get on the application and interview preparation process earlier. July is the ideal time to begin.

Why?

• Starting in August, bulge bracket firms have a "short list" of candidates to interview. Banks can fill up their entire classes by the end of the month.
• Many schools start in August and banks are busy preparing for on campus presentations. Their resume drop deadlines are also in August.
• If you wait to contact an alumni at a bank in August, chances are that you won't have time to develop that relationship for it to be an asset for you in the resume review round.
• For consulting, you need to practice, practice, practice! Case interviews test presentation skills, natural quantitative ability, and analytical skills. It takes time to develop and refine these skills.

Breaking in from a non-business Graduate School

From a reader:

I graduated from a top 25 public school in 2008 with a degree in Neuroscience. I will be graduating with a MS in Biomedical Science this June from a top research school (not a target). Prior to this year, I never had much exposure to the financial field. However after taking healthcare administration, management, and law courses, I found business to be much more aligned with my goals.

1. As of right now, I would ultimately like to end in finance. Does this require me to start in finance, such as IBD?

Since you will be graduating from a Masters Program in the sciences, it may be difficult for you to directly break into a finance position at a bulge bracket firm. However, alums from your undergrad are well represented at many finance firms, and it would be your best option to start getting on the phone and emailing them about your interest. The more people you talk to, the more likely it is that you will get to assess your fit for the industry and figure out exactly what part of finance (sales, trading, asset management, banking, etc.) that you would like to pursue. Once you figure that out, you will be more successful in telling your story and can begin applying anywhere and everywhere you can. Start at the local to medium sized shops, since you are graduating from a non-business oriented program. You can make the switch to banking/consulting, but you need to be strategic with how you describe the evolution of your interests and why you want to pursue those fields only now and not as an undergrad.

2. I know there are consulting firms, such as PWC, that cater towards health industries. Hopefully my experience in the medical field will help make me a stronger candidate. However will this help my application for IBD?

Yes, definitely look into consulting shops that focus on science, medicine, pharmaceuticals, and other areas that relate to your academic background. You can leverage past consulting experience in the sciences to an IBD role in technology, healthcare, or another relevant field. The transition is made easier once you have some business background on your resume.

3. How possible is it for me to get hired by top firms if I apply now?

Honestly, it's very unlikely to get hired at this moment since A. we're still in a downturn and B. most of the hiring at bulge brackets has been completed (full time hiring begins in August and finished around December). That said, if you get on the phone and tell your story to alums or your other contacts, you may have a good shot at landing positions at firms with less formal recruiting cycles. Don't just rely on submitting resumes through company websites though, as firms receive literally thousands of applications and it's difficult to be noticed that way.

How to make the most of a rejection

Summer internship interviews are well under way.

Those who will interview at bulge brackets and management consulting firms have most likely received the good news.

Some firms receive over 1,000 applications from a target school for a summer internship position. They don't even bother notifying rejected applicants of their status.

How do you get a response?

Human Resources may have passed up your resume/cover letter. When deciding who to interview, the recruiting team divides candidacy into three groups:

1. Definitely interview

2. Interview time permitting - the wait list

3. A definite no

Those who are in the waitlist bucket often did not know that they just fell short of getting the interview. It happens that one student we've worked with was in the waitlist queue at several firms.

How did he find this out? He emailed a contact he had made at a networking session about his candidacy, and followed up with a phone call - asking for his status. The contact got in touch with HR and found out that he was on the wait list. This may have been a "nice no", but the student followed up a week later and asked if he was still in the running. He didn't get the interview slot.

BUT he made the effort to ask what he could have done better. He didn't have finance experience and those who received interviews did. The student made a point to get an unpaid internship that summer, and come full time recruiting, emailed the contact he had made to let him know how his internship went. He received the full time interview, second round invite, and the offer.

I'm surprised at how few people - if any - reach out to their interviewers or recruiting teams and ask what they could have done better to get selected. Most banks and consulting firms are looking for a similar skill set, give or take, and you would have no clue how they perceive the strength of your candidacy had you not asked.

If you were just short of receiving an interview invite or the offer, follow up and ask what you could have done better. Not only does that give you the opportunity to improve for the next recruiting cycle, but I guarantee someone - HR, an alum, a contact - will remember you, and most likely give you another shot over someone they don't know.

Second Round interviews at McKinsey, Bain and Boston Consulting Group

Congratulations to those who are preparing for final rounds for the super selective summer internship spots at MBB.

It's been stated how few the spots are at these firms. There are literally only a handful at some of the smaller regional offices.

So this is what you should expect to position yourself optimally to nail the final round:

1. The second round case interviews will be more in-depth and complex in testing your business sense. The structure or framework that you use to attack the problem will have to incorporate more concepts exhaustively - being MECE will be more difficult, as the case will not be straightforwardly a declining profits, increasing cost, or merger strategy case.

2. Since the second round interviews are longer, there is more room for error in how you set up your initial plan of attack. For example, if you get a market sizing question, there will be several ways to answer it, and having the right approach is essential to doing well. These are not cut and dry the same as the Case in Point examples, as you want to essentially replicate or refine upon the market sizing approach the consultant used in his/her actual work.

3. The people interviewing you will be more senior at the firm - you are guaranteed to meet with at least one manager or partner. The more senior people will have insight on the continuity of certain people they want to hire. So, utilize the resources the firms provide you - they often give you an alumni contact or interview buddy who will go over mock interviews. They will emphasize to you the core competencies the particular firm is looking for. Thus, it's essential that you not only hit home those points, but also convey an understanding of how McKinsey is different from Bain/BCG, and vice versa.

