Ernst & Young Associate Technology Interview Questions and Answers

Interview preparation tips for other job seekers - Just answer what ever you know with confidence. You don't need to bluff

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Identified that the problem could either be surplus or wastage. Understood the inventory procurement and management system. Took a sample fruit for a given week and proceeded with inventory optimization. Developed alternative inventory plans and selected the best one. Then asked to synthesize.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: The interviewer didn’t have my CV. He preferred a brief introduction. Probed about other shortlists and interviews I had.
Then opened an elaborate PPT and walked me through the slides. It was a Dairy Farming Corp. based out of western Europe and we looked at acquisition targets across 4 markets. After 10 minutes of running me through a number of tables and graphs, I was given a minute to think and recommend the best option for the client. I Didn’t lose sight of the bigger picture. Concluded with a recommendation and case synthesis.

General Tips: 1. Respond to the tone of the interviewer.
2. Being composed matters.
Skills:
College Name: IIM Lucknow

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Two things in the problem statement set the path for me.
a. “Phase -1 trials”, so phase -2, so phase-3 etc had to be looked into – basically the whole development stage from a drug in a lab to a drug in the marketplace.
b. “for what amount” – clearly this case demanded working with numbers, because it was not just a yes/no question, but also asked an approximate deal price.

Solving the case.
a) I laid out the value chain in development of a drug.
b) The interviewer on prodding gave me costs involved in the phased clinical trials and their probabilities of success.
c) CATCH: Phase 3 trials success of failures probability does not affect the overall outcome in expenditure, as even if it is a failure, you have spent the money
d) So I have an approximate numbers on cost in different scenarios.
e) Now, I tried to estimate the potential revenue that can be earned from this drug. The interviewer gave the selling price of the drug has been fixed at USD1000. So now its more of a question of market sizing.
f) Since the company is a global pharma giant, it would be selling all over the world.
g) The problem was now reduced to finding the number of potential male bald customers worldwide ready to shell out USD1000 for a cure.
h) The math worked out that there was no way to make money from this drug (It took a little bit of guts to state this conclusion to the interviewer), and the company abandon this project. Or better still, if somebody is ready to buy the right, just sell it for any amount above the costs you have incurred so far.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: First I tried to understand the Nigerian motorcycle market. Also, I tried to understand if there was any possibility of the Indian maker to sell cheap – that possibility was ruled out. So, if cost leadership does not work, product differentiation will. How could we then differentiate our product?

a) CATCH: As it turned out in the course of our discussion, the motorcycles were used as taxis
b) The drivers owned the motorcycles and plied pillions around the city for a fee.
c) I worked out the math for these chinese motorcycles -buying cost, maintenance, life, mileage, etc.
d) If the Indian client could beat that number, we could have a winner - the buying cost was high, but we were better on mileage, on life (3 years vs 2 years for the chinese product) and on maintenance. Still the number was not favourable.
e) Next came the idea, that if we could not reduce the cost for the drivers, can we improve the revenue. An idea that I blurted out, but which turned out to be the one the interviewer was looking for – was to have a longer seat so that a total of three people could ride the motorcycle comfortably.
f) Now the numbers started making sense. Also note that the previous numbers would have changed, because the mileage with 3 people on board will be less than 2 ppl onboard. Also, the amount individual customers are ready to shell out for a shared taxi will be lesser than for a private taxi. All these changes accounted for, the numbers still looked positive.
g) So a go ahead was declared.
h) Now came the second part, given that we decide to enter Nigeria – how do we position ourselves as a brand and convince the locals to tru out our new expensive product –the benefits of which can only be ascertained after a period of one or two years i) The answer came in renting out these bikes to the drivers on a trial basis, and let them appreciate our better bikes and let word of mouth do the rest.

General Tips: a). Be calm, but be enthusiastic in the interview. Enthusiasm shows.
b). Make the interview a two way process. Let the interviewer help you solve the problem. He will drop hints. LISTEN to them.
Skills:
College Name: IIM Lucknow

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Discussed about the various possibilities of the revenues decline –any particular geography, product or channel. There was a particular region where the sales were declining. The sales in the region primarily consisted of 2 tractor models – 35 and 45 hp.
Tried to approach the problem by dividing the issue areas between Internal and External.
Internal – Company related issues related to 4Ps. External – Competition, Consumer Behaving Pattern or External Environment overall (PESTLE).
The prices of the product w.r.t to competitors was at par. However, the maintenance costs was higher as compared to competitors and hence the sales were going down.

Solution:
Proposed a solution of providing extended warranty. Also the excess costs incurred by the company could be recovered by increasing costs of the other 2 tractors (as its market price was slightly lower than its competitors) compromise on the profits.

