PwC Assessment Centre

Well done! Great post!

Out of curiosity, did you have to sit a diagrammatic reasoning test?

the logic test that I talk about it the diagramatic reasoning test.

I have an assessment centre for the undergraduate assurance sector next tuesday, but regarding the partner interview, I'm a bit concerned on what current issues to discuss. First of all does it have to be related to PwC (if the one I choose isnt and they ask me to pick again, I could be struggling!) so any ideas on good issues to discuss would be welcomed.

I can't help but think of those horrible interviews in the penultimate episode of The Apprentice where they bascally were told they were all useless and had to defend themselves.lol

also any more general tips on what they are looking for in the partner interview and what style I should adopt in the interview?

Make sure you read Partner interviews and PwC interview questions (PricewaterhouseCoopers).

Also for current issues read Sarbanes-Oxley Act and Credit crunch effect on audit.

The partner interview is not so competency based. You might get a couple of competency based questions but the purpose really is to understand you personally. It is in many ways the only 'real' interview you get- the rest is just 'assessment'. The partner will be looking to see if you are a decent person, will fit in with the firm, and presentable, responsible and honest enough to be put in front of clients.

It's all about chemistry but in my opinion a partner interview is easier than a competency based interview. Just relax and be your professional self. Be inquisitive and ask the partner questions about PwC, about their career and their role, that kind of thing. It is more of a chat than an assessment. The partner will have read through your application just before you came in so you will probably have to talk about what you wrote. In my interview, the partner picked up that I was a keen guitarist, and it so turned out he was too, and we talked about that for half the interview!

And don't fret, it'll be fine!

Hope this helps!
Chris.

It just occurred to me I didn't quite answer your question. The current issues- they are current issues that are affecting the industry as a whole, but relate them to PwC. So for the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, you want to say that it increases the amount of work PwC has to do for it's clients, but equally it means PwC can charge them more!

They won't expect you to understand technical stuff about issues affecting PwC specifically- after all, you odn't work for them yet. Make sure you search the recent news for things about PwC. Note also that PwC where the auditors of Northern Rock, and were caught in the fire after it collapsed.

Good luck!

lol, yeh i read about that, might have to tread on eggshells when mentioning northern rock, i'd imagine its quite a sensitive subject at PwC right now.

ok im gonna talk about sarbox and the credit crunch (even tho i had a lengthy discussion about this in my first interview! I'l have to really kno my stuff to get away with using it again)

Thanks a lot for all your help, your posts on here have got me to the stage I am, so hopefully they can drag me one stage further, then its happy days!!

Yeah I think you should be OK. Don't worry too much about repeating yourself from first interview and second - that's fine. Sarbox (or SOX for short) is really important for audit- though it's not as recent as some things it is still worth mentioning.

Good luck!

WAIT!

try not to talk too much about the damn CREDIT CRUNCH! having spoken to my recuritment contacts they told me that one reason I got through was my knowledge about other news articles. Apparently loads of grads have been talking about the credit crunch with no real understanding. I was able to talk about something I really knew abuot which got me through.

Only talk about the credit crunch if you are really sure what it is about and how it has affected PWc/accounting in general. Also if you talk about something different and that you know about it will A) impress the partner, B) show you're different & C) show you have a wider knowledge than just babbling about the same old Credit crunch stuff 500 other grads have talked about.

BF

Good to know. What was the issue/topic you talked about? Just out of curiousity. well done to you BF!

rio tinto/bhp takeover bid. i've got an engineering background, so I could relate to it easily.

good luck.

hmmm, ive read about this case, might be good to mention it.

should i relate it to PwC, and any possible involvement they might have, if any?

well i wouldn't suggest talking about this unless you know about it. I was able to as I understood it.

The main point is to ensure that you talk about a news story you know about and if possible relate whats happening in it to the current financial climate and how Pwc could help.

For my example this related to due diligence, tax incentives, world wide reach PwC could offer. Also I talked about how emerging markets (BRIC) are consuming massive amounts of metals and how such a big merger would be looked upon by these countries. I did also mention that due to the credit crunch a lot of M&A has slowed due to lack of capital and this might be another reason for this deal stalling.

just research a story you know about/interested in and relate it to the wider world and the services PwC offer and to the service line you're applying for and i don't think you can go wrong.

