Deloitte Interview Questions & Answers

I had two interviews for Deloitte, the first was with a previous graduate and the second was with one of the partners.
The first interview was mainly competency based and lasted around an hour, with roughly 5 questions being asked. The questions centered around commercial awareness, leadership skills, teamwork skills, problem solving skills and achievements. Each question was followed by a few smaller questions relating to my previous answer and were quite probing.
I passed the first interview and then attended the partner interview which was much more intense. This involved a presentation revolving around the changes being made in the accounting industry which I found very challenging! I could tell my interviewer had strong opinions on the topic and so I thought it was quite difficult to please him. I also had a few more competency based questions, as well as questions regarding my motivation for the job and hopes for my career.

The presentation was the most difficult part as I found it difficult to find information beforehand that I could talk about confidently.

Make sure presentation is well prepared and that you have some fairly recent examples for your competency based questions- a few of mine were examples from high school and this was part of my feedback. Commercial awareness is also a big factor!

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Initially three sets of psychometric test were completed which took around 2 hours. I was then invited to an E-Tray day where two tasks, one including fictitious emails and another including a business case study, were completed.

Next I was invited to an assessment centre which contained a task reviewing a potential client and an interview with a senior manager.

Current thoughts on a specific client undertaking which I hadn't reviewed.

Massive amounts of research on the current clients of the firm.

Presentation and a group task giving pitches on a potential client, followed by an interview with a senior.

First I was sent a numerical and verbal reasoning test to complete. After I passed these I was invited to a first stage interview with one of the Manager's at the firm. I was asked to talk about myself and talk through my CV, which I did in a summary type thing. Then I was asked some competency questions like 'Describe a time when you have worked in a team - what challenges did you face how did you overcome them?
'A time when you organised an event - challenges and how you overcame them'
'A time when you had to make a decision - what things did you have to think about before arriving at your decision'

The next stage was the Partner interview, which required me to read a case study and then answer some questions about it. It's not too difficult, you only get a bulk of the information on the day and the questions are based around the info that's all there along with a bit of common sense.

'Your strengths and weaknesses?' - This one is tricky because as much as we all have weaknesses, the key thing is to turn it around. Also if you're going for a numerical based role and you say 'I'd like to improve my written communication skills but I've started writing a blog/journal to practice and get better' - Doesn't sound too bad so just phrase it in a certain way.

Do your research - with big firms especially there are so many people who have been in the boat before and there is a range of experiences you can draw from to get a feel of what types of questions they will ask you. Also I would come across very confident and relaxed. I find that when I don't put pressure on myself about getting the job or not I do much better. I'm not saying that you should come across as if you don't care but if in your head you are relaxed, they'll see that come through rather than someone who gets nervous or stressed too easily.

I didn't have an assessment centre

I applied to the fast track option for Deloitte which was an intensive 3 step process taking place over 1 week.

The interview contained questions testing competencies in areas such as teamwork, leadership and knowledge of the market (I would point out that the presentation on the previous day actually gave advice on what they were looking for). In essence, the interview consisted of questions like 'tell me about a time when you had to make a difficult decision?'

Finally on passing this stage, I made the 5 minute presentation, which was then scrutinized by senior management. For example, I was questioned on why I had suggested a certain tax law change to see if I could stand against criticism.

'Tell me about a time when you had to make a difficult decision' (Gauging the level of difficulty is key)
'Tell me about a time you had to multitask, and how did it work out?'(Finding a example which sounds difficult enough, opposed to 'I was doing 3 coursework assignments at once!')

On a more general basis, each interview question required 2-3 examples for each competencies. For example, I would have to describe 3 times when I had to work as part of a team. This can get tedious considering the interview is up to an hour long and I needed 2-3 examples for each question.

Be prepared: research the company and think about how YOU as a person would fit in there (e.g. do you car about corporate sustainability? are you outgoing?). You need to walk into an interview know what you are going to say about yourself, even if you do not know the questions.

Most companies do provide you with what they are looking for beforehand, so you can get an idea of what they are looking for.

Have more than one example for each competency, and make sure they are varied! I have failed in the past because most of my examples have been from my previous employer and I appeared one sided. Think of extra-curricular examples such as uni societies.

Lastly - when answering questions, be clear and to the point. The reason I did not get the offer is that my interviewer had to dig for more information by asking extra questions, as my answers were vague at times.

The assessment centre involved going to the company offices where we had a 20 minute presentation with a Partner on the story of Deloitte, followed by a 30 minute Q&A session with first and second year Trainees.

Once this was completed, we took part in 2 individual 'email exercise', the first of which where we had to respond to emails using multi-choice answers. The situation was that I was a manager in an office and was provided a large variety of documents which contained information such as work schedules for my team and their skill sets, costs of potential ventures, etc. This section tested both my attention to detail as well as consistency. The second part was composing an email to give an opinion on which venture a client should invest in, using the information provided. Each of these sections was 30 minutes long.

If we passed, we were invited back the following day and asked to prepare for a one-on-one interview and 5 minute presentation for senior management on changes to tax law.

After getting thru the online stages (application form, numerical reasoning followed by critical thinking, a harder version of verbal reasoning which replaced the e-tray for the 2014-15 intake), my first interview was conducted by a Manager from my chosen area and lasted around 1 hr 15 mins. 20 mins before the interview, I was given a case study to read and had to answer 3 questions stated in the case study - this was the first part of the interview. I was also asked some follow-up questions based on the answers I gave. The second part of the interview was about a long-term project/piece of work I undertook and many follow-up questions based on my example, such as why did I take such action, how did it make me feel, what would I have done differently etc. Final part of the first interview was standard competency questions: why Deloitte, why Indirect Tax, what I'll be doing in the 1st year and to briefly outline the professional qualification.

After learning that I passed the 1st interview (a pleasant surprise), I was then invited for a final Partner interview around a week before Christmas. Around a week beforehand, I was given the presentation topic, with 5 mins of presenting plus up to 10 mins of questioning. After the presentation came some "values-based" questions, such as what would a good day look like, a bad day, what would I do if I had 6 managers sending me emails with urgent tasks to do etc. However, these came up in a more conversational way rather than the Partner reciting thru a fixed list of questions - if anything, it was a very pleasant conversation with the Partner getting to know more about me than "ticking the competency boxes". Surprisingly no commercial awareness questions were asked at all, although my presentation may have covered that adequately.

Actually, the most difficult questions asked were neither the standard competency questions nor the follow-up questions from the long-term piece of work. Rather, they were follow-up questions based on what I said in the case study . . . and I really struggled for time in the case study so had to end up thinking on my feet and relying on what I've read in the business news and apply those to the study. I cannot remember the exact questions as they were all based on what I said.

Follow business news in the run-up to the 1st interview. Although you can theoretically gather all info in the case study, I ended up having to think on my feet and rely on my business knowledge to rescue me in the case study as I ran out of time to do preparation.

For presentation, try to keep it to a level you can understand. I got good feedback from the Partner straight after the presentation because the Partner thought I used calculations appropriately to explain harder stuff and that I also avoided using fancy business jargons you'd find in FT.

See "desscribe your interview" for the case study.