The More You Know #3 :Consulting
This blog shares the interview experience of Siddharth Maurya, a Y21 student at IIT Kanpur , who successfully secured an internship at Accenture as a Strategy and Consulting Associate. It also includes his suggestions for the interview rounds and basic preparation overview.
Hello everyone, I am Siddharth Maurya, a junior undergraduate student at IIT Kanpur majoring in Chemical Engineering. Currently, I am interning as a Strategy and Consulting Associate at Accenture. I have documented my entire intern preparation journey here, including the interview process, and have also provided some tips for intern preparation.
Insight into the Selection Process:-
Resume Submission-> Aptitude Test + Resume Shortlist -> Technical Interview → MD Round
Basic Preparation Overview:-
Consulting mainly requires you to practice a few Guesstimates and Case Studies. Resources that are relevant for these are Victor Cheng Playlist, Aditya Agarwal Playlist and IIML Case Interviews playlist all available on YouTube, which are excellent resources for the same. Additionally, one can go through the IIT-B Casebook/ IIT-K Casebook to get a deeper understanding of the same. Always focus on the logical structuring of your answers to the cases and your way of delivering these.
Recruitment Process Aptitude Test:-
This is the first round which happens without a resume shortlist. That is anyone who has applied for the role is eligible for the test. It is preceded by a Mock Test to gain an experience of Accenture’s very own testing platform. The test was 55 mins in total and consisted of 48 MCQ-type questions, divided into 6 sections. Each section was also timed on an individual basis. The sections were:-
- Abstract Reasoning
- Analytical Ability
- Quantitative Aptitude
- Critical Thinking
- Data Interpretation
- Verbal Ability
By this time, students have been given a lot of tests by other companies, so no specific preparation is required for this, it is more about maintaining a high pace blended with immaculate accuracy. A useful practice can be the CAT PYQs, to just get into the groove of High-pace problem solving which worked in my case.
Resume Shortlist:-
Based on the Score of the Aptitude Test and the Relevant metrics over which the Resume stands out (typically the Peaks in the Resume). So, following this around 15 students were shortlisted for the final interviews.
Technical Interview:-
Checked primarily the genuineness of the candidate in terms of knowledge, Work experience and projects. I was also asked a few HR questions like Why Consulting, Short-term and Long-Term Goals, Why not Masters? and also Why Chemical Engineering. Later they moved on to some specific questions like they asked me about my favourite subject, I stated physics, and this provoked the grilling part of the interview. They started off with some basic questions, eventually proceeded to the case of Chandrayaan-3 and asked me to analyse all the concepts of Physics applied over there, later they asked me about Heavy water and its usage. They were just checking my grasp of my concepts and more importantly gauged my communication and confidence. They also asked me to explain one of the projects that I had mentioned in my resume that was of industrial utility.
MD Round:-
This is the ultimate round, only 2–3 students could make it to this. The MD is typically a Senior Management consultant who interacts and questions you. The MD just jumped onto my resume and started off with a project that I had mentioned, where I was the in charge of operating a Chemical Industry. He questioned me on every word mentioned in the project detail section. This eventually progressed with a case study that was based on evaluation of the Sustainability Quotient of an Industrial Plant and devising strategies to improvise Sustainability. I did the case study to the best of my knowledge and the interviewer seemed to be contented with my answer. Following this, he asked me to describe a productive experience of mine during my 2-year stay at IIT-K, so I elaborated on my experience working as an Intern at a startup where I was working on Business Development strategies. All that the interviewer was observing was again the communication and confidence aspect plus the knowledge and experience of tackling real-life cases so that the candidate best fits into the role of a consultant. Later we discussed the work culture at Accenture and the interview concluded.
Closing Thoughts:-
All that matters in interviews is the clarity of thoughts, structured way of expression, communication and confidence. Consulting does not require very in-depth preparation of cases, just the basic case-prep and guesstimates (I wasn’t asked this, but it is often asked) suffices. Have faith in God and believe in yourself, everything will eventually pave the way to your reward. Also, have a side-on preparation for other profiles as well since things are unpredictable, it is better to be equipped with skills that can get you through other domains as well.
“In the pursuit of excellence, persistence stands as it’s twin sister. Keep your tenacity alive and consistently offer your best effort, for there’s always a greater reward waiting ahead”
Thank you for reading!
The Academics and Career Council wishes you all the best in your internship preparation journey. We are here to support you every step of the way. Please feel free to reach out to us for any assistance you may need.