Ernst & Young First Interview

Hi,

Unfortunately, I can't help as I'm not sure, but just wanted to say nice one on getting the interview - EY have been rejecting applicants left-right and center as far as I'm aware! Have you had an internship with them before or anything?

No I didn't do an internship or anything, so I guess I got lucky! Where have you been hearing about the rejections?

Well I wouldn't say luck! On other forums I've heard a fair few people getting reected straight at application stage, and I've had first hand experience too!

i screwed up the online test! damn..

Hey breadhead,

Hope the interview went well! What was the format like, was it competency based?
I have my first interview with E&Y for the 2010 audit intake in a few days. So any tips would be cool.
Cheers

Yeah it was fairly competency based, although the questions were not as straight forward as just " tell me about a time when...". At the start I was told that I should give examples for the questions I was answering e.g. when asked "would your friends say you were organised?" don't just say yes, but explain why they might say that and what you actually do to keep yourself organised.

Some that I can remember are below, although there were many more, around 30 in total:

What do you do when you find a task boring?
How do you make sure you always do your best?
What have you contributed to a team to help their success?
Would your friends describe you as organised?
Tell me about a company/brand you admire, and what question would you ask them?
Why audit?

I went through other posts on this board and what people have said about interviews in the past, if you can answer those, and you are happy about applying your examples to a number of situations, I'm sure you will be just fine.

There were no real commercial awareness questions, and no why EY either. There was time to ask Q's at the end and the interview lasted about an hour in total.

Thats all I can really think of right now, if I remember anymore I will add them.

Good luck.

I have mine coming up, any more questions or tips, guys?!?!?!

mine is quite similar with Breadhead mentioned above

so, prepare well before you go...................that will be fine

Hi guys, I have an interview with the Risk Advisory group in EY. Does anybody have this experience and what questions can i use to practice.
I understand there with be a case question and a written test. Would the case be more business case or technical. Anything would help guys. Thanks.

Fishy,
First interview should only be interview lol, no test .............

Actually this is my 2nd round,....office visit.

Hi Fishy,

2nd round should be the assessment center

if you case it is, the case in assessment center will be a business case

hopefully my answer is clear and helpful

Thanks...I actually think it works differently, i believe this a UK centered forum. i am in the US.

hilarious

hey guys,

has anyone had experience of a partner interview this year by any chance with EY? If so, please could you share thoughts,

I have one coming up in the near future so just wondering...

Thanks.

Hi guys, I am having my first round interview with EY next week and I applied to Actuarial life insurance..have anyone been to the interview for an actuarial position before? some ppl say it is competency based and some say strength based...i'm getting confused...would it be the same as what was mentioned above for the audit? can i have some sample questions and are there any particular tricky questions that you can remember?
really appreaciate your help here!
Elise

Hi Elise4499,

I've been to one and I can confirm that it is a strength based interview. You should expect approximately 30 questions from the interviewer. You can safely use example questions posted on other threads for your preparation as it reflects accurately of the questions that I had with E&Y. Hope this helps and best of luck to you.

Gaiden

Thanks for your help Gaiden. Did you apply to Actuarial Life as well? what's the outcome? u got thru aseessment centre?
elise x

No problem.

Yes, I applied for the same position as you but unfortunately I didn't get through. I was expecting a competency based interview but it was strength based. Gutted that I didn't double check on Wiki.

Elise,

I applied same as you also

as Gaiden said, it should be strength based. nothing very tricky, normally for each question, just need to answer 1 or 2 sentence will be enough. as you should finish 30 questions in 60 mins, including some small chat with interviewer before the interview and after the interview. so, you could image, how many words you will say

any question, just leave msg. i will reply u asap

hey any1 applied for audit ? i've got an interview coming up at EY..just wondering if the audit interviews are also gonna b strength based? any help would b appreciated

Yep I had an audit interview couple of weeks ago.

Very strength based with all the same questions in as Wikijob says on the page. Only other questions I got asked were "How do you make others feel confident in your abilities?" and "If you were at work and got a surprise couple of hours off, what would you do with the time?"

It was a really nice experience. I was sooo nervous before as it was my first interview, but the interviewer was so friendly he made me feel really comfortable.

Hi Emily!
I am also applying for audit and have an interview in a couple of days!
Can u tell me a bit more abt the interview questions that u were asked.?
That would b gr8!
Cheers

how long after your first interview, do they get back to you saying whether you got through or not?

