PWC Telephone Interview

Hey jp13,
Thanks for the tips above!
I have a telephone interview with PwC tomorrow and I was just wondering if your interviewer told you how long you had to wait to hear if you were successful?
Was your interview for a position starting in September?
Best of luck to you.

I have a tel. interview coming up next week. Sarah I would be really grateful if you could share your experiences also, how did it go?

Hey Sarah,

Sorry for the late reply. I hope your interview went well. My position was for Sept start so I heard from them the same day. I am happy to say i was successful in the telephone interview and after completing the AC the following day, i was been offered a position on their grad scheme within 24 hours. In this case, the whole process was sped up because the start date was very soon. However, from my understanding most other people hear within a week or two after their interviews...

Hey jp13,
Congrats on the offer! I thought my phone interview went well and it's for a Sept but I haven't heard back yet so I'm starting to get a bit worried. Which service line did you apply to?

Hey Ravness,
The questions in my interview were exactly the same as jp13's above. I'd say you need to know your commercial awareness example inside out and all of my competencies were about teamwork. Which service line have you applied to?

Hey Sarah,

Thanks. I applied from management consultancy service line. I met some people who had applied for tax at my AC day who were starting in Sept, but for some reason the HR were not in a rush to give them an answer unlike me. I do think it varies between the service lines and the actual starting date in Sept. Did they tell you when to expect a reply by? If its past that time period maybe you should follow up?

Hey jp13,

Ah I see. I applied for tax and the woman said I'd expect a reply within 5 working days so maybe I'm just worrying a bit too much. Good luck with your scheme!

Hi I applied for management consulting also. Got the interview on monday. Thanks for your advice guys!

Hey Ravness,
How did your interview go?

Hey Sarah,

Have you heard back from them about your interview?

In some ways I think it went well, in other ways I don't think it did! The lady who called me was very polite, asked very relevant questions and told me that the interview was to last approximately 25 minutes (something to bear in mind!).

I got asked about a recent business issue, talked about that in detail and I think I handled the follow up questions well on how I would advise each stakeholder and what are the larger issues surrounding it.

Then moved on to how did I research KPMG which was fine, and then what do I know about all of their services. I gave quite a detailed description for this, and I wasn't asked to elaborate about consulting or MC in particular - perhaps because I described them well in the overview or just because I was going OTT and running out of time!

On the competencies, I got asked a lot about my work experience (in a consultancy!) and some websites I ran in my part-time with lots of follow up and probing around that. This didn't provide much room to talk about my other areas such as university/sports teams/societies unfortunately so I tried to add them where I could. At the end of the call I was asked if there was anything I would like to add so I made sure I brought across my extracurricular work and covered a few questions on that.

Finally, the lady I spoke to suggested I take down the telephone number to call for feedback and told me I'd hear back shortly via email. Does everyone get this telephone number or did I really mess this up? I also noticed the call lasted 35 minutes in total so I think I should have been more concise in my answers!

Hey Ravness,
Sounds like it went well!
I actually rang the student helpline before as I still haven't heard anything back and the woman passed my query onto the person dealing with tax so I'm waiting for a phone call! Nerve racking stuff.
I also got the number for feedback, I think it's just standard procedure for them to give it.
I hope you don't have to wait as long as I have to hear back!

It is standard to get feedback so don't worry. i got some useful feedback from them that helped me prepare for the AC day. A lot of the other big companies don't give feedback, so you never really know your strengths and weaknesses.

Thats really annoying that they haven't got back to you yet Sarah - hope they do soon!

Raveness what start date have you applied for? If its April i think the recruitment process may be slower cause i know some people are still trying for Sept start and i'm guessing they would be a priority..

Hey Sarah, I hope it works out for you!

JP, I really wanted a September start, but they rang me and said all the MC vacancies were filled after I had booked the telephone interview.

They offered me the option of having the same telephone interview for the April 2011 start date so I went ahead with that.

What positions are the people you know going for..is it MC? And what stage are they at?