What service line are you aplpying for?

undergraduate assurance in bristol

I'd agree that you should try and bring something unique to the table. Talking about the credit crunch is good and definately worth mentioning- but it is the obvious topic and every partner and interviewer will have heard it all before, several times that day. It is a big issue, and you SHOULD understand it and it's effect on audit (see the article linked above), but it would help if you can talk about something else, something that other graduates probably won't have said.

Exactly what that is though I can't tell you!

Big thanks to everyone who posted on here, as it helped me get offered a job in assurance. anyone who works in the bristol office, i'l see you in September!!

Well done :)

another graduate will soon become a professional. good job/luck. :)

Good work! That's the name of the game :-) Congratulations team!

Thank you for all your advice. Thanks to this I got a job at the Leeds office to start in September. I'll be doing the split audit/RAS scheme. I am a mature graduate and initially applied for tax so will be putting up my own post about my experience.

Thanks again!!!

Congrats to you!

I'm looking forward to your post already! I'm getting on a bit too, so some info from a mature graduate perspective would be very welcome :) ...well done!

This is the link to my post (I think...) Good Luck. Hope it helps!

http://www.wikijob.co.uk/forum/accounting-professional-services/pwc-what-expect-if-change-service-line-andor-a-mature-candida

Hey guys, thanks for all your advice. These and other posts have been a big help in getting me a job in assurance in London for september start. Thanks you very much.
Shall post my experience soon

Hey!! Great to hear Riddles! Well done! :)

..look forward to hearing your experiences.

Ed

Hey,

I have an interview for assurance, public services with pwc next week...any tips?
I was really vague in my first interview when it came to business awareness, so I know I need to top up my knowledge, has anyone been through this recently and got any tips on news storys?

Check the article on commercial awareness and the current industry issues section:

• Sarbanes-Oxley Act
• Credit crunch effect on audit
• 10p Tax Rate

..also check the news section on the front page (very bottom).

Was similar was your 1st stage interview to our wiki profile?

I had a recent assurance interview but they didn't ask me any business q's. I had prepared my thoughts on rising oil prices though, just in case.

I would have discussed the rising price of oil and how this affects businesses and their overheads du to rising gas/electric bills with for big companies such as Woolworths will make a massive difference as they have so many sites. Also rising fuel costs which means transporting goods is more expensive. Companies need to strike a fine balance between passing these costs onto the consumer whilst not out pricing themselves so customers avoid purchasing certain goods as individuals are being hit hard too. This, coupled with the credit crunch thus increased costs of borrowing and loss of consumer confidence is making the current climate difficult for businesses. I would have Woolworths as an example because because they are currently in financial trouble and have made many redundancies. I would suggest this was because they no longer had a specific market. Since supermarkets are increasing what they sell, they are now real competitors and can often outprice Woolworths. They are also a very asset rich company as they own practically all of their properties. I would relate this to M&S who had similar problems years ago and resolved it by selling their properties and leasing them back to give them a massive cash injection. These are the sorts of ideas good auditing and risk analysis by PwC could generate to try and help them out of trouble.

You may not need this much detail but these are just a few thoughts. See the link above to my article for general AC tips but there's plenty to talk about at the moment! Good Luck!

Hey guys,

This has been my experience from first interview to job offer - PwC Assurance.

First Interview
The guy just went bsaically through my application form and discussed it in more detail, focusing more on my competencies and did not get asked anything about commercial awareness. I found a good things to do is to emphasise your team working/building/communication skills. So it is a good idea to keep a few examples about where you have been worked in teams, both successful and unsuccessful. Make sure you know your application form inside out as all of his questions were based on what i had written in their. I also got asked the basic questions such as why assurance, why did you pick your uni, why are you suited to working in assurance... Make sure you know a little information about the qualifications and PwC's business.
I was told i was successful in the first interview in about 2 working days time.

Assessment day
I found the day to be very interesting.

The day started of with an informal talk with the person looking after you on the day, in my case it was the recruitment manager in Assurance, this was quite helpful as i was able to get some more informaton about the firm, the partner who will be interviewing you...
She also gave me the intenary for the day so i could prepare myself mentally a little bit before hand.
One thing i have to say, is that i had applied a little late so there was only one other person doing the assessment day with me, so had to do the individual exercise and not the group one. but fear not all will be explained.

