Professional Documents
Culture Documents
How To Get A Grad Job
How To Get A Grad Job
GET A
GRAD JOB
Michelle La
WWW.HOWTOGETAGRADJOB.COM.AU
Introduction
Heres Where We All Stand
About The Book
About Me
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Why the #1 Piece of Advice a Recruiter Told Me Three Years Ago is Now
Redundant
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The Conventional Way To Be Well-Rounded
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Participate in Faculty-Led Events
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Get a Casual or Part-Time Job
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Make Your Own Job
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Donate Your Time and Volunteer
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Study Abroad
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Master Your Online Personal Brand
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The Non-Conventional Way To Be Well-Rounded
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Get Creative With Your CV
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Create a Website
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The Overlooked Importance of Soft Skills
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Small Talk
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(Active) Listening
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Emergent Leadership
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Humility
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Resilience
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How To Be Ahead of the Curve
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Vacationer and Foundation Programs
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Rolling Graduate Recruitment
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Preparation
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Chapter 3: Networking
Is Networking Even Necessary?
Professions and Organisational Culture
A Guide for Introverts
The Best Networking Tip
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Chapter 6: Interviews
General
Video Interviews
Assessment Centres
Final Interview
The Type of Questions You Should Anticipate
Tell Me About Yourself
Why Do You Want to Work Here?
What Do You Think Will be Some of the Challenges You Will Face as a
Graduate?
What is Your Greatest Weakness?
Where Do You See Yourself in Five Years?
Why You?
The Type of Behavioural Questions You Should Anticipate
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Introduction
Heres Where We All Stand
Graduate Careers Australia (GCA) reports that 32% of bachelor graduates from
the class of 2014 did not have a full-time job four months after graduating.
Since GCA began measuring graduate employment in 1982, this is the highest
full-time unemployment rate ever recorded and the toughest labour market
conditions since the early 1990s.
One could attribute the issue to graduate oversupply, automation and offshoring
of work or just a slower rate of growth in businesses leading to a decreased
graduate intake.
Either way, it goes without saying that despite being Australias most educated
generation in a history, students are finding it tougher than ever to find
themselves a graduate job after completing their studies.
Like many others, I have friends who are remarkably bright students but have
still failed to secure a graduate job in this increasingly competitive market.
From one student to another, I want to share every step of my experience to
securing a graduate job from my background preparation, to my university
involvement, to the mistakes Ive made, to every part of the application process
and everything else in between.
About Me
So what makes me qualified to write this book?
Good question.
First up, I am by no means claiming to be an expert in this field.
What I can say is that I have been in the graduate job application market for a
long time.
I started when I was in my final year of high school. I studied two university
level accounting subjects and applied for an accounting cadetship (a full-time
job with part-time university studies) at the Big 4 professional services firms.
I was knocked back on all fronts.
I began a three-year degree at the University of Melbourne, studying a Bachelor
of Commerce majoring in Accounting and Marketing.
At this point, I had my mind firmly set on pursuing a career in accounting and
had the belief that it would be a good starting point for any future career
endeavours.
In my first year, I applied for the first year foundation/orientation programs
offered by the Big 4 professional services firms and attended two of them offered
by different firms. I knew that this would help me get my foot in the door and
make it much easier to secure a vacationer placement next year.
In my second year, I applied for vacationer programs at the Big 4 and was
successfully accepted, but subsequently turned down the offer in favour of
studying on exchange.
It was during my exchange semester that I had a light bulb moment I wasnt
sure if accounting was for me. Sure, I was good enough at it to succeed in the
profession, but it wasnt what I was truly passionate about.
What I increasingly realised what I wanted to do was marketing.
By my third year, I felt that it was too late to change my career direction. I had
geared my whole degree heck, almost all my life to securing a job within the
accounting profession. My main networking contacts were in accounting, I
knew what the industry would be like and I knew what makes the ideal
graduate.
So, I hedged my bets and applied for graduate jobs in the accounting
professional services field, as well as several marketing based positions.
Unsurprisingly, I was successful on the accounting side of things, but faced
rejection after rejection when it came to the marketing roles.
So I accepted an accounting graduate job as an auditor at a mid-tier
professional services firm, but also made it my personal mission to make a
career change to a marketing based role within one year of being an auditor.
Fortunately, I was successful with my career change and, at the time of writing,
I will be starting my marketing graduate role within the upcoming months.
(Youll read all about how I managed to do this later on in the book!)
I tell you about my graduate application history only because my story sets up
the basis of everything else I have written in the book.
A lot of students think that the path to successfully gaining a graduate job is
linear (i.e. you study a degree, you apply, you get the job).
However, I hate to break it to you, but this is hardly ever the case.
Those who succeed with graduate recruitment work hard and there is usually
lots of background work that goes into their eventual grad applications.
