Interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)
Round 1: It was more of a chit chat round. First, the
interviewer asked me – Tell me something about yourself. In my answer, I mentioned about founding and heading 70 member team of Student Welfare Group at IIT Kharagpur &
co-founding a start-up named estumart.com at IIT Kharagpur.
The interviewer became more interested in my work at Student Welfare Group & he asked me in detail about my work. Then he asked few questions on my start-up like
whether it is still working or not, what was the motivation for the start-up & having such a good engineering profile, why didn’t I opt for an MS degree. In the last, he asked me whether I have any questions. I asked about the difference between GTIN & IB profile. First he I told him, what I knew about both the profiles, then there was some discussion regarding why I want to choose IB over GTIN.
Round 2: It was with HR. She too started with tell me
something about yourself. Then she asked why we should take you. Then she asked why “how do you think you are better than others who are being interviewed now”. Answered all these questions. Then she asked me if I have attended AMC Pre Placement Talk or not. I told her that I have attended it.
Then she cross questioned me by asking about the stipend details. Told her. Then she asked “why Consulting”. Then
“why Accenture”. Then “what are the core values of
Accenture”. Globed the last answer, as I felt core values of most of the consulting firm are similar. Later I found that 4 out of 6 core values, which I answered, were correct. Round 3: This was the round with the partner. He seemed like a cool person, which gave me an opportunity to ask him the most important question – ‘Tell me something about yourself’. I found that he was working in GTIN. So that gave me opportunity to further ask him some questions like what
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he thinks is good about GTIN. Do people in GTIN get to work with Indian clients or not. On site opportunity & so on.
After that, the partner asked about my favourite course in the Term 1. I told him QAM. Then he asked me the reason. After that he asked some questions on Anova, I had to tell him that it still has not been taught. Then he asked my next favourite course. I told him marketing management. Then he asked the reason. Told him. Then he asked me some questions on definition of brands. Gave him the answer with some examples. Then he asked me some questions on Micro
economics like on demand & supply, how micro economics is different from macroeconomics, definition of GDP, GNP, prisoners’ dilemma & its implication in the industry.
Round 4: It was with alumnus. He was the founder of The Consulting & Strategy Club. So he asked me in detail about our work & how do we pitch to a client, etc. It was more of a discussion rather than an interview round.
Narration of the case
interview No cases or guesstimates were asked to me.
What do you think went right in this interview?
I had interest in the consulting. So I have gathered a lot of information about Accenture, their different profiles. The discussions with the interviewers showed them that I had genuine interest in consult work.
What do you think went wrong in this interview?
My 2nd interview was not that good according to me. I had to globe sometime like in question on core values of Accenture.
Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience
The most important thing is that you should be confident enough. Consult interviews are more of a discussion rather than interviews. So take it in that way only. If you have any genuine doubt, you can also ask questions to them. It will be appreciated.
Deloitte
Interview Experience 19
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Name: Divya Chandra
Company: Deloitte S & O Name of interviewer
and designation Senior Manager
Round 3 Rounds
Brief Profile Mechanical Engineering from BITS Pilani; Prior work experience - 10 months in BHEL, New Delhi
Interview questions Round 1:
HR round:
Interviewer started with his introduction first.
Then some basic questions like tell me about you, hobbies.
Which all places have you travelled till date? Is travelling an issue?
Questions regarding my hobbies and interests.
Why consultancy?
Round 2:
Case Study Round:
A case study on Health industry was given. It was related to Hospitals and Clinics in USA. A lot of number crunching was required. Also emphasize on all key points looking at numbers with lots of option generation.
Round 3:
The Partner asked me about my educational background.
Why not finance?
Current academic performance at IIM Lucknow in Term I.
Why consulting? Scrutinized CV well.
After this round, the Partner made an offer and I accepted it.
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Narration of the case
interview Case emphasized on a lot of number crunching.
A chain of clinics and hospitals were owned by a company based in the USA and were generating losses. A whole set of data sheet was given to analyse. It needed identification of the various problems leading to losses in hospital revenue.
Then options to cut down on costs were to be given based on the expenses given in the sheet.
What do you think went right in this interview?
Quick calculations and analysis of data sheet was a plus point.
I was able to answer the question why consulting well.
Thorough knowledge about everything that I wrote on the CV.
A smile throughout the interview helped.
What do you think went wrong in this interview?
None.
Any tips for future batches on the basis of your experience
1. Prepare why consulting question well
2. Be quick in calculations and generate as many options as you can when analysing a case. Think of out of box solutions to the problems in the case.
3. Thorough CV based preparation is required.
Summer Internship Experiences 2011
Accenture Business Consulting Interview Experience 1
Company Accenture Business Consulting
Name: Shalabh Malhotra
Round 2 Rounds
Brief Profile : IIT Guwahati, Mechanical Engg., 10 months in NTPC Ltd.
