PwC - Management Consultancy Application process

Hi Prod333

your narrative is quite insightful, thanks a lot!
I intend to apply for PwC management consulting in the near future, but what kept me away from it was the "ideal client" piece of work....i was not quite sure how to choose and to what depth I would need to go in my recommendations..

Hi,

Thanks very much Prod333! I found this very useful as I'm applying for this scheme too (I've just got through the tests and am awaiting my telephone interview). Just wanted to add a few things for anyone preparing for scheme (and to respond to Lea 09).

IDEAL CLIENT TASK

I personally found the ideal client task difficult and spent a quite long time preparing this. I chose a company who's been in a series of crises over the last couple of years (presenting this as the reason they were an ideal client). I spent about 2/3 of the space I had explaining the troubles they'd had, linking this to the wider economy and their sector as a whole, then describing the difficulties they'd had which were unique to them. I spent the remaining time listing in bullet point format the areas where PWC could help (industry expertise, operations, audit, etc).

I chose a company that I knew quite a lot about, having worked for them! But if you're not sure who to pick, I'd suggest going through the FT or the Times business sections and seeing who's been in the news recently. Then read their profiles, search some relevant articles about them from the last few years so you really know what you're talking about before you begin, then just summarise what you've learnt (focusing on how this makes them an "ideal client" of course). Even though I was familiar with the company I chose, I still researched them like this.

As far as the length and dept of this task, I think the word limit kind of dictates how much detail you can and should go into - just write it within that limit and make sure it's coherent, well-paced and that everything you write is relevant. You need to demonstrate that you can present information in a structured, logical way, that you have a fair amount of business awareness and that you know what PWC do as a company.

NUMERICAL AND DIAGRAMMATIC REASONING TESTS

Just a word about these really - I found them very difficult, more difficult than the practice ones. This is from the perspective of someone who dropped maths when they were 16 (I got an A an GCSE but that was a very long time ago) and hasn't really used numbers much in their degree. Also, this is the first grad scheme style app I've done in about 2 years so can't compare it to any other company's numerical tests.

I practiced using the usual sites (wikijob, efinancial, SHL), but found the PWC questions to be a lot more challenging. Also, nota bene, YOU CANNOT GO BACK IN THE TEST! I practiced all my tests answering the easy questions and then going back to the hard ones - this isn't an option here. I found that quite unnerving, and I didn't manage to answer all the questions: I did 19 in the 21 minutes given, I'm not sure how many questions there were, and a lot of my answers were educated guesses. Saying that, I passed! Even though I was pretty sure I hadn't after the numerical one.

Hope that helps someone!

Many thanks, Franical!

At least the app process to PwC does not seem daunting anymore...:)

did you have your phone interview yet? how did it go? I have read that some people failed it, not sure what are their expectations...

good luck!

Lea

Hi Tranical,

I was wondering if you have had your telephone interview yet as i'm due to have mine soon. If you could go through what questions they asked etc i wud really appreciate it. Hope you did well tho!!!
msra5dk2

Hey there,

I have my telephone interview coming up also in the next fortnight, so any tips elaborating further upon what prod333 has already kindly said would be much appreciated as well.

Cheers.

Hello there,

These forums have been pretty helpful for me over the past weeks so I thought I'd give something back :)

I've just had my telephone interview for management consulting. The inteview was split into 3 main parts: competencies, knowledge of firm, and commercial awareness. I don't think it went so well, but these are the questions I was asked.

Competencies:

Tell me about a time when you worked in a team. What did you learn from this?

Tell me about a time when you worked in a team and smb had a different point of view to you. What did you learn out of it? (I completely mucked this one up - make sure you make yourself look active in problem solving in your answer)

Tell me about a time when you had a lot of workload and deadline to meet. How did you manage these? How did you make sure you met your deadline? Looking back could you have done something differently?

