Just finished a BCG TPM loop for their Digital Ventures arm. Three rounds over about four weeks. Posting because I searched this combination obsessively and found basically nothing useful.
Quick background: I'm a PM at a Series C, but BCG DV was recruiting for what they call a 'Technical Program Manager' which sits somewhere between a traditional consulting engagement manager and a product/program role at a tech company. The comp framing is more consulting-track than tech-IC.
Round 1: Recruiter screen (45 min) Standard. Why BCG, why DV, tell me about a technically complex program you ran end-to-end. I talked about a multi-team data migration we shipped under a hard regulatory deadline. They seemed to care more about the cross-functional coordination chaos than the technical details.
Round 2: Case + behavioral (75 min, one interviewer) Half case, half behavioral. The case was market sizing with a tech twist: roughly 'estimate the ROI of a company migrating from on-prem to cloud.' Not asking you to build a financial model, just structured reasoning out loud. They want you to decompose the problem, state your assumptions explicitly, and land on a defensible number.
The behavioral half asked specifically about: managing scope creep on a large program, communicating technical risk to non-technical stakeholders, and a time you had to tell a senior sponsor something they didn't want to hear. Classic STAR but they pushed HARD on the conflict resolution component.
Round 3: Partner interview (60 min) Felt like a culture and fit check more than an assessment. They asked where I saw the TPM role going in five years and whether I preferred deep specialization or breadth. Honestly more of a conversation.
What I think they're looking for: Someone who can operate in ambiguous consulting engagements but also credibly talk to engineers and not get lost. Less leetcode, more 'can you structure a problem fast and move a room full of people.'