The people I know applying for sept start are going for Tax. I think i was in one of the last assessment days for MC because the process was really quick for me and they were in a rush.

So don't be to worried if you don't get an answer straight away, bear in mind that they are in a rush to ensure they assess everyone who have applied for Sept start.

hope it goes well!

Sure thing. Cheers!

I got a rejection email today unfortunately and a generic link to interview tips and feedback.

I called the telephone number that I was given and they said that they don't give individual feedback for the first round interviews which was strange, but I mentioned what I was told in the call and they're looking into it.

JP did you get individual feedback from them or just the email link? Maybe they only give feedback to those that have passed?

i'm sorry to hear that ravness.

I did get individual feedback after my first round. So its strange that they didn't give you any - especially if they said they would :S

Sorry 2 hear that as well ravness. But i am curious, judging by what u said concerning the content of ur interview, did they not ask you standard questions like, when you have worked in a team, when you had to work towards a deadline etc etc. Coz it seems you werent asked these sort of questions!!!

I got another email saying that they do not provide individual feedback at this stage. I'm not sure what's going on or why the interviewer would specifically tell me to note down the number to call for feedback!

umm ravness any ideas den?

I just had my telephone interview on Monday, for an experienced hire, and am waiting for the response.
Same types of questions that jp13 had, focuses were on the teamwork and PwC's global competencies. Mine lasted 1hour and 15 minutes - don't know if that's a good sign or not...
Wasn't told about the feedback. I was just told that I would get an email from HR in a week's time.

JP13 - did you not have a second interview? I was told that the online tests and a second interview with a partner would follow if I make through the first stage.

Hey Jim,

My recruitment process was slightly different in that i had my online tests before my first stage interview. But i have had my second interview - it was the graduate a/c day which included a partner interview, written assessment, numericals and logical reasoning tests and a group exercise.

The written test:
We were given a profile of a company that is looking to partner with another company. They give a profile of 3 potential companies that they can partner with. Using the reasons why they want to partner with any of these other three companies you have to write a report of which you think is most suitable and why. It is important to give this report structure as you really are pushed for time. I structured it by initially writing:

-a brief executive summary
- short introduction
- Ad/Disadvantages Company A
- Ads/Disadvantages Company B
-Ads/Disadvantages Company C
- Conclusion and recommendation

Its quite important to have a strong executive summary to outline the report because i actually did not finish or even started writing the conclusion but the recruiters could see where i was going with it because of my executive summary.
Remember they have given a short amount of time so although you maybe used to writing in depth analysis its important to be concise.

The Partner Interview

This lasted for about an hour. From my understanding everyone's experiences are different because of the different partners. I had a quite friendly partner - he made it very clear that there are certain questions he is supposed to ask and then we can have a general chat.

An important thing to note is that they have notes from your first round interview - so try and use different examples to highlight your competencies. Some of the questions i got asked:

- Why pwc?
- Describe a time you have had to change your leadership style?
- Describe a time you have had a conflict with a team member and how did you deal with it?
- What PwC clients would you like to work for and why?
- How would you invest a million pounds?
- What do you think is important in maintaing PwC high quality of service?
- Tell me why i should hire you in 30 seconds

What i really appreciated about the partner was that he told me straight away where he thought my answers were good but could have had some more depth or considered some other factors. So i was given the opportunity to express initially how i approached the question and why i did not consider these other factors, followed by going into depth.

I don't think all partners would do that so try and give much more depth in comparison to the first round interviews.

Group exercise

This is straight forward case study which you will discuss as a group:
- Make sure you keep track of time
- Contribute by adding something to the discussion rather than repeating someone else
- Allow everyone to speak - if anyone is quite - ask them for their opinion bringing them into the discussion
- Don't be negative - if there is an idea you do not agree with initially acknowledge that idea and then give your reasoning for not agreeing for example " i understand but if you consider 123 i think we should do xyz instead....what do you think?"
- Think about your body movement - if someone is aiming their conversation at you do not ruffle through your papers or look away - engage eye contact , nod slightly when you agree.

