KPMG Graduate Application and Interview Process
[Edit]The graduate application process consists of 4 parts:
- Online Application Form + Personality and Preference Inventory (PAPI)
- Online Reasoning Tests
- First Interview
- Assessment Day
Academic Requirements
[Edit]You should have at least a 2.1 degree from any University and 320 points at A-Level (the equivalent of ABB) and grade A in GCSE English and Maths - or equivalent. Extenuating circumstances are accommodated for, but you should specify this on your application form.
Key Competencies
[Edit]KPMG's key competencies are the qualities it expects all members of staff to have. You should aim to demonstrate these competencies at each stage of the interview process.
The competencies are:
- Business Focus
- Building Relationships
- Leadership
- Problem Solving
- Drive and Resilience
- Career Motivation
- Making an Impact
- Task Management
More information about these can be found on KPMG's recruitment website here.
Online Application Form
[Edit]The online application form requires you to fill in personal details and written sections which demonstrate your competencies. Make sure you demonstrate these competencies throughout.
Questions that appear on the application form include:
- What attracts you to the position you have applied for ?
- Why do you want to work for KPMG?
- What research have you conducted about KPMG?
- What do you think you will be doing in your first year at KPMG?
KPMG Application Form Questions
[Edit]What attracts you to the position you have applied for?
[Edit]You should make your career motivation clear and demonstrate commitment to career. If the position you are applying for includes training, mention that here. Aspects like helping clients and excelling at what you do are valid points.
Why do you want to work for KPMG?
[Edit]This may seem like a tough question as firms such as PwC, Deloitte and Ernst & Young offer similar experiences, however the following points should help provide some inspiration.
- Quality of training offered by KPMG
- Great team working attitude of KPMG
- Support of colleagues
- The great work KPMG does in the community (make sure you are aware of this because you will be asked this at interview if you mention it)
- Possibilities for career advancement in KPMG
- Reputation of KPMG
You will also be asked 'why KPMG' at interview, however it will likely be phrased, "What separates KPMG from other firms and why do you want work for KPMG instead of the others?"
What do you think you will be doing in your first year at KPMG?
[Edit]You absolutely need to know the answer to this. You will be asked it at interview as well. If you answer this question wrong, you will be showing that you do not know what you are getting yourself into and haven't done your research. In this case, you absolutely will not get the job.
You can telephone KPMG and tell them that you are considering applying and you would like to know what sort of things you will be doing in your first year. They would be more than happy to tell you, and may even offer you the chance to come in and ask them questions before you even apply.
If you have signed up to doing any training, such as the ICAEW ACA, you will spend a lot of time doing this.
Make sure you have looked at the WikiJob pages for audit and tax, which will help you answer these questions for these service lines.
Personality and Preference Inventory (PAPI)
[Edit]This is a questionnaire which asks you to rate how much you agree with particular statements about yourself. For example, a potential statement might be: "I prefer to tackle tasks sequentially rather than juggle many tasks at once." It is worth considering the key competencies discussed above as well as your own opinions with respect to answering the questions. Notice how this statement relates to the competency "Task Management".
The purpose of this test is to generate questions for the interviewer based on your PAPI answers and you will not be selected or screened on this.
Online Reasoning Test
[Edit]You will be asked to take the online reasoning test. This is a Cubiks test, which is industry standard.
There are 40 verbal questions and 24 numerical questions. The KPMG tests are more difficult than most other firms however they have a lower pass mark (around the 30th percentile). So the key is accuracy, but don't expect to finish all the questions.
First Interview
[Edit]The first interview will last approximately one hour and will be by a manager from your line of service (or occasionally someone from HR), and is a competency based interview. You will be asked a number of questions, which will profile your experience against the key competencies described above. Ideally, you should also aim to display the following attributes:
- Commitment to teamwork
- Ability and desire to lead and inspire
- Respectability and responsibility - are you how the company would like to be perceived by clients
- Ethical and truthful - are you trustworthy and can you demonstrate your integrity
Furthermore, they will be looking to see if you display a commitment to career (you should be able to answer questions about what you will be doing in your first year and the qualification to which you are applying), and a clear understanding of what makes you want to want to work for KPMG instead of other accounting firms.
