EY-Parthenon Experience Day - Financial Due Diligence

Hi there,

Congrats on the invite — EY-Parthenon Experience Days are generally assessment-style but supportive, and they’re meant to see how you think and work rather than trip you up.

For Financial Due Diligence (FDD) specifically, you can typically expect a mix of the following:

What the day usually includes

• Individual case or analysis exercise: often a simplified FDD-style case focused on understanding historical financials, quality of earnings, cash flow, or key risks rather than a pure strategy case.
• Group exercise: working with other candidates to discuss findings, prioritize issues, and present conclusions. They’ll watch how you collaborate, structure discussion, and communicate under time pressure.
• Presentation element: either individually or as a group, you may be asked to present insights or recommendations to interviewers.
• Fit / motivation conversations: shorter, informal chats to assess interest in FDD, Parthenon, and deal work more broadly.

What they’re really assessing

• Financial intuition and comfort with numbers
• Ability to identify key value drivers and risks quickly
• Structured thinking and clear communication
• Teamwork and stakeholder-style interaction

How to prepare

• Refresh basic FDD concepts: QoE, revenue vs. EBITDA adjustments, working capital, cash vs. accruals.
• Practice pulling 2–3 key insights from financial tables rather than analyzing everything.
• Be ready to explain why something matters for a buyer, not just what the numbers say.
• In group settings, contribute early but don’t dominate — clarity and collaboration matter.

Overall, think practical, commercial, and deal-focused rather than theoretical. They’re looking for people who can grow into client-facing due diligence work.

Happy to help you prep , as I have direct experience with EYP.

Best,

Evelina

Hello!

Congrats on the EY-Parthenon Experience Day, expect it to be fast-paced and practical.

What the day typically includes:

• Individual case or financial exercise (often time-pressured)
• Group exercise testing collaboration and communication
• Potentially a short presentation or debrief of findings (especially to test public speaking in front of peers and partners)

Based on my experience (ex-Altman Solon, 15+ commercial and technical due diligence projects in TMT for PE clients like EQT), Financial DD interviews usually test the same things the job requires:

• Comfort with pressure and short deadlines
• Strong quantitative skills (quick math, scenario thinking, basic financial modeling logic)
• Solid finance understanding (cash flows, drivers, risks)
• Team behavior -> extremely important, as DD teams are small and hours are intense
• Clear, concise communication of insights, not just numbers

Key advice:

• Be structured and calm under time pressure
• Show you can do the math and sanity-check results
• Be visibly collaborative and supportive in group work — this is critical in DD environments

As a coach, I’m here to help you, we can simulate DD-style exercises, sharpen your financial intuition under pressure, and make sure you project the right mix of rigor, speed, and teamwork EY-Parthenon looks for in Financial DD.

Congrats!

Typically it has a presentation element and a practical element. 

They would walk you through how they work, the practice, present some stories from consultants. 

Then they typically have a case study or exercise which you are meant to solve in smaller groups. Some of the groups will then present their result in front of all the event participants. Volunteer for this.

Then at the end they explain you more about the application process, key dates and give you tips on the process.

Best of luck with attending it! I've coached multiple candidates into EY so if you need any help, drop me a line.

Best,

Cristian