Numericals and Logical reasoning:

If you have got to A/C stage you should have already have completed online SHL tests.
The numericals and logical reasoning are very similar to those that you completed online. They are a little harder but nothing too challenging. I find it very difficult to do numericals without my own scientific calculator so if you are like me make sure you do take your calculator along. They do provide one but it is very basic.
Also keep track of the time - it is very easy to spend too much time on one question so make sure if you feel like you are to move on and come back to it at the end.

I hope that helps - good luck with the rest of your recruitment process!

jp13,
thank you for giving the break down of the AC, I finally heard back from PwC today and I will be attending an AC soon!

Now, talking bout feedback, I could not get through the AC, been more than a month now and still waiting for feedback!!! Left me wondering, do they really care about their own ethics as they project.

Hey guys

Had my telephone interview on Wednesday and got asked the same questions as jp13 and got a reply over the next 2 days to say i'm through.

cheers jp13

I got a confirmation email that I got through the first stage (after a week). I think it depends on how fast the interviewer writes up the interview note.
Many thanks to jp13, these will help me to prepare for my second interview.

congratulations jim! I just actually gave someone a much more in-depth description and advice of my partner interview - so i'm gonna paste it here and hopefully it will be of some use:

The partner interviewing me made me feel comfortable and I really think that helped a lot to help me get through it. Initially i was asked some competency questions - focusing on my team work -"tell me about a time you have had to work with someone with a different working style' how did you approach it - what would you do differently . They really want you to expand and go into depth - much more so than the telephone interview. I also got questioned on a time i used my contacts to get a job done, how i would invest a million pounds, how can pwc develop its brand and service.

In relation to the commercial question i got asked which one of PwC clients would i like to work with and why? This threw me off a bit because with my commercial awareness i had prepared to talk about 2 non PwC clients - so i would say look at PwC clients and if they ask a general commercial question those examples could still fit with that question. Try look at google news articles on a company you are interested in, and really try and challenge the article or come up with your own view - working at PwC i've really found that they like people who are creative thinkers and can look at a problem in a new perspective.

For example - you could start off discussing a company and describe the service/product they offer if its not obvious - outline any problems , recent news about them (e.g. they are moving offshore), outline your own opinion (but i think...they shouldn't move offshore because of XYZ , i think they should do XYZ instead)- and outline why you want to work for them (something like you think it will be exciting/challenging, and you really want to be part of transforming that organisation around)

Other than that i asked them quite a few questions around diff topics incl -
- Recently the govt announce public budget cuts - which would impact the number of projects available next year- yet PwC are planning on growing even bigger (if you are doing consulting you could mention that they recently brought diamond consultancy) - so i just asked them to shed some light on how they are going to overcome challenge of shortage of projects
- i then asked the partner a lot about himself - they love talking and try make it conversational rather than is seeming like preprepared answers - if they say they worked in X industry ask them what difficulties they faced working in that - how are they balancing work life-
- If there was anything you didn't get to point out in the interview that you really wanted to you may be able to bring that into your conversation for example if you want them to know you are good at playing sports instead of just saying how are you balancing work life say something along the line ' i've been on the football team at uni and i would ideally like to continue playing but it requires a lot of commitment, have you had any difficulties juggling your work here and outside interests?'

The more you make it conversational near the end the better!

Hi jp13, thank you so much again!
I'm wondering how I could research about the PwC clients as the PwC website doesn't seem to name specific clients. Do you mind telling me some of the PwC clients, esp those in retail industry?

Also, re how PwC can develop it's brand and service, is it more to do with marketing and new market opportunity or improving existing brand and service?

Did the partner tell you how they would be challenging the potential shortage in projects due to the budget results? I'm quite curious what his answer was.

