Grant Thornton first interview

Is it the telephone interview? When did you take the tests? I've completed the tests today but I haven't heard back. How long did it take to invite you for the interview?

Hey Redfred,

If you don't mind me asking, what office have you applied to?

Pancho

hey no this isnt the telephone interview, ive applied to the Cardiff office and by the looks of things they do it a little different, there is no telephone interview or assesment centre here just manager & hr interview, followed by partner.
irina from my experience GT are rubbish at gettin back to you, i had to contact them after a week of doing the tests, they told me they would be reviewing within the next 10 days. in the end i had a phonecall over three weeks later, whereas PWC told me the next day.

I've got an interview with Grant Thornton on Thursday too but it's a telephone one. It took exactly one week for them to get back to me after the online tests with an invite to interview. Good luck redfred!

Thanks for the reply redfred!

The reason why I ask, is because I took the GT test a few weeks back, I was told I had passed them, but my application was on hold as there were quite a few candidates at advanced stages of the recruitment process, so they wanted to see how that pans out I guess. Oh and I applied to the London office.

plintveld, which office have you to applied to?

Hi pancho, I applied to the London office as well and I did the online tests on the 21st Sept. I was a bit surprised that when I booked the interview the earliest one was the 29th Oct and there weren't many options of dates after that so I guess they had filled a lot of the initial batch of interview slots already. I'm sure they'll release some more dates soon though.

Argh... Had my first interview today and they said that they only have one place for the audit intern position :( Only 2 will proceed to the next stage.

Hi Plintveld,

You were right about GT releasing some more dates, I was contacted to arrange a telephone interview.

Having had your interview, I was wondering whether you could perhaps detail what questions you were asked? Were they similar to the interview questions that are dotted around wikijob (in regards to Grant Thornton)? Also have you heard back from them and if so, was it good news?

Thanks

pancho

Yea the stuff on here about Grant Thornton is pretty accurate. Here are the questions that I was asked in my interview but there's no guarantee they will be exactly the same as the ones you will get.

Why did you choose your university course?
Why Audit?
Why Grant Thornton?
Have you applied anywhere else?
What do you know about the ACA qualification?
Why ACA and not ACCA, CA, AAT etc.?
Have you spoken to anyone who works in Audit?
Why Audit and not tax, advisory etc.?
What do you think you will be doing?
What do you think are the biggest challenges you will face?

Give me an example of a time when you:

initiated change
made a difficult decision
motivated a team
adapted your communication style
used judgement to make a decision
solved a challenging problem
created credibility for yourself
managed multiple tasks at once
carried out multiple tasks to a consistently high standard

She then asked if I had any questions to ask. The interview lasted about 45 minutes and personally I thought it went quite well but I got a reply a couple of days ago to say I was unsuccessful! Shame because GT looks like a really good company to work for. Good luck with your interview!

oops, there were meant to be line breaks between those examples. I think you can figure it out anyway!

Hey plintveld!

Thanks a lot for the information, that's a fantastic recap of your interview! I'm sorry to hear that they didn't progress with your application...have you got any other interviews lined up?

Lol, yea I figured that there were meant to be breaks, it's happened to me to in the past!

Thanks again, your help is going to prove invaluable.

pancho

Hey guys,

I have the first Interview with GT tomorrow in Manchester and am a little bit nervous.... will let you know how it goes!

Good Luck !!!!!! For the Manchester Interview... Hey Just want to know if the location of the job applied makes any difference in the chances of getting selected?

Can anybody tell which city would provide with a better chance to get selected ?

hasan obviously different locations have a different number of roles, the cardiff office only has 2 ACA and 1 CIPFA but i think only around 10 got an interview. Other offices will have alot more places but i'd imagine there'd be alot more competition for them so its impossible to say really. Basically if your good you'll get an interview no matter where you apply

Well that was interesting... I wasn't expecting to be hammerd so hard on each individual competencies... But I think I handled it pretty well (thankfully my experiences at university have been varied enough so I can come up with examples to cover everything).

