Interview with Liam Somers, Graduate Recruitment Lead at Accenture Ireland.
Liam answers questions on Accenture’s graduate programme, and in particular the Software Engineering stream.
Accenture is a professional services organisation based in Dublin, specializing in information technology services and consulting.
Accenture has alliances with many of the large multinational technology companies. Graduate software engineers could be working on implementing solutions for Accenture’s clients using any of the following technologies: Google Products, Amazon (AWS), SAP, Microsoft, Oracle, salesforce and many more. Graduates will gain experience and knowledge of multiple types of technology across multiple industries.
Accenture’s programme comprises of five career paths; Consulting, Analytics, Business & Technology Integration, Cyber Security and Software Engineering.
Accenture Case Interview Prep: Everything You Need to Know
Accenture interviews are comprised of case interviews and behavioral or fit interview questions. If you are interviewing for Accenture’s Strategy group, you will also be given a special type of interview called the Accenture Potentia Interview.
In this article, we’ll cover exactly what to expect in your upcoming Accenture interview and how to best answer all of the different types of questions you may be asked.
We’ll cover in detail:
What training and development can candidates expect on Accenture’s Graduate Programme?
Accenture invests in a lot of training and development for graduate software engineers.
Some of the training is mandatory and some is self-learning which graduates can complete at their own pace. There is also a lot of on-the-job training that is specific to the software project being worked on.
When the graduate programme starts, software engineers undergo 3-4 weeks of training before they join their client project. During this time, they are upskilled on technical skills and soft skills.
In addition to this, every 2-3 months graduates will be brought back into a classroom environment to train together on certain topics.
Accenture Interview Process
Accenture is a massive professional services firm that provides management consulting, IT consulting, and back office outsourcing. Within management consulting, Accenture is broken down into three groups: Strategy, Operations, and Digital.
Accenture Strategy is the group that is most similar to McKinsey, BCG, and Bain in the type of work that they do. The Operations and Digital group is focused more on implementation rather than on pure strategy.
Depending on the office and group that you are applying for, there will be two to three rounds of interviews. Each round will have anywhere from one to three 1-hour interviews. Your interviews will be a mix of case interviews and behavioral or fit interview questions.
One important thing to note is that if you are applying for a role in Accenture Strategy, one of your interviews will be a special type of interview called the Potentia interview.
You’ll be interviewed by more senior people as you go through the different rounds of interviews. In the first round, you’ll be interviewed by consultants or managers. In the final round, you’ll be interviewed by managing directors and senior managing directors.
We’ll cover all of the different types of interview questions in detail in the next few sections.
How long is the application process?
When applications close in early October, candidates will receive invites to the assessment centre across October and November.
The final interview stage generally occurs one week after assessment.
Offers are made to successful candidates within days of the final interview.