just completed the Accenture engineering manager interview for a Manager-level role (their consulting hierarchy, not a standard EM title) in the Technology practice. wanted to write something up because I was flying mostly blind going in.
full loop was 4 conversations over about 5 weeks.
recruiter + HR screen: 30 minutes. competency mapping, salary expectations, work authorization. standard. they also asked about my management experience upfront -- how many direct reports, what kind of teams, what type of client environments. this info routes you to the right practice area so be thoughtful about what you emphasize.
case interview (60 min): yes, engineering managers at Accenture do a case. it wasn't a pure McKinsey-style market sizing case, but more of a delivery/program management case. scenario: you're managing a team of 12 on a cloud migration for a financial services client. midway through, the client changes scope and the timeline is fixed. what do you do? I had to structure my response: assess the impact, communicate to the client, negotiate trade-offs, protect the team. they pushed on specifics: who do you loop in first? what does the conversation with the client actually sound like?
technical leadership round (60 min): not a coding interview, but not zero technical content either. questions were things like: how do you make architectural decisions on a project where you're not the most senior technical person? how do you handle technical debt when the client is pushing for speed? one question about agile in a consulting context, which is different from product company agile -- billable hours, client expectations, fixed deliverables.
managing people + culture fit (45 min): two interviewers, both managers or senior managers. heavy on behavioral. tell me about a time you had to let someone go or put them on a performance plan. how do you build psychological safety on a client project where the team is temporary? how do you handle a situation where a team member is underperforming but a client is asking for them by name? these were the most interesting questions I've had in any interview loop.
overall the loop tests whether you can manage delivery, manage people, and communicate with clients simultaneously. pure technical depth isn't what they're optimizing for at the manager level.
if you're coming from a product company EM role, the biggest adjustment is that Accenture clients are the stakeholders and their timelines are often not flexible. prep stories that show you've shipped under constraints.