I'm a little concerned that teamworking didn't come up as a specific competency question and then at the end they asked whether there was any other areas I'd like to discuss and it didn't click until I'd left that it could have been that! Do you guys reckon that will have knocked me out?

MR_OJR they said exactly the same to me at the end, but we'd covered all the competencies, i think its just a general conclusion to the session. I thought mine went really badly but got a call yesterday sayin i was through to the partner interview, what office was your interview for?

Ah ok... I think I could have been a bit more detailed on my understanding on the professional exams (had a bit of a blank moment as a lot of the apps / interviews I'd had so far were for CIMA and not ACA/ACCA) and sounded a bit more enthusiastic as to why GT (didn't mention the training centre or anything)... I think as long as they look past these issues (and lack of detail on some examples I had to make up) I'll be good to go :-)

I do tend to exaggerate how badly I think things went and then find out it went fine... it worked on both my finals at Uni and my driving test :-P

Mine was at the Manchester office with Leeds as a back up... how about you? Good luck on the partner interview, it sounds challenging but also exciting!

And by make up, I mean I had run out of good examples on that subject and had to quickly think of other examples that relate to that competency... annoyingly I almost started on one of my teamwork examples but stopped myself as it was more of a "teamworking" example than a "difficult decision".

Anywhoo, back to applications :-P

Hey MR_OJR

I also had an interview today with GT in Manchester. I felt very similar! Felt as though in some aspects I could have answered much better answers and came out disapointed. The end bit also threw me, regarding the bit to ask, as I didn't say anything. After I asked them questions it then clicked a bit, but I turned it round and asked "Is there anything in particular you would like to know?". She said "Not really, what has been provided is sufficient enough". Then, the interviewer called me this evening to invite to an informal event next week and to inform me I had been successful in the Interview and I will be invited to the next stage next week :) I'm sure you have done fine!

Hmm... well done on getting through... I guess that's me goosed if they've already been in touch with successful candidates!

i had my interview 27oct tho, plus mine was at a different office so i wouldnt worry

True, but considering they interviewed both myself and ste in the same day at the same office and contacted ste straight away doesn't really sound promising.... We'll see anyway :-)

Anyone apply for an office in the south and had an interview?

Hi I work for GT in the Manchester office. Just started in August!

They are a good place to work and really do like their training centre so I'd mention it in your interviews.

Partner interview is challenging but they are all really interesting and friendly people so don't be too worried they just want to see how you react to things and see how you would fit in.

Anyhow, good luck and feel free to ask any questions. I posted all my interview experiences in another thread last year. If you search for Grant Thornton I'm sure it will appear :)

I've got my Interview for the Slough office tomorrow

I got throught HR interview and got email inviting to the second interview. I presume it will manager and partner interview as email did not mention anything else? Can it be another interview with HR or something else?

Hi rachel, glad to hear your enjoying GT, ive got an assessment day coming up which involves a second manager interview and a partner case study, did u have this case study or is it something new this year?

Hi,
I had a phone interview last monday, and still havent heard anything back, has anyone else had experience of this?

Mildaa
Yes it will be a manager interview which will focus a bit around competencies but more about your business knowledge. Then possibly you get an interview with a partner who will ask you questions just to try and get to know you really with the odd business kind of question in there and some others to see how you react to difficult questions.

Red Fred1
I think it depends on the office you apply to. As far as I know London offices do a telephone interview and an assessment day type thing whereas most regional offices just do 2 interviews.
I had a manager interview and then a partner interview for my second interview so I guess the case study is a little extra thing but I doubt it will be that in depth. In fact I think I'd rather have had that I got thrown some very difficult questions by the partner who interviewed me!

bsuhfz
Sometimes it can take a while for them to get back to you if they aren't sure how many people to take through to the next round, they may still be working out how many people they are going to take on this year. I'm sure they'll get back to you soon. Good Luck!

