Getting hired as a Project Leader at Boston Consulting Group is a major career achievement. As someone leading client engagements, you’ll be at the forefront of strategy consulting and have a major impact on client success.
But first, you have to get through the challenging interview process. BCG Project Leader interviews assess your strategic thinking, problem-solving abilities, leadership potential, and culture fit. Mastering the most common BCG Project Leader interview questions is crucial.
In this article we’ll cover
- An overview of the BCG Project Leader role
- Common interview formats and process
- The top BCG Project Leader interview questions with sample answers
- Tips to prepare and ace your BCG Project Leader interviews
What is a BCG Project Leader?
BCG Project Leaders are experienced consultants who lead strategy projects end-to-end As a Project Leader, you will
- Lead project teams of 2-8 consultants
- Interface directly with clients as the main point of contact
- Structure client problems, guide analyses, and lead to solutions
- Present final recommendations to client executives
It’s a role with immense responsibility. BCG wants Project Leaders who can manage teams flawlessly, build trusted client relationships, and deliver significant strategic impact.
BCG Project Leader Interview Process
The BCG Project Leader interview process is similar to Consultant interviews but typically has an additional “soft skills” angle
-
Resume Screen: BCG will screen your resume and background to ensure fit.
-
General Cognitive Assessment: BCG uses online assessments to test problem solving abilities, data interpretation, logic, and math.
-
Case Interviews (2-4 rounds): Live case interviews make up the bulk of the process. BCG Project Leader cases assess analytical thinking and leadership abilities.
-
Soft skills interview: Expect at least one purely behavioral interview focused on leadership, influence, teamwork, resilience, and motivation.
-
Final Partner Meeting: The final round is an interview with a Senior BCG Partner who will evaluate your experience, fit, and enthusiasm.
-
Offer: BCG extends offers to ~25% of Project Leader interview candidates. The process is highly competitive.
Thorough preparation and practice is key to successfully navigating the intense BCG Project Leader interview gauntlet.
Top BCG Project Leader Interview Questions
Let’s walk through some of the most common BCG Project Leader interview questions and high-quality answers expected:
Leadership & People Management Questions
People management is a huge part of the BCG Project Leader role. Expect several questions probing your abilities here:
Q: How would you go about building an effective team?
- Acknowledge importance of diversity – skills, backgrounds, personalities.
- Discuss need to assign clear roles aligned to strengths.
- Highlight frequent communication, transparency, and openness.
- Emphasize creating shared mission, energy, and culture of excellence.
Q: One of your project team members is struggling with their workload and unable to complete assignments. What would you do?
- Speak to them 1-on-1 to understand issues.
- Assess if inadequate skills, personal issues, or other gaps.
- Provide support: coaching, reduced workload, etc.
- If needed, have transparent talk about expectations and consequences of underperformance.
Q: Tell me about a time you influenced a team or individual without direct authority.
- Set context of complex situation requiring influence.
- Emphasize listening first to understand all perspectives.
- Discuss building alignment by identifying shared goals.
- Explain approach of empathy, logic/data, and passion.
- Share how you won support and achieved successful outcome.
Client Management Questions
BCG wants Project Leaders who can build strong client relationships:
Q: How would you go about establishing credibility with a new client?
- Highlight importance of deeply understanding client’s business and objectives.
- Ask thoughtful questions and listen intently during meetings.
- Emphasize not overpromising; manage expectations upfront.
- Discuss bringing fresh perspective while respecting internal view.
- Share case example of building trust and credibility with a client lacking confidence in consultants.
Q: Tell me about a time you had to push back on a client request that you disagreed with. What was the situation and how did you handle it?
- Set context of client requesting inappropriate timeline, resources, or advising against best practice.
- Emphasize need for transparent, fact-based pushback anchored in client’s best interest.
- Share case of pushing back respectfully but firmly and ultimately changing client’s mind.
Q: Describe a situation where you made a mistake managing a client. How did you recover?
- Briefly explain mistake – missed deliverable, mismanaged expectation, communication gap, etc.
- Emphasize quickly owning mistake; no excuses.
- Discuss approach to make up for error – extra effort, candor, make-rights, etc.
- Share lessons learned about preventing such mistakes going forward.
Analytical & Problem Solving Questions
You’ll still get traditional case interviews assessing your problem structuring, analysis, math, and communication:
Q: Your client is a consumer electronics company whose profits have declined ~30% over the last 5 years. What should you do?
- Ask clarifying questions about market, competitors, products, sales channels, etc.
- Structure issue into actionable buckets – revenue growth, cost reduction, business model, etc.
- For each, propose hypotheses, analyses to test hypotheses, anticipated findings.
- Provide 2-3 clear, tangible recommendations with rationale.
- Emphasize validating recommendations through market research, data analysis.
Q: Estimate the total number of gas stations in Canada.
- Start broad – gas stations per capita in developed markets as anchor (e.g. 1 per 3,500 people).
- Refine based on Canada’s population (~38M), car ownership rates, urban vs rural splits.
- Further dial in based on market-specific data like vehicles per capita, mileage driven, etc.
