PwC Senior Associate Interview

Interview Details – A recruiter from a staffing agency, having seen my background in insurance and having keyworded me on linkedin wanted me to go and meet with PwC's people...badly!

Every single time you go and interview with one of the big 4, a recruiter will pick a date and tell you how important it is that you go. Right now! That's because some partners and managers are coming together on that same day. it's like the solar eclipse.

I had flown in from a training assignment into a hotel room. I was staying in north west jersey. So I drove to an NJ Transit station at 5:45 am, parked my car, took the train to NY Penn, and then walked to the PwC office.

The interview was a complete waste of time. Nothing substantial about my qualifications or technical achievements was asked. There were a barrage of questions about 'if you were in this situation with a client..." and how I would handle it. Worst of all, they had the resume of a guy with the same first name as mine. So I had to use my company laptop to show them who I was. That was a very bad idea.

There were 3 interviews and much like as one would expect with a large consulting firm, it's big but an empty vessel. At the time, employed with a competing large consulting firm, I said that a culture of entitlement in terms of fleecing the client for flights, hotels, rental cars, per diems and outings is not one which I find ethical. But this is common knowledge, and the practice is rampant in the consulting industry.

The recruiter reported that I was "overconfident" and then disappeared off the face of the earth.

To candidates a lesson: Peddle the bull that works. Simply stop feeding the recruiters. Don't lose any sleep to do an interview unless you're unemployed.