Guide to BCG Internships

Guide to BCG Internships was originally published on Forage.

Boston Consulting Group (BCG) internships allow college students to explore the varied careers available in consulting and build fundamental skills employers are looking for. As one of the top consulting firms in the U.S., BCG helps clients in practically every industry, so interns can gain experience in even niche interest areas.

In this guide, we’ll go over the internships BCG offers and give you some tips to help you get an offer.

What Is a BCG Internship?

BCG winter and summer internships and other student programs are opportunities for students to explore careers at BCG and learn fundamental skills in a real-world setting. Interns network with their peers and BCG professionals while building interpersonal skills and consulting experience. Depending on the program, students may also participate in conferences and leadership sessions to better prepare them for a career after graduation.

Internships at BCG are paid, with an average annual base salary of around $110,000 in the U.S. prorated for the summer months. Interns also receive a comprehensive benefits package, including medical insurance, paid time off, and financial counseling.

The teams students can participate in at BCG include:

Interns at BCG rate their experience a 4.7 out of 5 on Glassdoor, with 98% of participants saying they would recommend interning at BCG to a friend. Positive reviews highlight the pay and benefits package afforded to interns, as well as talented and intelligent coworkers. Negative reviews note that there may be some poor communication at times, and the hours can be challenging.

Who Is Eligible for BCG Internships?

Eligibility requirements may vary by program and location, but interns generally need to be:

  • Authorized to work in the U.S.
  • Currently pursuing an undergraduate or master’s degree in a relevant field
  • Prepared academically for the work by having relevant skills and a solid academic track record

While there’s no official GPA requirement for a BCG internship, some sources suggest GPAs of at least 3.6 are most competitive. However, other factors are also considered, including SAT and ACT scores and academic performance in relevant coursework.

Additionally, having relevant hard skills is more important than your GPA. For instance, students applying for data science internships must have coding proficiency in Python and be comfortable analyzing large sets of data.

BCG Internship Opportunities for Undergrads

BCG Consulting Internships

Applications Always Open

In BCG’s consulting summer internship, students work alongside professional consultants to solve client challenges. Both graduate and undergraduate students are eligible to apply, and BCG accepts varied education backgrounds, including law, government, humanities, business, and science.

Through this consulting program, interns can grow their business acumen, problem-solving, and collaboration skills. Interns work as associates but may be able to transition to full-time consultant roles upon program completion.

Platinion Cybersecurity

Students in the Platinion Cybersecurity internship help protect businesses, intellectual property, users, and digital assets from malware and other cyberattacks. Interns use cutting-edge cybersecurity techniques, methodologies, and tools to keep clients safe. With the help of BCG professionals, cybersecurity interns experience leading clients through cybersecurity awareness training, developing recovery plans, and ensuring security during software development processes.

Undergraduate and graduate students are eligible to apply, and students should be pursuing degrees in areas like information security, computer science, cybersecurity, or related fields.

Highly qualified applicants should have:

  • Excellent collaboration, business acumen, communication, problem-solving, and analytical thinking skills
  • Experience implementing cybersecurity practices, assessing risks, and developing risk mitigation strategies that don’t compromise business objectives

Platinion Tech Advisory and Delivery

BCG’s Platinion Tech Advisory and Delivery internship program allows students to analyze clients’ current technical landscape and practice developing roadmaps to improve programs and systems to help clients meet their goals. Interns review the technology industry to understand what options are currently available to clients and what options could open up in the future to better advise clients through technological changes.

Both undergraduate and graduate students can apply, and students should be pursuing degrees in business, computer science, logistics, engineering, operations, economics, IT, or related fields. Ideal candidates also have prior professional consulting experience.

To qualify, students need:

  • Creative thinking, communication, presentation, independence, and leadership skills
  • Strong understanding of building strategies around cloud infrastructures, enterprise architectures, software, digital analytics platforms, and data governance
  • Experience with project management, product management, digital road mapping, and performing technical assessments

Technology, Media, and Telecommunications — Finance Internship

BCG’s Technology, Media, and Telecommunications (TMT) finance program is a full-time winter-term internship that runs from December to June. Students practice financial analysis and reporting and work with professionals to determine if the business meets relevant performance metrics and KPIs. Throughout the program, interns also assist with reporting finances globally and regionally and help develop new initiatives to promote business success.

While prior professional experience in consulting is helpful, it isn’t required. However, students need approval from their college or university to participate in the program. Additionally, BCG prefers students pursuing bachelor’s degrees in business or with a strong interest in finance, business, and consulting.

Qualified applicants need skills like:

  • Resourcefulness, attention to detail, communication, and initiative
  • Experience with data analysis, data visualization, financial reporting practices, and Microsoft Excel

Technology, Media, and Telecommunications —Marketing Internship

The TMT Marketing internship allows students to build fundamental marketing and analytics skills while managing BCG social media marketing campaigns and creating event materials. Interns help the TMT marketing team maintain analytics dashboards, report marketing campaign performance, and handle internal email communications.

BCG prefers candidates with prior marketing-related work experience or a substantial and specific interest in pursuing marketing and analytics careers.

