You might have heard companies talk about how important it is to have commercial awareness. We're here to help you understand what commercial awareness is, why it's important and how to become more commercially aware.

What is commercial awareness?

It’s an understanding of how businesses and organisations work. This isn’t something you can pick up over overnight. You need to invest time and energy to really understand what makes businesses tick and how they connect with the world around them. Here are some tips of things to think about as you prepare to apply for roles. 

When we interview you, we'll ask you some questions to asses your commercial awareness, below are some example questions we may ask you. 

From your research, what do you think makes Grant Thornton stand out from our competitors and why does that make you want to work here?

To answer this, you'll need to have researched our competitors and what makes us different. There are lots of reasons why people choose Grant Thornton, such as our people, our values, and the clients we work with. Make sure you know why you put your application in.

What impact could you see the cost of living crisis having on our business and our clients? How can we support them through this?

You need to know the external factors that impact companies and what challenges and opportunities they create. The current economic uncertainty is just one example of many. You don't need to have all the answers. We just want to see you're paying attention to the world around you and the way businesses are connected to it.

What sort of services do we offer clients?

We’re not looking for you to real off the entire list. But you need to show an understanding of what we do and how our services benefit clients. We simply want to see that you're interested in us and have done your research.

Visit our Employability webinar section for useful webinars, including one on commercial awareness.