Advanced Degree Careers at BCG

As a physician, your influence and impact on each patient in your care can bring tremendous satisfaction. But many MDs are attracted to BCG because they want to have a different kind of impact; they want to challenge themselves intellectually to understand and solve some of the most complex business issues, influencing and impacting a broader audience.

At BCG, we help our clients tackle some of their toughest problems. One commonality among all MDs who join BCG is their innate passion for problem solving and their desire to have an impact on the health care industry on a broader level. Regardless of the type of project you’re working on, you will apply your analytical and problem-solving skills to a wide range of client issues. Your career in consulting will give you exposure to the broader health care system, beyond the specific patient care you were trained to practice.

At BCG, we attract MDs from various stages in their medical training—from those who join us right out of medical school to physicians who have been practicing for years. Many of the same attributes and skills that have allowed you to succeed in medicine are essential in consulting. Like physicians, consultants must be good with people, intellectually curious, creative, and analytically skilled. As an MD, you bring not only relevant skills but also a unique perspective that allows you to approach problems in a way that provides tremendous value to our clients.

Please refer to our application page and school campus finder to learn more about the recruiting process.

Many JDs at BCG say they were drawn to consulting by the growth and challenge that a career beyond practicing law can offer. JDs come to BCG for the opportunity to be on the business side of problems, and our project team culture thrives on finding the best ideas for the client from diverse viewpoints. The expertise and abilities you have developed in the legal profession—strong leadership and communication skills, used to manage and address multiple and differing viewpoints—will translate well into helping solve complex business problems. Our flat hierarchy attracts many JDs to BCG, and our emphasis on ideas allows you to contribute to project teams from day one. At BCG, you’ll be given meaningful responsibility from your very first case and have ownership of your own work streams.

Please refer to our application page and school campus finder to learn more about the recruiting process.

You will receive plenty of training, as well as coaching, help, and advice. Many new hires come to us from a nontraditional background. BCG hires candidates based on curiosity, willingness to develop, and appreciation of teamwork, as well as more traditional criteria such as the amount of work and leadership experience and scholarships or distinctions earned.

Training is a continuous process at BCG. Entry-level training is available, as are targeted training sessions as you move along in your BCG career. BCG also makes an effort to share its collective knowledge through the BCG knowledge management system, which provides information about BCG people, topics, experience, knowhow, and more. It is available to every consultant in every BCG office, although client names and other confidential information are protected.

In the end, most of your colleagues will tell you that the most effective school at BCG is daily work. Working with your team and with clients, you will experience an incredible learning curve. And BCG does not leave you alone in this endeavor; your peers will support you, your project leader will coach you, and your career advisor will provide useful advice on how to overcome some of the obstacles we all face.

To see if BCG will be visiting ADCs at your campus, please visit BCG on Campus to search for your institution. If you cannot locate your school, do not worry! Please refer to the full-time and internship application process tabs so you know when to apply. You can also create a profile using talent.bcg.com/myprofile to stay in the loop with upcoming virtual events.

There are two rounds of interviews, first and final rounds. Each round contains two, back-to-back case interviews at 45 minutes each. To learn more about our case interview process, check out our website. We recommend you start practicing ASAP, even before being granted an interview. It takes time and several practice cases to master!

Our interview process is a dialogue aimed at getting to know you personally, learning more about your analytic capabilities, and also introducing you to our people and our work. We assess your ability to listen, communicate effectively, and present yourself with tact, energy, and persuasiveness.

We look for intellectual curiosity and creative thinking. And sometimes, we just want to find out what it would be like to, work together on a client project.

As with your research and the time you have devoted to your advanced degree, you know that success comes with practice and preparation. We want to see you at your best, so we encourage you to practice, practice, practice!

Business case interview books are readily available in campus libraries, bookstores and through career services. We recommend giving and recieving practice cases with peers. The business case format is likely to be unfamiliar, and takes time and practice to master.

And while the interviews demand a lot of intellectual engagement, we do not expect ADCs to have a working, insider knowledge of all industries and businesses. We do hope you will be yourself and think logically about the business issues you are discussing with your interviewer. Remember, you’re getting to know us and the consulting career just as we’re getting to know you.

To learn more about our interview process and how to prepare for it, visit the Interview Tips and Practice Cases section of our website.

The day-to-day responsibilities will vary depending on the industry or client you are working with. However, you should expect to apply your problem-solving and analytical abilities to problems with no clear answers. At BCG you will be a member of a BCG project team, which can vary in size from a handful of BCGers working alone at a client to several BCG project teams working at the same client on multiple issues.

Regardless of the team size, you will be responsible for your own work stream or module, which will inform a larger piece of the BCG solution for the client. These assignments when you first begin your BCG career can vary between client/consumer interviews, data analysis, conducting research, and presenting key findings to BCG's clients.

BCG has been recruiting ADCs for more than a decade, and we have ADCs in every region across the globe. Your time as a BCG consultant will provide a more accelerated and amplified career development platform than would academia or other industry roles your may consider.

And you will be joining a network of highly successful advanced-degree holders at BCG. Nearly 100-plus partners worldwide have advanced degrees and many, hold leadership positions in the firm, including our CEO.

We also know that not everyone wants to stay to become a partner, and at BCG our culture is supportive of career transitions regardless of the consultant's background. By joining BCG, you will have direct access to our worldwide network of nearly 1,000 advanced-degree alumni. You will find their paths after BCG are as diverse as the firm is now. Many moved into specific industries, while others entered the nonprofit and social impact spaces or returned to academia. For more information on the career path options available at BCG, please visit our main Consulting Career Track page.

There are many ways to make a living; working at BCG gives you the opportunity to make a difference. Visit our Social Impact page about opportunities for consultants to work in the social sector.

For more information on BCG's global and local partnerships, visit our Global Partnership page.