Grant Thornton Assessment Centre and Group Exercise Practice

There are three main sections to the Grant Thornton assessment centre and we will outline them in greater detail below.

In this section of the Grant Thornton assessment centre you will be given a case study that comprises of a number of materials that relate to your chosen field. You are given 40 minutes to go through the material and use it to give advice to a prospective client of Grant Thornton. This person will actually be a partner of Grant Thornton. You will role play with the partner discussing how you would proceed in the case and offer different solutions throughout a 10 minute discussion. In order to succeed in this task, you need to have a full understanding of the different types of service that Grant Thornton have and can use in this situation. It is therefore essential that before the day you need to understand the different parts of the business and how they are used to give the customer the best possible deal.

In addition to the case study, you will also be given 3 questions that you will have to answer to the Partner. They are:

• What are the three key challenges that Grant Thornton face?
• How do you think we could approach these challenges? And
• How do you think Grant Thornton can help and establish a long-term relationship with this client?

To help you succeed with this case study, it is advisable to spend some time taking practice case study exercises as these give you the skills needed to work under pressure and produce results.

The Grant Thornton assessment centre interview is much the same as the phone one with the only exception being the length and that someone will be sitting across from you. This interview lasts for approximately one hour and is mainly competency-based. There are however a few noteworthy points to bear in mind. You will be asked about something that has caught your eye in the news recently and have a discussion about it. For this task you need to ensure that you are up to date with the latest financial news as well as hypothesising on how best Grant Thornton would deal with the issue. Although the interview itself is of an informal nature you have to show an underlying determination and motivation to succeed. Again here, it is very worthwhile to hone your interview skills by availing yourself of our interview preparation package.

In this exercise you will be given a brief that relates to your chosen business area. This brief does however have a problem. There is some information missing which as a group you will need to decide on where and what it is. As well as this, you need to come up with a proposal which you will present to the assessors in a five minute presentation at the end of the 30 minute discussion. You have to demonstrate the key competencies in action to do well during this part of the assessment centre. One thing to bear in mind here is that throughout the day there are periods of “down time” where you will be waiting for your next task. There are plenty of Grant Thornton people with you during the day and by engaging them in conversation you will not only learn about the day to day activities of the company but you will also learn the company personality. Use this information to try and create a professional presence that is consistent with the other employees. Show this personality during the group exercise and you will be doing well. Remember, the main point of the Grant Thornton assessment centre is to see that you are a good fit for the company; they already know that you are academically suited to the company.