Pricewaterhousecoopers, assurance services (graduate)

Question

Why are you interested in a career in accountancy/assurance and why in particular PwC

Answer

A career in assurance provides an excellent opportunity to learn a lot about different businesses. Each day brings on new challenges and new clients mean working with new teams and new people all the time which can be incredibly motivating. The professional qualification obtained is recognised worldwide and PwC provide excellent training - results to prove this and no. 1 in graduate employer of the year. Exposure to different clients right from the start and the opportunity to work with extremely talented people.

Post qualification opportunities such a secondments abroad, to different parts of the business or even to clients

Question

I can see from your CV that you spent some time abroad, was this a good idea and what have your gained from this experience?......Do you still keep in contact with the people who you met abroad?

Answer

Yes - I either had the choice of taking the easy option, staying in the UK and moving into a house with a group of friends that I had met during my first year, or I could take an advantage of a very unique opportunity to go to a new country alone whilst still studying for my degree.

Stepping off the plane into a new country for the first time is a real challenge - having to deal with leaving home for the first time, making new friends and adapting to a new way of studying meant I had to be extremely flexible if I wanted to make the most out of my experience.

I met many people abroad and as a result have travelled to many other countries to visit them.

Question

Can you tell me a bit about what you expect to be doing at PwC?

Answer

The main focus of the first 3 years are the ACA exams. It will be extremely challenging and much determination and hard work is required to get through them. Whilst not at college, most of the work will be out clients. I expect to be dealing with a variety of people from very senior down to more junior levels. I expect there will be some community involvement as part of CSR.

(My biggest tip for these interviews is to know the company well, throw some facts around and demonstrate to them obviously that you are aware of the competencies that they are looking for. Usual things - eye contact, listen carefully, answer the question, don't babble on for too long (I got positive feedback for not rambling on). Preparation is really really important!)

These questions were provided to us by a candidate claiming to have interviewed at the institution named above. We cannot guarantee that these were the actual questions asked.