Accenture Graduate Consultant interview questions

Recruitment process is extremely pleasant and straight forward. After applying you complete an immersive online assessment that includes scenario based questions and analytical questions. I then attended the assessment centre which consisted of a group exercise (can not prepare - given a scenario on the day), VR assessment (really fun! Again can not prepare just remain calm and try your best), strengths based interview (really good interview technique - makes you feel like you can highlight your natural strengths) and a pre-prepared discussion (you can have notes). The assessment centre was a great experience and you get to know the company’s culture and people. All assessors are really friendly and genuinely want you to succeed. There were 8 people on my assessment centre and it lasted approx 3 hours. 11 business days after the AC I was called and offered a place on the programme. As it is extremely competitive and a busy period the recruitment team aim to give you a response between 10-15 business days. I highly recommend applying as the process is really enjoyable compared to other company’s.

The assessment centre is made up of 4 parts. A VR assessment, a paired activity, a strengths based interview and a technology discussion. The VR assessment involves 2 different rooms, one where you have to look at lots of information about a project and record a voice message summary to the project manager and one where you have about 10 tasks to do in 7 minutes. You can’t “complete” the tasks in the second room so it is more about knowing when to move on, how to prioritise etc than what you’re actually doing. However *I think* the true purpose of this exercise is to see how you respond in the self reflection exercise at the end where they ask how you think it went, what you’d like to do differently etc. The paired activity involves you and another candidate planning an event for current and prospective clients. Little more information is given about what kind of event so you have pretty free reign. You have 6 minutes to plan with your pair and 2 minutes to present back to the assessor. You can use anything in the room (pens, paper, a whiteboard and markers). You are then asked how you felt about having so little information etc. The strengths based interview involves answering 13 questions (see below). The assessor will not help clarify the question or engage in conversation about anything despite this task being called an “assessor conversation”. This leads to it feeling a bit more like an interrogation and offered little opportunity to discuss your experiences. It was also very off-putting able to see your assessor scoring you - A to C for competency (A is best) and +, = or - for enthusiasm (+ is best). Additionally, I felt that my assessor was rushing me through the questions (both through things he said and my being able to see him write a score down long before I had finished talking) but then when I finished I found that the other candidates doing this task were not finished for another 5-10 minutes. After these questions you are given a “situation” - you have one minute to read a piece of paper with a question at the end. You are then asked how you went about answering the question rather than what your answers actually were, and a couple of other questions. The final activity (although you won’t necessarily do them in this order) is a technology “discussion” that you prepare for before the AC - I use quotes here as it was actually a presentation with the assessor scribbling notes as you talk for 10 minutes, then asking you questions about why you chose the industry you did, how you went about researching the question etc. It seemed like there was no interest in the content or the ideas produced which would be fine if you knew this is what you were being assessed on beforehand but this was not the case. The assessment centre is very small (only 6 people when I went) but despite this I felt there was little interest in me as a person or allowing me to get to know the company. This is because your offer is decided by a score at the end rather than the impression you gave, and as I said before all assessed parts are not conversations. Additionally, at no point in my application did I have the opportunity to speak to anyone except for recruiters (i.e. no one holding the role I had applied for). I was told by other applicants they had joined a group call to get more information but I was not told about this call. I was also told by the recruiter running the day that there was usually a Q&A with analysts but was not told why there was not one that day. Overall I felt that I didn’t have opportunities to really get to grips with what the job I had applied for actually entailed or get to know Accenture.