Tell me about a time when you have used different resources for research. Depending on the project do you do you research differently / use different kinds of resources? (This one caught me out!)

Knowledge of firm:

How have you gone about finding out about PwC and its services? Tell me about the different services. Tell me more about consulting at PwC.

With all these different services how can PwC add value to their clients?

Commercial awareness:

Tell me about a recent piece of news. What advice would you give them? (I used Toyota)

Tips:
Do not overload on information, which is what I did and consequently didn't neccessarily prepare the right questions very well.
Make sure you look at their global core competencies and have a couple of answers for each. And make sure you say what you learned from the experience.
Don't overload on commercial awareness or economic issues - one current business news is enough, or prepare two just in case.
Make sure you know about all PwC's service lines and can say a bit about what each one does.
Obviously make sure you know about your chosen line of service really well.
Don't bother reading the annual report or anything like that as it is just not needed at this stage.
Prepare questions at the end, but be aware that an interviewer will probably not be from your chosen service line, so questions like "What you like about Consultancy at PwC" they won't be able to answer. I had a couple of questions like this and felt a bit foolish for asking them.
Have a look at http://www.thegatewayonline.com/issues/22/14 which gives you a really good idea about how to go about finding examples for PwC's core competencies.

Hope some of this has been useful for someone. Good luck to everyone that has interviews!

Cat

Hi prod333 and everyone else who has posted here too...

I am very interested in consulting, but I was wondering HOW MUCH does the graduate position in management consulting like yours pay annually exactly, if you don't mind sharing with us?
I actually have a consulting offer with another of the big 4, but I also hv an interview for this with pwc coming up so i was trying to weigh up any and every difference btw these 2 if possible...I definitely respect PwC's capabilities in this area very much hence my question.

THANKS if anyone can answer this precisely, my friend who just got an Economics consulting job offer is being paid exactly GBP29k so I guess it's entirely the same for their management consulting, and perhaps also for strategy consulting?

Sorry forgot to ask these too if anyone knows...)
ALSO HOW will the pwc Management consulting graduate programme work:
1. how long is the graduate programme?
2. will you be allocated to a specific competency/focus area (like people, finance, supply chain management), or to a specific group of clients (financial services, etc.)?
3. will there be rotations across different focus areas during the grad prog?
4. will you/can you study for any professional qualification (like ACA or CIMA) during or at the end of the graduate programme?

THANKS SO MUCH IN ADVANCE, REALLY REALLY APPRECIATE ANY INPUT ON THIS!!!

vic123v,

I can't answer all of your questions I'm afraid since I haven't done my AC yet but here's what I do know:

2-3) You will not be posted to a specific competency area, you will do several rotations. However, you have a career coach who assigns you different projects and you will get a certain amount of say in what you choose (or refuse), so if you wanted to focus on one area more than another, you could. However, you will not from day 1 be able to just focus completely on one area of expertise.

I would be really interested in knowing about the professional qualification, length of program and salary bit! If anyone knows, please help!

I know their HR people are really helpful so you could call them straight up and ask (I would but I'm in the Czech Republic - expensive phone call!)... If you do, please post up anything you find out.

Thanks

PS. Cattima, I too was convinced I did really badly because I rambled quite a lot but I got through - it's competency-based so it's just a matter of ticking the boxes, I don't think they mark you down for saying too much or some irrelevant things, so long as you tick those boxes! Best of luck anyway.

Thanks for encouragement tranibal. :) 24 hours later I've not heard anything. Not sure whether that's a good or bad sign. Good luck to you too in you AC!

vic123v: I'm pretty sure there's not professional qualificaion you study towards. It doesn't say so in there brochure in any case.

No bad sign; I should have said, I had my interview Monday then heard back Thursday. Fingers crossed for you.

Hi,

The help/advice posted on here is accurate and very useful!

I had my telephone interview with PWC this week and received an email today notifying me that I got through to the next stage.

