PwC Mock Interview

Practice 35 PwC interview questions covering case scenarios, values fit, and business advisory challenges.

Question 15 of 35

How do you react when your team misses a deadline?

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Kevin Downey has an extensive background in business management, recruiting, branding and marketing. He's volunteered his career coaching services at job fairs, lecturing on interview techniques and crafting winning resumes and cover letters.

The question aims to understand how you react to disappointment and professional setbacks. Your answer could offer them insights into your emotional maturity, whether you let your disappointment get the best of you or learn from and apply the lessons of your failures towards shoring up your future success. Give an example of a time your team missed a deadline and walk the interviewer through the action you took and the perspective it helped you build.

"We Reimagine the possible: At PwC, we innovate, we test, we iterate and we learn along the way. Reimagine the possible. Dare to challenge the status quo and try new things. Innovate, test, and learn from failure. Have an open mind to the possibilities in every idea."

Kimberly Hallman

Kimberly is a freelance writer and editor with a decade of experience in the education field, including her time as a pre-kindergarten teacher.

"My team is highly efficient, and we rarely miss a deadline. When we do, it's surprising. Last year, we had a very challenging client who made significant changes throughout the project. These changes caused us to miss our deadline. I took action after that to ensure a better client onboarding process. This new process made sure we dug deeper with each client at the start, which has resulted in fewer mid-project changes."

Kimberly Hallman

Kimberly is a freelance writer and editor with a decade of experience in the education field, including her time as a pre-kindergarten teacher.

"When my team misses a deadline, it is disappointing. On the odd occasion that this happens, I first ask my team for feedback. I want to know what I could have done better as a leader to hit our goal. Then, I ask them to look internally and tell me what they honestly feel they could have done differently. I prefer a collaborative approach to these types of conversations."

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Anonymous Answer

With Agile, there are no surprises. Since the progress is monitored always, I as a product owner, know the status of the release. If due to technical reasons or when the team member is not available which will make us miss the deadline. I would inform the management about the status And with daily standup, a lot of these are easily handled. Let's assume it comes as a last min surprise, I would deprioritize and put items in the backlog plan for the release or will ask additional weeks to have those items complete and release it few weeks late

Marcie's Feedback

Excellent! Your reply indicates that you and your team rarely miss deadlines in the first place, which the interviewer will definitely be happy to hear. But you also explain what you would do in this situation, thereby answering the question and showing that if needed you could handle this problem. Great job!

Anonymous Answer

I would quickly ascertain why we missed the mark and rectify the situation. Calm, clear communication is essential at this point to the team so we do our best in fixing the situation and make sure that it doesn't happen again in the future. I recall when this happened with a small company that I was running. A team member missed an important deadline while out sick which really hurt the others in the group. We worked to repair the camaraderie and made sure that everyone knew how to handle this better in the future. I had to ask some to be calm in how they communicate and asked the others that didn't let the others know he was out sick to keep us all informed, even if it takes just a moment. In the end, the team was stronger for it and there was no lasting damage.

Amanda's Feedback

Good job! You've focused on learning from and rectifying the situation so that a future deadline is not missed. You've also provided a workplace example, which gives your response more impact. You can enhance this answer further by explaining what deadline was missed, how it hurt the team or company, and how the team worked together to remedy the situation at the moment before you worked on preventing it in the future.

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35PwC Interview Questions & Answers

Communication

1.How would you explain the management consulting industry to someone who is unfamiliar?

Compatibility

2.Who are our clients at PwC?

Job Satisfaction

3.As a management consultant, who is your ideal client?

Experience

4.What cutting-edge management tools have you used in your career?

Communication

5.Why do companies need consultants?

Diligence

6.How do you keep up to date on the changes in our industry, from regulations to tech?

7.In consulting, much of your growth will come from feedback on client projects. How do you accept and implement feedback?

Competency

8.Who are PwC's biggest competitors? How do we stand out from the rest?

