Online Application
Deloitte's application form did not require a CV or cover letter. It only required key information such as past education results, current university, address and a number of diversity and inclusion questions.
How to respond for success
I did found out Deloitte do blind hiring on your education background so the interviewers don’t know anything about your university etc to keep things more fair. So it is largely based on how you come across as a person.
Expect an automatic invitation to the next stage.
Job Simulation
This was a fairly standard job simulation. You are presented with a scenario and several outcomes and you had to pick which was your most likely reaction to the situation. This was definitely more of a personality test, obviously there were some completely wrong answers but on most of the questions it was hard to decipher ‘right’ answers. This took around an hour to complete. This is a good stage for an applicant to really know whether they'd be right for the company.
Example task
‘In X situation what would you do’, they’re quite long winded but usually just want to know how you would react to a situation.
How to respond for success
Try not to overthink your answers, these kinds of tests are to determine whether you have the right personality and qualities to work there, so by lying about your answers it could mean you don’t personally fit the company. Your answers should reflect you and how you like to work, they should show your capable on your own but also know when to ask for help and work in a team.
Expect around a 1 month wait before progressing to the next stage.
Final Interview
As I applied for the role in 2019 (pre-covid), my final interview was in person. I was contacted prior to the interview to confirm a date, time and location. It took place in the Deloitte UK HQ in New Street Square, London.
Before attending the interview we were given a topic to prepare a presentation on, my topic was around the effects of increasing regulation in financial crime and the financial industry and what opportunities these presented for Deloitte and how data analytics tools could be used to help this. The whole interview was around 1 hour, so not too long. My presentation lasted 15 minutes and the interview 45 mins. I prepared for my presentation heavily by looking at Deloitte's current clients in financial services and crossing these with incoming regulation and how it would affect them. I memorised my presentation and made handouts for the interviewers (there were 2 but I made 5 copies incase!). I followed Deloitte on all social media too, to see what they were up to and found areas that aligned to my personal values.
Example task
Expect some generic questions such as, Why Deloitte?, Why Consulting?, How do you align to the company?, How do your values align to the company etc?. The only actual task was the presentation.
How to respond for success
I researched heavily on the presentation, as it's a chance to show yourself performing in the job, on a level playing field with everyone else (as the question gets changed so everyone has the right amount of time to prepare). I knew my presentation off by heart and researched areas around the ones I presented so when they asked for more context or further information on something I could give it to them. I wore smart suit trousers and a blouse, no heels.
My advice for this but also any interview is to try to level with your interviewers, they’re just human beings at the end of the day and being frank and honest is usually the best way, don’t try to blag something if you don’t know it. My interviewers turned out to be 2 people I worked with very often and they said the most important thing to them is ‘are you someone they can work with’, they can teach you everything you need to know so they need to know you’re open to new things, learn quickly and also are someone you’d want to work with. We were talking about sushi by the end of my interview as we were talking about one of the interviewers holidays to Japan, god knows how we got there but when I started working with her she said that made me really memorable that I had taken an interest in her holiday!