Personal interview
questions 1st Round
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1. Tell me about yourself. Examples from life to justify for whatever points you had mentioned.
2. Guesstimation Case
3. Do you like travelling? Which all places have you been to? (A consulting job requires a lot of travelling. Make sure you justify that you love travelling)
4. What do you know about Accenture and ABC?
Which vertical in ABC interests you the most?
2nd Round
This round is based on your work-ex. Know your company well and have a good hold on your sector.
1. Tell me about your experience in NTPC Ltd.
2. Why NTPC Ltd. after engineering and why MBA now?
3. Present Power Scenario in India. Difficulties faced by thermal power plants at present.
4. Future of Nuclear Power Plants. Pros and Cons.
5. Hydro-electric plants and their pros and cons.
Narration of the
case interview Problem statement:
You are a private company who has got the contract to install street lights in Lucknow. Guesstimate the number of street lights that will be required and the expected profit you think you can earn.
Structure:
1. I assumed Lucknow’s area to be 20km by 20km.
2. I, then, divided the city into a matrix assuming it to be criss-crossed by #60 20 km roads running horizontally and vertically each.
3. Then estimated an approximate of 30% area to be under forest cover.
4. Divided the roads in the remaining 70% area into roads present in residential and non-residential (commercial + highways) areas. Took an estimate
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on number of street lights present per km in both these areas.
5. Finally came to a number on the number of street lights taking into account that some places will have 2 lamps on a single post while others will have just 1.
6. After that estimated the product + set-up cost for each street light.
7. Estimated the running charges (maintenance and electricity). Electricity charges would depend on the number of operation hours and watt-rating of the lamp. Maintenance charges and profit margin was estimated.
8. In the end a total estimate of profits was calculated.
What do you think went wrong in this interview?
Though I was called for the 2nd interview, I think I didn’t do well in the Guesstimation case (1st round) itself. The 2nd interview was good but I guess they were calling people for the 3rd interview based on both the interviews combined. Prepare for cases and Guesstimation well.
Interview Experience 2
Company Accenture Business Consulting
Name: Binay Jaiswal
Name of interviewer
and designation 4 rounds were held. I don’t remember the specific names of all the people. The first round was taken by Gautam and third round was taken by one of the alum.
Round
(First/Second/third) 1st and 2nd round were case interviews. Third was a work experience specific interview and last was the HR round.
Brief Profile : ( Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc.
)
B.Tech in IT from NIT Durgapur 45 months of work experience:
37 months in IBM and 8 months in TCS as SAP ABAP Technical Consultant.
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Personal interview questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)
Round 1:
The first questioned asked was the number of shortlist on day 0 and the interviewer jumped straight into a slide in his laptop. Basically the slide had plenty of line
diagrams. I had no clue what it was about. As we started interacting, I figured out the line diagrams showed number of units sold in a span of 8-9 months.
I was asked to analyse the line diagrams. On further interaction and based on my answers, I came to know the diagrams had the data about the number of units sold by various companies and total number of units sold in each month. The figures didn’t show any
consistent pattern and I was asked to figure out why was it so. Basically only thing I could figure out was the sales showed cyclical nature and the number showed a
positive trend just before Oct-Nov and a dropping trend in Jan-Mar.
There was a clear market leader but the sales were decreasing in latest months while there was a fierce competition for the second and the third slot. A detailed discussion took place about who can take the second place and why. Then he asked some FRA question related to the graphs. The discussion boiled down to FIFO/LIFO method and he gave some data for a particular company and I was asked to show the impact of LIFO or FIFO on Profit, COGS, Taxes, and retained earnings.
After that he asked a short case on airline industry and it didn’t revolved around rising oil prices (Aberration of current Market condition). According to the case, one courier company increased the freight charges though there was a decrease in oil prices. My answers revolved around higher interest rates and depreciation which decreased the operating profit of the courier company.
But he was looking for something else and the case was supposed to be analysed from demand-supply side (Microeconomics!!!!). With his input we concluded that the business model of freight industry was changing.
Companies who used to transport by rail/road now started using Air Freight which increased the demand suddenly and hence the price. Further because of
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capacity constraint, the Air Freight company bought few new aircrafts and hence wanted to break even early to make the most of current market.
Note: The interview went Ok types. Interviewer expectation was much more and I think I could not handle the Airline case upto his expectation. He wished me good luck for the next round.
Round 2:
I came to know that they have scheduled my first round again as they were expecting more.
The interview started with “How did the first round went”? I said “It was decent but I should have done better”. He asked “would have or should have”? I said
“Should have”. “What went wrong” was his instant question. I gave my analysis and he looked satisfied by my analysis (He displayed like that). I was told that this round will have 2 parts: (i) Case (discussed below) and (ii) some general questions
As he was very satisfied with the case analysis, the second part of interview was not much of pain. It was more of a general discussion. As I had work ex in IT industry, I was asked how will I handle management consulting as its very different from IT consulting and required very competent skills. I was also asked about the highest level of client interaction and how I
managed them. He specifically asked for one of the CV point which was about interacting with the program director of the US based client and how I managed to convinced him to increase the scope of the
development, issues faced and what it took to convince him to approve the increase in man hours effort from 400 to 950.
