-I cannot emphasise more that BCG needs to be 100% the first and mostly only priority in your life
- You need to be a really physically and mentally fit individual with a lot of resilience at BCG (so good for military joiners). If you aren't you will already be on the back foot performance-wise
- You will be forced to trade off on your own wellbeing on a regular basis. You will get ill. Everybody does, it's just more severe in some than others. Many people to have cycles of 'burnout' (mental illness by another name) and time off work. If you cannot accept this, it's not for you.
- Performance is massively judged by presenteeism. If you have a family, tenancy for burnout, long-term health condition, disability etc. that would not be a barrier to another, even high-pressured career, it will be here - you will be considered 'disengaged' unless you can be available 24/7 . It doesn't matter how good you are at delivering in the hours you are there - you need to be good and available 24/7.
- The target work week in London is 65 hours (8-10pm x 4, 8-5 x1). But this is the target. The norm is more like 90. 80% of the time I've spent at BCG has been +15 hour days, no weekends, limited breaks during day, expectation to be always available. I've often gone without showering to prioritise sleep.
- If you have a family you will need a spouse, partner, or care-giver who can do everything at home. 99% of the time it is impossible to spend more than an hour a day, and more than 10 hours a week overall on commitments outside BCG. Not unless you sleep less than 5 hours a night. Holiday periods can be generous, but you spend most of this time recovering
- Really poor leadership skills for project leads. Many have never managed people / projects and just don't have the basic foundations. There is very little investment in this and the 'context' is not set up to reward / encourage efficient leadership
- You will spend hours a day pouring over low value tasks at A-C level. As per previous point, expect to work for people with very directive leadership / transactional leadership styles. This isn't a place where, at least at the lower levels, you are coached to learn, develop and / or take ownership of your work as there is not the leadership capability within the organisation
- Not for those with a conscience: when you get there you realise it's a highly selective group of people , with little empathy or understanding of the majority of people's experiences and needs in society as a whole, advising people / organisations with enormous influence on society. There is little 'real' diversity of experience; regardless of ethnicity etc. Most employees have lived a life of privilege or access and there are very few people from 'normal' backgrounds