We began with carrying out the psychometric test.
Numerical test: The test was very similar to the one carried out online, maybe a little more difficult. On major difference is that you will have a different diagram to understand for each question. There are 20 questions to answer in 20 minutes. As they say work quickly and accurately as u can and you will be able to answer at least 15 out of the 20 questions.
Logical reasonsing: I found this test quite straightforward, very very similar to the online version. You have 40 questions to answer in 20 minutes. It may seem like a lot of questions but some of them are relatively easy.
From the feedback i got, i was in the 99th percentile for the numerical test and 98th percentile for the logical one. I dont have the actual marks yet, but will post them as soon as i receive them.

Next was the individual exercise.
it starts of with a small presentation, a few mins long, talking about corporate responsibility and sustainability from PwC's point of view. Then the guy will explain what has to be done. You will start of with 35 mins to read the information they give to you, it is more than enough time, so make sure you can take in the most important facts only. Make notes if you have to and keep a track of the time. After reading you will have a 15 mins debrief and you must must answer what has been asked of you. During the debrief he will give you some information that will change your opinion or view so make sure you are able to adjust and react to the information quickly. It is also a good idea to know other services PwC can offer other businesses as this will help.

Now to the partner interview.
i was quite nervous about this mainly due to the commercial awareness bit. Despite this he was more interested in my experiences that i had written about on my application form, similar to the first interview. However the commercial questions that he did ask was based less on current issues than on knowing business and how you would improve/advice businesses. The answer to the question on your application form reating to which business do you think PwC could offer it services too is very important so make sure you know what you wrote. The partner was quite friendly so made me feel more relaxed, but dont get too relaxed as this may make you appear tooo confident. He asked me questions as why auditing, what skills i have or have learnt. Do not try to lie or make up information or the day, they have superior practice at interviewing and can find this out.

Lunch
This was quite interesting as they took us to zizzi's and had a nice informal chat with a graduate who has been working their for a year. Ask as many questions as you want here, make the most of it.

Good luck

I got my offer relatively quickly and a few days after i left i got a phone call saying that i had ben offered a job.

Please don't think that the lunch with the graduates is just an informal chat for you to ask questions. They will be from the department that you will be working in and will feed back to those making the decisions. Whilst you should not be too formal - you need to be aware that this is also a big opportunity for them to see you interact while your guard is slightly down while you are eating and decide whether or not you are someone they want in their department. It can be as important as many of the other stages because once you have the interview they know you are capable of the job....it just whether or not they want you in the team.

(I know because I used to be one of the people taking new grad possible recruits out to lunch to assess them at BDO)

hmm, that's interesting. do they see sense of humor? :)

..that's a good point actually - if the lunch is essentially a personality fit assessment then should you just be your funny, humourous self and try to make friends with the trainees, rather than being reserved, and just try to be polite - i.e. not yourself at all?

Thanks for all this!!
PwC have been really helpful and sent me lots of links to help improve my commercial awareness and things but I am still having a bit of trouble.
I have applied for assurance in the public sector and really want to talk confidently about a public sector organisation that PwC could help. However, I am having lots of trouble. I would like to talk about data and security issues or sustainability as these are the two 'issues' in public sector that I am most interested in. However, finding an organisation and recent news story is proving quite hard...I don't know if I am just being completely blind??? Have you got any tips/advice?

how about the soc gen banker scandal? that was both a data and security issue. one trader knowing too much about front/middle/back office procedures allowed him to hide massive trades & risks from his bosses. this is a bank tho, so not public sector.

i think this could go down well with PwC as when I went for my interview there i spoke to someone about recent contracts they were going for and they had just put in their bid to investigate and provide consulting for Soc Gen on how to stop it happening again.

just make sure what ever you do you research it well and understand exactly what happened (how & why) and how it could be prevented & how PwC could help.

good luck

Keiron Poynter who used to be managing partner of pwc was engaged to review the systems and controls in place at HMRC following the lost CDs scandal. The curiously named Poynter report suggested a restructure... which amusingly HMRC had asked McKinsey to advise on previously. Money well spent it seems.

Hey,

I just wanted to say thanks for all the help I found on this site - I got offered a job with PWC, so it was obviously all very good advice.

I thought I would put down my experience to help any other graduates applying too...

