Deloitte's interview questions

Muzi5434

Hi guys,

I have an interview with Deloitte next week and am wondering what kind of questions do they ask and what is the E-tray exercise like?

Thanks

ari101

They will go through your CV and application so be able to justify and explain choices, results and anything you mentioned.
The will ask about the standard annoying competencies - problem solving, learning from your mistakes, business awareness (current economic climate and it's affects - general knowledge) and lots of the other usual ones, think about them before you go in.
Sometimes you may meet someone who will just have more of a chat with you - if something in your CV catches their eye - varies all the time.

Etray is fine, it's about common sense and making sure you interpret the information provided - it's all in front of you, just read through it quickly taking note of what info is where and start answering emails (20ish) - refer back to relevant sections - some emails require a judgement call, some are straight forward right and wrong based on the info given, the odd calculation but nothing is too hard and you have a pen and paper. Don't stress!
Written section is more about being able to present a well written justification drawing upon further information provided - just don't be all over the shop and go for quality rather than quantity; you want to make a choice, stick with it and justify it with examples from the info provided, read it over for spelling and grammar and general coherence - it's not about right and wrong it's about your ability to interpret, justify and explain something.

Think about examples which demonstrate the standard competencies communication, leadership, problem solving, time management, etc. before you go, keep an eye on the time when doing the etray, you cant prepare for that so just do your best on the day and good luck!

Muzi5434

Thanks for the reply Ari, very helpful

Amad86

Hey, I interviewed in Cork last week. Was wondering if anyone had heard back yet?

lalalovely

I interviewed in Dublin last week for Consulting and am still waiting to hear back from them... Im a bit worried that I haven't because I've been reading that some people have heard back in a few days! Or hours!

Has anyone heard anything from them in the past week?

Muzi5434

I got interview yesterday and got a call back today and got offered a job

lalalovely

And what area are you going into?

Muzi5434

Auditing

ari101

Congrats Muzi!

johnn

Do you mind me asking did Deloitte call any of you off a private number on a saturday? had a couple of missed calls from private number, dont know why they wouldn't leave me a voicemail.

ari101

johnn wrote: »

Do you mind me asking did Deloitte call any of you off a private number on a saturday? had a couple of missed calls from private number, dont know why they wouldn't leave me a voicemail.

As far as I know they do use either a private number or one displaying the main office line and don't leave a voicemail on first attempt or two. If it is them they will try again and probably will leave a voicemail requesting a call back if they still cant get you. However with regards to Saturdays I don't know. They wont tell you the (good) news in a voicemail but as far as I know if they call you that means good things, because the usually don't call for rejections.

johnn

ari101 wrote: »

As far as I know they do use either a private number or one displaying the main office line and don't leave a voicemail on first attempt or two. If it is them they will try again and probably will leave a voicemail requesting a call back if they still cant get you. However with regards to Saturdays I don't know. They wont tell you the (good) news in a voicemail but as far as I know if they call you that means good things, because the usually don't call for rejections.

cheers, yeah i wanted to know cause Ernst & Young will be looking for an answer from me pretty soon, Deloitte are the only one of the Big 4 i havent heard from yet so i thought it might be them

Anybody know the email address of their Grad Recruitment? i dont see one on the website.

Muzi5434

ari101 wrote: »

Congrats Muzi!

Thanks Ari for all the advice

Pandoras Twist

johnn wrote: »

cheers, yeah i wanted to know cause Ernst & Young will be looking for an answer from me pretty soon, Deloitte are the only one of the Big 4 i havent heard from yet so i thought it might be them

Anybody know the email address of their Grad Recruitment? i dont see one on the website.

Ernst and Young wait until the 10th of Dec too dont they?

Deloitte emailed me from this: hr-dtt@invalidemail.com

But from the looks of it you cant reply to that email

xyz2294

lalalovely wrote: »

I interviewed in Dublin last week for Consulting and am still waiting to hear back from them... Im a bit worried that I haven't because I've been reading that some people have heard back in a few days! Or hours!

