My Deloitte Insider Program Experience

Posted on: July 4, 2022

Post Category: Student Experience

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During my pre-penultimate/second year of University, mid-2020, I took part in the Deloitte Insider Program.

With applications opening for the program later this year in July (see here), I figured it’d be useful that I share my experience taking part in the program, for newer students who may be interested in the company.

For quick context, the Deloitte Insider Program is a program dedicated to pre-penultimate-year University students who are interested in gaining some insight into what it’s like to work at Deloitte. Over the past two years, the program was a week-long and involved many virtual sessions where different areas of the business would showcase their different teams and the type of work that they did.

And generally, students who participated in the program would eventually be fast-tracked to the Assessment Centre stage for next year’s summer intern recruitment process.

This blog post will go over how the program was structured, and some of the learnings and resources I gained while doing the program. I will also write down some of the tips I found useful to help me get the most out of the experience.

One thing to note is that my experience was virtual due to the lockdowns during the pandemic. The Insider Program will be held in-person in selected offices this year and virtually for the others, but (hopefully) some of the insights I share in this post should still be relevant.

So my experience…

During mid-September of 2020, after I accepted my spot in the program, a member from the Graduate Talent Acquisition team sent me an Insider Program manual and the agenda of the (virtual) Insider Program.

The manual was a quick guide for Insiders to get to learn more about Deloitte, the different business units, and tips for the program and following stages in the recruitment process. In the agenda, there were mandatory Zoom sessions and optional Zoom sessions. Mandatory sessions included sessions that were relevant to all students in the program, and the session that aligned with the business unit we were most interested in, as per our online application.

I have attached a screenshot of the agenda below. You can see that my most-preferred Deloitte business unit was Technology Consulting.

Overall, the sessions were interactive and informative. During the Welcome and Wrap Up session, there were a few fun ice-breakers and activities in spite of the virtual environment. And during the graduate panel and discovery sessions, there were ample opportunities to meet some of the people, learn more about the organisation and different teams, and have your questions answered.

Personally, I got the most value out of the program through the people I met during the program. Particularly during the discovery sessions, it can sometimes feel a bit rushed and pretty surface-level since many different teams present within the hour.

In spite of this, it was great that I got to know the presenters, their names and the teams they were from. It presented a good opportunity for me to reach out to them on LinkedIn if I ever had any follow-up questions.

With regards to the Application Tips & Tricks session, we were given insights into the Vacationer and Graduate (more so Vacationer) application process at Deloitte. I would say most of the tips and tricks were quite familiar and generic, but I guess it was good getting to know what the Deloitte recruitment team was looking for in successful candidates in some of the stages.

My tips for participants of the program

• Keep note of any specific teams that you find interesting. Have a read through the Deloitte Student Pathways guide and keep note of any teams that stand out to you. In the Deloitte Student Pathways guide, what I found useful was that there were summaries of each team, and they included relevant degrees and relevant technologies/skills. This made it really easy to navigate teams I was interested. Ultimately, while it was “mandatory” to sit in the discovery session of your most-preferred business unit, you could sit into any session. You won’t be given a replay of the sessions, so I recommend sitting into a session even if you only have slight interest in a particular team.
• Take notes throughout the program of any key insights you found during the session that you may reference later on in the interview – once you get an invitation to do an assessment centre with Deloitte. Better, if you are interested in and want to learn more about a particular team, I would highly recommend reaching out to the representative who gave the talk, on LinkedIn.

If you would like to learn more from my experience or would like access to some of the resources that were mentioned in this post, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn and send over a message.