Censeo Consulting Group Interview Questions
& Process

The hiring process was pretty long. The HR recruiter wasn't super organized and missed a couple of follow-ups she promised, but they were apparently in the middle of a big hiring push, so maybe that's why. She never actually closed the loop. It started with a phone screen with the recruiter, then a phone call with another Associate, and finally an in-person meeting with senior staff and two other Associates.

The interview process for college graduates mixes behavioral rounds with consulting case interviews. The company is evaluating you at happy hours, dinners, and coffee chats just as much as during case interviews. If you do well in one but not the other, you won't move forward. Treat coffee chats and happy hours as very important. Show a strong interest in the public/private sector and make sure you understand what Censeo does. The case interviews are standard. They use prepared cases that typically take an hour. In the final rounds, expect to do 3-4 cases with Directors. The cases often include data tables/charts, so be ready to analyze them.

Interviews were done through on campus recruiting. I applied with a cover letter and resume on my university's job portal. About two weeks later, I got an email for informal coffee chats with two recruiters, and they said half of those invited would get a formal interview. The recruiters were nice and answered my questions. A few days later, I got an interview. It had two parts, standard for consulting: a case study and a behavioral/skills part. The case interview was straightforward, mostly cost-cutting, no hard math. The second interview's first half was behavioral, so just have stories ready. The second half was tough for me; it involved analyzing graphs and charts. I messed up by doing calculations when I should have just pointed out trends. If I had moved on, the final interview would have been at their DC office. The recruiter emailed me afterward with feedback on areas to improve, even though I didn't get the job.

After applying, there were some coffee chats for people they might want to interview. Soon after, I heard back about whether I got an interview. The first interviews were on campus, back-to-back with managers for 45 minutes each. They included a short case study and some behavioral questions. About a week later, I got invited to a final round. This involved a casual happy hour at the office with drinks and food where I could chat with everyone. The actual interviews were the next day, similar to the first round: two 45-minute interviews, back-to-back with managers. The whole experience was really good, couldn't have asked for a better process.