Consultancy Interview Questions & Answers

The interview was the final stage of the assessment centre. It felt almost like an informal chat as opposed to sitting down in front of a board of senior management staff. The interview was with a senior manager, and questions were asked as part of the informal chat. Whilst I would say that it is important to still conduct yourself in a professional manner, the informal aspect of it eases you into the interview, making you feel comfortable. I would like to note at this point that should you make it to this stage, be careful not to mistake this for a light hearted chat, as it is one of the most important stages in their interview process for getting to know you and for assessing your competencies and interpersonal skills. The questions were fairly generic but required good preparation. Some of the questions which come to mind include,
- "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?"
- "Tell me about a time when a client had a problem that you were able to create an innovative solution for."
- "Describe a situation where you demonstrated leadership skills/led a group to a solution to a problem (school/personal/work experience)"
The interview lasted approximately 45 minutes but it felt like 5.

"Where do you see yourself in 5 years?"
I found this particularly difficult as I had neither prepared for it nor was I aware of how one would realistically progress in a company within 5 years and what position they could reach if they worked hard and consistently. I would advise that you ask anyone you know who has been working for a company for 5+ years how they progressed to get an idea of what you should be aspiring to.

Revise assessment centre and interviewing tips online or by talking to others, be well aware of what your job duties would be and ensure that you are well prepared to answer questions on the role itself. Be aware that you everything you say and do is being taken into consideration, so be sure to behave in a professional manner. When answering questions, try not to go off on a tangent or ramble. Keep answers concise and pertinent. Also have a few relevant questions to ask the interviewer, such as "What does a day in your shoes within the company entail?". This should give you an understanding of what it's like to work with the company. Other than that, stay calm, drink some water and just prepare as best you can.

The day began by meeting at their London headquarters at 8:45am. All of the other applicants were there and began to chat and get to know each other. I made a conscious effort to remember each of their names as I wanted to be able to converse with each of them during the group assessment sections, and also to be aware of my competition. It also helps to know their names to demonstrate your ability to be an active team player. At 9:00am, we went to a conference room and were shown a brief presentation detailing the company's history, its different functions and an introduction to each of the senior management staff who were present. We then began with a brief ice-breaker exercise. The group was then split into two groups of 6. The other group left to complete their group exercise in another room. We were given 50 minutes to review a briefing, consider it amongst different aspects (consider the different options for development on a site, evaluate the different considerations which were required etc.) and finally prepare a 10 minute presentation explaining why a client should hire EC Harris as their consultants. After we carried out a brainstorming session to identify and understand each aspect which needed to be covered, we delegated our roles within the group and began working on our individual sections. We made our presentation and answered questions from the senior management staff who acted as the client.
Following this, we were then given 30 minutes to write an individual report to the board members of the client organisation explaining why they should select EC Harris as their consultants.
The next stage was the individual presentation stage. In our email, we were given the following topic to develop a 5 minute presentation: ???Discuss a work situation or educational project when you have delivered an innovative or create a solution to a client/ customer need. Explain how you generated the idea and how your expertise enabled you to deliver a positive outcome for your client/ customer.??? We were allowed to use prompt cards but no additional material was permitted (hand-outs, visual material etc.). The senior management staff proceeded to ask each individual questions following their presentation. After this we went for lunch in the cafeteria and mingled with staff.
The final stage of the assessment centre was the interview with a member of senior management. Whilst waiting to be interviewed, we were given the opportunity to talk with graduate staff from the previous year to learn about their experiences and ask them questions about the company and the roles. Prior to the interviews, they gave us a tour of the offices before leaving. All in all, the experience was extremely beneficial, and also helped me prepare for future assessment centres should I ever be faced with them.

From start to finish the Celsius Recruitment process has been very smooth. I write this as I am about to begin a role in London in April.

Brayden was excellent over the course of the phone interview. Guiding me through the questions, and thoroughly describing the role requirements and what celsius could offer. Brayden has been a fantastic guide throughout.

N/A all questions are very standard - having never worked in sales some of the concepts were at first difficult to process.

My only advice here would be to perhaps make more information available about the companies attending the assessment centre. Whilst I had a vague understanding of what they did, I was not sure if my research was relevant.

Both assessment centres I attended were very well organised and relaxing. Directions given to the offices were also very helpful.

