Accenture - Beginning to End

Hi,

I noticed that a few people have put up their experience of applying for various firms from application to assessment centre, so I thought I would put mine up for Accenture. Sadly, I didn't get the job and was absolutely gutted but hopefully my experience can help someone else.

Application Form
- The form is really simple, just three questions about your extracurricular activites, what an Analyst does and how Accenture helps it's clients. All the infomation is on the website. I kept it really simple, almost bullet pointed to get the message across.

1st Round Interview
- This was held in the offices at Victoria Street, London. My main advice is read the e-mail. It tells you EVERYTHING you need to know i.e research competition, give examples of the competencies they look for.
- I was asked questions about teamwork, flexibility, leadership, strength and weaknesses, and who their clients are (Technology = Bearing point, EDS, Capgemini, IBM..Strategy = BCG, Bain and Company, McKinsey, Deloitte etc...smaller firms = PA Consulting Group. You may want to include Indian compeition such as Wipro and Infosys) I was not asked in detail about it, just to list them.
- Case Study: This was not as terrifying as I thought. Mine was based on a water company and problems they had with complaints procedure. My first question was to identify 3 problems, the second was 3 ways to fix this, then problems that may arise from this and the possible long term and short term effects. Do some practice before hand and you will be fine.
- The main aim of this interview is to see if you can communicate strongly, that you are friendly...so shake hands with the interviewer, ask questions and make small talk. It all worked for me.

2nd Round Interview
- This was really quite intense. It begun with a case study, then individual interview, then group exericse, the document review, then idea generation and finally, a one on one interview
- Case Study: It's long! Mine was about 16 pages, with graphs, figures etc. Tou have 20 minutes to go through it and key is, be structured!! Identify the issues you think are a problem, and how to fix them. Try to think of short term and long term effects. and how to relate them to accenture. This sounds like a lot but you'll find that this flowws quite easily. You will be sat in a room with other applicants, which is quite off putting as you hear them turning the pages etc, just concentrate and you will be fine. Remember that there will be loads and loads to say and you cant possibly identify everything. So I would try and keep it simple to 3 or 4 points to keep your answers structured.
- One-on-one: This is a 20 minute discussion about the case study. You will be asked about the problems, how accenture could fix them, the long and short term implications. The interviewer may ask you lots of questions about your choices, leading you to question your original answers but try to stick with your original thinking. They are not saying you are wrong, simply checking you ahve thought of all the implications of your answer. At the end you will be asked to rank the most important issues in order.
- Group exercise: You will now have to sit in a group and go over the case study together to rank the most important issues together. You will soon find that you were not all looking at the same document at the beginning and have different infomation. They key is to work quickly and together. Don't let one person dominate. Mention the time, look at your clock and offer to be a scribe. I decided to write on the board, this was a good way of actively participating and also taking a leading role. You will notice that your group decision of the most important issues to tackle may not be the same as your thinking...bear this in mind for the final interview as you will be asked about it.
- Document Review: Again, the document is really long. My tip is to skim read and spot all the obvious mistakes first, such as spelling errors, bullet points, different fonts etc, Then go back through it and notice smaller ones such as, contents pages not matching up, wrong figures in tables, incorrect titles. I scored really highly on this and was advised this method by a successful applicant, so this is probabaly a good way of tackling it.
- Idea Generation: This exercise was the one that let me down and was the whole reason I didn't get into accenture. You will be given a case study...mine was the London Underground and a difficult question to answer. Mine was essentially to tackle the problem that it is overcrowded and underfunded. You then have to come up with ideas individually, and then decide on the 3 best ideas as a group. These 3 ideas then have to be assigned to each member but you can not have your own idea. For example, I suggested getting corporate sponsorship for the tubes to get more money. However, I was not allowed to argue this idea and someone else had to argue it. Then after 10 minutes of this, you will be given another piece of infomation and have 5 minutes to decide a course of action before presenting the idea to the assessors for 1 minute. In our case, we were given 3 lots of money and had to assign the different numbers to the different ideas and then argue why we chose this amount and how this idea would help. Basically, it is under extreme time pressure and is quite confusing. The main problem with our group was that a) we didnt talk for long periods - due to coming up with ideas b) we spent too long brainstorming and ran out of time. My own personal criticism from the recruitment team was that my ideas weren't 'innovative enough'. This was the only reason I was given for not being successful. So my main advice is think outside the box and work as a team and you will be fine!
- Interview: Finally, your interview. This begins with a self-evaluation of the whole day. This is your chance to explaion anything you think you did well or badly. Obviously, I discussed Idea Generation straight away. I also highlighted that I thought I had done well in the other group exercise because I was decisive. And in my feedback, I was told that my strength was my decisiveness. Obviously, your own answers will depend on the day but what is clear is that they read this and use it to help determine your strengths and weaknesses too. You will also be asked 'Why Accenture', 'What does an Analyst do'. I was not asked anything about competition or current issues.

Overall, despite not getting the job my day did go well. I felt very unlucky that I did so poorly in the Idea Generation but it just shows how competitive it is. So try not to be disheartened if you are unsuccessful. Other tips are, try to slip in Accenture knowledge where you can..I mentioned case studies in my one-on-one case study interview to show why I thought my idea would be successful. This was seen as good because it showed my ideas were inline with Accenture ones and that I had business awareness. Try and use the terminology too, like 'systems integration' etc, they love it.

I hope this helps!!