Applied online on their careers website for the Graduate scheme. Got requested to schedule a phone interview a couple of days later.
Off the top of my head I was asked the following in the phone interview:
- Describe the role of a Software Engineer at Accenture
- Describe a time when you were given a new challenge, how you approached it and what the results were
- What programming languages are you most comfortable with
- Describe a situation where you used Java
- Some admin-related questions such as are you willing to travel during the week for a client etc (mobility is an 'important part' of Accenture Technology Solutions)
And some others but you get the gist. It was pretty straight-forward and I felt quite confident throughout as I had done some part-time stuff here and there (mobile apps for startups etc). The interviewer was very nice and was not strictly formal throughout; I was able to casually lighten the mood of the conversation every once in a while by highlighting aspects of my previous experiences which I found interesting or humorous, and this was received well. The phone interview lasted about 20 minutes.
Two weeks later I received an e-mail saying I passed the phone interview, and that a member of the recruitment dept. would contact me soon to try and arrange an interview. About two days later I got a call, and the member of staff was nice but their scheduling isn't flexible. Because I wasn't available for that specific date, they had to wait and call me again at a later date. I waited about 5 days and got another call to schedule my interview for the week after.
Went up to their offices at Fenchurch St in the morning, reported at reception and got directed to the 7th floor. I was then picked up at their 7th floor reception for my technical/skills-based interview.
This lasted about an hour and was quite extensive and the interviewer was super nice and very down to earth. He'd worked at Accenture for a few years now in a variety of software-related roles and he was able to dissect exactly what I did and didn't know. The majority of the questions he asked were based on things found on my CV; specifically what aspects of my previous projects I'd worked on, what I had and hadn't done, things I would've done differently with the things I know now, and what areas of software I would like to learn if I were given the opportunity.
At times I felt pretty grilled in the sense that there were definitely things I didn't know (when it came to things like large database maintenance, software testing in broader terms and defect analysis— a term I'd heard very few times up until now), but I was honest and said I didn't know too much about those aspects in general, although I guess I had some idea.
After this interview I was taken back to reception where the same person who did my phone interview would then pick me up to do an hour-long HR/competency interview.
This was basically a repeat/extension of the phone interview. I was asked the same questions as well as some others, such as:
- Name the competitors of Accenture
- Describe a situation where you had to approach a challenge on your own
- Would you have done anything differently?
- Describe your role(s) in your university project (I had a software engineering team project at my 2nd year at university)
After this, I was taken back to reception, said good-bye etc and the interview process was over. I was told I'd be contacted within 10 working days (same as the phone interview). I was contacted the next weekday.