I found out about 24 hours later. They normally say it can be 3 or 4 days though so don't worry if you haven't heard yet.

oh right, what department was this for? did u get an email or did they call you saying you got job?

This was first interview for tax and I've not had my assessment centre yet so I don't know if I've got the job! I got a call from the woman who interviewed me, about 24 hours after the interview, saying I'd got through to the next round and someone from HR would be contacting me later that day to arrange my assessment centre. A few hours later the person from HR rang and provisionally booked me in for an assessment centre. It's not confirmed because it's a couple of weeks away so I haven't had a confirmation email. She said she'd call me again nearer the time to confirm and tell me the details of the assessment centre.

Hi guys, has anyone had a first round interview for corporate finance? What kind of questions come up? Is it the new '30 short/random' questions like others have had in assurance and tax? Any help would be great! Thanks

Hi guys

Any one did the first ground interview with E&Y in coporate finance? What should I expect to be asked? is it competency based or there will be tests as well? Any advice is really appreciated. Thanks

Hi guys,

I just had my first interview with EY for the Actuarial - General Insurance Graduate Scheme (Sept 2010 intake) the other day and wanted to give you all a few tips.

Firstly, for anyone doubting the advice on this thread, I found it to be a great help. The interview has definitely changed from a competency-based to a strengths-based interview. I was told the interview would last 1 hour but I was in there for 90 mins which I decided was a good thing (I'm guessing so because I got a call a few hours after I left to say I'd gotten through to the next round).

Preparation is the key. The interview is a set of about 30 questions all of which require your response to the actual question plus an example to back it up. So, for example, if the question was, "Would your friends say you were an organised person?", you would need to say, "Yes, definitely, because this one time...at band camp, blah blah blah".

The interview questions come in no particular order and don't be put off by the fact that the interviewer will probably be staring at his/her page the whole time, making notes. Also, be conscious of time. They want your example and they want it now!

OK, so here's a list of all the questions I can remember from my interview. By the way, it seems as though there's a feeling that the interview for assurance/tax is different for the advisory/corporate finance applicants. All is can say is, I used the tips on this thread which seemed biased towards assurance/tax for my actuarial interview (advisory) and it seemed to do me no harm.

1) Would your friends say you are organised?

2) Have you ever done something differently the second time round?

3) (A tough one) What makes you more likely to succeed in this role than other applicants?

4) What makes you less likely to succeed? - Be careful to end this one by putting a positive spin on the factor that you say makes you less likely to succeed.

5) Have you ever used what you know to improve a situation?

6) Do you keep your promises?

7) What do you do when something at work bores you?

8) How do you stay motivated?

9) How do you make others feel confident in your own skills?

10) Do you need to be an expert in something in order to be a leader?

11) If you had a couple of hours free at work, what would you do?

12) Tell me about a company you admire? What would you like to ask them?

13) How do you handle working with someone you don't like?

That's all I can think of for now. If you can think of a decent response to all of these you should be able to make up an answer to the others on the spot. They're all in this style.

I hope that helps. I know it's late in the recruitment cycle but anyone who is yet to interview for this year's intake, good luck!!

Hey markg154, thanks very much for your helpful advice here!

I've got my interview for advisory this friday and still have quite a bit of preparing to do.

I'd be really grateful if you or anyone could tell me whether they ask much about the firm and how much they expect you to know? I completely overprepared a telephone interview with pwc learning so much about what they do and have achieved which was completely uneccessary.

Thanks,

Cat

has anybody got any ideas about how to answer the "if you had a spare couple of hours off work what would you do" question?

I really don't know what they want you to say, or what strength they are assessing...

If I was a recruiter I would probably want to hear something like "I would use the time to study for my ACCA or any other qualification".

or will they just think 'suck-up, if they're going to lie about this, then how do I know they're telling the truth about anything else?'.
It's a tough one, as obviously you want to impress them, but they also want to get to know the real you, and that doesn't mean a robot that studies every second of the day. Are you involved in any community projects? that would be good to mention at this point.