I thought I had messed up my telephone interview because I couldnt asnswer some questions very well at all and waffled during others.

Cat's post is very accurate so if you are expecting a telephone interview follow her guide! I wish I had, it would have made it a lot easier!

Any further help and advice on the assessment day would be very much appreciated.

Thanks

.

Hi, thank you for all the contributors. There is a lot of information here!

I am invited to AC in embankment in Management Consulting. I heard different offices have slightly different style and I guess different function (strategy, econs or management consulting) focus on different questions too. I am a little confused here, are econs and strategy a subfunction of management consulting?

If anybody has MC AC in embankment, could you please share your experience on what I should focus on? Do I need to brush up "recent news" asked during the 1st interview? I do not know much about financial industry&accounting/auditing. I guess this should not be a problem?

Is the AC in embankment the final round? It was written "basic assessment" in my pages.

How difficult is the case study? E.g. is it the standard of bain 1st round interview or final round interview etc... Does the interview with senior involve a mini case study as well?

Any help given is highly appreciated. Thank you so much!

Hi Skyjuice,

I had an AC in embankment for MC and had 2 interviews and 3 tests(numerical,verbal reasoning and report writing)

I received an offer.

My experience/tips:

know your competencies and your examples. Be prepared to be probed further and be able to stand up to the questioning. Knowing the industry will help. Research exactly what the role you have applied is.

Practice online tests

Report writing is hard to advise on- just make sure you answer the question and stick to the time limit. Presentation/spelling/coherency is important.

Any more specific quesitons please ask.

Hi everyone,

First, thank you for all your postings, they are a precious help.
I still have a question, asked before by skyjuice : what is exactly the difference between management consulting and strategy consulting? For me strategy consulting is part of management consulting too, but on the website they differenciate it..
For me strategy consulting is more focused on financial services deals (private equity firms, M&A), but it seems that they deal with other industries too...
Plus, if offered a position in management consulting, is it possible to switch after a certain time to strategy consulting, to be more involved in private equity deals for instance?

Thank you very much for your answers. Good luck to everybody!

Hey BBstyle,

I am not sure if this is the absolute answer, what I think is that:
In within consulting, there are apparently more customer demand in strategy & econs. Hence, they branched out these two divisions. The rest of management (unrelated to strategy / econs) are grouped in MC. So, yes, strategy is part of MC. Different consulting company has different CC. I think in PwC, they are stronger in strategy n econs which explains for the division.

PwC in general deal more with financial industry. In strategy, they deal with strategy e.g. mktg strategy, corporate strategy, HR strategy etc. Hence, PwC can also operate in other industries but I think they focus on the financial industry eventhough a lot of their big clients are non financial.

I think the division that deals with most private equity is financial advisory.
I guess switching is possible as it is possible to switch between different business areas.

Hi,

The difference between Strategy and the rest of MC (as PwC sees it - which is what's important here) IS explained on the website, and you should really try and understand it before you go for the interview!

Strategy deals with high-level decisions (M&A advisory, new strategic direction - decisions which emanate from really high level decisions which are decisive in shaping the overall strategy of a business). MC concentrates on different specialisms, either business competencies or industry specific advisory -- Operations (supply chain), Marketing or healthcare, CIPS, environmental advisory etc.

This stuff is definitely on the website because I prepared for the interview and that's where I found it! It's kinda lazy just hoping someone will do the work for you and if your understanding doesn't go further than what I just said then good luck if they question you on it.

Dear all,

I love how everyone is on here trying to help each other out, it's a tough market and all these contributions have been well appreciated.

I would like to make my own recommendations having just been processed to assessment day; I had my interview only 2-3 days ago.

The interviewer for the telephone interview was very friendly and inquisitive and really put you at ease, don't feel you have to ramble on as they really help point you in the correct direction.

The tests online are no harder than those on the assessmentday practice website so I suggest this is the best preparatory method.

