BCG Unlock is a virtual summer program for incoming MBA students to learn more about consulting and BCG, build consulting skills, and network with BCG recruiters and consultants.

 

The BCG Unlock program is an extraordinary opportunity to get a head start on the Fall recruiting internship season.

 

If you’re thinking of applying to the BCG Unlock program, then this article is for you. We’re going to tell you everything you need to know about the BCG Unlock program, including tips for the application and next steps after you apply.

 

What is BCG Unlock?

 

BCG Unlock is a series of virtual learning sessions that takes place over the summer for incoming MBAs to learn more about consulting and BCG, develop business skills, and network with BCG colleagues and other MBA participants.

 

BCG Unlock is virtual and all events are completely optional. You can attend as many or as few events as you choose, depending on your schedule.

 

Individual sessions for BCG Unlock vary in length, but typically last between 60 and 90 minutes. These sessions run from late May through late July. Some of these sessions are recorded and accessible online if you aren’t able to attend live.

 

Participants in the BCG Unlock program can expect to:

 

• Connect with BCG consultants and leaders to learn more about consulting life

 

• Get a behind-the-scenes look at how BCG works with clients and brings about transformative changes

 

• Learn about the opportunities, support systems, and tools that BCG offers to help grow a career

 

• Get the opportunity to ask any questions related to consulting, BCG, and recruiting for the upcoming year

 

• Network with other MBA candidates

 

If you have any questions on the BCG Unlock program, you can email [email protected].

You can also check out our comprehensive list of pre-MBA programs.

 

In addition to the BCG Unlock programming, BCG also hosts additional programming for candidates that are from underrepresented backgrounds, including Black, Latino, Indigenous, Women, Pride (LGBTQ+), Veteran, and Asian.

 

BCG Empower is one example of additional programming. BCG Empower is an invite-only workshop within BCG Unlock for Black, Hispanic, Latino, and Native American participants to gain hands-on consulting experience and build their business toolkit.

 

BCG Unlock Eligibility

 

To be eligible for the BCG Unlock program, candidates must be enrolled in a 2-year MBA program and entering their first year in the upcoming fall. First-year, second-year, and executive MBAs are not eligible for the program.

 

Dual-degree students, such as MD/MBAs and JD/MBAs, are eligible to apply to BCG Unlock, but are encouraged to apply in the spring before they begin the first year of their MBA program.

 

BCG welcomes any pre-MBA student to apply, but they particularly encourage applications from the MBA programs listed below:

 

• Anderson School of Management (UCLA)
• Booth School of Business (University of Chicago)
• Carlson School of Management (University of Minnesota)
• Columbia Business School
• Darden School of Business (University of Virginia)
• ESADE (Ramon Llull University)
• Foster School of Business (University of Washington)
• Fuqua School of Business (Duke)
• Goizueta Business School (Emory University)
• Haas School of Business (Berkeley)
• Harvard Business School
• HEC Paris
• Hong Kong University of Science & Technology
• Howard University School of Business
• IE Business School
• IESE Business School (University of Navarra)
• INSEAD
• Johnson School of Management (Cornell University)
• Jones Graduate School of Business (Rice University)
• Kelley Business School (Indiana University)
• Kellogg School of Management (Northwestern)
• Kenan-Flagler Business School (UNC)
• London Business School
• Marshall School of Business (University of Southern California)
• McCombs School of Business (University of Texas at Austin)
• McDonough School of Business (Georgetown University
• Mendoza College of Business (Notre Dame
• Olin Business School (Washington University in St. Louis)
• Owen Graduate School of Management (Vanderbilt)
• Ross School of Business (University of Michigan)
• Rotman School of Management (University of Toronto)
• Saïd Business School (University of Oxford)
• SDA Bocconi School of Management
• Sloan School of Management (MIT)
• Stanford Graduate School of Business
• Stern School of Business (NYU)
• Tepper School of Business (Carnegie Mellon University)
• The Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania)
• Tuck School of Business (Dartmouth)
• University of Cambridge Judge Business School
• Yale School of Management

 

BCG Unlock is for all eligible MBA students, whether they’ve decided they want to go into consulting or are still trying to figure out if consulting is right for them. Applying to the program does not require any commitment to participate and there is no cost or risk in applying.

 

Therefore, we highly recommend that all eligible MBA students apply to BCG Unlock as long as they have some interest or curiosity in consulting.

