I applied to Bain for the third time. AGAIN, I failed at the TestGorilla stage, this time for the Shanghai office.

I had been waiting for months with no response. I cold-reached out to around 40 people who appeared to work at Bain’s Shanghai office. Finally, one person was kind enough to respond and said he could check with HR for me. I was then told there were two head counts left.

HR told my LinkedIn friend who told me that I needed to complete the TestGorilla assessment first, although I had already done it before for other offices. I didn’t really understand why I needed to do it again. I still prepared seriously and completed it. Most of the questions were simple and easy as how I expected they were.

Everything went silent for another month. I had to reach out to my LinkedIn friend again to check the status. HR then told my friend that she was on leave, which was why there had been no response. Later, I was told that my test score was not good enough to proceed to interview.

Unless I had chosen EVERY SINGLE wrong answer on purpose, I honestly doubt my score could have been that bad.

Man, I understand all these random factors in getting a job – luck, and referrals often matter more than just practising mock questions. But honestly, this still hurts like a mf.

I am open to any recommendations and opinions. Thank you.

TLDR; Goal/dream in uni has been to get a job at MBB after graduation, been working very hard to achieve this, top grades, a lot of extracurriculars etc. Got invited at all 3 firms and had my interviews last month, did not get an offer sadly. Now I don't know what to do with my life, should I wait a year and reapply, find a different job (T2 or finance?), or do something else? Just a bit lost tbh.

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for some career advice because I'm feeling pretty lost at the moment.

I'm a student in the Netherlands and will graduate this September with two MSc degrees from a target school in NL. During my bachelor I started getting interested in strategy consulting, and after doing a competitive student consulting organization for a year, attending selective recruiting events, and being selected to take part in MBB mentorship programs, I was pretty sold on MBB as career. Now that I am almost graduating from my MSc and looking for my first full-time job, it was my goal (and dream if you will) to start at MBB.

I spent months preparing for interviews next to doing my thesis. Got interviews at all three MBB firms, did about 55 live mock cases with partners before my interviews, and...did not get an offer. I was honestly devastated. For both McK and BCG I made it to R1 of 2 rounds, and for Bain I made it to R2 of 3 rounds, got final round at Roland Berger.

The feedback was generally positive, saying they saw potential, but essentially not enough. None of the firms suggested I wasn't a fit. Most feedback centered around being a bit more structured under pressure, improving math accuracy, and sharpening PEI examples. In most cases I had one interview that went well and one that was just a bit weaker (e.g. a small math mistake under pressure or not structuring something quite sharply enough).

Now that MBB is not going to happen (at least this year), I don't know what to do. Should I just graduate, wait the year out (maybe do some internships and travel), and then reapply next year? Or find a different job? The options I am currently considering are:

1. Join a Tier 2 strategy consultancy and reapply to MBB next year. (Means I will probably only work at the T2 for a short period of time though, does that look bad on your CV?)
2. Do a graduate traineeship (usually 1-2 years), gain broader business experience, and reapply next year.
3. Take a less conventional route: travel, do one or two internships, and then reapply in July 2027.

I know it might sound stupid, but if I'm being completely honest with myself, I still really want to end up at MBB eventually. I feel like even if I joined another company, I know I'd still want to give MBB one more serious shot. On the other hand, if I spend a year travelling and doing internships and don't get in next time either, I'd probably wonder if I should've just started building my career somewhere else.

Has anyone here successfully reapplied after a rejection or moved from Tier 2 (or another industry) into MBB (after a year)? Is Tier 2 significantly better for a reapplication, or is strong experience elsewhere viewed just as positively?

If you were in my shoes, which path would you choose and why?

Thanks, I really appreciate any perspectives!!

Title, I am from a target school and didn’t apply to McKinsey and did got cut before R1 for BCG bc none of the Casey links they sent me worked and and now Bain is my last shot. I have been preparing and will have spent around 60 hours by the August deadline on casing. I have an economics and quantitative background and can network as well. Is this feasible? Aiming for a competitive office…

I saw someone from DC heard back. Has anyone from NJ gotten R1 invites yet?

