Any tips on Accenture assessment centre?

by Jabberjay on 11 August 2011 20:04

I'm off to an assessment centre with Accenture next week...anyone know what I might expect. I've read a few things but it's all just a bit fluffy and vague.

Anyone got anything solid? What actually happens?

I'm bricking it.

by JJB on 17 August 2011 21:51

Hi Jay

I was just wondering how you found your AC, as I have one next week?

Any hints as to what came up - i.e. case study or etray tests? The more detail the better please, would be very much appreciated (e.g. what problems / solutions did you find in the etray?)

Many thanks for any direction and hope it went well.

J.

by Jabberjay on 18 August 2011 10:54

Hello. Well, the first exercise was the In-tray exercise as you probably know. In my opinion, this was the hardest! This lasted about half an hour or so and had to identify certain issues such as financial and the delivery of a project and to pick out main issues and suggest solutions for this. There is actually an example on the Accenture website that you can look through, it is very similar to this so I would suggest going through it all. A word of warning, make sure you go through all of the relevant stuff though, don't waste your time looking at every graph and chart, but take note on specific dates to give a time frame, although the project time-line graph was useful when putting everything together. What I did was read the whole booklet first, then I went through and used a highlighter to identify the key issues, this saves a lot of time when putting it together.

As for the case study, mine was about a wine company which I think is the same for everyone. For this you get 20 mins preparation and 20 mins discussion with one of the recruiters. A tip here is to offer no more than 4 main issues - but you need to remember where and why you picked them, just make sure back up your answer, believe me, they will find holes otherwise! It is best to back your answers with any relevant reports etc you may find, this is what I did and they seemed to like that.
I would also suggest that you don't identify general problems the company has, instead make sure it is what Accenture can itself solve, put yourself in their shoes!
This specific case had issues with their IT system and the company is basically looking to go into the consumer market rather than the wholesale market they have been used to.

The next exercise was group based and lasted again, around half an hour. With this obviously you had to keep in mind that they are assessing your team work abilities so just confirm with your team (3 of us)about your aims, how you want to go about it etc. I had quite a good team, we were clear on the brief and decided to read alone for 2 mins then go through it all together. Basically, our group had to design a programme based in Malawi to help bring youths back into education as many have to leave school at a young age to provide for their families. Each team member had to deliver a 30 second presentation about a key aspect of our project. As I said, this is team based so make sure you are acting as a team and know what your saying/doing.

The final interview is quite short, around 15 mins or so. This is also more informal and asked me what I thought are the main competencies that are needed to work in Accenture. Try to link this back to how you think you have these competencies within each one you say. It was also an opportunity to ask questions. I made sure I did a lot of research beforehand and thought of questions before the day, try to make the questions as interesting as possible not just the generic ones.

I really hope this helps and good luck!

by James on 24 June 2013 21:09

Alright guys. I have my own assessment day next week too. I just have one question. Do you have to complete any numerical/ verbal/ problem solving tests? Does the dreaded IPAT make an apperance?

by Wrighty on 02 January 2015 18:13

Jay do you have a link to the example of the in-tray exercise?