Hi,I have got a telephone interview with Accenture coming week. I have been told it wud be a 45 min interview with a small case study session. I am being interviewed for Application Renewal consultant role. Any advise would be much appreciated on interview questions and case study exercises. Please let me know what to expect in the interview as I am being interviewed by a ACN Manager.Many Thanks for all ur suggestions.

Hi - I am in the same state....I dont understand what the first tele interview would consist of....Guys - Pls could you share your experience on what we can expect in the first telephone interview with accenture. I am 6.5 years experience all thru in a consulting company.It would be very nice if you all could share your experiences.

I once had a telephone interview with them and it was a total waste of time.I got the impression that they weren't serious and maybe it was being done to make some "Manager" (doesn't that just conjure up images of someone senior!!) feel important.Let's face it - basically they're saying you're not even worthy at this stage of getting to look them in the eye as you give your answers. Whatever next... text message interviews?

Thanks. Can you pls let me know what kind of questions to expect?

My telephone interview was less about questions and more about stroking the ego of some shifty-sounding, up-his-own ass 30-something.

Standard really. Core competency examples, attraction and understanding of the industry , motivation, why accenture etc. From experience, your never going to be grilled over a telephone interview. Even responses that sound rehearsed are good enough.

To SM & VM - you don't normally get given a case study as part of the telephone interview. At this stage it is just about getting a feeling of your skills, experience and where your aspirations are. Whilst the questions you are asked are quite general, if the interviewer knows what they are doing, then they will be listening out for certain responses that will identify you as a good fit or not.To Anon(s) - you may have been unlucky in the fact you had a poor experience when interviewing, but the idea of doing it via telephone in the first place is to same time and to best utilise scheduling constraints in order to weedle out candidates that may not suit and judging by your responses, I'd say they got it spot on.

Andersen Consulting used to hire some of the best and brightest graduates, then train them up in-house. Now Accenture needs to feed the institutional investors' insatiable hunger for growth, focus on higher volumes, bigger deals, more outsourcing, and more man-days billed. This means they have to recruit at volume, which means dropping standards. It also means that the best and the brightest become harder to retain (or attract in the first place). To drive efficiency in recruitment they then resort to telephone interviews, which reduces effectiveness, and the quality of new hires falls further. As quality falls, telephone interviews become more acceptable, and so the cycle continues. I think Accenture has been eating up too much of its own "high performance business" advice. The CFO and analysts love it: costs go down so that margin can be improved even when revenue isn't growing all that much. But it's no longer a great place to work.

Hi All,My telephone interview with ACN completed and now they have called me over for a 2.5 hr face to face interview with one of the senior managers and HR. They have told me that there would be a case study as part of the interview. I believe this forum is a group of very well experienced consultants, it would be of great help if you could share your experiences on the second face to face interview & also let me know the kind of case study exercises that would be generally asked. Thanks !VM

Why don't you do the other candidate a favour and tell him what the format and questions were?

So, first stage interview is telephone-based where you are asked a number of questions around previous experience, both from a technology, process and client perspective. Should take between 30 - 45 minutes.Second round is 1.5 hrs with either SE or SM to probe deeper into skills & history as well as to see how you conduct yourselves in a face to face scenario. As part of this session a case study is presented - the idea around this is to draw out a fully rounded viewpoint, i.e. don't just focus on technology, show that you understand the business and personnel ramifications for change. Once this is complete you then sit with HR for approx 1 hr to go over typical HR-style questions as well as to look at what level you should be brought in at and associated package.If you are successful at this stage then you will be notified and a start date will be arranged...Hope this helps.

Hi Thanks a lot Anon. I am trying to gather a few case studies and work on it for experience. Also I would require some tips on how to politely quote my salary expectation to the HR. If you can share or tell anything that would help my preparation, please let me know.With regards to my first interview, it was more or less a casual discussion on my daily activities in projects and also my experience and career history. The importance was also given to my communication skills and my ability to prove that I am suitable for the role I have applied.Many Thanks to all the folks who have helped me so far by giving some valuable inputs. Regards.

Hi,In my previous post I meant Thanks a lot to ACNer.Thanks to all. I will keep posting my queries.

Hi, I have around 7 years of consultancy experience and now leading a team of 5 onsite and team of 6 offshore. I have been working in consultancy for financial clients right through my career. I am at my second stage of ACN interview. Basically I was put through by an agent . Initially when I was shortlisted by the agent, I was not aware of ACN payscales and I had quoted for lesser expected salary . Now having read the different posts in this forum, I feel I requested for very less salary. I spoke to my agent and he advised to discuss with HR when appropriate.When I go to HR interview and when they ask for my expected salary can I ask something between C3 and M1 , say 55- 60k. Would that be ok? If HR asks why am I asking more now, how should I respond. Any advise and response would be very much appreciated. I want to express that I am being paid peanuts and my current salary should not be considered while deciding my salary and band at ACN as Tier 2 and below consultancies do not pay like Tier 1 Consultanices.I am in the same boat as VM waiting for my second interview in next 3 weeks time.many ThanksSM

Your suggestions would be very much appreciated. Please help.Many ThanksSM

SM - Why is it, having not bothered to know the expected payscales before entering the process, that you feel you deserve more now? It's called due diligence and you didn't do it. Lazy. I could give you a cookie cutter justification about market rates and value add to spin to HR but frankly, everyone here thinks they're M1 material when they're barely C1 - and experienced HMs can see it in a second. Wake up - your current salary will ALWAYS be the starting point for negs.

Assuming that HM (SE who wud be interviewing me in ACN) recommends me for M1 or probably C3, how would the response from HR be ? Would they offer a grade and sal based on ACN standards or based on my current sal ?many Thanks SM

Assuming that HM (SE who wud be interviewing me in ACN) recommends me for M1 or probably C3, how would the response from HR be ? Would they offer a grade and sal based on ACN standards or based on my current sal ?many Thanks SM

Assuming you are recommended for M1 then there will be a fixed range and your current comp will be one factor in where you land on that range. The line between C and M is looked at very hard though so don't be surprised if you're spun a line and offered C3 like others on this forum.

I must say I was in a similar position as you but did a lot more prep work before stepping into the room with ACN or even discussing potential banding and package.That said, I believe you will be offered C2/C3 and package between £50k-£55k at the top end - I say this because they are on a huge hiring spree and 7 years exp if not from a big player in the market will not make them offer more than what I have mentioned above.All the best though and hope you get what you wantAces