PLEASE NOTE, MAKE SURE THAT YOU ABLE TO GIVE A SHORT INTRODUCTION TO YOURSELF! This really caught me off guard, don't spend too much time or make it sound to rigorously planned but have some points about yourself in mind.

Remember competencies are really important so make sure you have 2 examples for each to make you more confident if nothing else.

I sincerely hope this helps people out, I often find it's people like me who did science at uni and are just entering the business world that get stuffed even though we'd be pretty awesome at the job!

DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY USEFUL TIPS FOR ASSESSMENT DAY?

DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY USEFUL TIPS FOR ASSESSMENT DAY? I have one soon and anyone who has just been through it is welcome to reply!

Best tip for the assessment centre - THERE ARE NO STANDARDISED QUESTIONS in the partner interview! They ask questions around the competencies that you'll be well aware of from the website but there are no "set" questions. How does it work...?

After your telephone interview, they'll give you a call to tell you how you did and they'll give you some tips on what to work on for your AC. Everyone will get different feedback, and the questions you get asked at the partner interview will be based on the competencies highlighted then. To illustrate, I got told after my phone interview that they weren't sure about my team work skills and about whether I could "flex my style" (sic). I got asked one question about when I'd had a disagreement with someone on the same team as me and when I'd had to completely change my approach to something. Other people got asked questions like how they'd invest a million pounds but I didn't get anything like this (I would've loved a question like that) as apparently I'd already shown a good understanding of business etc at my telephone interview. So prepare your weak points because they've probably already ascertained what your strong points are.

Also, practice your tests but don't worry too much - I was convinced I'd failed the numerical as I only answered 12 questions and was sure they weren't all correct. I was in the 69th percentile of those tested so it goes to show they don't expect really great things! The tests come first thing in the morning so even if you think you've done badly, don't let that get you down because you never know, give it your best shot throughout the day anyway.

Although it's basic, I still find it hard! Keep an eye on time, especially for the case study written test at the beginning. And STRUCTURE, it really hardly matters what your content is.

The thing that I found really useful was just preparing a lot beforehand by making sure I knew everything there was to know about PwC. My biggest problem is nerves, and even though they didn't ask any questions about the company, the fact that I'd prepared for it as much as possible gave me the confidence to go in there without any worries.

Bare in mind that, even though it might not seem like it from this forum, a lot of people don't make it through the telephone interview so if you get to the AC you really have already impressed them.

I got offered a place to start in September so I think this is probably trustworthy advice. If anyone else is starting MC or strategy in September then fire me a message and perhaps we can meet up beforehand!

Hi Franibal,

That's awesome, alot of help really! I've got my in about 3 weeks so will let you know how I do, I'll be up for meeting up before hand if I get the place.

Sorry I just wanted to clarify, the HR team called you after your interview to prepare you for the AC and on your performance on the telephone interview??

How long after the interview was this? I had mine a week ago now and I haven't heard anything...

Thanks for you help on this and I sincerely hope that we're working together at some point soon.

Hi everybody

I had my telephone interview last week, and was invited to the AC (for MC).
I would like to thank all of you for the useful tips you gave. Thanks!!

I will not repeat what others already said, but for those who still have a telephone interview, prepare, prepare, prepare! Not only your examples, but also always be aware of all the competencies they ask, for you to put them forward whenever you can, when answering a question or telling a story.

The questions I’ve got :
Tell me about a time when you worked with a team?
Tell me about a piece of news you’d been following?
Tell me about a time when you worked with sb with a different working style?
What understanding do you have of what PwC does? Services and an explaination?
What about management consulting in particular?
How can you reduce costs? (see website)
What do you think you’ll be doing as a consultant?

My AC is in two weeks. If I get through, I would be glad to meet those of you who start in the fall.

Take care and good luck!

