Post a Salary or Review

Advanced

Hitachi Consulting Senior Consultant Interview Questions & Reviews

Post an Interview

Web: www.hitachiconsulting.com | HQ: Dallas, TX

Connections

Updated Apr 26, 2012 – Interview questions and reviews posted anonymously by interview candidates.

Difficulty Rating [?] Based on 8 ratings

3.2

“Average” Interview

Interview Experience [?] Based on 8 ratings

Positive	50%
Neutral	38%
Negative	12%

Hitachi Consulting has 2,154 connections on Glassdoor

See Who You Know

Hide Filters

1–8 of 8 Hitachi Consulting Interviews

Sort by

3.0

Average Interview

Overall Negative Experience

Interviewed and No Offer

Interviewed Mar 2012 in Irvine, CA (took 2 weeks)

The first interview was conducted by phone from a HR recruiter, then a second technical interview by phone
from a Java architect. After that I was invited to attend a face-to-face interview. The face-to-face interviews consist of 3 sessions, the first session with a manager who introduced herself as an architect,
the second with a senior manager and the final was with a director. The first 2 sessions were technical
and project experience interview and I did well. The last one was with the director, he is a politician,
his questions are "what's your career goal ?", "what would u envision yourself in five years?"... and when I
did not respond straightly to the question ("Would u be willing to sacrifice your time for the job ?" -implying overtime without getting paid) he was obviously annoyed, he then told me that clients do not pay for the travel (meaning you would not get paid either), I did not respond to him, and then he said the new graduate are willing to take the job, willing to put more for less, at that moment I knew I was not going to get the job....

Interview Questions

What would u envision yourself in 5 years ?

View Answers (1)

Would you be willing to put more for less

View Answers (1)

Other Details

I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a 1:1 Interview.

Helpful Interview?

Yes | No

Inappropriate?

4.0

Difficult Interview

Overall Positive Experience

Received and Accepted Offer

Interviewed Dec 2011 in Philadelphia, PA (took 3 weeks)

Typical consulting interview. Pre-screen, techincal interview, face to face interview. Good questions that truly test your knowledge and personality.

Interview Questions

Why are you looking to join our Firm?

Answer Question

Negotiation Details

n/a

Other Details

I got the interview through a Recruiter and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a 1:1 Interview.

Helpful Interview?

Yes | No

Inappropriate?

3.0

Average Interview

Overall Positive Experience

Received and Accepted Offer

Interviewed Dec 2010 in Seattle, WA (took 2 weeks)

There was a telephone interview with one of their architects. Pretty basic stuff. Then, I was invited to Seattle office for three rounds of interivew. First Round with another Senior Consultant, second round with director and the third round with VP. The interivew was good. They offered me the position within a week. They were very professional.

Interview Questions

How will you react with customers and deal some tough situations?

Answer Question

Negotiation Details

Negotiate to get what you want.

Other Details

I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a 1:1 Interview.

Helpful Interview?

Yes | No

Inappropriate?

3.0

Average Interview

Overall Positive Experience

Interviewed and No Offer

Interviewed Nov 2010 in Irvine, CA (took a day)

Hitachi brought in about 25 students from various schools to interview for the tactical and business positions. Interviews were simple-- mainly just talking about yourself and your interests to 4 VPs. They were draining because they were back to back interviews and then a lunch with current employees afterward.

Interview Questions

Tell me about yourself

Answer Question

Why Hitachi?

Answer Question

Other Details

I got the interview through an Employee Referral.

Helpful Interview?

Yes | No

Inappropriate?

3.0

Average Interview

Overall Neutral Experience

Received and Accepted Offer

Interviewed May 2009 (took 1+ week)

2 phone interview and 1 group

Interview Questions

basic background and situational questions

Answer Question

Other Details

The interview consisted of a Phone Interview, a 1:1 Interview and a Group/Panel Interview.

Helpful Interview?

Yes | No

Inappropriate?

3.0

Average Interview

Overall Neutral Experience

Received and Declined Offer

Interviewed Jun 2010 (took 4+ weeks)

My Hitachi experience began with an unsolicited application on their website for a management consulting position. Within about a week I was contacted by a recruiter who informed me they had interest in me as a candidate, but only as a senior consultant. The next step was a phone interview with a very knowledgeable senior manager who was nice and was primarily interested in my "real world" experience and that I understood the inner workings of my industry. I was asked to come in for a day of interviews between 3 managers, 1 director, and 1 Vp. Each interviewer came at it from a different angle:

- Lets not talk about work, lets talk about your interests (Or the recruiter's interests for that matter)
- Lets talk about how much you know and how I can use you on my team
- Don't really want to be here, but I have some "canned" questions
- "How do I sell you" and "How do I make you billable"

At the end of the day the salary bands and reviews here on GlassDoor were right on.

