Deloitte Assessments

Careers at Deloitte

Encouragingly, Deloitte offers a range of early career programmes for school and university students and recent graduates.

A-Level students can partake in Career Shaper days, which allow you to test out your liking for a career with Deloitte via introductions to client projects in a variety of service areas.

Deloitte also offers the Pathfinder Programme - comprising a nine-month placement before university, and a month with the same Deloitte department every summer while at university. Based on performance and degree outcome, students are then admitted directly to the graduate programme.

For school students who don’t feel university is the right fit, Deloitte runs an apprenticeship scheme and a BrightStart Apprenticeship.

For university students who are unsure about their career direction but want a taste of what a Deloitte career is like, there’s Spring into Deloitte.

Penultimate-year university students can apply for the annual summer vacation scheme, which is a 3–6 week placement in Tax Consulting, Real Estate, or Human Capital and Actuarial. There is also the option to work for Deloitte for a six to twelve-month industrial placement.

Graduates can apply to Deloitte’s graduate training scheme under the areas of Audit and Assurance, Real Estate, Cyber, Tax Consulting, Human Capital and Actuarial or Technology.

As illustrated by the range above, Deloitte provides many supportive routes through education into its business sectors.

Whilst it may appear easier to secure employment at Deloitte through these routes, be aware that these are not a prerequisite of employment. If you are an experienced hire without any previous contact or experience at Deloitte, you should not be deterred.

There are opportunities for professionals across all service areas. Deloitte prides itself on its inclusive culture and values, as well as its learning and development opportunities, and flexibility for agile working.

Deloitte Application Process

As expected, there is great competition to secure a role at Deloitte and this is the case across all service sectors. The multi-stage recruitment process is particularly challenging; careful preparation is needed to excel and impress at each stage.

To ensure the best talent is recruited, the Deloitte application process consists of a variety of online assessments, including a number of reasoning tests and a job simulation exercise.

These tests help to gain insight into a candidate’s mental capability, as well as into their behaviour and alignment with the Deloitte culture, values and ways of working.

If you progress to the final stages, you will have to impress the recruitment team at a virtual assessment centre, which will consist of an interview and likely also a presentation and group exercise.

Below is a detailed breakdown of the stages in Deloitte’s recruitment process. Note that the process may vary slightly according to the type of programme or role you are applying for.

Online application

The first stage of the process is to complete an online application. You will first be asked to indicate the opportunity or role you are applying for. You will then need to complete your candidate profile, adding your work experience and educational qualifications.

It is recommended that you have your grade information handy before launching the application portal.

You may also be asked a few simple questions regarding your motivation for applying to the company and role (this is dependent on the opportunity you are expressing interest in). The answers required will likely have a 100-word limit.

Deloitte Game-Based Assessment

Next, you may be invited to complete a short game-based assessment as a means of gaining insight into your decision-making, problem-solving abilities and propensity for risk-taking.

The idea behind the gamified assessment is to give the recruitment team an indication of how candidates are likely to react to pressure in different scenarios.

You should get an invitation to play the game, called Cosmic Cadet, around three days after submitting your initial application. Feedback is provided via a report outlining your strengths and areas for improvement.

Deloitte Aptitude Tests

Deloitte’s online aptitude tests consist of a series of questions from several types of psychometric tests, to assess different aspects of a candidate’s mental capability. These will likely be numerical reasoning, verbal reasoning and situational strengths questions.

There is some variation to testing depending on department, role, and office location. And there is no time limit. It is, however, a requirement to complete the test in one sitting (on average it takes around 40 minutes to complete).

Note that Deloitte branches tend to use Cappfinity as their test publisher.

For some vacancies, the question styles below will be blended into a single assessment. For others, they will be in distinct sections following on from each other. Either way, you will be answering the same style of questions, just in a different structure.

Deloitte numerical reasoning

The numerical reasoning test will present candidates with multiple-choice questions based around basic mathematical skills - such as fractions, percentages, ratios, sequences and simple algebra - and data interpretation from charts and tables.

Deloitte verbal reasoning

The verbal reasoning questions will require candidates to read passages and answer questions related to sentence structure, emphasis, synonyms, and implied meaning.

Deloitte situational strengths

The situational strengths test will ask you a series of questions related to how you would respond in different work scenarios. It aims to assess your behaviours and whether they align with Deloitte’s workplace culture and values.