Just had my first interview, lasted 53 minutes. Spoke for about 15m on career motivation and why that serivce line/ why GT.

The rest was competency based, when have you used good judgment, made a difficult decesion, convinced someone else of your conclusion, and about 3 more which have gone out of my mind.

I have passed the tests but have been put on hold due to a large number of applicants at future stages.

I have the option to wait or transfer my application to another location.

I have currently applied for Audit Manchester Graduate place.

What do you suggest ?

I am in the same situation and I decided to transfer my application. However, even though I e-mailed the recruitment lady (twice) a long time ago to tell I want to transfer it, she did not bother to answer. I'm a bit disappointed in their whole recruitment process. Apparently they don't even have a phone number to be contacted at.

hasancoool, if you have an e-mail address of the recruitment team, could you please send me a PM. With the e-mail address I used, I didn't get a reply and I'm starting to lose my patience. Thanks!

They list the phone number of each office in their graduate recruitment brochure.

This should be the direct link to it, hope it helps.
http://www.gtuk.com/flickbooks/Grad_Brochure/index.html

Thanks a lot...I haven't seen that.

Hi guys,

I haven't been actively participating in this forum; but had some queries regarding my application to the London office, which seems to have a slightly different recruitment process. Could anyone tell me what are the differences and do they make it more challenging than other locations?

Warmly
Waqar

Hey guys

I had my Grant Thornton telephone interview today for Business Risk Services. It went on for 30 mins although they said in the email that it will be for 45 mins. The questions they asked were quite similar to what I found on wikijob. But I guess I got a bit nervous and stammered a lot though I answered all the questions. When she asked me "Why BRS and not audit or anything else" I said I am more interested in how technology is related to business and how it can be used to improve one's business. In the end she said "I cannot guarantee you a technology related role as you are more interested in that..."... Guess I screwed it up... But my advice would be to have pre-prepared answers for all the questions mentioned in wikijob for the GT interview. Its the same that they ask. All the best to everyone.

Hi Sasha,

Thanks for the post.

How did it go, any news for the next round if you made it through or not? How long do they take to get back to you?

Thinking of applying also...

I look forward to your reply.

Prince

1st round Telephone interview questions:

Why Business Risk Services?
What do you know about BRS?
What do you know about the qualification you'll be studying for?
What so you think will be main challenges?
How will you address them?

Competency part:

Credibility and communication competency - how did you develop credibility with someone
Decision making and judgement - describe example where you had to use judgement
Organisation - example where you had to deliver/ participate in many activities how did you organise yourself
Leadership - example where you motivated a team/ helped someone with a challenging obstacle
Innovation and Change - example where you drove change

Reminded me of how terrible competency based interviews can be. Very formulaic, little if any chit chat. Might as well have filled out a box ticking questionnaire.

Best of luck to anyone yet to have an iv, hope this helps.

Hey Vish,

When did you have your interview? Have you heard from them yet?

Sasha

hi sasha,

had it this afternoon at 12. Lady called Leander, said should hear back by Monday but typically within 5 working days. I don;t hold too much hope though, she had a very demoralising habit of saying 'oh' after everything I said as if it wasn't quite what she was looking for, the kind of 'oh' that you might utter if in response to 'how are you' they say 'my gran died'. Oh well.

Vish, Haven't heard from them yet. I thought they would be sending out emails... And mine was a day before your interview. Not sure why they haven't called yet.

I don't think you can express a lot in a phone interview... Looks like they expect a lot!

anyone still waiting for a first interview?????
I applied to audit london and don't want to alter my location. Just curious as to how many others are still in the pipeline.

Hi,

Has anyone been to the assessment centre for GT? If so, could you please tell me whether the manager's interview was similar to the telephone interview?

Also, did you use different examples in the manager's interview for the same questions asked in the telephone interview because for some questions I can't really think of a second example.