Successful candidates must have:

  • Project management skills, proficiency in Excel and PowerPoint, and experience in event planning
  • Impeccable interpersonal, customer service, and creative thinking skills

Growing Future Leaders Program

BCG’s Growing Future Leaders Program is for sophomores from traditionally marginalized communities. This program allows interns to explore BCG’s culture and careers. While paired with a mentor, students go through development programs and build vital career skills.

Successful interns may be eligible for scholarship opportunities, and some are invited to participate in summer internships the following summer.

Students need strong soft skills in:

  • Problem-solving, analytical thinking, leadership, teamwork, and communication

Other BCG Student Programs

BCG Advance

BCG Advance is a one-week virtual conference for sophomore women in the U.S. and Canada. Students don’t need prior experience in consulting to participate, and there’s no specific major requirement. Upon completion, participants can apply and interview for internship programs early, before campus recruiting events begin.

Bridge to Consulting Workshop

The Bridge to Consulting Workshop allows first- and second-year students from underrepresented minority groups to explore career opportunities at BCG. This workshop occurs in the spring, and it allows students to be immersed in the BCG world and culture. Students network and build relationships with BCG leaders, consultants, and peers and go through interview preparation activities.

BCG Launch

BCG Launch is a virtual program running between January to March and June to July. The program features a mix of recorded events and on-demand content to help undergraduate and master’s degree students gain an inside look at being a BCG consultant.

Throughout the program, students connect with and hear from current BCG employees and interns to learn more about BCG’s career and development opportunities. Additionally, students learn about the recruiting process and have the chance to ask questions about the internship programs and working at BCG.

Applying for BCG Internships

Application Process

To apply for BCG internships and student programs, you’ll need to submit your application along with your:

  • Resume
  • College transcripts
  • ACT and/or SAT scores with subscore breakdowns

You aren’t required to submit a cover letter.

BCG’s Pymetrics

When applying to BCG, you’ll need to complete a set of neuroscience-based games called pymetrics. Pymetrics measure your emotional function and cognitive abilities.

Completing these games takes about 20 to 30 minutes, and you can’t retake or replay any of the games. However, pymetrics isn’t an IQ test, and there aren’t any right or wrong answers. Rather, these games are designed to give BCG recruiters and hiring managers a better idea of how you think.

Internship Interviews at BCG

When interviewing at BCG, you’ll typically go through skills interviews and problem-solving or case study interviews.

Skills Interviews

Skills interviews are just like traditional interviews — the hiring team wants to understand who you are, why you’ve applied for the role, and what skills or experience you have that makes you qualified.

Interviewers at BCG also care about how you think and what matters to you, so ensure your authentic personality comes through in your responses. Additionally, highlight what drew you to BCG and why you’re interested in the consulting industry.

You should align your responses to showcase how you exemplify the qualities BCG looks for in interns and employees, such as:

  • Creative thinking
  • Collaboration skills
  • Integrity and honesty
  • Drive and work ethic
  • Intellectual curiosity

Forage Find

Keep your answers concise using the STAR method: Situation, Task, Action, Result. Describe the situation, what task you needed to complete, the actions you took, and the results of your actions!

Case Study Interviews

Case study interviews replicate the types of problems BCG professionals deal with every day. Through a case study interview, you can showcase your technical and specialized skills and give concrete evidence of your problem-solving skills. The interviewer will provide you with some facts and information about a problem, and you need to create an approach to solve the problem.

Practice is crucial for acing case study interviews, and going through example case studies with friends can help you prepare for the structure and format. Remember that the most important part of a case study interview is showing how you break down and think through problems in creative ways.

BCG gives tips for handling case studies, including:

  • Ask questions and listen to the interviewer carefully
  • Talk through your thought process at all stages
  • Follow a logical method of hypothesizing and fact-finding, but don’t rely on artificial frameworks to solve the problem
  • Don’t panic if you get stuck or feel like you can’t find the answer — how you think through the problem matters more than the final solution

Tips for Landing an Internship at BCG

Prepare for Your Interviews

By enlisting the help of friends and family, you can practice your responses and become more comfortable with answering common interview questions. Additionally, you can review role-specific interview questions to ensure you know how to answer questions regarding certain types of careers:

Network Effectively

Networking is proven to improve your chances of landing an internship. Some ways to get started building your network include reaching out to recruiters on LinkedIn or meeting industry professionals at on-campus and virtual events. Connecting with recruiters and BCG professionals helps you build a connection with the company and can make your name stand out on the list of applicants.

>>MORE: Learn more about virtual networking.

Pack Your Resume With the Right Skills

Having the right skills is the best way to land great jobs. Remember to look at the required skills for the internship by checking the job post or reviewing descriptions of that career. Then, you can focus on the skills most important to the role and work on building those in real-world situations.

One way to build your skills is by taking relevant courses. For instance, if an internship job post says it wants someone highly proficient in financial analysis, you can take an accounting, economics, or finance course to refine those skills.

You can also use virtual job simulations to back up your skills and explore career options. Start today with Forage’s free job simulations.

Image credit: Joeppoulssen/ Depositphotos.com

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