The day began with introductions to fellow candidates before being asked to fill out a psychometric test. After this each candidate was asked to deliver their pre-prepared official introduction to the assessors and remaining group. I found this to be a very supportive environment compared to other, more cutthroat assessment centre environments.

Will introductions complete, we moved on to a group assignment based around the concept of selling red-letter days to a fictional company. This was excellently introduced and compered by company CEO - David Shields.

Once the group task was complete, we returned to discuss our chosen paths. This smalls sales exercise gave a clear indication of what would be required later in the day.

With the morning session complete, we broke for lunch where candidates were told if they'd passed the exercises or not. At this point, we were told who would be having a face-to-face interview with the external client or if we had been taken on by Celsius who would set up future interviews for us.

The interview which I had done with hays was about many different things. First of all I was asked my qualifications and outline all the relevant GCSE's and A Levels.

Then I was asked about my skills which I have achieved in so many years of studying whilst also doing some part time job. The skills which they really are searching for in a candidate for recruitment consultant is the drive to work really hard endlessly and putting in that extra effort to keep on learning.

I was also told that it's a very fast moving job as everyday we get to learn more. The main skills which I had outlined were team work, communication skills, motivational and great time management as reflected in my CV.

The most difficult questions was present to me to when I was compared to other candidates. The question was:

What makes you stand out better then other competitive candidates for this job ?

Practical advice to anyone for the interview would be to ensure that you have done enough background research on the company and have great communication skills reflecting in ur cv and in the interview.

Personal questions were asked.
Questions about the skills which I have gained.
Was given few scenarios and needed to provide answers on how to tackle them.

After an initial application, there is a short 15 minute telephone interview clarifying details and assessing interest in the company/ sector/ role. My assessment day was two days later and comprised of two five-minute interviews, a numerical test, a test on set notation, and an aptitude test. The two interviews were standard and friendly, and were focussed mainly on personality and approach.

Would you sacrifice quality to meet a deadline?

Do plenty of prep before hand, the questions aren't hard but it's definitely worth a look over! It is also important to be open, friendly and enthusiastic. The training scheme means you can pick up any technical knowledge you need so their real focus is on hiring those with great inter-personal skills and an ability to learn fast. The technical and business pathways are assessed together but not ranked together meaning there is no need to panic about not knowing all the technology ins and outs.

The numerical test is GCSE maths, the set notation test is given alongside an instruction leaflet and the video provided before the day is very useful. The aptitude test has some basic coding questions, some logic puzzles, and a number of IT questions (inc IP4vIP6, SQL, bits in a byte, etc.). A little Google research was enough to get through this!

The final partner interview was very relaxed. The questions were based on the core PwC values, which are posted on their website. Mainly competency based, with some background questions about interests out of the university, opinion on latest business news. You have to be prepared to present what you know about the qualification you will be working towards, if any, and also for your short and long-term plans.

Which piece of latest business news you think will affect PwC's business, how and why?

Prepare very well and read the core values. Read the latest business news, think on them and how they can affect different business and market spheres.

The online tests were done once again, this time more questions for more time. The minimum result for success was lower than of the online tests. At the end there was a group discussion, you have to be able to work under pressure, when the facts change and should be able to communicate well and efficiently in a team to succeed on this one.

The telephone part of the interview for graduate analyst positions at Accenture is conducted via HireVue, which is a webcam interview. The interviewers will tell you via email that ou have gotten through to telephone interview stage after you have completed your applications and situational judgment (CAN'T RECOMMEND ENOUGH, GO TO THEIR CAREERS EVENTS. You get a free moleskin journal, a chance to network with current employees and recruiters and FAST TRACKED through the application so the actual form is shorter and you can often skip out the preliminary testing and go straight to telephone interview). The recruiters then send you a link to the HireVue program which only is live for five days. If you're not going to complete it in that time, let them know. The actual HireVue consists of a question coming up on the screen for about 30 seconds and then it will start automatically recording you for a maximum of 3 minutes. You can stop it earlier than that if you finish speaking early but I took up the whole 3 minutes everytime. There are about five or six questions, very basic stuff like what do you know about Accenture, who are the competitors, how do businesses use technology, what makes Accenture different. Its over in a flash.

How do businesses use technology?

As I said, go to their recruitment events, you get so many good tips and it's good to hear about their business because its more in depth than it first appears and you can start using buzzwords about their different practises like instead of Accenture provide technological solutions, you can learn enough to talk about Accenture being the lead implementer of SAP and Oracle solutions.

