Hello out there to all you Bainies of the future! I’d love to make this first post about what everyone really wants to know: how to get a job at Bain.
The first step of how to get a job at Bain is to understand what Bain does and “who” Bain is. That may sound basic to some readers out there, but to be honest, I myself did not know what Bain was less than a year before I was working here as a summer associate.
A major part of understanding Bain is understanding what consulting is. My non-dictionary definition of what is consulting? Consulting is about understanding what the key issues a client is facing are – and sometimes the clients themselves don’t know – and then channeling what they know and what you can find out to come up with solutions to those problems. It is a similar process to how people can tell you their symptoms when they are sick, but may not know what their disease is. A person can tell you they feel a scratch in their throat, but they may not know why. In the same way, sometimes companies start feeling some pains, but they don’t know the cause of the pain or how to treat it. They seek advice from consultants to figure that out.
So the consultants come on and start doing a check-up of sorts, on the financials, the customers, whether the competitors are doing something we aren’t, and try to quickly assess the situation. This usually happens during the nascent phase of a case, while managers and partners are attempting to sell the case, and then transitions into the first few weeks of the case. The case team (usually at Bain one manager, two consultants [post-MBA types], and two associate consultants [post-undergrads]) has a very short amount of time to learn the industry, the client, their products and services…. It can be a lot! The key is, however, that we only need to learn about certain things to be able to see what the issue is. We are “doctors” for companies – we don’t need to know everything about our patients to do our job well. We just need to come at it from the right angle so we cover everything that could be going wrong.
One note is, of course, sometimes we consultants also get to look at growth projects, which are positive in nature, so in that case, our job is perhaps more like a trainer who is trying to get an athlete ready for the Olympics. The athlete may already be great, but they can always get better
Once we are on the case, we keep checking in with our “patients” and getting their advice to help us continue to refine our diagnosis. They give us valuable advice: “no, that part isn’t as sensitive as this one,” “yes, I’ve experienced something like this before,” “this is an emergency!” Eventually, we come up with a diagnosis and a recommendation on how to get better and often, how our clients can make small changes that will help them thrive.
Okay, so now that we know what we are talking about when we say “consulting,” what does it mean to say, “consulting at Bain.” Top of mind words for me: personality, local, smart. How is Bain different? They give you a smart group of teammates who you actually want to talk to and try to keep you local. Local is a big difference. At other firms, most of the staffing is done on a national and global basis. What does that mean for you? Travel. Lots and lots of long plane rides across the country, across the world. Well, personally, that’s not for me. I didn’t want to be going through that security line more times than I absolutely had to. The Bain solution does more than minimize your time on a plane; it means you actually work with people from your office. That means the relationships you build on your team are with people from your office, no matter where your client is. And that’s important for reviews, happiness at the firm, and keeping partners and managers invested in finding clients locally so that you can work locally.
Alright, so step one of understanding what Bain does and who Bain is has been more or less covered. Tune into my next post to find out why I prefer working at Bain to any other job…..
Filed under: Case team experience Tagged: analysis, Bain, Bain & Co, Bain & Company, Business School, career path, case team, consulting, getting a job at Bain, Interview, MBA, results, what is consulting Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