Ive applied for over 50 programs and still had to take a one-year side step to
work as an auditor before securing a job that I truly wanted.
Other than my graduate applications, Ive also applied for countless other
things: scholarships, casual jobs, being on the committee of student societies
and volunteering for not-for-profit organisations.
Needless to say, Ive written a lot of applications in my time.
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In short, this means that students should aim to have a breadth of experiences
and that grades are not the be all and end all!
Of course, some industries namely management consulting, investment
banking and the like obviously place more emphasis and have stricter grade
requirements than other graduate jobs.
Generally speaking though, for professional services firms and broader industry
graduate roles, being well-rounded in your experiences will make your
application much more appealing than just having straight, high distinction
grades.
However, being well-rounded was what recruiters told me three years ago.
Heres the unfortunate thing about the graduate market today.
In fact, the UK branch of international accountancy firm Ernst & Young (EY) has
already announced that it will be removing the degree classification from its
entry criteria and that academic qualifications will no longer be a barrier to
getting a foot in the door.
Instead, EYs UK recruitment will use online assessments to judge the potential
of applicants.
Put simply, if youre a student who is solely focused on getting high distinctions
for every subject, chances are youre not going to get very far in your graduate
applications.
Being well-rounded not just meeting the GPA minimum is, now, the new
prerequisite.
Depending on your committee position within a student society, youll get first
hand experience in organising events, running promotions and liaising with
third-party sponsors.
This is a perfect, easy way to demonstrate your ability to work as part a team
and to develop interpersonal and communication skills.
Better still, if you join in your first year of university and remain with the same
student society for the length of your degree, youll also showcase leadership
abilities (assuming that you eventually move up the ranks), consistency and a
dedicated commitment to the cause.
Most universities have loads of events that students can participate in.
These include (but are not limited to) case competitions, volunteering
opportunities, being an orientation week host or mentoring younger students.
Besides having obvious cash flow benefits, working a casual or part-time job is a
great way to display your time management and negotiation skills.
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Why?
Because these are customer service or to put it in a more fancy way client
facing roles.
Typically speaking, these positions mean youre working in a dynamic
environment, exercising strong interpersonal and communication skills, solving
problems to best meet a customers needs and championing the brand you work
for.
So, dont be ashamed to list these jobs down on your CV and remember to use
them to your advantage in your next job application!
If youre one of the unfortunate students who have a lot of university contact
hours (or forgot the date to enrol in your classes and ended up with a less-thanideal, system generated timetable) it can be difficult to get a regular, shift job.
Take the opportunity to utilise any strengths and skill sets you have.
For many students, this will be tutoring high school or previous university
subjects.
For others, it may be coaching junior sport or teaching a musical instrument.
This demonstrates your ability to take initiative and to actively manage your
time across all your commitments.
Think about a cause that youre passionate about, do a web search and see what
organisations are available to you.
Even better, some not-for-profit organisations offer internships (e.g. the position
of Social Media Intern is a popular one) to students so you can gain some work
experience and volunteer your time towards a good cause.
Study Abroad
Ive been fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to complete both
options and, honestly, I can say that they are both pretty similar.
No matter which option you choose, studying abroad is a fantastic life
experience and presents the opportunity to step outside of your immediate
comfort zone, learn to study and live independently and allows you to be more
culturally aware of others.
Master Your Online Personal Brand
A personal brand simply refers to how you market or present yourself to others.
Its about knowing your value proposition to others that is, the strengths that
set you apart and why firms should want to hire you.
Back in the pre-Google era, you would start to establish your personal brand
when you first met someone.
However, times have changed and Googling someone, before youve actually
met them, has become the new norm.
So, if you havent done this already, do a quick Google search of your name and
make sure that nothing untoward comes up!
Then, ensure the following:
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By the time I was in my final year of university, I had above average grades,
been a committee member on three different student societies, held several
casual/part time jobs, was a self-employed piano teacher, completed two
volunteering placements, studied abroad on a scholarship at a summer school
program in the United States and studied on exchange in the United Kingdom.
I say all of this not to gloat, but to highlight how despite all of my endeavours
I still wasnt able to secure a graduate job in the field I wanted marketing.
I was undeterred by this slight setback and proceeded to spend the rest of my
final year at university figuring out what was missing from my application and
how I could make it even better.
One of the things I realised that I lacked was relevant work experience in
marketing.
However, the problem with trying to get a paid job is that, without relevant prior
work experience, youre unlikely to be hired.
So, here are some more non-conventional ideas to create your point of
differentiation.
Get Creative With Your CV
Depending on the type of industry youre applying for (e.g. marketing, design
etc.), it might be worth considering dressing up your CV.
It is said that recruiters spend an average of six seconds looking at your CV.