Has anyone heard anything from them in the past week?

Had my interview for consulting over a week ago too. Still nothing back either.

Lorchii

lalalovely wrote: »

I interviewed in Dublin last week for Consulting and am still waiting to hear back from them... Im a bit worried that I haven't because I've been reading that some people have heard back in a few days! Or hours!

Has anyone heard anything from them in the past week?

im in the same position with PwC and it's wrecking my head. Its nice to just know, even if it's a no! I'm fortunate to have been offered my first preference with deloitte so I'll cope with the rejection just fine ( well ego bruised maybe)!

Igot a call from deloitte last week in (just under a week after the interview) and they offered me cfo consulting. Hope you hear from them soon! it's not too late to get an offer! i'm still waiting on my contract so they are clearly very busy.

johnn

Pandoras Twist wrote: »

Ernst and Young wait until the 10th of Dec too dont they?

Deloitte emailed me from this: hr-dtt@invalidemail.com

But from the looks of it you cant reply to that email

No E&Y asked me to start work with them on 29th of November of this year, so i needed to know before that from Deloitte.

daveo90

Have the same process myself next week, its for an IT grad role . Have to do the same E-Tray thingy.

Kinda nervous, anyone have any advice how to ask for a slightly higher salary if that occurs ? also just in general how long i'll be there for the day, i was told 5hrs! eep

Pandoras Twist

daveo90 wrote: »

Have the same process myself next week, its for an IT grad role . Have to do the same E-Tray thingy.

Kinda nervous, anyone have any advice how to ask for a slightly higher salary if that occurs ? also just in general how long i'll be there for the day, i was told 5hrs! eep

I don't think it was 5 hours anyway. But you're waiting for maybe 15 minutes before hand, then the interview (with 2 people) is about 45 minutes long I think and then you wait for another 15 minutes and then your e-tray exercise is an hour and a half or maybe a little bit more so thats 4 hours.

E-tray exercise is pretty irritating but I thought I did terribly in it but I still got the job, so I think they just look at it if you're on the margin.

Ask for a slightly higher salary if what occurs?

Muzi5434

daveo90 wrote: »

Have the same process myself next week, its for an IT grad role . Have to do the same E-Tray thingy.

Kinda nervous, anyone have any advice how to ask for a slightly higher salary if that occurs ? also just in general how long i'll be there for the day, i was told 5hrs! eep

Definitely wasn't 5 hours, my interview started at 3:15 and was waiting 20mins before that and it finished up in half hour, then waited for 15 mins and did the E-tray exercise which was hour and a half and that was it.

In the actual interview they asked loads and loads of team-work questions and focused on my college activities and part-time job. And they asked what was a decision that I regretted in my life and how did I improve on it.

That was for auditing trainee position but I'd say they'll ask you the team-work questions...and one more was, what risks does Deloitte face?

daveo90

Pandoras Twist sorry I meant if i was offered the position how would you go about asking for slighting more salary?

thanks

jdooley28

Lad if you manage to negociate a better salary than whats on offer for a graduate role in this day and age all i will say is well played sir. Suppose if you got you would just have to contact HR and find out if the saalry is negotiable and take it from there

cson

Tbh if I was recruiting and you attempted to negotiate higher salary for a Graduate Position I'd laugh at you. You don't like the 21-22k per year? There are plenty who'll take your place. Now that's just me and the recruiters themselves might think differently but on the face of it I'd caution against trying to be cheeky re the salary.

daveo90

I wouldn't work for less than 30k regardless of what company it was.

Lorchii

daveo90 wrote: »

I wouldn't work for less than 30k regardless of what company it was.

is that not a somewhat narrow view? high startin jobs dont necessarily rise higher always. and while im sure ur a great candidate for whatever jobs u apply for (or may have gotten), i just dont know how ppl can be so certain the ideal job for them pays a certain amount! experience at a lower salary is far better than a high salary in a **** job!!

Lorchii

daveo90 wrote: »

Have the same process myself next week, its for an IT grad role . Have to do the same E-Tray thingy.

