PricewaterhouseCoopers skills session at UEA London

PwC came to the UEA London campus to run a skills session for students.  Some of the main comments they made were:

Apply early - The starting dates for graduate programmes are getting earlier and earlier each year.  They also said that many recruiters wait until they have they quota of new intake and then just close the programme, often before the closing date.

Do some self-assessment - Essentially spend time thinking before you make an application as to why you are applying for them.  Do some research into the organisation to decide if this is really the route you want to go down.

Make time -  to devote to the application.

What kind of candidates are PwC looking for?

PwC said basically they are looking for people who can do the following:

• Lead and contribute to team success
• Develop self and others through coaching
• Be passionate about client/customer service

They also talked about where many people make mistakes with their applications:

• poor spelling and grammar - they suggested putting the document in Word first and run spell check through it.  Also get someone to read it through for you.
• Lack of detail in the answers on the application form
• Lack of preparation in thinking about how to answer the questions - feeling that it had been rushed
• Not enough research
• Copying information from their website!

Top tips for psychometric assessments, interviews (including telephone interviews):

Prepare some specific examples to help you answer the competency type questions, such as 'Tell us about a time when you have led and contributed to team success?'  Make sure you talk about the contribution you made, not the team as a whole!  They also mentioned the STAR technique for answering competency questions

S - situation
T - task
A - action
R - result                                                                                  

For telephone interviews they suggested having your application form and notes in front of you.  They also suggested using a landline, as it won't suddenly go dead and make sure you smile while talking, as it changes the tone of your voice.

They mentioned that the main reasons for failure are:

• No preparation
• Waffling
• Failure to listen to the question
• No structure to answers
• Wrong attitude

Some example interview questions that they mentioned are:

1) Tell me what your greatest achievement to date has been and why?

2) Tell me about a recent business issue you have read about.  What is your opinion and why does this issue interest you?

Opportunities that are open to students/graduates to enable them to find out more about careers at PwC:

• Open days/Evenings
• Summer internships
• Shadow a female leader (a new programme for 2013 for male & female students)

They are also very keen to recruit people that come through the TeachFirst programme, of whom they are a platinum sponsor.

See here for more information on careers at PwC