Hey Moogooner,

Just to confirm, yeah, they call you before your AC to give you feedback on your telephone interview. I think I got a call about a week before my AC (and my AC was a month after my telephone interview). Having said this, one person at my AC mentioned that they didn't get that call so if you don't hear anything about it, call HR and just ask them - it's really worthwhile.

Just waiting for my pre-employment vetting stuff to clear then am definitely up for meeting up with people - might start a new thread! I'm really scared they'll find some freak discrepancy in my application. There's no reason they would, just they're apparently really strict...

Ok, thanks for that, will call them up in the next day or two to find out what happened! You'll be fine though, don't stress if you've gotten this far, all the hard work is done.

Yeah I have some extenuating circumstances too for certain grades and though they are all legitimate, there is that fear that they will reject you post offer!

Well, I don't want to build my hopes up too high and not get the job but if I do I will look for your thread/set my own up to try get a meet up session. Good luck and I hope to meet up with mutual success stories.

th

Hi All,

Decided to post this here since so many people who've posted seem to have gotten offers... Can anyone enlighten me about how long this pre-employment vetting thing takes? I had my AC a month ago, got confirmation that they'd received my acceptance (finally) on 06/05... How long do I have to wait to know I have the all clear?? Can anyone share their own experience on how long this takes (or how long you've been waiting)?

Many thanks

Hi guys,

I had my telephone interview today. The interviewer was lady and to be honest she was very cold and it felt very very strange compared to previous tel interviews!
I personally don't see the point of a tel interview for such big roles in such big companies...it's very impersonal. The thing is that I absolutely answered every single question quite well with very good examples but once or twice she asked me to slow down to be able to write and once she didn't understand the word "DJ" and loudly exclaimed "ahhhhh DeeeeJayyyy"...and mumbled something which didn't sound happy like I'm an idiot or something!!
At the start when I talked about the govt's budget cuts esp.in consulting she probed me so much like "Where else are the cuts? Where should the cuts be then? How can PwC help?"
When I mentioned another news piece abt banks being broken she said "What's that got to do with the cuts?" etc etc...which is normal (??) but the tone lil harsh.

My attempts at quick jokes didn't elicit a single laugh or giggle even!!

What is the point of writing if one can't have a normal conversation? I forget she has to write and this stops the flow of a natural conversation esp. when you can't see the person and you have a lot of info. to convey. ARE VOICE RECORDERS SO HARD TO FIND AND USE???

Although I'm Indian, my English and grammar are perfect and obv. the accent is different but not the accent you see on TV or the Simpsons loool cos I'm from a big city...many nationalities/individuals speak way worse and are employed by them.

The point here is that I don't know if it's a bad sign and if this can count against me (not the being Indian part silly (or at least I hope not)...the her getting flustered part!)? I nailed the answers and my PwC knowledge and my technical knowledge about what a consultant does was spot on since I studied Operation mgmt. as well.

SHOULD I BE WORRIED????

Hello all!

I have my AC next week for Management Consulting. I appreciate all your comments but I would really appreciate if anyone that has attended the AC for MC or any consulting could give me some more information on the following:

1 - The first things you do are the tests. What kind of tests are they? Verbal,numerical, logical or just numerical and logical? I am assuming the numerical couldn't differ much than the SHL one, but what about the logical? Is it the same as the online one or different? Guessing the next shape or is input-process-output? Total number of questions? Time? Anyone please :)

2- Written task. Can anyone that has attended the AC specifically tell us what you were asked to do and what was the text given to you? I would appreciate some more details.

3-Group excersice. What is given to you? What are you asked to do?

4- Partner interview. Any tricky questions that you can remember would be greatly appreciated :)

Thanks in advance! I will post back on this thread when I have my AC.

Does anybody know the starting salary for a senior associate (consulting) at pwc as well as what kind of benefits are available?

Hi cyborg_001,

Wat were the questions asked in the phone interview?

Wat position did u apply for?? Did u receive a response from them?

Hi Cyborg..

