My question is about applying to multiple firms, and internationally - the process itself, advantages, and disadvantages. (Particularly with regards to MBB)I am a Japanese national, but have done most of my education in Australia. I did an engineering degree at a target university in Australia, followed by one year of work experience in Japan, and am now doing a Msc. in Energy/Environment at a target university in Sweden. Since I don't speak Swedish well enough, applying to an office there is out of the question.I want to apply to two offices, my first preference being the Tokyo office, and my second preference being the Melbourne office.- What happens if I apply to these two offices simultaneously, considering they have different intake periods? Does the outcome of one application affect the other (result in PST, interview etc.)? I heard if you fail one application, you fail all your preferences.. in that case what is the point of listing preferences?I read for some companies that you have to wait a certain period before reapplying, does this restriction hold even if applying to another office in a different country?I speak fluent Japanese, but will my application even be seriously considered, given the fact that I did not attend an university in Japan? How much are international experiences and language skills valued in general?Logically it would make sense for me to apply in Australia because all my university education has been in English, resulting in my English being stronger than my Japanese. However, I have always wanted to work in Tokyo.. so this is the dilemma I'm facing.. I want to challenge myself by applying for Tokyo first preferences, but I'm not sure if this will totally undermine my chances in Australia as well..Thank you in advance, it would be greatly appreciated if you could help me clear up my queries!erica

Erica, I know that some of offices for strategy firm accept applications per email (including many of the small Nordic offices). Also, not all the strategy firms in Nordics require Swedish fluency. Many application pages leave you the option to apply for several locations, but some of them, as you said, deny your application for all offices if one office rejects you. What you can do is to use different email addresses/contact details for your applications and do two different ones. To have foreign degrees only often make you a high risk option for recruiters as they don't know exactly what quality your degrees have, even if they might recognise the name of the university (or at least be able to Google it/access their internal "university ranks" and see that it's good as in the case of Li..). This is at least how it seems to work in the UK/Nordics. Don't know how it is in Japan, but can imagine that it is the same. This implies that it might be a good strategy to apply for the Australian office, particularly if you have a permanent work permit there already.

Hi, and thank you for your reply."Many application pages leave you the option to apply for several locations, but some of them, as you said, deny your application for all offices if one office rejects you. What you can do is to use different email addresses/contact details for your applications and do two different ones."Do you think you could be a bit more specific about this - which firms are known for denying all applications if one office rejects you? Also is the using two different email addresses/contact details "illegal"? Do people ever do this and get away with it?Another problem is that the recruiting period in Japan is September-October, whereas the recruiting period in Australia is February-March.. so it just doesn't make any sense applying for both of them at once..I guess I really would prefer the Tokyo office, however, it would be much harder for me to get in.Anyway, anymore advice/info from anyone would be greatly appreciated.Thanks!

BCG, Bain and Booz recruit "globally", meaning that one rejection means that all are rejected. McKinsey doesn't do like this, as far as I know. I have friend who had two office preferences and got denied by one but invited to interviews by the other one. I have no idea about the legal aspects of using different contact details, but yes, people are doing it. They are just using their own addresses, perhaps their own and their parents. Since you are applying for MBB I would probably go for the "easier" alternative - it's difficult enough for everyone anyway. They also tend to be quite flexible for people having worked there for two or more years (they are desperate to keep up their staff retention), allowing people to make both exchanges and permanent office changes. I'm afraid my "knowledge" at the subject ends here, but hope that someone else could provide you with more information! Also, by curiosity, do the undergrads at the department where you do your MSc use the letter "I" as an acronym for their programme?