How to prepare for Deloitte's interview questions

Advice: Deloitte interview questions | Answering Deloitte’s interview questions | Deloitte job simulation ‘video interview-style’ questions | Get a targetjobs career boost

Deloitte interviews tend to last up to an hour and from the get go the firm reminds candidates to relax, listen carefully and express themselves clearly. If you make it to the final stage of Deloitte’s graduate, summer internship or placement year recruitment process, and you’ll take part in a live video interview with a hiring manager from the respective business area.

The firm also advises applicants to ‘review your immersive online assessment feedback report and consider the questions you’re likely to be asked’ ahead of attending an interview.

Deloitte interview questions

Deloitte’s interview questions include a mix of different question types, which include:

• Competency-based questions to give an insight into the skills you have demonstrated in the past. These are typically answered using the ‘STAR method’ to provide details of the s ituation, t ask you faced, a ctions you took and r esult achieved. Learn more about the STAR method and competency-based questions here .
• Motivational questions (a form of strengths-based interview questions ) to help Deloitte’s recruiters to understand what drives you and what interests you about Deloitte and the role you have applied for.
• Scenario-based questions (another type of strengths-based questions) asking you to consider what you think you would do in hypothetical work-based situations. These allow Deloitte to gain an understanding of your behavioural instincts in a work setting.
• Questions about you to help the recruiters get to know what’s important to you, how you like to work and whether this aligns with Deloitte’s values. Learn more about answering values-based interview questions in this article .
• Topical questions to give an insight into your thoughts and ideas relating to topics that present issues for Deloitte, society or both. These types of questions often call upon your commercial awareness .

How to answer past Deloitte Interview questions

Below are just a few examples of the kinds of questions you could be asked at a graduate, summer internship or placement year interview at Deloitte, as well as advice on how to use your answers to show recruiters that you possess the traits they’re looking for.

The questions you’re asked may well be different, but practising how you’d answer these (and perhaps using them for a test run with a friend playing the part of the interviewer) will be great preparation for your Deloitte interview.

Read on or jump to a question:

1. Describe a time you took on a position of leadership .
2. Why Deloitte ?
3. What would you do if you were running Deloitte for a day ?
4. What challenges is Deloitte currently facing ?
5. What does the ACA qualification (or another professional qualification) involve ?

Past Deloitte interview question 1: Describe a time that you took on a position of leadership

How to approach the question : Deloitte champions the concept of ‘human-centred’ leadership and also states that leaders should be able to ‘understand and influence’ their environment. This doesn’t mean that your answer needs to portray you as an already well-developed leader, but you should strive to provide an example that demonstrates that you put your group members first, that you have understood the task at hand and made decisions that helped the group achieve its aims.

For example, perhaps during a university group project you volunteered to be the team leader and delegated responsibilities based on the tasks that the other individual group members would most enjoy completing. An example along these lines would show that you ‘put your people first’ and understood your environment by aligning tasks with team member’s strengths.

Don’t say : or imply that your leadership was the sole reason for your group’s success. At the core of human-centred leadership is the practice of empowering other members within the team to make impactful decisions that help to achieve the collective goal.

Past Deloitte interview question 2: Why Deloitte?

How to approach the question : you can demonstrate your commercial awareness and career motivation by giving a couple of examples about projects that Deloitte or, even better, your prospective Deloitte business area has been or is currently involved in.

The points you make should show that you have thoroughly researched the company. Don’t just recant Deloitte’s broad turnover or quarterly figures, hone in on individual projects, case studies and other commercial developments and Deloitte’s values and think about how these relate to your interest in the role and your career aspirations.

Perhaps your main motivation is the potential to work with a range of clients – in which case, you’ll need to mention specific clients and why their projects piqued your interest.

Don’t say : anything to do with a ‘strong reputation for excellence’, ‘the chance to work with pioneers in their fields’, ‘working within a true meritocracy’ or anything that sounds equally sycophantic.

Note that this interview question might be phrased as ‘Why do you want to work for Deloitte out of all the Big 4 professional services firms?’.

See our article on answering the interview question ‘ Why are you interested in this position? ’ for more in-depth advice for tackling motivational ‘ why?’ questions.

Learn more about Deloitte and find career opportunities with the employer via its organisation hub on targetjobs.

Past Deloitte interview question 3: If you were running Deloitte for a day, what would you do?

How to approach the question : Deloitte is looking for someone who can make and implement clear decisions and has sound planning and organisational skills. You will likely face follow-up questions that challenge your opinions; your interviewer will play devil’s advocate to make sure you have considered things from every angle.

You could suggest, for example, that you would identify a number of areas for the business to expand into within the technology sector. If you gave an example, you would have to consider the potential impact on Deloitte’s other geographical markets and additional service lines, as well as the long-term impact on business development in these areas.

Don’t say : you would make wholesale changes and focus only on one or two markets alone. The example above highlights the technology sector but remember to think about how your actions here impact on the rest of the business. You can easily fall into the trap of focusing only on what you are interested in, rather than what’s in the best interests of the international business as a whole.

Our advice feature on the 12 skills that consulting recruiters want will give you an in-depth insight into the competencies that your answer to this Deloitte interview question should display.

Past Deloitte interview question 4: What challenges is Deloitte currently facing?

How to approach the question : this is a particularly fun question because you can really sell yourself in terms of the value you could bring to Deloitte and highlight your commercial awareness. The best place to start is the ‘newsroom’ section of the employer’s website. You need to take some company news and spin it around to relate it to the role. Just relaying a piece of news that the recruiters are already aware of isn’t enough; you need then to be able to say, ‘What this means for the company is X’, and, even better, ‘This is what it means for the division I’m applying to, and how it might affect things we have to consider here in the UK’.

Don’t say : that the current economic climate makes things difficult for Deloitte. You’ll need to know plenty about local, national and international economics, certainly, but this is the bare minimum – you need to be more specific. Remember also, that some of Deloitte’s work will be counter-cyclical, which might give you more food for an answer.

Be sure to check out our article on commercial awareness for more tips on using it to answer questions about the broader market.

Past Deloitte interview question 5: What does the ACA qualification (or another professional qualification) involve?

How to approach the question : everyone is going to go to Deloitte’s website and note down its content. The problem with this is that Deloitte’s website doesn’t actually provide much information about the ACA qualification, aside from the absolute basics. A more interesting candidate would investigate the qualification they would be studying as a trainee at Deloitte to gain a deeper understanding of the course modules and how these will help them to progress professionally.

A more interesting candidate would also investigate alternative qualifications to get a better idea of why Deloitte has chosen a specific one. In the case of accounting, for example, other highly-regarded professional qualifications exist, such as the ACCA and CIMA. Knowing what differentiates these from the ACA will help your answer.

A word on Deloitte’s job simulation ‘video-interview style’ questions

Before being invited to your Deloitte interview, you’ll need to pass the Deloitte job simulation. This is an online assessment where you will answer questions based on workplace scenarios related to the role you’re applying for.

You will answer questions in multiple formats, including ones that require you to record and upload responses using a webcam in the same way you would for a pre-recorded video interview. However, unlike a typical pe-recorded interview, which asks you a range of interview questions, past Deloitte applicants report that the job simulation video questions are focused on a hypothetical case study.

Regardless of the questions asked, you should treat the video questions in the job simulation in the same fashion as you would a standard pre-recorded video interview – so make sure to test your tech beforehand and dress for the part.

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