Theyre in Times New Roman or Arial, have black text on white paper, two
pages long and in PDF format.
Your CV is the only item in the initial application step that you can customise.
Play to your strengths and dont be afraid to stand out from the crowd.
One of the most daring CVs Ive ever seen had the persons name on it and a
URL link (yep, thats all they had on the page).
The URL link led to a two minute YouTube video where the person described
who they were, what work experience they had and why a company should hire
them (sounds a lot like what you would find on a regular CV doesnt it?).
If videos arent your thing, consider making your CV look more visually
appealing by turning it into an infographic.
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There are many great web applications available for you to try this out on, like
Piktochart or Canva.
If, like me, creativity is not your thing all together, thats fine too.
Just remember the triple S rule for CVs keep it short, sharp and specific!
Create a Website
Your own, personal website is a powerful marketing tool for your personal
brand.
A well written, beautifully designed website will not only allow your personality
to shine, but also allows you to create a positive first impression online.
Now, I should draw to your attention that this article and statistic relates to
professional job seekers, so you can only imagine how many (i.e. not many at
all!) students have their own website!
Ive seen personal websites that act as a general online CV, ones that showcase
an individuals portfolio of work from university and others that are tailored
towards a single industry or market.
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Here are five soft skills that Ive personally found to be very important, but dont
get as much attention as they possibly should.
Small Talk
If youre an introvert, like me, youll find small talk with others a difficult,
daunting and challenging ask.
You might actually be asking yourself, why is small talk even necessary?
What Ive found, in client facing roles, is that small talk actually facilitates
getting the job done by building rapport and the beginnings of a working
relationship.
As social beings, we inevitably find it easier to work with people who we are
familiar with, even if we only know them through some brief (often, mundane)
conversation.
The key to small talk is to actually try and turn it into an actual conversation,
rather than a series of back-and-forth questions and answers.
Here are a few things you can do:
Ask relevant questions. Its much easier for you to listen first, talk second
and then, based on what the other person has said, ask questions to
further progress the conversation.
Prepare and have a few go-to stories. Ive met people who regurgitate the
same stories over and over again (to different audiences, of course) and
have perfected them in the process.
(Active) Listening
I personally dislike the phrase active listening as I think all listening should be
active.
Active listening simply refers to the following:
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Paying attention to your own and the other persons body language
(which is another form of expression in itself).
Emergent Leadership
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Resilience is picking yourself back up after youve been faced with a setback (or
many setbacks).
If anything, the mistakes weve made, the failures weve encountered and the
disappointments weve faced make us a stronger character than before.
Here are some tips to help you stay strong in times when you may want to give
up:
Search for the inner motivation and drive you once had.
Try to think rationally often, emotions cloud our better judgement when
weve experienced negativity.
Learn from your mistakes remember that they will help prepare you for
any future mishaps.
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Plan well ahead before the university semester commences and certainly
dont leave it until week 4-5 of semester when assignments and tests
come rolling in.
Be proactive, not reactive (e.g. follow careers social media pages and
subscribe to job alerts).
Block out a few hours in your daily/weekly schedule to start your written
applications and make an achievable, realistic to-do list.
Keep a spreadsheet of which firms youve applied for, what division you
chose and the date you applied.
Monitor your own progress for each firm, including which firms you have
done the online testing for etc.
Remember, if youre going to apply for a job, you might as well give it your best
shot.
A rushed application is a wasted application.
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Develop broader skill sets across your division rather than being pigeonholed in one specific area.
Audit
As an overview, auditors assess whether or not an entitys financials are
materially misstated and present a true and fair view.
In order to do this, auditors plan and perform testing procedures on different
sections of the financials.
There are typically two audit visits during the year an interim and a final visit.
At the interim visit (prior to the financial year-end), auditors will perform
preliminary reviews to determine the unique inherent and business risks faced
by that particular entity.
Auditors also complete a walkthrough of key business cycles e.g. accounts
receivable/payable to determine if there are any controls in place to mitigate
these risks.
At the final visit (post financial year-end), auditors typically complete the
majority of their testing procedures to evaluate if the year-end financial
balances are true and fair.
These tests including detailed testing, recalculation of balances, analytical
reviews etc. typically involve sampling a selection of transactions and
confirming it with prior expectations or a set list of criteria.
Audit is renowned for having a particularly intense busy season after the
financial year ends from July to October each year.
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Tax
Corporate tax is typically split into two streams: Compliance and Consulting.
Compliance
As the name suggests, tax compliance helps to ensure that clients are meeting
their tax obligations as per the ATOs requests and guidelines.
As an example, in most corporate businesses, accounting for accounting
purposes is usually different to accounting for tax purposes.