 

BCG Unlock Deadline

 

The deadline to apply for the BCG Unlock program is April 28. However, you should always check the BCG Unlock website to see the official deadlines for the upcoming year.

 

Your application to the BCG Unlock program has no impact on your candidacy to other BCG programs or roles.

Make sure to check out our comprehensive list of all BCG application deadlines for internships, full-time roles, and other programs.

 

BCG Unlock Application

 

When applying to BCG Unlock, it is highly recommended to use your school email address if you already have one. This will make your application easier to filter for and find if you attend one of BCG’s target schools.

 

The BCG Unlock application requires a resume, test scores, office preferences, and indication of interests in other BCG programs.

 

Resume

 

Your consulting resume is the single most important component that will determine how many BCG events and programs you’ll get into.

 

Therefore, you’ll want to dedicate at least a few days perfecting your resume while also getting feedback from peers, your school’s career center, or even consultants that you know.

 

Make sure to follow the tips below to perfect your consulting resume.

 

• Keep your resume to one page only. If it is longer, you’ll need to make your resume more concise and less wordy

 

• Every bullet on your resume should start with a verb in the past tense to show that you have completed or achieved something

 

• Every bullet should have some kind of number or metric in them so that you can quantify your accomplishments and make them sound more impressive

 

• Your resume’s bullets should show a mix of quantitative skill accomplishments (e.g., analyzing data) and qualitative skill accomplishments (e.g., managing or working with others)

 

• Avoid using technical jargon, unfamiliar abbreviations or acronyms, and buzzwords with unclear meanings

 

• Your resume should prioritize showcasing your work experiences, particularly if you have worked at a brand name company

 

• Include personal interests at the end of the resume to give resume reviewers something interesting to read about

 

If you need professional help crafting the perfect resume that will land you consulting interviews, check out our resume review and editing service.

 

Test scores

 

The BCG Unlock application requires you to submit your test scores for the SAT, ACT, GMAT, or GRE, depending on which exam you have taken. You will not need to submit an official score report. You will only need to input the numerical scores and the sub-score breakdowns.

 

If your MBA program did not require you to take any tests. You should select “GMAT overall” from the test scores dropdown and then write “Test scores waived.”

 

Office preferences

 

The BCG Unlock application will ask for your top three office preferences. You should pick the offices based on your interests for future summer and full-time opportunities. Pick offices where you would actually want to live after graduation.

 

You will be asked to give a weight to each of your office preferences such that the sum of all weights adds up to 100%. For example, you may indicate your office preferences as 70% New York, 20% Boston, and 10% Chicago.

 

Your office preferences are not binding, but they help BCG provide further information to you on these offices and help connect you with BCG colleagues in those locations.

 

Interests in other BCG programs

 

The BCG Unlock application will contain a section to indicate your interest in BCG Empower.

 

BCG Empower is a three-day workshop consisting of small group sessions, case prep, and social events for incoming students that identify as Black, Hispanic, Latino, or Indigenous.

 

BCG Empower is offered both in-person and virtually and typically takes place in June and July. The in-person program has previously been held in Washington D.C. and Chicago.

 

You must indicate your interest in BCG Empower on the BCG Unlock application to be considered. You should also complete the affinity interest form so that BCG can tailor your experience with BCG based on your interests.

 

Next Steps After Signing Up for BCG Unlock

 

After applying to the BCG Unlock program, select applicants that expressed interest in the BCG Empower program will be invited to complete a one-way video interview. In past years, applicants were also asked to complete the BCG Pymetrics Test.

 

One-way video interview

 

The one-way video interview helps add a more personal touch to your BCG Unlock and BCG Empower application. During this interview, BCG will display a few questions on the screen and you will answer these questions one at a time via video.

 

The one-way video is conducted through the Spark Hire video platform. The one-way video interview should take 45-60 minutes to complete.

 

Recording yourself and talking to a camera is not a natural thing that most people are comfortable with. Therefore, you can significantly improve the way you communicate your answer by practicing recording yourself and talking to a camera ahead of time.

 

You should watch recordings of yourself to see if there are any opportunities for improvement.

 

Can you make better eye contact with the camera? Are you using appropriate hand gestures? Do you appear calm, confident, enthusiastic, and genuine?

 

You will be surprised at how you appear on camera unless you take the time to practice recording yourself speaking to a camera.

