I am Massimo. I joined Bain after getting my MBA in 2005. What I loved about Bain and consulting in general is that it gave me a behind-the-scenes view that you don't get if you work in a regular corporate career. I've been through factory shops and factory floors, I've been in warehouses, I've been in hospital wards—all for work. At Bain we're very close to our clients, which helps us solve their problems and deliver results.
"There's one thing I always tell recruits when they come for presentations and interviews: Recruiting is not only a chance for us to get to know candidates, it's a chance for candidates to get to know us. "
I started in the Milan office, predominantly focusing on consumer products—all the stuff that you see in a supermarket when you go shopping, which kept my job very, very interesting. I moved to Switzerland five years later and expanded my portfolio into some industrial clients, which I hadn't had the chance to work with in Italy. I worked on some very large transformations using Results Delivery, a tool we use to make sure that what we tell our clients sticks with them.
I am the most horrible person to shop with because I can spend a half hour in front of the beer shelf or the chocolate shelf trying to explain to my wife exactly why things are displayed the way they are! One thing I love is that my work is very close to what I experience everyday, so I can walk into a store and gain an understanding of what happens there, and it's what satisfies my intellectual curiosity.
If you're thinking about joining Bain, my advice is to talk to the interviewer and the people you meet in the office, and ask questions. Liking the people you work with (or that you'll potentially work with) is going to make such a big difference in how you feel about your job. I think it's worth spending the time to get your questions answered and knowing that you have the right to ask them.