Totally agree on making a good conversation, I think I had a really good conversation with my interviewer (a senior consultant in the team I would be working in) on the phone in my first interview, and this made me feel very good about the interviewer and probably vice versa for him, too. I also was being very honest about my mistakes that I had made but explained how I made sure I learned from the experience.

Hey
congratulations to all who got an AC out of the telephone interview. I had one for assurance summer intern 2011 last thursday (16th) so it's been a week now and I still haven't heard back. I'm sorry to hear Raveness that you got rejected but I noticed that they informed you of this the day after your interview. Im hoping that because I haven't heard anything in a week, then maybe its good news?!

Hi,
I've recently applied for a position in pwc and been emailed to complete the online test which i have completed last week...does anyone know how long it takes to recieve a feedback ? Or have I failed the test hence no reponse... :-|

well i applied for a summer 2011 internship and after completing the online tests I immediatley received an automatic reply saying they wanted to give me a phone interview

hi all

I recently applied for an experienced hire position. submitted my app over weekend and was sent online tests by the wednesday. submitted again over weekend and received email first thing monday morning for a telephone interview.

i had tele interview last friday. was told i would hear within 5 working days. wasnt advised as to whther it would be email or phone call

ive been kinda impatient and have called the customer service centre to make enquiries, with the recuiter on my behalf.

the CSC operator told me that someone tried to call and left me a message yesterday to call back for feedback. (no message was left on my voicemail)

This person has now gone on leave and someone else will apprently be calling my to give feeback.

The word feedback was used as opposed to response or result.

Would this imply that i have been unsuccesful??

Jim, if you're around; I wasn't told a bout feedback either, so worried that no email and a call regarding 'feedback' may be bad news..

what area have you applied for? you mentioned online tests next? i assume you had an online account. do you know if this was updated straight away with new stage info? mine still says under review, even though they apprently had feedback for me yesterday.

any advice, help appreciated.....a nervous wait over the weekend for me :(

@drexelburnham seems like you had a immediate response whereas i havent ..am getting worried now.when i do login into my pwc account it states that i have a scheduled interview but i've had no such contact yet , am not sure whats really happening.

Do pwc call you with an interview date or do we call them up and arrange one?

Sal, i would think if it says interview, u should be ok... Maybe calll and enquire. For my telephone interview, i was emailed with times.

Hi all,

I found the comments posted on the forum really useful and would like to thank all of you who are sharing your experiences; from phone interviews to a/c day.

With a 2.2 degree (below their usual 2.1 minimum), I submitted an online application last Monday. To my surprise (I have to confess); two days later I received an email asking for more information regarding my Secondary Education as I did all my pre-uni studies in Spanish. I'm now organising for them to sent over.
I also have recently completed a six month work experience in the financial service industry at Bloomberg.
Not sure whether PwC is interested in my application but want more info? If so, I wonder whether my bilingualism and work experience are playing in my favour; hence they're not strick on 2.1 requirement?

All comments are welcome and highly appreciated.

Hi guys,

Help on this thread has been really good.
I have applied for the graduate scheme for Corporate Finance and have been given a phone interview next week, do you all think that the questions will be similar to the ones that people have already posted? Also is the interview mainly competency based?

Much appreciated if anyone can help!

I got this today "We have not yet received your Situational Judgement Test, until this is completed we are unable to progress your application" but they actually havent mailed me regarding this test before ...argh confusing.

Has anyone done this test???

Hi guys, thanks for all the useful comments about the processes!

Does anyone know how the graduate placement (6 months) process takes place? As in are the questions the same?

Any help would be appreciated! Thanks in advance!!

Hi Jim4119,

Hope u r doing fine.

Pls could u let me know the PwC process for experienced hires in Consulting ? I have my first round telephonic scheduled for next week, have completed the online assessment tests... Could you give some examples of the competency questions asked ?

what is the process like... after the first round of competency interview on the phone, is it going to be followed by the technical round n then the partner interview or is there any other stuff like group discussions or in tray exercises involved ?

Any help on this is greatly appreciated.

Good luck to u ..

Cheers !