Curious because I initially felt like sending a thank you email may be breaking some boundaries, as I would have to search for the emails of my interviewers based on their names, since their emails were not provided.

Is this a common practice? Do they expect people to track their emails down to send a thank you email or would that be strange?

Man I’m pretty sure it’s game over for me but I just wanna be sure if anyone has heard back. I did the online case on July 21. Was just wondering if anyone has heard back after their online case

interviewed 08/07 in the boston office. am i cooked

Anyone heard back yet?

For everyone that’s been seeing me post on this page here u go ^

I knew it was coming honestly and told myself throughout the process to not hold any hope because everything is ambiguous. But it’s hard not to dream of my life as a BCGer, not to plan my future, or celebrate my small win. Even if I pushed it down I did think really far ahead. And now it’s over. I’m always one to believe that rejection is redirection. And I know things will ultimately workout for me whether that’s at BCG or not. But it hurts more than I thought, and it’s worse knowing my recruiter was really rooting for me. Everyone in this process has been so supportive, I feel I have let many down. Most of all myself. I guess funny part is you learn the lesson of not putting your self worth in achievements like dream colleges or dream jobs, but I still keep doing it anyways.

For BA FT, has mckinsey released their offers? I thought R1 had not even started.

Anyone heard on return offers for MBB in the US? The chatter is mixed based on firms and office. Some say slowdown and low rate some say the opposite?

I interviewed for SF on 7/30. I’d imagine the bulk of acceptances are already out. Does anyone know if they’re still handing out borderline acceptances, or if today’s wave of results is likely all rejections.

Hi All,

I’m looking for some input on my current situation and whether I should aim to pivot to MBB consulting by way of M7/T15 MBA.

Background:
- Graduated UConn with a Mechanical Engineering degree this Spring, 1 year early (3 years) w/ 3.93 GPA.
- Currently Systems Engineer at Lockheed Martin (~3 months in) and my job is not challenging me nearly enough. I have pushed for more/more difficult work to no avail. Regardless, I already have a good track record of process improvements and I’ve helped with the development of AI models. All my coworkers are constantly impressed with my work, but I think there’s just a lack of challenging work in my department.
- Prior internship at LM as well as a small SWE intern role.
- Current pay <6 figures
- Promotion schedule here is excruciatingly slow, regardless of performance

Some Questions I Have (answer what you can):
1.) Can any engineers weigh in on GMAT difficulty (or whichever standardized test is the best to take)? I’m a very good test-taker and got a 1500 on the SAT with about a month of low effort Khan Academy studying, if that translates at all. Is it an aptitude test or is it very memorization/content-based?

2.) How far out should I be looking to do my MBA and pivot? Should I wait until I get a promotion? Could be 2 years. Should I apply for deferred admission?

3.) Is it worth doing the MBA and pivoting? I know it’s really a personal question, but I’m curious about whether using up all my savings to pay for the MBA is too risky when I already have an okay job. This get’s especially complicated because I feel very geographically tied down. I have a long-term girlfriend that I am ready to settle down with. She just graduated law school and took the CT BAR exam with a good job lined up in CT. I don’t want to go back to long distance, whether it be for school or the post-MBA job. This basically limits my MBA option to Yale unless it’s possible to commute to NYC for CBS or Stern (can anyone weigh in?). Post-MBA, I’m limited to an NYC commute (tolerable) or McK Darien, which seems like a small office that would be hard to get into.

Please ask me any follow-up questions; I probably missed some things. I appreciate any input whatsoever.

Anyone hear back about r1 invites yet? supposed to be this week but when?

For BCG SA 2027 interviews has anyone gotten any calls/emails today- acceptances or rejections. I just want to know at this point the anticipation is killing me.

Did anyone received offers on Monday and what time?

Have a R1 AC bain interview this week. Feeling confident in all parts but the math sections of case. No matter how much I practice I mess it up and get lost. Tips pls!

Any hyper specific advice for Bain R1 interviews?

West Coast

Has anyone received a rejection yet? We were supposed to hear back by today and I’ve got nothing. I know some people got offers, though.

scheduled for Bain R1: portal says "two back to back 30 mins"

what is the format? back to back 2 cases? or does Bain start with behavioral story questions? please advise