Acceture New Interview Process HELP NEEDED!

mickeydo

Hi all,

The Accentures interview process has changed recently and now the process is:

1st Round Skills Interview to assess level of skills and debt of experience

2nd Round Business case interview, you review a business case and discuss with senior manager and HR interview

3rd Round Senior Executive interview


I have made it to the second round case interview. Has anyone done this or does anyone know what this involves?

Any help is really appreciated.

Cheers,
M.

Running Bing

mickeydo wrote: »

Hi all,

The Accentures interview process has changed recently and now the process is:

1st Round Skills Interview to assess level of skills and debt of experience

2nd Round Business case interview, you review a business case and discuss with senior manager and HR interview

3rd Round Senior Executive interview


I have made it to the second round case interview. Has anyone done this or does anyone know what this involves?

Any help is really appreciated.

Cheers,
M.

Yep I think what you do is review a business case and discuss with senior manager and HR interview.


Sorry to be smart but that seems pretty clear cut to me. I wouldnt worry about it. I would not imagine it is anything challenging its more of "see what way you do it" excercise rather than "see if you can do it".

ixoy

That's different to mine except for the third round where it was, for me anyway, just a chance for the Senior Exec. to suss you out and get a feeling of what you're like. Get to the third round and the chances are you'll get the position (I think so anyway).

justfortherecor

Its one of the case studies most of the consulting firms offer most likely. I think accenture have sample ones online and so should McKinsey and BCG etc.

Its usually just a synopsis of a business and you are required to highlight current issues you see in the org and then suggest possible solutions. The thought process should be well structured and communicated well by verbal and sometimes written means to the interviewers.

AlphaMale 3OO

ixoy wrote: »

That's different to mine except for the third round where it was, for me anyway, just a chance for the Senior Exec. to suss you out and get a feeling of what you're like. Get to the third round and the chances are you'll get the position (I think so anyway).

nah i failed at the third. guy was a serious asshole though. david something.

irlrobins

justfortherecor wrote: »

Its one of the case studies most of the consulting firms offer most likely. I think accenture have sample ones online and so should McKinsey and BCG etc

Standard practice alright, I had to do one as part of my recruitment as a management consultant. McKinsey have good sample case studies online so I would definitely recommend you follow them. A quick google will also lead you to others. I seem to recall Oxford having a good set on their careers office site. If you're in college, your own careers office will have sample ones for you to try your hand at.

justfortherecor

Btw, does anyone know much about McKinsey's operations in Ireland. I know they have an office in Dublin.

Anyone have any info on their size and type of work they do from the Dublin office?

irlrobins

Easiest way to get that info would be to contact McKinsey, they'd have no problem in telling you their staff size I'd imagine. As for what they do, read their website, that info is there.

Website says 800 in UK and Ireland. I imagine less than a hundred in the Irish office, maybe as low as 50.

dudara

The Irish office is really an outpost of the London office, which is fairly big. Their recruitment process should be underway around this time so got your application in now if it's not too late.

embraer170

AFAIK applications for McK's London and Dublin offices close Nov24. All other offices Nov4. Structure your case studies:

1) clarification
2) analysis
3) synthesis
4) implementation

In job simulations tests, make sure to be action orientated.

Process is:

A) Online application.
First 60 minute problem solving ex.
C) Two 60 minutes business case studies, interview etc.
D) Final round interview + case at office you applied to work at. 3/4hrs.

mickeydo

Cheers for the help guys.

I’ve had a look at the McKinsey site and a few more website re: case studies but I cant seem to find one that relates to IT Consulting.

Any ideas appreciated.

M

McKinsey is a true strategic consulting company. The primary focus of the work is producing actionable strategic insights. Other such companies are Bain and Booz Allen.

Accenture is an IT systems integration and IT outsouring company. Other such companies are EDS, Bearing Point.

Getting into McKinsey is tough - you are talking 1:1 and captain of the rowing club at college type profile. However, it's a prestigious company to work for and opens up a lot of avenues for top MBA schools, top jobs in industry etc. In 5 years time you could be settling into a hudge fund analyst role looking at a nice package.

Accenture is not really prestigious and not that tough to get into and to my mind (having worked there for a good while), not a good career option. In 5 years time you will be "project managing" a team of 3 business analysts out in the back office of an insurance company, the revenue commissioners or microsoft.

I wouldn't really stress about any new interview techniques - it won't be that challenging.

useless

glasso wrote: »

Accenture is not really prestigious and not that tough to get into and to my mind (having worked there for a good while), not a good career option. In 5 years time you will be "project managing" a team of 3 business analysts out in the back office of an insurance company, the revenue commissioners or microsoft.

I wouldn't really stress about any new interview techniques - it won't be that challenging.

You pretty much hit the nail on the head there!

justfortherecor

I remember attending an Accenture graduate recruiting event last year and despite all the hype they gave about the graduate programme, the one thing that still sticks in my head was when they showed how big Accenture was:

170,000 employees!!!

