Accenture Consultant (Risk Management) Interview

Interview Details First off, I'm thankful for this site as it has been instrumental to me not only in the interview process but has been extremely helpful for me to get offer.

I applied online for a Consultant Position. The position is under management consulting and the specific group is Risk Consulting. My background is in banking, risk management, and internal consulting, so a recruiter called me right after 1 or 2 weeks after applying online.

1st interview - HR Screening:

The HR lady is extremely thorough. She grilled me on my project management skills for 1 hour. She asked me about my experience in depth and then when I went into it in detail, she wanted more big picture. That was my hardest interview. But my advice would be to sell as much as you can on the skills the position you're applying for. Always say "Yes, I have done that or I've done a variation of that" because ultimately you have to pass the screening for them to setup your phone interviews and final round.

2nd interview - Situational / Behavioral

I had a HR personell calling me regarding my previous experience. She asked questions such as "Tell me about a time when you couldn't meet a deadline?" or "Tell me about a time when you organized large amounts of information?" I was only asked two questions and gave detailed answers. My advice: 1) Prepare a lot of past experiences in DETAIL, 2) be POSITIVE on every answer. She will ask you about how you felt in that situation, so it's better to tell the truth, however, if you dont' remember, then you can say honestly "I don't remember, but it would make sense for me to feel etc....." But don't BS something completely made up. She'll catch on. She does this for a living. If it's a phone interview, I suggest you to write your experiences down, and then recite them with someone. I wrote down 4 scenarios on my computer and used that as a guide during my phone interview.

3rd interview - Skills

A senior manager called me to ask me about what I did in the past. He didn't give me a case but he studied my resume and asked me to walk him through my resume just to provide any additional information for him. I heard he could have went through my resume bullet by bullet, but he didn't. Rather he asked me specifically on the skills (credit risk experience) he thought I had. I passed that with flying colors. And got the final round phone cal 10 minutes after.

In Office Visit - Final Round

I had 3 back to back meetings with 3 partners of the firm. For me, the interviews were less structural and more personal. However, this can vary and I believe I had special treatment because the two other candidates told me (after first interview and during lunch) that they had 2 hardcore Cases and multiple brain teasers. They mentioned that the interviews were extremely difficult and were shocked that I didn't receive any. I did my homework, I knew partners wanted to hear: 1) Why I wanted to Join Accenture, 2) What does their group specifically do and more importantly how they add value to the clients, 3) What do I like about their corporate culture, etc. I had a friend working for Accenture and she told me in detail a lot about the job (so that helped).

Three hours after my final round, I got an email from my recruiter saying that "it looks very promising from their end" and they will have more detail for me next week. The following week, I received a verbal offer, passed the background check, and got the formal offer via email.

Accenture's hiring process is so efficient and HR is so well managed, it's really impressive. Hope that helped.

Negotiation Details – Still trying to negotiate salary. Accenture HR is very impressive, they're very savvy going about salary negotiation.