- Provide estimate range, discussing uncertainties and assumptions.
For detailed examples, check out our complete guide on Top 25 BCG Case Interview Questions.
7 Tips to Ace Your BCG Project Leader Interview
Here are our top 7 tips for preparing for your BCG Project Leader interviews:
1) Use Your Experience – Leverage relevant examples from your work history when answering behavioral questions.
2) Research BCG – Understand BCG’s methodology, principles, clients, and culture.
3) Practice Aloud – Complete at least 30+ full practice cases with someone critiquing you.
4) Nail Your Story – Refine your resume story and motivation for consulting.
5) Brush Up Math – Review basic arithmetic, probability, estimation, stats.
6) Deep Dive Your Experience – Identify transferable skills from your background.
7) Ask for Feedback – Seek input from coaches throughout your preparation.
With rigorous practice and systematic preparation, you can master the art of the BCG Project Leader interview. Patience and persistence are key. While the process is challenging, the reward of leading strategic projects at one of the top consulting firms is immense. Stay confident, leverage the advice above, and you will be impressing BCG interviewers in no time.
You’ve got this!
Interviews at Boston Consulting Group (BCG)
Depending upon the specific role and location where you apply, the interview process can vary. The information here, on the other hand, comes from the most common way applicants said the process worked, so you can expect something like the one below.
Casey ChatBot is BCG’s own interview system that will likely run your first round interview after you apply for the job. You will be asked multiple-choice questions and have a limited amount of time to respond.
Applicants said the ChatBot questions were hard because at least two or three of the answers are very similar and seem like good fits for the questions. You can expect to have one or two one-on-one interviews with MDs or principals after this one.
It’s likely that your interviews will take weeks, if not months, to complete, starting with the first screening and ending with interviews with BCG directors. If you haven’t heard back in a while, don’t think you’re out of the running. Recruiting can take a long time.
Boston Consulting Group (BCG)Consulting
Based on the Interview Insights at this company, the Interview Experience is a score between 1 star (very bad) and 5 stars (very good).
The number in the middle of the doughnut pie chart is the mean of all these scores. If you move your mouse over the different parts of the doughnut, you’ll see exactly how each score was calculated.
The title percentile score is based on an adjusted score based on Bayesian Estimates that is applied to the whole Company Database. This is done to account for companies that don’t have many interview insights. For easy explanation, when a business gets more reviews, the belief in its “true score” grows. This makes it move closer to its own simple average and away from the overall average of the dataset. 3. 9.
Based on the Interview Insights at this company, the Interview Difficulty is a score that goes from “very difficult” (red) to “very easy” (green).
The number in the middle of the doughnut pie chart is the mean of all these scores. The higher the number, the more difficult the interviews on average. This doughnut has different parts that, when you move your mouse over them, show you the 20% breakdown of each score given.
The title percentile score is based on an adjusted score based on Bayesian Estimates that is applied to the whole Company Database. This is done to account for companies that don’t have many interview insights. That is, as a business learns more, it becomes more sure of a “true score,” which moves it closer to its own simple average and away from the overall average of the data set. 3. 7.
Based on reviews at this company, the 20% of interns getting full-time offers chart is meant to give you a good idea of how the company hires people.
The number in the middle of the doughnut pie chart is the mean of all these scores. This doughnut has different parts that, when you move your mouse over them, show you the 20% breakdown of each score given.
It uses an adjusted score based on Bayesian Estimates to account for companies that don’t have many reviews, which is how the percentile score in the title is found. To put it simply, when a business gets more reviews, the “true score” becomes more likely to be accurate. This makes it move closer to the simple company average and away from the average of all the data. 74%.
Personal Fit Interview Questions – Get into McKinsey, BCG, Bain
FAQ
What is the role of the project leader at BCG?
How do you stand out in a BCG interview?
How hard is it to get hired at Boston Consulting Group?
How many interview questions does Boston Consulting Group have?
Glassdoor has millions of jobs plus salary information, company reviews, and interview questions from people on the inside making it easy to find a job that’s right for you. Boston Consulting Group interview details: 4,338 interview questions and 4,073 interview reviews posted anonymously by Boston Consulting Group interview candidates.
How long did it take to get a job at Boston Consulting Group?
I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Boston Consulting Group (Paris) HR interview; case study interview; last round consisting in three consecutive case study interviews with an associate, a manager and a partner. Some interviews also included a quick market sizing question.
What is the interview process like at Boston Consulting Group?
I interviewed at Boston Consulting Group The interview starts with CV screen, and then a virtual case for round 1, followed by 1 Case interview for round 2, then finally 2 Case interviews for round 3 I interviewed at Boston Consulting Group Está estructurado en dos rondas de dos entrevistas cada una, con un test online para capacidades analíticas.
How does Glassdoor interview Boston Consulting Group employees?
On Glassdoor, you can share insights and advice anonymously with Boston Consulting Group employees and get real answers from people on the inside. I interviewed at Boston Consulting Group The interview starts with CV screen, and then a virtual case for round 1, followed by 1 Case interview for round 2, then finally 2 Case interviews for round 3
