Application support
Interviewing for a new role is an exciting time for anyone. Whether it be for a new role, your first role, a change in career, or returning to work from time out, the interview process brings you the opportunity to showcase your personality, skills and experiences. And for us, the interview process is an opportunity to meet potential new colleagues, to hear diverse perspectives and to learn from others.
We strive to ensure our interview process is barrier free and sets you up for success, as well as being wholly inclusive and robust.
If successful in your application one of our colleagues will invite you to an interview with the hiring manager who you will work with. Our interview process will either be one or two stages and will cover both competency interview questions on our values and technical questions based on the requirements of the role.
Our values underpin our culture and how we do business – they set the parameters of how we expect our people to act with their colleagues, clients and the world at large. Purposefully driven, actively curious and candid, but kind.
A competency interview could be a new experience for you, or it might be a while since you last interviewed for a role. To help you make the most of the interview, and set you up for success, we have included some examples of the types of questions you might be asked. The ones shown relate to the our values. The technical questions will be based upon the role you apply for.
A useful way to answer questions like these is the STARR approach. What was the situation, what was the task, what action did you take, what were the results and what reflections did you have afterwards. This approach helps you to get your answer across in a clear way and with impact. It also allows our people to ask you follow on questions on areas they would like to know more about.
We hope this helps you enjoy and get the most out of your interview experience here at Grant Thornton.
Example competency interview questions
-
How do you ensure your work meets the highest quality standards possible? Who do you collaborate with to ensure this and how do you review your work?
-
Give an example of a time when you’ve taken responsibility for the delivery of a large project or piece of work. What quality and risk measures did you consider and how did you ensure you met the deadlines?
-
Give an example of an innovation or idea you wanted to deliver. How did you go about sharing this idea with colleagues and what factors did you consider to ensure all risk/quality measures were identified?
-
Give an example of when you’ve positively influenced others in improving a process or piece of work. How did you go about influencing and what factors did you consider?
-
Give an example of when you’ve provided difficult feedback to a colleague. How did you position the feedback to ensure you delivered it in a kind but straightforward manner, to get the best outcome from the conversation?
-
Talk us through another person’s career that you’ve helped to develop. What was your input and how did you support them in the best way to get the desired outcome?
- Tell us about a time when a client/senior colleague has asked you to deliver a piece of work that you felt may be contrary to your organisation's ethical principles. What safeguards and measures did you consider?
- Tell us about a time when you've needed to maintain objectivity and independence in a work scenario. What action did you take and what was the outcome?
We are a Disability Confident employer, as well an inclusive employer and committed to ensuring our workforce is representative of our diverse society. We therefore make reasonable adjustments and adaptions to our recruitment process to ensure it is inclusive for anyone who wishes to apply.
Find out more
Hear from our people about what life at Grant Thornton is really like, from the work we do, to the support we give, we all have a story to tell here.
Our flexible and agile policies are only some of the benefits of working at Grant Thornton. Learn about the other benefits and reward available to our people.
Diverse and inclusive is how every business should be. Find out how we’re making that happen at Grant Thornton.
Hear from our people about what life at Grant Thornton is really like, from the work we do, to the support we give, we all have a story to tell here.
Our flexible and agile policies are only some of the benefits of working at Grant Thornton. Learn about the other benefits and reward available to our people.
Diverse and inclusive is how every business should be. Find out how we’re making that happen at Grant Thornton.