Questions that you are likely to be asked during this interview:
- Describe a time when you worked in a team? (testing teamwork)
- If a member disagrees with you, how did you handle that? What was the outcome? (testing leadership)
- If your tasks have become a daily routine, how would you keep yourself motivated? (testing resilience)
- Describe a current issue in the business world?
- Give an example of a company that you believe has the potential to grow and why?
- Give an example of a company that has grown a lot in the last couple of years and what would you advise them to do next?
- What problems do you think professional services firms are facing today?
You will be expected to give examples of situations you have been in which back up these competencies.
You should receive an email ahead of the interview giving a specific list of the competencies that your individual interview will focus mainly on (based on your application and PAPI questionnaire answers). Take a good look at the example questions listed under these competencies on the website, as some of the questions in your interview may be very similar to these.
Assessment Centre
[Edit]E-tray exercise
[Edit]The E-tray exercise is a computer based simulation consisting of two parts:
- Computer exercise (70 minutes). No specific computer or software knowledge is required.
- Written exercise (50 minutes).
The computer software is simple to use, and you will be shown how to use it before the exercise commences. No familiarity with any software is required.
You will be presented with a booklet that contains a business scenario. In the scenario, you will be moving to a new office to cover for another member of staff, and today is the day prior to the move. Clients and colleagues from the new office have already begun sending you emails, and are requesting your response.
You will be required to answer emails as they appear in your inbox. Each one will require you to do one of:
- Extract information from the booklet
- Perform simple calculations
- Decide how to deal with unhappy clients, over-demanding managers and similar situations.
All responses are selected from a multiple choice list. As time progresses emails will arrive faster, and the last few will appear in quick succession. There are 24 emails in all.
E-tray exercise scenario
[Edit]You are a Trainee Business Advisor who normally works in Newcastle. However, a member of staff in Manchester has been taken ill and they are short-staffed. You have been asked to cover and take over the projects that he was running. Unfortunately you cannot travel to Manchester until tomorrow as you have a client meeting in Newcastle at 11am. However, you have agreed to set aside two hours today to deal with some issues which have already arisen in Manchester. There are three projects which the person you are covering for has been running and you will get e-mails relating to all three. All the information you need to answer the e-mails will be in the booklet. For about 20 of the 24 e-mails you will need to refer to the booklet. The others are judgement calls and you just need to choose what you think would be most appropriate given the situation – be diplomatic.
Take at least 8-10 minutes at the start to read the information and familiarise yourself with it – it will help later. Work as quickly as you can, but make sure you are being accurate – don’t guess. You can get away with not answering one or two, but no more than that. Two or three of the questions will require you to do some basic calculations. You are provided with a calculator and the formulae are given in the booklet. They are simple and nothing to worry about. Each question has four possible answers/responses and you select the one you think is appropriate. Once you respond though you can NOT change your answer. Keep calm and work methodically through it.
E-tray Written Exercise
[Edit]The second part of the e-tray is two longer written response e-mails. You are given a different set of information (though it’s only 4 pages so doesn’t take too long to read). You are given 50 minutes for this section. Both e-mails ask for your recommendation on a particular topic/strategy. There are no right answers, the key is to back-up and justify the answer you give. Since this is a longer written piece make sure your spelling and grammar is correct – there is no spell check. Most people at my assessment centre found the first e-mail took longer to answer than the second. It is advisable that you spend 30 minutes on the first one (there is more data to discuss) and 20 minutes on the second one. This exercise is again done on the computer, so the quicker you can type the easier it is likely to be.
Consider writing the end of the email first to help you save time.
The first email relates to a ecommerce retailer that is a client of KPMG. You will be provided information on the market, competitors, consumers, and the company's resources. You will be required to consider the information and advise on the best course of action to improve the company's results.
The second email relates to KPMG's marketing budget. You will be required to decide how the marketing budget is best spent. You are provided information about the consultancy market.
Lunch
[Edit]Lunch is an opportunity to chat with recent joiners of the graduate scheme, and a few more experienced staff. It will last about 2 hours so there will be plenty of opportunity to chat and ask questions. You are not being assessed during lunch, however you should maintain strictly professional. There may be wine available; it is advisable to steer clear of alcohol.