My answer to this revolved around general housekeeping and going the extra mile. I said I would use the time to make sure all my clients records were up to date so I could be more efficient with future enquiries then I would email all my clients to give them an update on what was going on and some general feedback. Not sure if it's what they were looking for but he seemed to like the answer.

good answer, that would work! I'm just a fan of giving an honest answer, ie, what would you actually do with 2 hours off work. If you honestly would do the work you've suggested above then it would come across as sincere and they'd be impressed, however I'd think it would work against you if they thought you were just giving them an answer you think they want to hear. I really would stress the importance of being yourself and giving natural answers that you're comfortable with. I was given feedback at each stage of the process that an honest, straightforward approach really helped me.

I had my first round interview in November for a graduate tax position and I went into it with no idea what to expect. I didn't have a clue what she was going to ask me so every question was a suprise but tbh I dont think that was a bad thing. If you go in with prepared answers you might sound too rehersed, whereas I just answered each question honestly and for some took quite a while to think of a response but thats ok, don't rush into an answer if you're not sure what your going to say. Even when I was struggling with an answer she would interupt me and say 'thats fine' and then go on to the next quesion. I think what they try and do is find out if you can handle pressure and think on your feet and that you don't freak out. But the interviewer will be very nice and put you at ease. It was my first interview and I was really nervous beforehand but as soon as I met my interviewer all my nerves went away and I just thought of it as more of a conversation. They wont expect you to have perfect answers for each question as I found out because I messed up some and still got through to the next stage. Hope this advice helps anyone who's got their first interview coming up!

I think most people would say study for ACA?ACCA etc, you might want to be bit different and suggest that,

even if you get a bit of time off, there may be something you could do that could improve your/department/company efficiency during this time that nobody had thought of and so attempting these efficiency savings would be what you would try to find.

That could take the form of preparation for something, helping a colleague, some method of extra wealth generation for the firm etc

Saying you would study for the ACA may put some people off, as you arent doing anything that would benefit the firm in that time, they put you on courses and give time off to study so doing that during work hours might be seen as a disadvantage.

I would def reccomend saying you would seek extra work, but turn it into a competency example and give evidence of a previous time when you've been left in such a situation.

lil.x

Does anyone know the salary and benefits to expect as Graduate in IT Advisory (IT Risk and Assurance) working with E&Y in London? Thx guys

Is there any reason you felt you had to post this identical question on 4 different threads? When people look at the opening forum page hoping to find some useful information all they have instead is you spamming your pointless question everywhere. The salary will be ~28-29k.

Sorry I didn't intend to irritate, offend, or spam. It's just that are many threads revolving around the same thing and I didn't know where I should post. Wikijob is a wonderful resource but I believe there should be some headings under every company to organise the posts, instead of people starting a new thread each time.

Anyways, sorry about spamming again and thx for the info

I still don't understand why people are not applying to the Perf. Imprvnt. IT Advisory as opposed to other fields!

And can someone tell me what is the major/real difference between IT advisory and IT Risk and Assurance?

@cyborg..... have you been invited for interview for Performance Improvement??

Yes I have! You too?

Hi Markg,

Thanks for your very helpful list of questions. I have my first graduate interview for IT Advisory in a couple of days.
Any suggestions for what should we answer in "Which company do you admire" ? Are they looking for any specifics?

Thanks a ton.

I answered Google due to their strengths and never ending innovation, china issue etc etc and said i even used their hardware and whipped out my spanking new Nexus One phone ;P
He had an HTC Hero so we chatted on that! At the end he played with my phone as well!!!
It's quite relaxed and they ask u what question would u ask the company. I said i'd ask abt their privacy issues and whether they'd back htc in their lawsuit by apple!!!

Just be relaxed...they're friendly!

Thank you Cyborg_001. As its my first interview I am really worried. I hope to comeback & contribute to this forum and be of some help.

Hopes.

Hi Guys,

I had my first interview for EY today. Thanks a ton for this website/forums, it was my basis for preparation. I got a call from the interviewer exactly within 12 hours (9 PM!!). However, as we break for easter tonight, I havent got any confirmation/information regarding AC from the recruitment team :)

The interview lasted 75min. It was structured and strength based. The manager was very friendly. As I was very nervous initially he started with casual chat to put me at ease before starting the actual interview. Just be yourself and have plenty of examples handy. All the best to all EY aspirants!

Thanks again!

Cheers

Hey cyborg_001,
any questions from your interview, thanks:).

Hi guys, just wanted to ask, i had a first round interview on thursday 1st april and i still haven't heard back from them, although it was the long easter weekend so i thought i'd hear from them today but nothing so far and it looks like everyone here found out within 24 hours so i'm a bit confused....