Kinda nervous, anyone have any advice how to ask for a slightly higher salary if that occurs ? also just in general how long i'll be there for the day, i was told 5hrs! eep

i did the etray thingy too btw..i hav no business knowledge whatsoever so i terrified me! i found it awful cause its quite time intensive and pressurised! i thought i did terrible in it cause i panicked, but i still got the job offer! u cant prepare, but i advise reading all the information through thoroughly at the start! took 1hr 45 mins or something! then i did an hour long interview wit a director (pretty much all competency stuff like coll work, and extra-curricular activities), and a very grand one wit a partner! they arent tryin to trick u!

as for salary, is it a trainee contract wit cima/aca/acca qualifications, cause as far as i am now aware, if its the technology consulting one, it is actually over 30k! dont bother trying to renegotiate unless u wont accept it otherwise cause they send out details in the contract sayin negotiations are not considered!!

daveo90

I was thinking of reading the information and making/writing a summary for each section.. key things like names or figures.

So when i look through the emails i'll know where to look str8 away.

ari101

daveo90 wrote: »

I was thinking of reading the information and making/writing a summary for each section.. key things like names or figures.

Unless you have fab shorthand I wouldn't recommend it - there is a hell of a lot of detailed information. Use directions and key words if you are going to do this. (e.g. Folder 1 File 1 My Team/Availability, Folder 2 File 4 Their Geographic Info)
There might be (I can't remember so this is a wild estimate...) 15 different files in three folders and possibly sub folders with very detailed info. It is probably a waste of time trying to summarise it.

Re: salary - I don't know about the details of the position you are applying for but with grad jobs (as other posters have said) it's take it or leave it - they'll tell you a ballpark and it's non negotiable - they probably wont even give you an exact figure till you start and it's like it or lump it, because if you dont wanna do the work for that money, there's someone else that will, and dont think they're adverse to letting you go or retracting an offer if you wont accept their terms. If you dont have anything better lined up I wouldn't walk away over low money it's better than the dole! - I took a 20% paycut earlier this year for a grad job and am about to lose 4% of my current net pay on top of that thanks to the budget but I want to maximise what I can make in the future and this is the best way to do it. I know that wont work for everyone but generally these grad programmes have better long term prospects than the higher paid starting industry jobs.

Best of luck in the interview etc. and hope you get what you want out of it anyway.

simonireland

Hey,

I had interview last week with Deloitte , I did the etrays test aswell.

Also I did the 2nd round interview last friday.

Both interviews went great!

Just wondering how long would it normally take for HR to get back to me, im abit worried because I have heard that some people get offered hours after.

Thanks

ari101

Don't know if there is a "normal time" but I would assume that outside of the busy milk round season mid October- end November/early December they are more relaxed as they are not worrying about the other Big 4 signing their preferred candidates (i.e. those I assume are getting the same/next day responses) as there is much less recruiting once you move into the middle of December.

Deloitte close completely 24th-28th Dec and 31st Dec-3rd Jan inclusive this year, and lots of people take the extended holiday before and in the middle of these periods so things are ofter a little slower - you can always ring HR for an update if it drags a long time.

simonireland

Eeep, I was hoping to know before christmas , start my new year with some great news

The funny thing is I had an another interview with a different company today and I had to cancel it due to the weather.

KylieWyley

So, how many people have been interviewing / offered positions for the IT grad positions?

My offer was pretty promptly made after the partner interview but that was a few weeks back during the milkround when, as noted, they might have felt more pressed to have offers out quickly.

Keep the faith, and congrats on getting to the partner interview

simonireland

yay i got the job !

Billy Davey

I did a competency interview and etray exercise for a Tech Consulting position last week and I've been called back for an interview with one of the partners.

Has anyone any experience of doing this type of interview? Any advice or tips?

Cheers

dudara

Just be yourself. Consulting is a lot about personality (as much as academics). Be as knowledgeable as you can about current trends in tech and/or Deloitte.