On 1^st Dec., 2017, more than 20 students from Guanghua School of Management went on a company visit to BCG Beijing Office.

【Brief introduction to Boston Consulting Group】

 The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) is a global management consulting firm with more than 90 offices in 50 countries. The firm advises clients in the private, public, and non-profit sectors around the world, including more than two-thirds of the Fortune 500 and is one of the 'Big Three' strategy consulting firms (MBB). Considered one of the most prestigious management consulting firms in a branche-internal survey, BCG was ranked third in Fortune's "100 Best Companies to Work For" in 2017.

【Visiting activities】

Firstly, the HR in charge took us around the office and introduced functions of different rooms and areas. Office environment in BCG is both pleasant and highly efficient, with enjoyable scenery and humanization design. Pantry is in the main corridor with delicate cakes and drinks, where staff chat with each other or take a break.

Next, BCG Recruiting Director did a presentation about the company. The presentation was divided into the following four parts: Basic introduction, career development, typical work flow of a consultant and general recruitment information.

During the basic introduction session, we learned BCG is a leading global management consulting firm, with expertise in various areas. From the perspective of industry, BCG’s practices include industrial goods, consumer products, TMT, health care, energy environment, financial institutions and insurance, social impact and principal investor& private equity, etc.. From the perspective of functions, they cover strategy, people and organization, operations, transformation/ large scale change, digital, corporate development, technology advantage, and marketing, sales and pricing, etc... With the core business of consulting, BCG also owns many extension brands and standalone brands, contributing to their business performance.

In the following part of career development, we werer introduced the career path, culture, training system, mobility program and alumni in BCG. Next, we were presented the typical work team and project in BCG.  A project normally starts with a plan, which contains understanding the work scope, setting up the right team, preparing the work plan and identifying the key milestones as well as developing relevant methodology and develop hypothesis. Next steps are executing, interim readout, revising, final read out and cleaning up.

In the last part, Recruiting Director instructed us how to get prepared while at school. 2 programs are designed for students, PTA (part-time assistant) and internship. PTA aims to help freshman and sophomore to get basic sense and knowledge of a consulting job and BCG. PTAs request at least 6 months of commitment (onsite or remote, 1-2 days a week). Outstanding PTAs could get chance to be recommended to interview. Summer Intern is  eight-week internship program which provides promising employees with professional internal training, real case exposure and networking events.

Afterwards, current graduate students from Peking University share their experience in BCG with us. They share preparation timeline and key points, including pre-talk and various rounds of interviews. A Q&A session was held afterwards. We shared opinions about life-work balance, required skills, community work in school and other areas related.

This study visit not only deepened students’ understanding of consulting career and BCG, but also provided a clear path to enter this area and devote to a promising future. It offers a great opportunity for the students to meet professional staff from BCG, who have solved students’ problems and addressed curiosity of students. Students found this visit informative and insightful, and are all looking forward to participating more similar visits in the future.

Recorded by Shiyang Ma