Group Exercise
[Edit](see group exercise)
You will be placed in a group with 3-5 other candidates. You will be given approximately 10 minutes to read a booklet of information which will relate to one of the companies from the E-Tray exercise, a struggling internet multimedia retailer. You will then be given around 20 minutes as a group to prepare a 10 minute presentation to the company. A trained KPMG assessor will observe you throughout but you should try to ignore them. They will be looking for team working, leadership, communication and task management skills. Make sure you read the whole of the booklet, you only get those 10 minutes (there is too much discussion to be done in the remaining time).
Make sure the team does not subdivide and delegate in the discussion. This is a clear instruction on the front of the book. Your team may try and do this but you would not be following the instructions, so if this happens, try and steer the discussion back on course.
Presentation
[Edit]In advance, you will be provided the following scenario, and be required to provide a presentation to a partner for 10 minutes. Your presentation is focused on the ways in which the client can further develop their business. What advice would you give to the organisation on effective expansion of their business, and why? Your presentation should include: You will be asked to deliver this presentation to one of the KPMG partners on the assessment day. The presentation should last no longer than 10 minutes, after which you will be asked a few questions on the subject of your presentation. You should prepare any handouts or other materials in advance of the day. Do NOT prepare any presentation slides, as an Overhead Projector/a computer will not be available. Please note that you will not be able to use a flip chart either. NB – Hand written materials are perfectly acceptable! Do not worry if you do not have access to a computer to prepare your presentation – we do not intend to assess your skills with software packages!
You are working for KPMG as a junior advisor on a client (an organisation of your choice*). You are presenting to a Partner/Director who is heading up the KPMG team on the project for this client.
You will expected to talk for the whole 10 minutes uninterrupted. Following this, the partner will likely ask you questions where you can voice your opinions, and this may last for an additional 20 minutes.
Tips and Advice
You will be asked questions and challenged about the advice you give and will have to justify your reasoning. If you are struggling to think of ideas for this section, trying using SWOT analysis techniques.
Technical Interview
[Edit]You will be asked to pick a role you have done in the last few role (or your most recent role) and explain the project you were working on, what the aim of the project was and what YOU did to ensure the aim was met. You will be asked in detail about the technologies that were used on the project and the processes employed. If you say your role was to ensure the system work you will be required to explain exactly how you did this.
If you managed a team you will be asked about your management style, how you ensured you team worked efficiently and how you ensured they made progress.
You maybe asked about specific investment products that you have worked with, if it is on your cv ensure you can put it into context with the role you are applying for.
Being Made An Offer
[Edit]You can reasonably expect to hear within 3 working days if your application has been successful.
Rejection
[Edit]If you are unsuccessful, KPMG will provide you a page of detailed feedback about your application and why you were not accepted at the application stage, and then full feeback at all future stages.
1 September 2010 - 6:36pm
devil13
I thought I would add my experiences of the KPMG application process. I applied for risk and compliance - actuarial:
Application Form:
The questions asked at this stage each required a 100 word answer and were:
What attracts you to the role you are applying for?
Why do you want to work for KPMG?
What do you think you will be doing in your first year at KPMG?
Expect a verdict on whether you have been invited to online testing within 3 working days.
Online Testing:
KPMG have their own in-house testing unlike PwC and Deloitte. I found the KPMG tests easily the most difficult out of the ones set by the big 4. I think I only completed about 2/3 of the questions on both tests and passed very easily. So don't panic if you can't complete the test, even if you do about 10 questions all correctly out 24 say on the numerical, that should be enough to pass.
There will also be the PAPI questionnaire. Its about 90 questions, you can't fail it, the results of that will form the basis of your 1st round interview. Expect a response within 3 working days of whether you get a 1st round interview
First Round Interview:
I was called into the Canary Wharf office for this interview, it lasted for approximately an hour. The questions I was asked were:
Why do you want to work for KPMG?
What improvements do you think can be made to KPMG?
What do you think are the challenges facing a professional services firm?
Tell me about a company that is doing well. What improvements do you think can be made to that company?
Tell me about a time that you worked in a team.
