Deloitte rejects candidate who was willing to be exploited
Deloitte rejects a candidate with no English who wanted the job even if it meant being exploited. Junior salaries range from €10,000 to €25,000 gross depending on the profile.
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
Deloitte rejects the candidate who asked to be exploited
An applicant shows up for an interview at Deloitte without knowing English and with his CV forwarded twice. The test turns out to be a multiple-choice exam. Weeks later the letter arrives: he doesn't fit the profile. And in the same thread where some celebrate the rejection as a blessing, the candidate himself admits he wants to try again. The paradox isn't his: it belongs to a labor market where seven-day-a-week call-center work with shifts changed from one day to the next makes the big consulting firm the lesser evil.
What the Deloitte entrance test is like
The process has three stages: an informational one, an English test and an accounting test. The candidate arrives "scared to death" because he can barely say his name in English. The English and accounting tests turn out to be multiple choice. "It was easy," he sums up. Other applicants who went through the same thing confirm the format: percentages, annual percentage growth over X years. The calculator is essential.
Some claim spoken English can be faked by mispronouncing on purpose, and one recommends speaking with your tongue pressed against a molar to nail the accent. Trench humor. The real result comes by letter: he doesn't pass the profile filter.
How much Deloitte pays a junior in Madrid
The figures circulating in the thread itself range from the €10,000 gross over twelve payments mentioned by a candidate from Huelva to the €20,000-25,000 for engineers with no experience in Madrid, depending on how well you sell yourself in the interview. Another applicant says the offer was under €1,000 a month. A third participant recalls that a few years ago entry-level consultants earned no less than €25,000 and auditors €18,000.
The range matters because whoever asks about it has to decide whether moving to Madrid from Huelva is worth it. With those numbers, the math doesn't add up.
Why people say Deloitte burns people out
The most repeated description: leaving every day after 10 p.m., working Saturdays, vacation changes the day before they start. More than 50 hours a week. Several accounts agree that acquaintances haven't lasted six months and left for health reasons. It's described as an environment where everything is appearances: switching between tabs to look busy in front of the boss, where leaving on time amounts to giving up on promotion.
On the other side, it's acknowledged that it looks good on your CV for jumping to other companies and that there's a young atmosphere. Whoever endures and makes it to manager, another adds, enters a circle where status matters more than salary.
Consulting: speculation or learning?
One camp argues that the firm sells a product —the employee themselves— without adding value: the training course doesn't improve anyone, it improves experience. The boss keeps part of other people's work and only contributed contacts and sales skills. Another camp concedes that you learn a great deal and that it can be the springboard to starting your own business later.
Against both, a third way: small consulting firms where you don't work a single hour of overtime, no suits required and nobody aspires to climb. The price is giving up the vertical career.
The rejected candidate is clear: he'll send his CV again. His current job, he says, is worse. How bad does employment have to get for the consulting firm everyone describes as hell to become the desired option?
An applicant shows up for an interview at Deloitte without knowing English and with his CV forwarded twice. The test turns out to be a multiple-choice exam. Weeks later the letter arrives: he doesn't fit the profile. And in the same thread where some celebrate the rejection as a blessing, the candidate himself admits he wants to try again. The paradox isn't his: it belongs to a labor market where seven-day-a-week call-center work with shifts changed from one day to the next makes the big consulting firm the lesser evil.
What the Deloitte entrance test is like
The process has three stages: an informational one, an English test and an accounting test. The candidate arrives "scared to death" because he can barely say his name in English. The English and accounting tests turn out to be multiple choice. "It was easy," he sums up. Other applicants who went through the same thing confirm the format: percentages, annual percentage growth over X years. The calculator is essential.
Some claim spoken English can be faked by mispronouncing on purpose, and one recommends speaking with your tongue pressed against a molar to nail the accent. Trench humor. The real result comes by letter: he doesn't pass the profile filter.
How much Deloitte pays a junior in Madrid
The figures circulating in the thread itself range from the €10,000 gross over twelve payments mentioned by a candidate from Huelva to the €20,000-25,000 for engineers with no experience in Madrid, depending on how well you sell yourself in the interview. Another applicant says the offer was under €1,000 a month. A third participant recalls that a few years ago entry-level consultants earned no less than €25,000 and auditors €18,000.
The range matters because whoever asks about it has to decide whether moving to Madrid from Huelva is worth it. With those numbers, the math doesn't add up.
Why people say Deloitte burns people out
The most repeated description: leaving every day after 10 p.m., working Saturdays, vacation changes the day before they start. More than 50 hours a week. Several accounts agree that acquaintances haven't lasted six months and left for health reasons. It's described as an environment where everything is appearances: switching between tabs to look busy in front of the boss, where leaving on time amounts to giving up on promotion.
On the other side, it's acknowledged that it looks good on your CV for jumping to other companies and that there's a young atmosphere. Whoever endures and makes it to manager, another adds, enters a circle where status matters more than salary.
Consulting: speculation or learning?
One camp argues that the firm sells a product —the employee themselves— without adding value: the training course doesn't improve anyone, it improves experience. The boss keeps part of other people's work and only contributed contacts and sales skills. Another camp concedes that you learn a great deal and that it can be the springboard to starting your own business later.
Against both, a third way: small consulting firms where you don't work a single hour of overtime, no suits required and nobody aspires to climb. The price is giving up the vertical career.
The rejected candidate is clear: he'll send his CV again. His current job, he says, is worse. How bad does employment have to get for the consulting firm everyone describes as hell to become the desired option?
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (47 replies).
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