I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Bain & Company (New York, NY) in Aug 2018
Interview
I applied online for an AC position in Dubai and was invited for an interview about 3 weeks later. I was emailed to schedule the interview the next week (i.e. I interviewed 5 days after hearing I was selected for the interview process). Short notice and seems to be the norm at Bain -- the colleagues from the Dubai office were also interviewing at MIT the next week and had yet to invite any candidates. Interview was also not exactly the format discussed over email with the coordinator. Over email the coordinator mentioned two case interviews back to back of about 30 minutes each but it turned out to be 30 minutes of behavioural (personal experience, professional experience, why consulting, why bain) and 30 minutes case interview. This process was then repeated by a second interviewer. Total interview time of 2 hours.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Behavioral questions:
Personal experiences, professional experiences, why consulting, why Bain, why Dubai Office.
Case interview questions:
Case 1: Large company that has dealings in retail, real estate, auto, food and beverages in the UAE. See that revenues are dropping and profitability has decreased but can’t do much on the retail front because there are buying preferences we can’t alter. (Shown table with the y1/y2/y3 for all of those in revenue streams)
Question: Why is the company less profitable and how can we advise them to reverse the trend?
Case 2: case 2: Qatar marina development (open air shops retail front, residential, commercial, and retail). Retail has seen decrease in the space rented from 105,000 to 100,000 sq m. Rent is 250 riyals per sq m per year.
Question: Why is this happening and what can they do about it. *Note interviewer also wanted all the decreases calculated.
2 cases for R1. Pretty straightforward cases about revenue optimization opportunities. There was a little bit of market sizing but all data needed was given. No behaviorals asked in round 1 for me.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What office did you choose and why? Do you have competing offers?
2 rounds, 1st round 2 small cases, not very difficult , market entry cases.
2nd long case with a deck to read and prepare answers..45 mins to read, 15 mins to answer
Three rounds of interviews, generally 2 rounds in person or remote with live consultants. Each round involves a 2-3 case interviews each, which generally also include a set of behavioural questions.