4. Nailing the behavioral part of the interview becomes even more important in the final round. The firm is potentially hiring you as a full time employee, as the conversion ratio from internships to a FT offer is incredibly high - from 90 to 100% according to office and year. So, you need to get along with the interviewers on a more personal and conversational level.

Behavioral interviews at McKinsey, Bain and BCG

Nailing the case is necessary but not sufficient for landing you the offer, especially since there are an extremely small number of internship spots open.

The behavioral interview is just as important.

Behavioral questions are designed to see how you will perform in a professional, team-oriented environment. They also give the interviewer an opportunity to determine what your strengths and weaknesses are.

The format of the behavioral interview varies according to firm:

McKinsey has the most structured behavioral interview. The interviewer will ask you to go in depth into a leadership experience, and he or she will probe you on all the details: how others reacted to your ideas, how you were able to overcome resistance to your leadership, what the ultimate impact of your work. There are other common behavioral questions that will be asked, as leadership is one of them

Bain will take an experience off of your resume and ask you pointed questions on what you did, in the same vein as McKinsey's interview.

Boston Consulting Group asked the most questions on different experiences off interviewees' resumes. These questions were less in-depth than the previous two. These questions seemed the most "rapid fire", as the interviewers were very precise in their questioning and were looking for clarification or explanation on specific traits - leadership, collaboration, discipline, public speaking skills.

Ace eight common technical questions for finance

In preparation for those interviews, here's a list of the more technical questions you should know how to hit a home run on. These were actual questions asked at numerous bulge bracket investment banks in the past two years.

Especially if you had a behavioral / all fit first round interview, you can bet that the second round will have more technical curve balls. These were asked in both sales and trading and investment banking positions.

Share your mock answers in a comment, and we'll critique them.

1. What are the ways to value a company? Which method generally offers the highest valuation for companies?

2. How have deals in the industrials [or any other] industry been financed in the last two years? How do you predict that financing will change in 2010?

3. Explain the percentage of debt and equity used in a current M&A deal. What valuation did the target have? Do you think this was a reasonable valuation? What changes to this valuation would you have made? Why?

4. Which industry would you go long on for 2010? Short on?

5. What omissions on the financial statements led investors to believe that Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, and other firms were not only illiquid but insolvent?

6. What is the difference between a firm that is illiquid and one that is insolvent? Which problem was more prevalent in late 2007? Which problem is more prevalent in 2010?

7. What will be the Fed's response to continued weakness in the economy in early 2010?

8. What are regulatory problems governments are trying to resolve with impending legislation?

Steps to interview success in finance

A decent amount of preparation is necessary to succeed in a first round 30 minute interview. Don't be overprepared and script your answers. But, there are five key actions you should take to set yourself up for success.

1. Know your story.

If you don't know why you are applying for the job and how to articulate that, don't bother reading the rest of this.

2. Know the firm you're applying for and know the news.

Yes, it's easy to get firms confused and their cultures may all seem the same. But, they have executed different deals lately and you need to show that you are interested in that firm.

3. Take advantage of all interactions with employees, especially your "interview buddy", prior to your interview to get as much information on what to expect.

Many firms set you up with an alum from your school when you are preparing for your first round interview. This means you should ask all those questions you were too embarrassed or unwilling to get answered in other forums. This is an opportunity to learn what the job is really about, and how the firm selects those who advance to get the offer. For example, Goldman Sachs employees will emphasize how important it is to know how to succeed in a team-oriented environment; so when you have to answer the question "what is your greatest accomplishment," choose something that you are obviously take pride in but also demonstrates your collaboration and leadership. Every alum will emphasize something different at each firm, and try to pick up on what they are saying not explicitly but implicitly. Many times these alums don't have a say in your decision, so they are there strictly as resources.

4. Practice talking aloud when you go over mock questions.

When you try to go over the logic in your head, everything may become muddled together. Speak aloud when you are thinking of what to say, as you will know what to emphasize based on importance and how it will sound.

5. Be confident.

At the end of day, just be confident. If you have the right attitude people will come to listen to what you have to say.

McKinsey, Bain and BCG cultures

McKinsey, Bain and Boston Consulting Group are known as the premier management consulting firms. They are extremely selective in who they let in, and offers are handed out not only on merit but on your fit for the firm.

So, if one had to generalize, what are the cultures of these firms? Be forewarned that these are not completely accurate, but rather one way of looking at things that are not necessarily true in every context.

McKinsey sells itself as a "team of leaders." They also have a huge public service bent, serving as a platform for budding politicians. McKinsey tends to hire charismatic, people-leaders who know how to sell anything and everything. A potential drawback at the firm is the level of toolishness, and the inclination to talk crap about the two the B's. They do think they are the gold standard of management consulting, given their strong brand. McK operates on a Monday through Thursday traveling model, where teams and consultants spend most of their time on ground at the client site. This makes for interesting and global travel.

Bain is the youngest of the top three firms, both in firm history and corporate culture. Others may call the firm fratty, as the bulk of hires each year tend to be recently minted college grads. The main drawback is the need to socialize and hang out with colleagues. Bain has made a huge rise as of late and is known for being incredibly entrepreneurial and innovative, creating affiliated organizations in specialized practice areas. Bain Capital, a private equity firm, and Bridgespan Group, a non-profit consulting arm, are two well-known and industry leader spinoffs from the firm. People are known to be extremely personable and the most well-balanced in terms if having a life outside of work.

Boston Consulting Group is an business practice innovator, with their consultants penning many of the frameworks used by all consulting firms in analyzing client data. As a result, BCG tends to have a more academic and intellectual bent than the other firms. BCG is all about the consultant, a post MBA position, though Associates (undegrad hires) are known for getting high-level responsibility almost tantamount to the consultant line of work. BCG is often called the high society of consulting, with a professional and proper attitude of its consultants in everything they do.