Application Form
This is pretty straight forward. Most of it will be simply filling in your grades, however, there are a couple of tricky questions. The first question tests your understanding of PWC's services. I literally found all my info on the website. You only have 150 words, so keep it brief. The second asks who your 'ideal client' would be. My tip for answering this is to think about what you want from your work i.e, to be rewarding, to be paid alot, to increase your knowledge, to travel etc. This should help with the type of client you want to help. Then have a look at their work in that field i.e if you chose Marks and Spencers, look at their services in Retail. I chose a charity, so had a look at their work in that field and gave my reasons as wanting to be personally satisfied with my work. You may be asked about this in further detail at later interviews so stick to something you are genuinely interested in. Your final questions relate to personal experience. You will be asked about working in teams and two times when you have developed yourself. Again, be honest and don't worry too much about these.

Online Tests
I don't come from a Maths background and still managed to pass these. My tip is to do the SHL practise tests several times. My score on the numerical test increased from 40% to 85% by doing this. Don't aim to answer all the questions, only answer ones which you know the answer to or can make an educated guess. Skip and don't answer ones you have no idea how to answer. I also had a diagrammatic test which I did not prepare for, as I assumed it was a verbal reasoning test - so first tip, is CHECK! All of these have practice tests on SHL. Another good website is the University of Kent careers page and Cubiks.

1st Interview
This will be with a Manager from your area. You will be tested on the core competencies, so make sure you have pre-prepared some answers to these questions before you go in. Also read the newspaper and keep up with current issues in the financial services, economy and your chosen area of interest. For example, I applied to Assurance, Public Sector. I was asked questions such as ' tell me about a recent issue in the Public Sector', 'What interests you about the public sector?', 'What do you know about audit?', 'what is the different between public sector and private sector audit?'. I came out of my interview thinking I had done appaulingly, but was offered a second round interview. PWC were really helpful and sent me some info to help improve my commercial awareness for the next round too. The point is, don't worry if you don't kow everything, just make sure you know something to demonstrate you have an interest. Also, don't worry if you don't 'gel' with your interviewer: the first round is quite structured and they have to ask certain questions so it won't flow like a normal conversation. It doesnt mean you havent answered correctly.

Assessment Centre
This consisted of a group exercise, tests and partner interview.
Group Exercise - There were 6 of us. We were each handed a booklet about 10 pages long and a seperate laminate with different infomation. You have 20 minutes to look through this and answer the brief. Then 20 minutes as a group to discuss your ideas and reach a conclusion. This is not about what you say but how you say it. We didn't complete the task but I still managed to do well in this activity. My main tips here are: talk! they cant assess you if you say nothing (I didn't get a previosu job for this reason); try to include everyone; be aware of your body language, I was praised for smiling, nodding my head, taking notes and agreeing; be reactive, when you get new infomation be aware of how this changes things - i.e, if you suddenly have less money, figure out what your new budget is - I was praised for using my calculator and doing this; finally, work as a group, you are not in competition with one another, and if you dominate the group you will necessarily be praised. This is quite fun, even though it seems daunting. I don't think I was the chattiest or most helpful in the group, but I helped keep the group on track, worked with the team, made comprimises and gave infomation when necessary which was why I got through.
Partner Interview - This is not as scary as it sounds and will be more relaxed than your first interview. Having said that, the depth of you commercial awareness definitely needs to improve. I was asked specifically about the NHS, University Fees, and the state of the economy on public sector. I was asked about issues facing the public sector and accounting industry, what I found interesting about PS, and to give examples of one PS organisation that was successful and one that was unsuccssful. I was asked about issues Auditors need to address and even, what i would do if I was Prime Minister for the day. Sounds daunting, but it flowed naturally like a conversation and very much fed off what I said. All my knowledge came from the PWC wesbite and BBC so don't panic, I by no means am an expert on the economy or finance, I just spoke about what I knew. You will also be asked about what interests you and competencies like 'how would your friends describe you?' and 'how do you network' etc. Essentially, this is about showing you really want to work there and that they could work with you. So be friendly, relax and enjoy it.
Tests - These were the same as the online ones. The only difference is that the numerical tests have a different chart for each question. I bought a numeracy book to help improve my maths, however, if you have passed the online ones, you should be fine.

So that was my day. Overall, it was actually fun! I have had quite a few assessment days and this one was my most enjoyable, so maybe it was a sign that I had done well, I don't know. I hope this helps someone else!

Congratulations Charlord! Which office will you be at?

Really great info... thanks Charlord!

I'm joining the Birmingham Office in Assurance. How about you?