Education

9.What have you done to expand your knowledge in the past three months?

Creative Thinking

10.How would you make PwC more profitable?

Critical Thinking

11.How do you exercise logic?

Adaptability

12.How do you learn the company culture of a new client when taking on their project?

Diligence

13.How do you manage the lifecycle of your projects to ensure on-time deliverables and deadlines?

Experience

14.What steps do you take when researching a new market or industry?

15.How do you react when your team misses a deadline?

Problem Solving

16.What makes you a great problem solver?

Problem Solving

17.How do you prioritize multiple projects when they all seem equally important?

Compatibility

18.What do you believe is the most important service we offer at PwC?

Leadership

19.Have you ever supervised or trained junior consultants?

Job Satisfaction

20.PwC works with clients across many industries. Which of our clients' industries interests you the most?

Experience

21.What do you think makes a good management consultant?

Performance Based

22.What will be the greatest challenges you face in this job? How will you overcome these challenges?

Role-Specific

23.What have you done in the last few months to strengthen your professional network?

Experience

24.What do you believe are the most critical KPIs for a management consulting firm to consider?

Behavioral

25.What is the most challenging client issue you have faced this year? How did you overcome the situation?

Behavioral

26.Do you consider yourself a persuasive person?

Communication

27.What are the components of a successful and effective presentation?

Job Satisfaction

28.How does a career in management consulting fulfill and satisfy you?

Job Satisfaction

29.How can PwC motivate you?

Conflict

30.Tell me about a time you had to collaborate with a colleague with whom you did not see eye-to-eye. How did you get along well enough to make it a success?

Diversity

31.How comfortable are you working in a culturally diverse environment?

Career Goals

32.If you could work at any of our offices, which would you prefer?

Leadership

33.Who is your role model or a mentor?

Behavioral

34.Tell us about yourself.

Behavioral

PwC Mock Interview

How do you react when your team misses a deadline?

35PwC Interview Questions & Answers

1.How would you explain the management consulting industry to someone who is unfamiliar?

2.Who are our clients at PwC?

3.As a management consultant, who is your ideal client?

4.What cutting-edge management tools have you used in your career?

5.Why do companies need consultants?

6.How do you keep up to date on the changes in our industry, from regulations to tech?

7.In consulting, much of your growth will come from feedback on client projects. How do you accept and implement feedback?

8.Who are PwC's biggest competitors? How do we stand out from the rest?

9.What have you done to expand your knowledge in the past three months?

10.How would you make PwC more profitable?

11.How do you exercise logic?

12.How do you learn the company culture of a new client when taking on their project?

13.How do you manage the lifecycle of your projects to ensure on-time deliverables and deadlines?

14.What steps do you take when researching a new market or industry?

15.How do you react when your team misses a deadline?

16.What makes you a great problem solver?

17.How do you prioritize multiple projects when they all seem equally important?

18.What do you believe is the most important service we offer at PwC?

19.Have you ever supervised or trained junior consultants?

20.PwC works with clients across many industries. Which of our clients' industries interests you the most?

21.What do you think makes a good management consultant?

22.What will be the greatest challenges you face in this job? How will you overcome these challenges?

23.What have you done in the last few months to strengthen your professional network?

24.What do you believe are the most critical KPIs for a management consulting firm to consider?

25.What is the most challenging client issue you have faced this year? How did you overcome the situation?

26.Do you consider yourself a persuasive person?

27.What are the components of a successful and effective presentation?

28.How does a career in management consulting fulfill and satisfy you?

29.How can PwC motivate you?

30.Tell me about a time you had to collaborate with a colleague with whom you did not see eye-to-eye. How did you get along well enough to make it a success?

31.How comfortable are you working in a culturally diverse environment?

32.If you could work at any of our offices, which would you prefer?

33.Who is your role model or a mentor?

34.Tell us about yourself.

35.If you could serve as a consultant to your younger self, what professional advice would you give yourself?