I recently had the chance to correspond with Georgia Hewett who handles Corporate Communications for Accenture in Australia/New Zealand. Georgia was extremely helpful and was kind enough to answer some questions I had about Accenture and its recruitment process.
If you are a student, recent graduate or aspiring consultant looking to land a consulting job in Australia, then this information is likely to be of interest.
Please read my questions and Accenture’s answers below.
Tom: Accenture offers a range of services including Strategy, Digital, Technology and Operations. Are graduates able to gain exposure to more than one service line?
Accenture: Accenture graduates are aligned to one of our businesses upon joining and will work primarily within that area to build their skills and business acumen. However, there are opportunities to work across industries, teams, clients and geographies.
Tom: Accenture’s clients come from all industries worldwide. Are graduates expected to pick an industry specialisation? How quickly are graduates expected to specialise?
Accenture: Graduates are not required to select a specialisation until later in their career when they have had the opportunity to learn more about our clients, understand the needs of the business and determine where they are best suited. This typically happens quite organically as the individual grows within the organisation. Additionally this specialisation may not be specific to an industry but could be related to our technology, strategy, digital or operations business.
Tom: Accenture has offices in more than 200 cities worldwide. In Australia, your offices are located in Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. Does Accenture hire graduates for all of its Australian offices? Is it possible for consultants to transfer between offices within Australia or internationally?
Accenture: Accenture hires graduates in all of our Australian offices. There are certainly opportunities for employees to transfer between our offices locally and globally to meet both their personal and professional needs.
Tom: What kind of training and mentoring can graduates expect to receive at Accenture? Is training provided online or does Accenture bring consultants together as part of a regional or global training program?
Accenture: From training courses in our regional training facility in Kuala Lumpur to on-the-job training we offer our graduates a wide range of training and development opportunities. These opportunities are a combination of classroom based specialist training and online resources such as MyLearning – Accenture’s innovative global learning portal which provides access to over 20,000 virtual courses. Finally all graduates will have access to a Career Counsellor who will guide them, check their progress and help them achieve their professional goals.
Tom: How much partner and client contact can junior consultants expect to have at Accenture?
Accenture: Graduates joining Accenture will be immediately placed on a project and will work closely with all members of the client team.
Tom: What is Accenture’s travel model?
Accenture: Accenture’s travel expectations are largely driven by the needs of our clients. If a graduate is placed in a role which requires them to travel they will typically fly out on Monday morning and return to their home location on Friday afternoon.
Tom: Are you still accepting graduate applications for 2015?
Accenture: Applications for 2015 are closed.
Tom: Does Accenture use the case interview in its recruitment process? How many interview rounds are there? What kind of candidates tend to be successful in securing a position with Accenture?
Accenture: Accenture uses the case interview in the Accenture Strategy graduate recruitment process. Our typical recruitment process for graduates includes an initial screen, online assessment, video interview, business interview and a final interview with a Managing Director. Throughout the process we are looking for academically high-performing students who are well-rounded, enthusiastic and hold Australian/New Zealand citizenship or Australian Permanent Resident status. Students can join Accenture from any academic discipline; and we’re particularly keen to recruit graduates from maths, science, engineering and technology backgrounds. All graduates will need a deep passion for consulting, digital and emerging technologies, or be able to demonstrate a real flair for IT, and have good commercial awareness and communication skills.
Tom: What’s the most common mistake that candidates make when applying?
Accenture: Waiting until the last minute to complete the application.
Tom: Many thanks to you Georgia, and to Accenture, for taking the time to answer my questions.
I hope you found the above information about Accenture and its recruitment process useful. If there are other firms that you would like me to interview in future, or specific questions that you would like me to ask, please let me know by sending an email to tom [at] spencertom.com. I look forward to hearing from you.
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