I would clean your room! Take down posters if they're semi naked women, obvious stuff. I moved all my law books around so they were behind me and hid the mess of junk! Think about really why you want to work HERE and what makes them different. Look up some of their business areas and who are their competitors in those fields. Dress smart even if you are just going to be sat in front of the computer. Make sure you don't get disturbed. The webcam will display a outline going around for you to align yourself with like when you get your passport photos taken so make sure you're trying to stay within that instead of bobbing all over the place.

n/a

Why you chose to study the modules you did at university?
What do you do in your spare time?
About my pervious work on my CV?
Why I want to work in property?
Why did I apply for this job?

First was a phone interview, once though to that we were invited to the head office where we were greeted and watched a presentation about the company, the perks and jobs available. We were then asked to 'mingle' with the directors and other interviewees whilst people were in one on one interviews. The one on one interview lasted about 20 minutes, formal/casual! We were then asked to return to the room after the one on one interview. All together lasted about 2/3 hours, dress code very smart!

You find out the next day whether you got the job or not! Which is great! No waiting around for weeks!

About my pervious work on my CV? - Being a graduate, I did not have much - but luckily I have worked within the property industry before, therefore held well.

Dress code very smart!

Be yourself! Make sure you are passionate and communicate clearly.

Be prepared to ask you about what you think the role contains! Read the current workers thoughts on the jobs on the Foxtons website!! Prepares you for what to expect in the office.

All the interviewees were put in a room with 6 senior management/ directors and asked to 'mingle'. They were basically assessing our personalities and communication skills, which I thought was done in a very good way as interviewees felt conformable. In addition a one on one interview, it was very quick - but once again management made employees feel very comfortable and relaxed.

After an initial telephone interview which covered basic questions to see if I was a fit for the firm, and vice versa; I had a final interview in the offices.
The format was:
1) a presentation from a member of senior management - this contained information about the firm as a whole, and the department I was applying for. There was ample opportunity for questions along throughout.

2) a prepared 20 minute presentation from myself. The options were:
- a subject that interests you: including a brief description of the subject, how you are involved in that subject and what involvement in the subject shows about you that you think is relevant to working at the firm.
- an experience in which you were part of a team set a challenging target: describing the role you played in the team, obstacles that were encountered, how they were overcome, how you would have done things differently in hindsight and what you feel you gained from the experience.
- an experience where you have had to sell an idea or concept to other people: describing the idea, who you had to persuade, the approach you took, how the other people reacted and what you feel you gained from the experience.

This was followed by questions from the panel about my presentation.

3) a case study. A small set of data was uploaded to my laptop and I had 1 hour by myself to analyse and interpret it in any way I saw fit. After the hour I had to present my findings back to the panel and answer questions about it. The panel did give some helpful hints as to things I may have missed out in my analyzes.

4) the final stage was a competency based interview with the panel. This involved going through my CV; questioning skills which I had gained from previous jobs and giving examples of such.
I was also asked what I thought the hardest and easiest bit would be in starting the role, if I was offered it.
I had been given a sample list of competency questions prior to my interview, and as such, the questions asked did not deviate majorly from this list.

What I would find most difficult about starting the role and why? - this was difficult to answer as you had to identify a weak spot in yourself, let the panel know it, and turn it into a strong point at the same time. I combated this by acknowledging this weak point and describing how I would deal with it.

Focus on gaining knowledge of the company as a whole in preparation for your interview and not just of the department and role you are applying for.
I found it useful that during the presentation from senior management, I was able to ask questions on points they made, following what I had read myself before. This made their presentation more of a discussion, which was great.

as in the interview process above.

One interview happened at the assessment day. This was very relaxed. We discussed how I thought I had performed in the Assessment Day, and my background in a very general way. Importantly I was asked why I wanted to join IBM which I had a few prepared reasons, avoid the typical 'Big company, lots of opportunities' answer.
Second/final interview was more in depth. Skills and competency based questions. Going through my CV and asking for examples of where I have shown leadership/ dealt with a difficult client/ how I would deal with certain situations.....

Describe an occasion where you have thought outside the box to come up with a new way of doing something?

Prepare for the numerical tests - they are hard! Read up on the company, make sure you know about its history and its current state. Stay on top of any news articles about IBM and what it is currently working on. Speak to people who work there if you can.

Spilt into groups for two group activities - planning a client event and a task going though information and deducting an answer. A short numerical test. A business based small group exercise and an interview.