Detica is a business and technology consultancy who specialise in helping clients collect, manage and exploit information to reveal actionable intelligence.
Detica focus primarily on helping clients use intelligence to identify and counter those who threaten the safety of the public, the security of the state or seek to commit serious and organised crime.
Detica typically recruit around 100 graduates and placement students throughout the year.
The business outlook at Detica is good. The firm have had sustained rapid growth in the past few years and have seen their number of employees triple from around 500, to 1,500.
Note: Graduate entrants who want to go into business/management consulting will still need to do a lot of technology consulting to start with (including user acceptance testing).
Detica are looking for candidates with a strong set of A-Levels (or equivalent), and a minimum 2:1 in a numerate discipline at degree.
The company are also very concerned that candidates have highly developed communication and analytical skills and the ability to work effectively with colleagues and clients (i.e. teamwork skills).
Detica accept application all year round, and graduates may start work at any time.
Detica has a reputation for having (and hiring) smart people. A large number of employees have PhDs (although far fewer have MBAs).
Most of the people at Detica are technology consultants. management consultants represent only around 30% of the firm's employees.
Most business consulting projects at Detica are there to support technology projects or programme management projects.
Detica's market is fairly unusual as it focuses on Government and National Security work as well as Telecoms, Media and Financial Services. Few firms have ever worked in National Security and this is what really stands Detica out form other firms.
Only about a third of graduate level consultants are from Oxbridge at Detica, the rest are almost entirely from other Russell Group.
Working hours at Detica are much more relaxed than at other firms. Most consultants at Detica do not usually work more than 45-50 hours a week.
At entry level, major responsibilities range from capturing business requirements and data modelling to facilitating interviews and workshops with the client's managers and executives. Graduate trainees will also write up propositions and may contribute to the
recruitment process. From day one, graduates will be working on client site with teams of around 4 to 5 other consultants.
Starting salaries for graduate trainees will be in excess of £27,000, with reviews yearly (with an increase around 3-5% every round depending on performance).
Graduates do have the opportunity to reach salaries of £40,000+ within 18 months (not including bonus).
See this forum post for users experiences of the Detica application process.
The assessment and application process for Detica is as follows:
Detica accept applications all year round and candidates can start with the firm at almost any time. To apply, candidates need to answer a small number of questions online, and then upload a CV.
Once Detica receive your online application and CV, if your application is successful you will be contacted, to arrange a 10-15 minute telephone interview to go through your application in more detail and find out why you are interested in working for Detica.
If you are successful after the telephone interview, you'll be invited to a character interview, typically lasting one hour.
Consisting of: presentation, case study and an opportunity to meet a current graduate trainee.
This assessment stage is a more in-depth interview, for which you will be asked to prepare a presentation, typically on a university project or a period of relevant work experience. This will be a long presentation, lasting up to 20 minutes, with a 10 minute question and answer period.
You will also be asked to answer questions on a written case study, which lasts about 45 minutes. No financial knowledge is needed and no maths based questions will be asked.
Detica suggest that feedback on your interview performance will be provided shortly after your interview.