Case in point:

I asked a question about how Hitachi competes in this market space and the answer was, "Price".... Lets dissect this like a consultant here. Profit = Revenue-Cost, with very little fixed cost in a professional service firm any decrease in price will mean less profit OR my variable costs are low to maintain high margins. The lower cost we are speaking about to compete is MY Salary & Bonus. This was a giant buzzer that went off and eventually I did not accept the lame offer that was given to me.

Interview Questions

"What makes you billable?"

Answer Question

Other Details

I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a 1:1 Interview.

Helpful Interview?

Yes | No

Inappropriate?

4.0

Difficult Interview

Overall Neutral Experience

Received and Accepted Offer

Interviewed Apr 2010 (took 6+ weeks)

I applied online and received a call about a month or two later from a national recruiter. The initial conversation consisted of questions like, "Why do you want to leave?" "What are you asking for in terms of salary?" The online application requires that you put your current salary down, so they already know that. At the end of the conversation, they asked me if I was interested in moving forward for what they have going on. After I replied 'yes', they set me up with a PM for a phone interview the next day. The scheduling happened the same night of the first call from that afternoon.

The phone interview started off as a casual conversation, and that PM seemed very sharp. He let me go through my resume and tell him about my experiences, and he would just listen. Occassionally, he would just ask me something to follow up more in-depth with what I just told him. It caught me off-guard a few times. Some of the questions were pretty industry-specific and technical. Then it takes about a week for that PM and the recruiter to debrief and get details on an office visit. Scheduling the office visit took the longest. They needed to schedule it on Fridays because most people were travelling Mon-Thurs. They also have to make sure the key people were in the office (PM / Director / VP). This process took a little over 2 weeks.

My on-site interview was with a PM and a VP. We pretty much just came into the office, interviewed, and left. We were not really shown around the office or introduced to anyone else who was working there. This could be due to the fact that there were back-to-back interviews that Friday. In this interview, they dig into your knowledge a little bit more. It was more behavior than technical, but again, they do tend to ask questions in the middle of the conversation. It is probably a good idea to not answer right away, but let it sink in and keep your composure. I had one very sweet lady and one rude guy. Not sure if this was intended for "good-cop bad-cop" effects. The debrief between these individuals and the recruiter took about a little bit over a week.

The next step is for the senior management of that practice to get together on a phone call to discuss the candidates and make recommendations for them. The speed of this process just depends on how fast they can all schedule that call. If you are chosen to carve out an offer for, the approval process is quick.

Interview Questions

Can you tell me about Revenue Recognition?

View Answers (1)

Can you give me an example of a time when you were tasked with something that you had no idea how to do? How did you go about obtaining the skills to accomplish this task?

Answer Question

Can you give me an example of a client's requirement, and how you came up with the design to satisfy that requirement?

Answer Question

Negotiation Details

They did not make it easy to negotiate. In the first conversation, we had spoke of a number. This was my minimum figure that I would consider to even leave my current job. I guess it was my mistake to disclose the truth, because the recruiter got the impression that that number was what I wanted.

The way it works: The hiring is nationalized and after they make a decision on you, it goes through an approval process. If you wanted to negotiate anything, they would have to re-submit your application through that process again.

I guess it was fair. They would have probably lost me if I had another recognizable firm that gave me just 2-3% more.

Other Details

I Applied Online and the interview consisted of a Phone Interview and a 1:1 Interview.

Helpful Interview?

Yes | No

Inappropriate?

3.0

Average Interview

Overall Positive Experience

Received and Accepted Offer

Interviewed Feb 2007 (took 5 days)

1. Got an email from someone at HC to set up a phone interview
2. 15 minute phone screen with local HR director
3. Invited to come to HC office - 3 interviews: 2 managers, 1 vp. Very impressive office space in a tall building with a view. Wanted me to talk about several specific experiences. Very friendly and not a high-pressure process. I had my response the same day.

My advice: Come prepared to talk about things YOU have specifically done/accomplished. They want to understand what kind of person you are and how you would fit in.

Interview Questions

They don't use trickery to get at what they want to know about you. Just come prepared to talk about your experience using statements that relate to things YOU actually did.

Answer Question