That, in my opinion, is frankly too big. I'd be worried that you'd simply be lost in the gargantuan size of the firm and never fully recognised for achievements etc.

However, they did put emphasis on the fact that new graduates would receive a £10,000 signing on bonus. I think that was what motivated some people around me to apply!

useless

justfortherecor wrote: »

However, they did put emphasis on the fact that new graduates would receive a £10,000 signing on bonus. I think that was what motivated some people around me to apply!

The £10k bonus is for grads joining the UK offices. Doesn't apply to Ireland.

justfortherecor

Ouch!

And the 10k is only in the UK 'cos they have to compete against the investment bank salaries. After 5 years in an investment bank you could be earning 200k+ sterling with bonus. In accenture, max 60-70k. It's just to sucker muppets in! You have to think long term.

You are right about the size - it's too big- it's the ultimate cog in the machine place.

Don't go near it with a bargepole! If you are not sure what you want to do, do accounting - lots of opps with a prof. qualification.

oranje

I can't speak for Accenture but I have worked for a couple of the other IT consulting firms. My experience was that they give lots of training and you are around younger people so it is like an extension of college.

The main downside is that you often have no control over what projects you get on so you might not end up with marketable skills. I remember my colleagues who were on SAP projects leaving rapidly to coin it in elsewhere while others were working with dead technologies and couldn't move on.

Ultimately IT consultancy can be a great stepping stone. You can always jump out and do an MBA if you are not moving on quickly enough. In the outside world you can waffle your way into Business Analyst type jobs and you might end up managing a Business Information Systems department if you are that way inclined. If you have technical specialism you can become a contractor and coin it in that way.

Bain, BCG, McKinsey etc. have very high standards. BCG wanted to know my inter cert results (I had 2 years work experience after my masters!!).
If you get in there you will probably go far but you have to ask yourself what kind of person you want to be.

If you just want to be rich do an accountancy training.

oranje's comments are fair. out of college it's good fun 'cos most of the people are very young and the social life is good.
but like he said - you have no control over what you get to do. that is the primary problem. the longer you stay the more you must be become a general proj. mgt type. Personally I found this work to be extremely tedious and artificial. A lot of people are still in that area simply because they don't know how to do anything else. Finally, you are not going to get exposure to business people / decision makers in the real sense. The back offices of big organisations end up with poorer quality staff than the revenue generating side and these are the people that you will be working with day to day. you'll never get to work on the revenue side of a business in Accenture or Bearing Point etc...

kmick

glasso wrote: »

Accenture is not really prestigious and not that tough to get into and to my mind (having worked there for a good while), not a good career option. In 5 years time you will be "project managing" a team of 3 business analysts out in the back office of an insurance company, the revenue commissioners or microsoft.

I wouldn't really stress about any new interview techniques - it won't be that challenging.

Also agree worked there for two years and while it has some great people working there, there is too much emphasis on being fake with the client and fitting in to their model.

I finally left when I was told that I was not getting promotion beacuse I was not 'friendly' enough with my client and that I should pop into her office and talk about tennis or 'whatever' she is into. I was working 12 hour days at that time and just basically handed in my notice within the month.

A lot of people spend 2 years there and that is enough to have it on your CV and move on. The people who stay get blinded by reasonably good salaries. You canbe earning 100k in 5 years if you hit all your promotion points. I would say 1 in 15 make it that far that quick.

mickeydo

Thanks guys for your help! I've made it through to the final round...

Only interview with an executive left! Any pointers would be appreciated?

advice - don't join. honestly!

mickeydo

glasso wrote: »

advice - don't join. honestly!

Do you work there?

worked there for 6 years. left as a manager. wouldn't advise it as a career move to start with... just my 2 cents. if you wish to discuss offline pm me.

brianomurphy

mickeydo wrote: »

Thanks guys for your help! I've made it through to the final round...

Only interview with an executive left! Any pointers would be appreciated?

PM me for advice

mloc

Also have 2nd round coming up. Not too stressed, not expecting it to be particularly challenging.

Also have a Deloitte consultancy interview coming up, more interested in that. Going to apply to mckinsey, mcbain and BCG in the next few days.

justfortherecor

Boston Consulting Group deadline was last week. I think Bain finished recently as well and McKinsey may have finished on November 4th, although not 100% on that.

useless

mloc wrote: »

Also have 2nd round coming up. Not too stressed, not expecting it to be particularly challenging.

Also have a Deloitte consultancy interview coming up, more interested in that. Going to apply to mckinsey, mcbain and BCG in the next few days.

The Accenture second round won't be too stressful. Just try to strike a balance between making a contribution to the group and trying to take the lead on all the activities. And don't shout.

Deloitte aren't a whole lot different to Accenture- any reason why you're more interested in the position with them?

The interview process for the strategy consultancies will be tougher, and don't bother applying unless your academic results from your LC onwards are really good. I don't know who mcbain are either;)