EY & KPMG Strengths-Based Interviews: Key Differences

What Is a Strengths-Based Interview?

A strengths-based interview focuses on what you naturally do well and what energises you, rather than asking you to recall specific past situations. Where a competency interview asks 'Tell me about a time when…', a strengths-based question asks 'What kinds of tasks do you find most rewarding?' or 'Do you prefer to lead or support others — and why?'

The underlying logic is that people perform best and stay longest in roles that draw on their genuine strengths. Firms including EY and KPMG have incorporated strengths-based elements into their graduate and school-leaver hiring because they believe it surfaces authentic fit more reliably than rehearsed STAR answers alone.

How EY and KPMG Typically Use This Format

Both EY and KPMG are well known for using strengths-based questions alongside — or instead of — traditional competency questions at various stages of their recruitment processes. While neither firm publishes its exact question bank or scoring rubric, it is widely reported and consistent with industry norms that their assessment centres and video interview stages include strengths-based elements for graduate, school-leaver, and apprenticeship programmes.

In practice, you may encounter a blend: a short competency question asking for a specific example, followed immediately by a strengths probe such as 'Did you enjoy that experience?' or 'How often do you find yourself doing that naturally?' Interviewers are trained to look for energy, spontaneity, and genuine enthusiasm in your responses — signals that are harder to fake than a polished STAR answer.

Strengths-Based vs Competency Interviews: A Clear Comparison

Understanding the structural difference between the two formats will stop you preparing for the wrong thing.

• Competency interviews: past-focused, evidence-based, structured around specific examples ('Tell me about a time you led a team under pressure').
• Strengths-based interviews: present- and future-focused, energy-based, structured around preferences and natural behaviours ('What kind of work puts you in a flow state?').
• Competency answers reward preparation and structured recall; strengths answers reward self-awareness and honest reflection.
• Competency interviews assess whether you have done something; strengths interviews assess whether you love doing it.
• Both formats can appear in video interviews, telephone screens, or face-to-face assessment centres — sometimes in the same conversation.

Common Strengths-Based Questions to Expect

You cannot predict every question, but these themes recur across professional services firms using strengths-based approaches.

• 'What do you find yourself doing even when no one has asked you to?'
• 'Describe a day at work or university when time flew by. What were you doing?'
• 'When do you feel most confident?'
• 'Are you a starter or a finisher — and what makes you say that?'
• 'What energises you about a career in consulting or professional services?'
• 'Do you prefer working with data, people, or ideas?'
• 'What kind of feedback do you most often receive from others?'

How to Prepare: Practical Steps

The worst thing you can do is treat strengths-based interviews like competency interviews and script rigid answers. Interviewers are specifically listening for the authenticity and pace that scripted answers lack. Instead, use the following approach.

Start with genuine self-reflection. Write down five to eight activities — from study, work, volunteering, or hobbies — where you lost track of time or felt energised afterwards. These are likely your strengths in action. Then map them to relevant professional behaviours: curiosity, client focus, analytical thinking, resilience, collaboration.

Practise speaking naturally under time pressure. One-way video interview platforms impose strict time limits per answer, so you need to sound warm and unscripted while still being concise. Recording yourself on camera — ideally on a platform that simulates timed, one-way video conditions like ScreenReady — helps you hear whether your answers sound genuine or rehearsed.

Do not abandon STAR entirely. Even in strengths-based interviews, a brief example adds credibility. A useful formula is: state your strength, give a quick illustration, explain why you enjoy it, and connect it to the role. Keep the example short — two or three sentences — and let your energy carry the answer.

Example Strengths-Based Answer (With Annotation)

Question: 'What kind of work puts you in a flow state?'

Strong answer: 'I am most absorbed when I am making sense of a complex problem — pulling together information from different sources to find a pattern that wasn't obvious at first. During my dissertation I spent an afternoon restructuring three months of survey data into a framework that finally explained an anomaly I'd been puzzling over, and I genuinely did not notice three hours pass. I think that drive to get underneath a problem, rather than just describe it, is one of the reasons consulting appeals to me — the work is genuinely analytical, but the output has to land clearly with a client.'

Why this works: The candidate identifies a specific strength (analytical curiosity), anchors it with a brief, credible example, expresses genuine enthusiasm ('I genuinely did not notice three hours pass'), and connects it to the target role without sounding formulaic. Notice there is no rigid Situation-Task-Action-Result structure — the example is in service of the strength, not the other way around.

Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Candidates who prepare only for competency interviews often make the same errors in strengths-based settings. Here is what to watch for.

• DON'T: Give a textbook strength ('I'm a natural leader') with no evidence of genuine enjoyment.
• DO: Describe what leadership actually feels like for you and when you seek it out unprompted.
• DON'T: Reel off a scripted STAR answer when asked 'Do you enjoy working under pressure?'
• DO: Answer the question directly ('Yes — I find the focus it creates genuinely useful') before briefly illustrating it.
• DON'T: Claim strengths you think the firm wants to hear without personal evidence.
• DO: Map real, evidenced strengths to the firm's values — EY's 'exceptional client service' and KPMG's 'better business' ethos are publicly stated and worth researching.
• DON'T: Forget that interviewers may ask follow-up probes like 'How often does that come up naturally for you?' — be ready to substantiate.
• DO: Use ScreenReady or a trusted peer to rehearse under realistic timed conditions so you can self-correct before the real interview.