Your role on the team

At Bain there is no one "right" career path. Yours might be to progress straight through from AC to partner. Or it might involve business school, time off to travel or start a business, or an international transfer to one of the other Bain offices worldwide.

ACs

The position of associate consultant is open to university graduates with little or no prior work experience. Although traditionally focused on business administration graduates, engineers and PhDs, Bain Amsterdam has hired in recent years many different profiles, such as physicists, lawyers and doctors. Common to all those people are very strong analytical abilities, often underlined by an outstanding academic record.

The mission of an associate consultant is to generate the factual yet breakthrough insights upon which a client recommendation can be built. The job involves interviews with client's customers, competitors and personnel, desk research, as well as the design and execution of quantitative analyses of all sorts.

Training is a priority. Initially, you will spend two weeks with other recruits from around the world to get acquainted with Bain's culture, tools and techniques. This will be followed by many other training sessions, and constant on-the-job coaching by senior consultants. The performance and progress of all our consulting staff is formally evaluated every six months, leading to tailor-made development advice.

With or without an MBA, a significant proportion of our associate consultants promote through the ranks, sometimes up to a partner position.

SACs
The position of senior associate consultant is open to candidates with up to three years’ successful experience. We are not looking for any specific industry background, as Bain hires and trains generalists. But we are looking for outstanding analytical and interpersonal skills. Your professional achievements and the quality of your academic background would typically demonstrate these.

The mission of a senior associate consultant is very similar to that of an associate consultant, but the extra experience and maturity allow him/her to be involved in higher-level client interactions, as well as deal with more complex business issues.

Training is always a priority. Senior associate consultants benefit from the same training programs as out-of-school university graduates, plus sessions targeted at their specific needs. As with all our consulting staff, performance and progress is formally evaluated every six months, leading to tailor-made development advice.

Senior associate consultants are typically about one year away from a promotion to consultant upon joining. Most senior associate consultants pursue a top-level MBA or other opportunities like an externship or a transfer at this point in their careers.

Consultants
Most Bain consultants are either top-ranking MBA graduates from the most highly rated business schools in Europe and the US or senior associate consultants who have been promoted internally.

New consultants are immediately integrated into case teams, and are expected to work with the highest executive levels within the client organization. Soon, consultants are given full responsibility to address one of the business issues identified (e.g., assessment of market demand, valuation of a takeover candidate) while managing senior associate consultants on a day-to-day basis.

As a consultant, you are directly involved in the formulation and implementation of recommendations. Your responsibility goes beyond simply analyzing the problem, as your goal is to help the client put plans into effect. Analytical and interpersonal skills are therefore equally important to your success.

Upon joining, you will spend one week abroad with your peers worldwide for training (NCT program). Various other training sessions will then be held, addressing specific aspects of your job, on a regular basis. As with all our consulting staff, performance and progress is formally evaluated every six months, leading to tailor-made development advice.

Managers
During a project a manager takes point responsibility for delivering answers to clients and takes care of the day-to-day management of the team. The manager is also responsible for the personal development, coaching and evaluation of the consultants, senior associate consultants and associate consultants on the team.

Besides project work, managers have responsibilities in the management of the office. These responsibilities can include, for example, matching interests of individual consultants with the available cases, marketing, establishing professional standards and training. Managers further act as mentor to more junior members of the office.

Partners
Partners are recognized as experts in specific industries or practices (e.g., full potential strategies, supply chain management, private equity). They have proven both their ability to help clients make sustainable improvements in their businesses and to develop long-lasting client relationships. Partners use their expertise and experience to facilitate and achieve breakthrough insights. This entails both developing client relationships and supporting the case team manager to drive breakthrough thinking on a project. Partners are also continuously working on developing new client relationships.

In addition, partners aim at making Bain the best place to work! They frequently discuss how the organization of the Amsterdam office can be improved. Input for these discussions is gathered during the frequently held, highly interactive Office Information Sessions. This platform is also used to communicate the strategy of Bain Amsterdam and information valuable for the daily work of all employees.