General Tips: Just be comprehensive. It does no matter if reach the solution or not. Just be exhaustive and have a structured approach.
Skills:
College Name: IIM Lucknow

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: If I am an authorized service centre for a mobile company and I want to set up my own mobile service centre to service handsets of products whose warranties have expired, how should I enter the market.
He wasn’t convinced with my why consult answer and coz of that I screwed up my case too. Also, it was the 1st interview for the day and screwed up coz of nervousness. Didn’t ask qualifying questions. Structure was all over the place.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: Qualifying questions were perfect. Applied the correct approach. Detected the problem in the after sales service. Perfect recommendations.

Skills:
College Name: IIM Lucknow

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: The first round required a systematic approach and therefore adequate preparation helped to solve this case in a structured manner.
Tips: Overall presenting ideas with logic and structure helped me.

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: The second round did not go well for me. Here it was easy to get lost in the many levels of the case and therefore it would be useful to attempt some quantitative cases as well. Along with this, it was important to stay calm when solving the case was hard which I was not able to do well enough.

General Tips: Prepare hard and work on exploring all possible options within a case.
Skills:
College Name: IIM Lucknow

Round: Case Study Interview
Experience: I took a complete background check with regard to the motivation behind diversifying into IT sector. Also, what kind of IT businesses it wanted to diversify. The interviewer suggested that they want to achieve revenue of USD 5Bn from current USD 4Bn. Also, they want a margin of 12-15% from this new business. Also, the major consumer of IT services are Europe and US.So, I divided the problem into two parts –1. Whether IT business would serve them the purpose for achieving desired revenue. 2. If yes, then what would be the strategy for entering into IT services?I started off with the projected revenue estimates for all types of IT services. However, the interviewer changed the problem statement (due to paucity of time I suppose). He asked what would be the basis for selecting companies from an acquisition standpoint from an initial pool of companies across the globe. I came up with two matrix table wherein I stated what the Indian conglomerate wants from the acquisition (ie Need) and what it can offer to the target company (ie want of target) and tried to match it.The interviewer informed that the Indian conglomerate was cash rich company, stands on its values and has strong client relationship with manufacturing sectors / vendors. So I started linking all of them –
•funding –requirement for cash strapped companies
•Reputation –It can offer brand value to companies not well known
•Client relation to leverage –Companies not present in manufacturing IT services.Also, during discussion, I linked the problem practically to how Mahindra went on to acquire Satyam and what factors it looked before bidding. I think the interviewer was impressed with the linking to case to practical situation.

Round: Problem Statement
Experience: Me: Define market share?
Interviewer: Market share is defined by quantity and sales value.
Me: There could be 3 possible scenarios: Market stagnant, we are losing out to competitors; Market growing but we are not growing as fast as market; market shrinking but we are losing more than our competitors.
Interviewer: Second scenario
Me: Major customers
Interviewer: Real estate companies.
After a brief background question, I started off with the problem analysis.
I broke the problem into Demand and Supply side. Under demand side, I mapped the consumer behaviour analysis of buyer and brought out several points. However, the interviewer was interested in delving into supply side. Anyway, he told me to analyse demand side.Based on our discussion, we realized that pricing and timely delivery was an issue. Pricing is based on cost plus pricing. Cost includes transportation cost which was significantly higher than industry standards. High transportation cost stems from the fact that the factory was located far away from the market. Also, acquisition of lime stone has been a challenge for the company. I think the interviewer was impressed from the fact that the problem was solved from the demand side. Also, I quickly suggested 2 solutions to the problem:
•Short term –Reduce prices and take a hit on profit to regain market share
•Medium term –Follow hub and spoke model to reduce delay in delivery time
•Long term –Acquire a source (may be mine or long term supplier) for lime stone.

Round: Problem Statement
Experience: I took background questions regarding in which circle it operates and its vision in India. I suggested that I would do a Net Present Value analysis and would bench mark against return expected by Norway Head Office. We went into revenue stream like voice and data. Cost included operating, spectrum, license fee etc. He seemed to be satisfied with the response. Also, he asked me why AT&T is not bidding for the spectrum. I explained that Uninor has invested time, effort in understanding Indian market which AT&T has not. I drew learning curve of both Uninor and AT&T. He seemed impressed.
Tips: 1.Be calm and composed. Even if one interview does not go well, one would have another chance to perform.
2.Take good background questions to understand the problem. Dissect the problem and then approach.
3.Structured thinking is very important. Also, explain briefly the broad bucket in the structure.
4.All suggestions should have some basis based on the inputs taken during the interview.
5.Thorough CV and HR preparation are hygiene factors.
6.Always smile!

Skills: Case Analysis, Problem Solving Skills, Problem Solving Abilties
College Name: IIM Lucknow