Tell me about a time where you had to push hard for your opinion to be taken into consideration.
Tell me about a time where you improved a process or system.
Tell me about a time where you were advised to take a new approach but stuck to your old one.
Tell me about a time where you had to manage several tasks at once.
Tell me about a time where you had to do repetitive tasks. How did you keep yourself motivated?
They pretty much told me about 3 hours after I had finished my interview that I had been successful and been invited to the assessment centre. I'm not sure if that is a general thing, but note here that the sooner they get back to you the better. If you haven't heard within 24 hours, you probably have been rejected.
Assessment Centre at Canary Wharf
When you first arrive, you may have a 45 minute wait to start on the E-tray. Use this time to get a rapport going with other people having their assessment day. Becoming friendly with them may help when it comes to the group exercise later on.
E-tray exercise
All the relevant information is above. My tip here is to treat it like exactly like you would treat an inbox. The most recent mail will be at the top, and the oldest at the bottom. Don't spend too much time reading the information either. I personally didn't take any time to read the information before opening emails, I just looked at it when I needed to. The emails tell you what information to look at in order to answer the questions.
I would say the same for the written communication parts. Read when you need to. Start by writing your conclusion. Also write a polite message at the bottom which invites the addressee to ask for help if needed.
The E-tray exercise was 2 hours, after that we got retested on the numerical. I don't think they actually really take these into account. So relax. I think they are easier than the online ones.
Lunch is on the house so enjoy it!!!! They say that whoever has the sausages at lunch usually does well in the afternoon, you have been warned!! The New York Cheesecake is amazing!!!! Lunch lasts for 2 hours and you have the opportunity to talk to trainees. Neither of them were in actuarial unfortunately for me!
I had the group exercise first after lunch. This is where you're earlier socialising pays off. You and your team are left alone in the room for 10 minutes, without supervision. You have a chance to collaborate then if needs be. For example if you can't read all the information then one of you might start reading the booklet provided from the back...
You then get 20 minutes to discuss and prepare a 10 minute presentation. Be warned you will have an assessor looking at only you, don't focus on them, focus on your group. Don't talk over people and try and dominate. For me personally, I was the quietest person in the room. But I found a way to sort of lead the discussion by volunteering myself to take account of time. I allocated a certain amount of time for a certain section of the discussion. My teammates had to refer back to me constantly, giving me more opportunities to speak. Also keep smiling, and try and keep the conversation flowing. Be encouraging to your teammates, if you disagree, do so politely and back yourself.
You then present your findings to another assessor. This part is not as important as the discussion, so don't wait until this point to become vocal.
The partner interview:
People say this is daunting, but I actually thought it was the most enjoyable part of the day. You have to do your 10 minute presentation about the company of your choice. You may get advice saying chose a small local bakery for example. I myself chose to present about BA. My tips would be focus on what KPMG can do, also focus on sustainability, do SWOT analysis, quote figures and statistics. Do not blag this, as your partner will see through you. Just know your facts, 10 minutes is actually really short. After you have presented, your partner will ask you a few questions about your presentation.
Be warned this interview goes into deeper detail than your last one. You may be required to give different examples to the 1st interview. I didn't have to, but I still did.
Here are the questions I was asked. The partner asks smaller questions within these too:
You have 30 seconds to tell me about yourself....
Why the role?
Why KPMG?
What is your greatest achievement?
What motivates you?
What demotivates you?
Tell me about a time where you overcame adversity?
Tell me about a time where you presented complex information in a comprehensible form?
What do you think you could improve about yourself?
My tips for this interview are to be honest. For example, don't say you are perfect and you are the finished article because the partner will shoot you down. Ask interesting questions at the end, you can turn around a bad interview with insightful comments at the end. Don't ever say I don't know to a question, you aren't always expected to give straight answers. Always justify yourself, even if the partner thinks you are wrong.
If successful you usually hear back on the day. I myself didn't hear back on that day, and was thoroughly depressed about it. I was lying in bed the next day when I got the call from the partner saying I had been successful!! Again I will say if they don't get back to you within 24 hours you are usually unsuccessful.
excellent! very useful and helpful information
reading things and knowing them in advance what to expect boosts confidence