Thanks a lot for your help and good luck to anyone who has an interview or assessment centre coming up.

hey Sasha have you heard back?

I just got a call today, unfortunately wasn't successful, gave me pretty detailed feedback. They're bloody fussy, that's for sure. Although I've had competency based interviews before that were friendly and fairly informal looking for certain keywords, it seems that GT is looking for all the keywords in a very structured mechanical way. Be as professional and cold as possible while avoiding anything anecdotal, it's not about your personality at this stage.

Comments:

Know about the ACA in detail; Innovation and Change competency: although I described a solution I came up with and implemented, she wanted to see how I explored other options, involved others and rolled it out successfully; Credibility and Communication: use specific examples and more buzzwords, like persuasion, market knowledge, confidence etc. even though she said she knew from my work experience and what I said that I demonstrated all these qualities - I just didn't use specific enough examples; Leadership: couldn't think of an example straight away, so she asked another question and wanted to see more stuff about teamwork; Organisation and Prioritisation: more structure and buzzwords - planning, tracking progress, flexibility and adaptability, delegating work to others, awareness of timeframes and deadlines and use of tools such as a calendar or planner or spreadsheet etc.

Well that's it. My advice would be, be very specific and aim to tick as many boxes as possible even if you sound a bit mechanical and fake.

(For more tips and advice, check out http://consultinggrad.wordpress.com/)

Hi all,

I am preparing for my first interview with GT and I don't really know how to approach the following question: "Tell me of a time when you created credibility for yourself". Are they looking for an example when I convinced someone of something and it proved to be the right choice? I am not quite sure about it.

I think this is a difficult competency to explain...because even if you do create credibility for yourself at some point, it is a bit hard to explain the process in words. And right now, I can't think of anything in particular. So, any input will be much appreciated.

Thanks.

Credibility I think is about telegraphing a message to others that you are a capable individual; it's about making claims believable. Therefore you could split it into 3 main components: knowlegde; demonstrable past success; and strong communication.

Firstly, having a strong knowledge of something, whether that be an industry, the market, or specific expertise in a given subject area for example. Therefore, if you were faced with a task, how did you go about researching what information you needed, or acquiring the skills necessary.

Have you built relationships with people and got references or recommendations to help build credibility with potential employers or schemes and activities that you've applied to or interviewed with.

So yes, it may be an example where you have convinced someone to do something because you demonstrated that you knew exactly what you were talking about, you used past experiences or references to substantiate your claims and you communicated in a fashion that gave the other person or people confidence in your knowledge and abilities.

It might help to think about how big companies and brands build credibility. Eg. GT are in the top 10 of accounting firms - they have great clients who trust them - they produce industry insights and so they're an extremely credible firm.

Hope that helps. Best of luck.

(For more tips and advice on landing a grad scheme in consulting, check out http://consultinggrad.wordpress.com/)

Hi,

Thanks for that! I figured out something...so, thanks for your help :)

hi OJR,

did you went for a competency based interview, if yes, can you please give me some example questions they asked you ? coz i got an interview next friday.

sasha,

I m going for BRS interview next friday, can you please tell me the questions they asked you and any advice from your experience.

Hey khyzergani,

It was a long time ago, so I don't quite remember the questions except for the fact that they did not deviate much from those mentioned in the wikijob forums. It would really help to have answers prepared for all of them. The lady who interviewed me seemed not to be interested at all in what I was saying. She was constantly typing in the background and it felt more like I was talking to myself about myself. Felt quite weird. I would advise you not to be bothered at all if that happens to you too and to just give your best, since they seem to be doing this a lot! I remember they asked about what all I know about ACA, how many exams I will be giving, what each exam comprises etc. Luckily I had read the overview of the course before the interview. You could have a read about that too.

All in all, be prepared to answer all the questions listed in the forums here. That should be enough really. All the very best for the interview.

Cheers