Few questions about my strengths and how I will handle the clients specifically when I am interacting with CXO level people followed. I was also asked why consulting and whether I would be comfortable travelling after marriage. Overall I had a very good interview.
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Round 3
This round was taken by one of our alums. I was asked if I am nervous or excited. I said both and was asked to explain why so. (Good Ice Breaking 5 minutes). I was again asked the number of process I am running for (Other Shortlists!!!). A casual discussion followed like it must be tough running for different process in different parts of the campus.
He was constantly picking up points from my CV and it was more or less work experience related interview.
Questions like my greatest failure in life so far and my learning from it, why Accenture business consulting, strengths of Accenture etc. I was asked to compare between Accenture and (i) IBM (ii) Deloitte (iii) McKinsey and few other consulting companies. Why consulting figured again and my fit as a consultant was asked.
I was also asked about my CGPA and relative position amongst PGP1 students. Questions like do you face difficulty studying after 45 months of work ex and how I adjusted, how I manage pressure here etc. followed. I asked three questions to him and a detailed discussion took place.
Round 4
It was HR round which lasted for around 10 minutes.
Questions like Why ABC, Consulting, my strengths, best and worst feedback received in my previous work ex were asked. I was asked about my expectation from ABC. Brief discussion about my POR and CGPA followed.
Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)
Problem statement:
The case was about decreasing sales of Nano in Kolkata and adjoining areas.
Case analysis:
Initially we discussed if it was a normal trend in other parts of India or not. If there was any price increased by Nano or any changes with the design which might not have gone well with the consumers. We also spoke
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about impact of negative publicity like engine failure and instances of fire breaking out in Nano. Marketing
strategies of handling negative publicity was also discussed.
But the maximum discussion happened around 2 points:
1) As Nano was mainly for people with 2 wheelers, I wanted to understand where the real issue was.
Whether consumers are moving to 2.5-3 lakhs priced car like Alto and Zen (few others also) or people with 2 wheelers were not able to buy Nano. I asked about any trend whether any data regarding people willingness to buy Nano
(Through Test Drives taken, visits to showrooms etc.) but not actually buying was there or not.
After few minute of discussion, I was told that the main issue was people with 2 wheelers are not buying Nano. So the main issue was affordability.
I recommended zero % interest rate for EMI for first 2 years of purchase and very minimal ROI after that. We also discussed about the bank Nano should partner with and then he filtered the question to 1 bank only. I opted for SBI as it has branches in adjoining remote areas of Kolkata and people there have higher trust in Govt.
banks.
2) We also spoke about the Demand-Supply
constraint. If there was any channel conflict. Brief interaction revealed that Nano had only 7
distributors in that part of region and this was a major problem and it should increase by 3-4.
What do you think went right in this interview?
My case performance in the second round went pretty well. The interviewer complimented me about the analysis (though it may not look that impressive above).
The structure and thorough conversation helped me sail through and I was told that I kept the interviewer
interested and hooked throughout the case solving phase.
After my third round I was also appreciated about my prior work experience and I was told “You had a quality
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work experience and I appreciate your practical approach of business understanding”.
What do you think went wrong in this interview?
My first round didn’t go that well particularly the Airline question. I should have interacted more to understand various perspectives rather than being biased with current market situation (Like higher oil price and interest rates which was not applicable here) Any tips for future
batches on the basis of your experience
1) Stay Cool because it will help you to interact freely and focus on various perspectives which is very important in the case
2) Display a lot of enthusiasm and don’t shy away from talking. Remember Consultant need to do a lot of talking. Just ensure you talk sense on that day.
3) Practise some cases before interviews.
4) Never think that you are out of race. Don’t judge yourself in the interview. Interviewer might give you chance to bounce back.
5) Higher Work Ex people particularly IT
background can’ t get day zero shortlist is a myth Interview Experience 3
Company Accenture Business Consulting
Name: Mahesh
Name of interviewer
and designation NA Round
(First/Second/third) First (of 3 rounds) Brief Profile :
(Graduation College, stream, Work ex details, etc. )
Bpharm
Work experience of 2 years Personal interview
questions (With indicative answers if you choose to share them)
1. Tell me something about yourself?
2. Asked me about my role at previous workplace?
3. Why consulting?
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4. How did you know Accenture?
HR related questions were asked in the subsequent rounds
Narration of the case interview (Please be as descriptive as possible)
Problem statement:
A multination firm in oil and gas segment is looking at setting up a green field plant by collaborating with
A multination firm in oil and gas segment is looking at setting up a green field plant by collaborating with