Giving students definitive dates for assessment and interviews is key to PwC reducing time from assessment to job offer from an average of eight weeks to one week, according to the professional services firm’s head of student recruitment. 

Richard Irwin told Recruiter that giving students specific dates rather than basing those dates on student availability and that of PwC staff, had allowed the firm to create a new fast-track assessment event for 50 new graduate vacancies in its consulting practice to start work in 2014. 

“We’ve not removed any stage from the standard process. We are still measuring talent in the same way. We have just created an event that speeds up the process for those students that want to know if they have got a job sooner. We are able to do this by being transparent about the dates they need to be available on,” said Irwin. 

Applicants are notified of the outcome of the one-day assessment event within four days, with successful candidates progressing to interview with a PwC partner. The first event was run on 2 April. 

Staggering its application deadlines also means that PwC doesn’t miss out on the up to 50% of students who apply for graduate vacancies between January and July, which is after PwC’s pre-Christmas deadline for applications. “We have been able to reach a new group of students and are not missing out on talent,” said Irwin. 

Recent figures from the US Department of Labour revealed that the average time to hire had risen to 23 business days, from 15 in 2009.

Irwin said that feedback from the first event was that 90% of candidates were happy they had opted for the fast track rather than the usual longer route. 

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