Deloitte Consultant Interview Questions, Process, and Tips

Interview preparation tips for other job seekers - I primarily prepared for 4 things:

1. Formulation of CV and preparation for CV answers: All the interviews start with CV, so this section is of great importance. Frame a para on each CV point so as to anticipate the questions and the follow up questions that could be asked. All the numbers presented in CV should be backed by proper calculation for each data point.

2. HR Questions – Standard deck of HR Questions (39 Qs), circulated by Placement Committee was sufficient. An instance of all major questions was very important. I had written a para on each so as to anticipate the questions that could be asked.

3. Guesstimates: I prepared guestimates from my hobby and general topics in news like the number of Table tennis bats sold in Mumbai in a year. I used to practise it in groups to understand different approaches and formulate the best approach that would work for me. I maintained that in my case journal.

4. Cases: I primarily read Case in Point for preparation of cases. After having a decent idea of frameworks and having framed my own, I practiced some cases from IIM A case book also. I also practiced some mock case interview with my roommate.

Workshop - In workshop, the team was split in 4 groups of 15 students each, with 1 case given to each group. But before the case a guestimate was discussed- A new element added to workshop this year. Be prepared for surprises like this!

The guestimate was finding the revenue of Rio Olympics from tickets sold.

We were given 2 minutes to think and then had to volunteer to come to the board to explain the approach with calculation. A guy in desperation started in just 1 minute, to which they told him to be sure before speaking. He first started with an approach which was completely rejected by them. Then he came up with another approach which was.

Dividing the type of stadiums, like athletics, in doors, etc. Assuming occupancy percentage and then assuming the number and price of tickets sold. Details for my case are given below:

A case of M&A was given. A telecom company with its presence in North America was looking to enter Indian Market through an acquisition of an Indian firm.

Income statement of each firm was given and there were different slides (3) about:
• customer segmentation
• details of income statement and balance sheet
• Due diligence
• Some graphs (pie chart and bar chart) on customer segmentation and revenue distribution.

4 questions were asked on 4th slide:

1. Discuss the qualitative factors that needs to be considered before working on the intricacies of the deal.
2. Evaluate the amount of organic investment which the company needs to invest to achieve a similar revenue.
3. To go for the deal or not.
4. Finding the synergy dollar number (calculation required).

Important Tip : Though it may sound a cliché, it is absolutely okay to ask about a term or clarify about the question, no matter how simple it is. It’s better to be safe than be sorry in any consulting interview. We clarified about synergy dollar number, which was savings in terms of dollar value of:

1. Increase in revenue of the combined entity.
2. Decrease in cost.

In any group case workshop, it is imperative to follow the flow of the case and not say something completely new or unimportant. We as a group suggested many factors to be considered, like customer segmentation, using economies of scale and scope, products offered, using locational advantage of one in the other geographies, etc.

For 2nd we were provided with a slide pertaining to ROI with due diligence, we could arrive at the number with simple calculation and found out that it’s better to grow inorganically and not organically as we need to put in larger investment in the latter to achieve the same Revenues.

3rd answer was solved while discussion the second case itself.

4th again a slide of certain ratios and due diligence was provided to arrive at the Synergy dollar number. Solving this required a fundamental understanding of balance sheet and income statement as well.

As a group, we could solve the entire case in the stipulated time.

Interview preparation tips for other job seekers - Be well aware of your past experience

Interview preparation tips for other job seekers - Cover basics and communicate better. Easy going it is.