Hi,

I'm an international candidate and got the job offer from PWC 2 days ago (Management Consulting, Apr 2011). This thread, especially the posts by jp13, helped me tremendously when I was preparing for my phone interview and assessment centre with PWC London. Decided to pay it forward by sharing my own experiences!

Phone Interview:

Mine lasted about 50 mins, and consisted of MANY questions across most of the global competencies listed on the website.

Examples include:
"Give me an example of a time when you took up a challenge to push your own limits"
"an example of a time when you changed the way you operated/ flexed you style as a result of feedback given"
"an example of a time you worked in a team"
"an example of a time when you had to work closely with someone"
"an example of a time when you had to adapt your working style to suit your working partner's style"
"a business issue that you have been following"--> u can research on this beforehand and quote lots of numbers to impress! I think it's very useful if you choose a business issue (eg.islamic finance or business sustainability) and then read up on pwc's published reports on the issue and then quote the pwc reports during ur interview. important to also link whatever issues/problems back to pwc, like how pwc can help or what pwc has done in the area.
etc.

The interviewer has a fixed set of questions she had to ask, which made the interview a bit rigid-- eg. For the "example of a time when I had to work closely with someone", I gave an example where I had to work with someone from another culture, and elaborated on how I adapted my working style to suit his. And then a few questions later, the interview asked me to give an "example of a time when I adapted my working style to suit my working partner". I found that a bit weird because I had just given one such example.

I think I took quite long answering some of the questions, so she had to skip a few of the designated questions to keep to the 50 min limit.

Assessment Centre:

They tell you to be prepared to stay with them for at least 5 hrs, but when I was there, everything took around 3 hrs. we reached at around 12pm, and then only got brought to a room and briefed at around 1 pm.

1. Numerical and Diagrammatical Reasoning Tests
- I found it a bit difficult to keep time given that the clock in the room was an analgoue clock and that the person-in-charge didnt tell you what time u started and what time u are supposed to end. (She just said "start" and you dont even know what time it was so u wouldnt know what time u have to stop your pens)
- A lot of the candidates couldnt finish the numerical reasoning test, so if you cant finish it, don't fret. It's really quite normal. I didnt do about 3 questions in the numerical test and was 99 percentile. So i think it's really about getting everything u answered correct,rather than answering everything. But of course, dont skip too many questions.
- I didnt finish about more than 10 of the 40 questions in the diagramatical test and was in the 76percentile.

2. Written Exercise:
- regardless of your size of handwriting, you are given both side of 1 A4 paper to write everything. I actually had enough time to write everything I wanted to write, but because my handwriting was too big, I didnt have enough space and just spent the last few minutes re-reading what I've written. So in a sense, the report I handed in was not complete.
- The case we were given was about some sustainability issue. They gave us 4 options, and we were supposed to write a report recommending which of the options the government should use.
- Time management is really impt because you only have 30 mins. Skim through the materials they give you- 80/20 rule states that most of the info inside can be read through REALLY quickly. need to know which parts of the report to zoom in on. that would really help.
- I used subheadings to guide the reader: 1 .Executive summary 2.Option A 3. Option B 4. Option C 5. Option D 6. Recommendation and conclusion
- As long as you've written a strong exec summary which shows clearly your stand/recommendation and justification,you can relax a bit when writing the rest of the report, i think.

3. Group Exercise:
- also sustainability issue.
- we had to calculate payback and total profits. honestly, i didnt know how to do that. and the interviewers observing the case study picked it up. but i was lucky because i scored highly on the numerical test and so they assumed i could actually do the math.
- make sure you speak up but dont come across as domineering. be friendly. keep time. try and give the team some direction when u see that the discussion is getting to messy.