 

BCG Pymetrics Test

 

The BCG Pymetrics test is a pre-interview screening test taken on a computer or smartphone, consisting of 12 mini-games that take 1-3 minutes each. It assesses 91 cognitive traits including attention: decision making, effort, fairness, focus, generosity, and risk tolerance.

 

The BCG Pymetrics games will feel similar to exercises from brain training apps. The different games you’ll see are simple and intuitive. You will not need any prior business knowledge or video game playing experience to do well.

 

Examples of potential games you may see include:

 

• A memory exercise to see how many digits you can memorize and recall

 

• A focus exercise in which you are shown a series of different colored shapes and asked to tap the keyboard only when you see a particular shape or color

 

• An emotional intelligence exercise in which you are shown pictures of people’s faces and text with information. You are asked to determine what emotion is being displayed

 

• A fairness exercise involving distributing money across a group. You are asked to judge how fair the distribution of money is under different circumstances

 

• A prioritization exercise to see how you handle choosing tasks based on their difficulty and payoffs

 

• A risk tolerance game in which you earn points by pumping a balloon with air, earning more points as the balloon gets fuller. However, you lose points if the balloon bursts

 

• A problem solving game in which you are asked to make a pattern of colors match another pattern of colors using the fewest number of moves

 

To see what all 12 of these mini-games actually look and feel like, you can practice each game through JobTestPrep’s Pymetrics Assessment Games.

 

Getting ahead on consulting interview prep

 

After completing the one-way video interview and the BCG Pymetrics Test, you can give yourself an advantage over other candidates by preparing for consulting interviews early.

 

Consulting interviews consist of case interviews and behavioral or fit interviews.

 

Case interviews

 

A case interview is a 20 to 40-minute interview in which you are placed in a hypothetical business situation and asked to develop a recommendation to solve a business problem. Case interviews are a special type of interview that all management consulting firms use in their interview process.

 

BCG uses case interviews because they closely simulate what the consulting job will be like. In a case interview, you’ll need to use problem solving, quantitative skills, business judgment, and communication to work through the business problem, uncover insights, and make a firm recommendation.

 

If you’re looking for a step-by-step guide to learn case interviews quickly and save yourself hundreds of hours, make sure to check out our comprehensive case interview course.

 

Behavioral and fit interviews

 

In addition to case interviews, you should also prepare for consulting behavioral questions. These interview questions ask you to draw upon a time or experience in the past in which you demonstrated a particular quality or trait.

 

For example, you may be asked to give an example of a time when you used data to solve a problem or a time when you successfully led a team.

 

Behavioral questions give BCG interviewers a glimpse into who you are as a person. Your answers will show what qualities you demonstrate and what values you hold important to you.

 

BCG asks fit questions to assess your genuine passion for consulting and to see if you are actually interested in working at the firm. These questions include “why consulting” and “why BCG?”

 

If you want to learn how to answer 98% of consulting behavioral and fit questions in just a few hours, check out our behavioral interview course.

 

Recommended Resources to Land a BCG Offer

 

To give yourself the best chance of getting a BCG offer, we highly recommend looking into the resources listed below. Getting professional help can significantly increase your chances of landing an interview at BCG and passing your interviews.

For help landing consulting interviews

 

• Resume Review & Editing: Transform your resume into one that will get you multiple consulting interviews

 

For help acing the BCG Pymetrics Test

 

• JobTestPrep’s Pymetrics Assessment Games: Practice all 12 of the mini-games in the BCG Pymetrics Test with step-by-step guides and tips for each mini-game

 

For help passing case interviews

 

• Comprehensive Case Interview Course (our #1 recommendation): The only resource you need. Whether you have no business background, rusty math skills, or are short on time, this step-by-step course will transform you into a top 1% caser that lands multiple consulting offers.

 

• Case Interview Coaching: Personalized, one-on-one coaching with a former Bain interviewer.

 

• Hacking the Case Interview Book (available on Amazon): Perfect for beginners that are short on time. Transform yourself from a stressed-out case interview newbie to a confident intermediate in under a week. Some readers finish this book in a day and can already tackle tough cases.

 

• The Ultimate Case Interview Workbook (available on Amazon): Perfect for intermediates struggling with frameworks, case math, or generating business insights. No need to find a case partner – these drills, practice problems, and full-length cases can all be done by yourself.

 

For help passing consulting behavioral & fit interviews

 

• Behavioral & Fit Interview Course: Be prepared for 98% of behavioral and fit questions in just a few hours. We'll teach you exactly how to draft answers that will impress your interviewer.