I've received an offer to join Bain's ACI class next summer, and with nothing to do for the next year, I'm looking for ways to best prepare for the internship and maximize my chances at a return offer. I know there's a week-long training at the start, but I feel like that won't cover everything I need to know, nor provide me enough time to practice the skills I learn over the week.
For former interns or current full-time employees, how would you recommend I best use this time?
The ACIs that get return offers:
1) Bring a GREAT attitude. That means being positive / emitting positive energy, offering to help with everything even the smallest tasks like organizing team dinners, or travel meal logistics, hotel logistics, etc. Offering to sit in on meetings and taking exceptional notes and identifying key takeways (or be able to use AI to accelerate the process but still able to distill what is important and highlighting that information up the chain). Basically filling the gaps across the team, even for the most mundane tasks.
2) Be organized. Be on time for meetings. Convey a professional attitude at all times. Do not ask the client newbie questions. Remember, clients pay Bain millions of dollars for a project, act accordingly.
3) Over-communicate progress (think every 2-3 hours) and always suggest next steps in your work even if you’re not sure. Do not expect your supervisor to spoon-feed next steps to you.
4) Understand the Bain way of working and communicating information.
-“recall, here’s the problem you asked me to solve / question you had”
-“this is my hypothesis answer. The reason this is the hypothesis is [reasons]. Where I need your input is [here]. I can show you my detailed analysis if needed.
-“my next steps are [next steps]. I will circle back tomorrow with an update”
5) Highlight where you are stuck and ask for help early.
It’s ok to ask for help.
It’s not ok to pretend like you got it only to have it explode the next day and having your team pick up the pieces because you did not flag that you needed help.
Based on that list above, there’s not much you can do except practice using AI to accelerate research to support your problem solving. #2 and #3 above are the most frequent reasons someone doesnt get a return offer.
Love this list and holds true at M, too!