I hope things work out ok in the end. I am about to have an interview for a tax programme. I am not sure at this stage if it will be telephonic or personal. I am completely with you that telephonic ones are to impersonal and do not do justice. I am an Indian too and have no issues with the accent. can say so confidenty as I was a voice & accent coach for a big MNC back home.

Moving on, I am slightly worried about te aspecty of commercial awareness. I am an business management graduate with 10 years of work exp. I graduated in 2000. I hve absolutely no knowledgeof tax related issues. I need some help on hints and tips for a quick introduction to commercial awareness. I am doing a lot of reading online. Not sure if i am getting anywhere.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone,

I have gained a lot of very helpful advice from this website which has just helped me to get an offer for PwC Management Consulting, so I would like to share my thoughts in how you can increase your chances on getting a job with PwC.

Key things:
Be honest throughout the application process- this is something PwC really values and they undertake rigorous pre-employment checks on your work and educational history to ensure you are who you say you are.

You must hit their benchmarks at every stage- you can be a great candidate on paper, but if you get to the assessment centre and fail any of the tests that can be game over (unless your performance is particularly strong in other areas then the recruitment manager running the assessment day can make a case that you be re-tested in this area)- it seems harsh but they need to cut down candidates somehow....however, the good news is you can prepare well, none of it is massively difficult, it's just the time pressure which you need to get used to.

Prepare well- PwC's recruitment process is the best I have gone through- they want you to do well and give you a lot of help with how best to prepare, as well as useful feedback on the way. Questions really are similar to those you will find on these forums, so look around!

Initial Application:
Accuracy is important here, don't lie or embellish...you will only be disappointed later.

The business question: this is an area where they cut down a lot of candiates...The important thing here is, when relating to the services PwC could offer your company of choice, to relate their services to issues specific to that company...don't just list the services.

Telephone Interview:
30 minutes:
Must ensure you have a business story to talk about- why does this story interest you? Explain the company's situation (or indeed the economy...). What advice could you give it going forward? How could PwC help?
Have an example for each of the competencies---you are always asked about working in a team without fail. Other important areas are working with someone who had a different working style than you, a time you challenged yourself to do something outside your comfort zone, a time you have received feedback (how did u respond to such feedback? what did you learn from it?)

Use the STAR system, they are looking for how you communicate and structure your answer as much as anything. Go into detail, examples are key. If you give good detail they are less likely to ask you follow-up questions which you don't expect (as they are confident you have covered the competencies)

Overall, if you prepare well you should not be worried about this email. The recruiters are some of the best in the country, are very well trained and are not trying to catch you out. Through both my experiences they have always been very friendly.

Assessment Centre:

Psychometric tests:
Numerical: Many people, myself included, tend to find the paper tests a little harder than the online tests. However with this, practice will really pay off. You don't need to be great at maths, in fact the maths behind the tests is essentially quite basic (although I failed the 1st time I went through the process), you just need to practice working quickly with tables and drawing appropriate info from them.

Logical Exercise: Bit easier than the online one in my opinion but more to do with speed- 40 questions in 20 mins

Group Exercise: Be yourself, don't be too dominant, bring others into the conversation, give your opinions persuasively but listen and develop those of others.

Partner Interview: Is never really with a partner but a senior member of your business area.
They will ask more competency questions as well as a few hypothetical questions- e.g. how would you invest £1m....if you were given money to start your own business what would you do?
Know about the 2011 economic outlook- impact of VAT rise etc...
Again be yourself, they want to know that your someone they could work with. Prepare well and this interview will be fine.
Everyone on my assessment day had a great experience.

Summary:
Prepare well, be honest and be yourself. Be as consistent as possible throughout the process.
My experience with PwC was great, they make you feel at ease at every stage and it really makes it a very appealing place to work...so I can see why it is the top UK employer for the 7th year.
The expansion and ambition of their Management Consulting practice will bring lots of exciting opportunities (I hope)

Good luck!