4. interview:
- my interviewer was really nice. very friendly and really tried to make me relax. i found the interview much more enjoyable than the phone interview, which was very structured and not as conversational.
- i did a course in school called "intelligent organisation" and my interviewer started out by asking me about that course. and asked me to link it to pwc/ companies/clients
- he asked about 4 questions. I cant really remember the questions, because they were more or less weaved into an ongoing conversation, instead of read of a list (like in the phone interview).
- pwc has a very strong focus on building relationship, and that was the key theme of my interview. so do make sure u understand why it's important to pwc and have examples of how you've built relationships with people.
- based on the threads Ive read, it seems like many people got the question on "which pwc client would you like to work for", so i prepared in great detail for that.But I did not get asked that question during my interview. Some of the other candidates at the AC for other lines of services got asked that question. My advice would be to play safe and just prepare for it.
- the interview lasted about 40 mins I think. it was so enjoyable i felt like i wanted to talk more even after the interview ended. i think it was really the best part of the AC.
- according to the graduate recruits I talked with, all of the components in the AC count, but if they had to pinpoint ONE deciding component, it would be the interview. so really prepare for the interview!

Yup, this is what I can think of. Hope it helps ! :)

testing

Congrats forfeit13 for securing the job!! Well done indeed.
I was wondering how long did PwC take to get back to you after your AC?

I had my AC on friday, and they only called me back the next thursday. I was so depressed from Mon to Wed,because I thought if you get the job, they generally call you back the very next day. When the lady called me,she said that she has been trying to call me for the past few days but couldnt get through. But I'm not sure.

I suspect they took longer to get back to me because Im an international candidate. (for my phone interview, they took like 6 or 7 working days to get back to me, and I had to keep calling back)

I can understand mate. I am an international candidate too and had my assessment on Wed and the HR manager told me that she will get back to me in two days. It's been two days and the depressing wait through the weekend is on. I too am feeling a bit low and losing hope. Fingers crossed I get a positive call back on monday!

sleep on it and just enjoy the weekend (i know it's easier said than done!) :) all the best!

Hey UR1727,

How did the interview go? I have the first ound telephone interview and could you please help and share some of the competency based questions you were asked?

Many thanks

Hey Guys

Just had my first round telephone interview and thought I'd share my experience. The interviewer was quite friendly (as expected) and told me at the start that the interview would last about 25 minutes (not expected since I was told in the email it would last 50 minutes). Anyway here's a list of questions I was asked:

1) A recent piece of business news
2) What do you know about the ACA qualification?
3)Time you had to change your method of working
4)Time you worked under a lot of pressure
5) Time you achieved a difficult goal
6) Time you worked in a team
7) Time you received feedback and how you reacted
8) Time you worked with someone who had a different working style to yourself
9) What services does PwC offer?
10) What do you expect to be doing in your chosen line?

And that was it. I was hoping to get to ask some questions but I wasn't given the chance to. But I was told that I'd hear back within 5 working days. Hoping I've been successful I'm more nervous now than I was while giving the interview.

Also for anyone wishing to prepare I've compiled a list of all the questions I prepared. These are all the ones I found on WikiJob:

Why PwC
Why have you chosen to apply to this service line
What do you expect to do on a day to day basis and how will this be combined with studies
What do you know about your qualification

What services does PwC offer
How does PwC add value (differently from its competitors)
Company doing well that has recently been in the news and how PwC could help
Company doing bad that has recently been in the news and how PwC could help
What issues are currently affecting PwC
Which one of PwC’s clients would you like to work with

Time you worked with someone who had a different working style to yourself
Time you had to achieve excellence
Time you failed to achieve a goal
Time you received positive and negative feedback and how you reacted
Time you provided exceptional client service
Time you were under a lot of pressure to get work done
Time you had to persuade or negotiate with someone
Time you led a team
Time you completed a challenging task that took you out of your comfort zone
Time you worked in a different environment from university
Time you had to adapt your method of working
Time you witnessed conflict in a team
Time you had different ethical opinions from someone else
Management style you don’t like
Tell me about yourself
What can you bring to the firm

Best of luck guys

Thank you very much, Gordon. Your post is of very helpful for me as I will do the first interview next week. Good luck to you.