I just wanted to share a response from a reader who had e-mailed me with a more detailed description of their experience at the Bridge to BCG program in SF. They had encouraged me to share their e-mail with my readers so I will paste a portion of her account below. I hope this helps some of you get a better idea about these summer programs!
"Just want to share something i found through the BCG bridge program: everyone admitted to the program actually has to reapply to BCG for a full time position and i assume will be interviewing with the general applicants (non bcg bridge) if they got selected. So the reason you didn't get selected is likely because you had prior contacts with BCG - I don't think people who got selected are any better than people who didn't.
You might have gotten the same information from people who have attended the BCG Bridge sessions at boston or new york. The format is probably very similar. I attend the SF session. We are working on a real BCG case that was from the new york office a few years ago. It is very different from the case interviews i have been to (McKinsey for summer associate positions). During the team meetings, we are asked to come up with a hypothesis about what went wrong and how we could solve the problem - even before structuring our responses which i find really odd and difficult. After coming up with a hypothesis, each team of 6 people are split into 2 groups where 1 group look at more financial analysis data and 1 group interviewing some "clients". I am definitely going to ask them tomorrow if coming up with a single hypothesis b4 or after structuring our response is something they expect us to do in actual interviews. I guess with Mckinsey, it is more like laying out the structures/ the frame works first, then going down each branch for possible explanations."
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Maybe SF is different, but we were told at the Boston Bridge that we did not have to re-apply and we would automatically receive a first round interview (I think at the end of Sept or beginning of Oct.).
ReplyDeleteI do agree that Bridge attendees don't really have any advantage over non-attendees, except for maybe forging a relationship with some consultants. I think it's still all about the interviews.
Yeah, Chicago Bridge participants also automatically receive a first-round interview.
ReplyDeleteI think regions are handling this differently. A friend at the ny bridge said they were all being invited to interview in first rounds and didn't need to resubmit anything (similar to Chicago).
ReplyDelete2015 Update: All attendees at New York Bridge were invited to first-round interviews. Additionally, it seems all APPLICANTS (not just attendees) to McKinsey Insight were invited for first round interviews (the problem-solving test and group cases, not the traditional first round case interviews).
ReplyDeleteJust thought that information might be useful to future APD/ADC applicants.