Compliance involves finding the discrepancies between the two methods of
accounting and ensuring that a business tax receivable/payable is based on
their taxable profit and not accounting profit.
In order to find and calculate any discrepancies, a tax provision review is
conducted and a firms deferred tax assets/liabilities are assessed by referring to
the Income Tax Assessment Act (ITAA) 1936/1997.
Other specialised areas of tax compliance include GST, indirect taxes, expats
tax, transfer pricing etc.
Consulting
The overriding purpose of tax consulting is to retain a clients wealth.
This is completed via a client letter of advice (based on research conducted by
reading the ITAA or case law) and submitting private binding ruling
applications to the ATO.
When a client has taken a contentious tax position, the consulting tax team will
put together a reasonable arguable position paper where they will present
their findings as supporting evidence to their clients tax claims.
Tax is suited to graduates who are logical and methodical in their thinking, good
at researching, writing and have strong attention to detail.
A law degree will certainly help (due to the heavy legislative work involved) but
is certainly not necessary to do well in the field.
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Industry
An industry graduate role refers to positions offered by retail supermarket
chains, banks, telecommunications sectors etc.
In my opinion, the best feature of an industry graduate position is the team
rotations they offer.
Typically, youll apply to be a graduate under a certain stream (e.g. finance, risk,
marketing, operations etc.) and then youll also have the opportunity to rotate
round 2-4 different divisions within that stream.
This is perfect for graduates who have a general knowledge of what they would
like to do, but who dont quite know what role will best suit their personality
and strengths.
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Chapter 3: Networking
As a student, I found general networking tips and advice online (e.g. make sure
you bring plenty of business cards, try and add value where you can, have a
sales pitch etc.) to be largely inadequate and irrelevant.
This next chapter is specifically written with students in mind who are attending
university career fairs or networking events hosted by prospective graduate
employers.
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hand. The glass hit the white tiled floor, shattered into dozens of pieces and the
spectacle was complete when the water splattered onto everyone elses shoes. I
made an impression alright.
I found networking events overwhelming and it goes without saying when
you feel overwhelmed, youre not performing at your best.
If youre a fellow introvert, firstly, do not fear.
Secondly, follow these top strategies that I used to overcome my anxiety:
Dress up! Knowing that youre dressed correctly means that there is one
less thing to be worried about. As a general rule of thumb, if youre
attending a universitys careers fair, smart casual attire should suffice. If
youre attending a formal networking event at an employers premises,
dress in professional corporate attire.
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Its more time efficient. By being one of the first through the door, you
wont have to wait around for other students to finish asking their
questions.
You wont be facing a tired and disgruntled HR Manager who has been
answering the same questions all day long! (As a general rule of thumb,
always try and appease HR Managers and their staff!).
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The above diagram provides a general depiction of the application funnel and
how many students are likely to progress onto the next stage.
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Write and save all your application responses in Word first. This will
help to ensure that all your spelling and grammar is correct. This also
provides a saved reference point for any future interview stages so you
can refresh your memory on what you previously wrote.
Try and not use the university group assignment example. Every student
has worked as part of a team and has completed a group assignment.
Try and use examples that are unique to you to showcase the work
experiences you have had.
Do not write refer above. This is plainly frustrating to the reader and
adds a sense of confusion to your response as to where the reader
should refer above to.
Dont submit your application right away. Finish writing it, leave it then
come back and re-read it later on with, hopefully, a fresher perspective.
This will enable you to pick up on any mistakes or disfluencies you may
not have realised previously.
Check online forums like Whirlpool. If its been a while since you heard
back from the firm or if youre unsure about how your online written
application is progressing, you can check sites like Whirlpool.
Whirlpool is an online, collaborative forum where applicants can share
details about the progress and status of their application and whether or
not theyve progressed to the next stage.
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Aptitude Tests
Aptitude tests are typically broken down into numerical, verbal/comprehension
and logic/spatial reasoning tests.
These tests werent meant to be easy theyre inherently designed to rank every
candidate in the pool of applying graduates. Therefore, the tests have to give a
chance for the very best to shine and will weed out the weak.
Contrary to what some sources may suggest, theres no real way to ace these
tests.
Sure, definitely do the practice questions (this is a good website for some
additional practice) and familiarise yourself with what type of questions youll
be expected to answer. After doing a few practice tests and some real tests,
youll soon realise all the questions are quite similar in nature.
Keep an eye on the set time limit and try to work as quickly, but as accurately,
as possible.
Note that some tests dont allow for you to skip questions and then go back to
the blank questions at the end. Make educated guesses, mark down the ones
that youve guessed and, if you have time and if the test allows for it, you can
give those questions another crack at the end.
you to choose from and, based on your personal preference, youll select one
that aligns with your personality.
These tests will assess your emotional intelligence (i.e. capacity to recognise
and manage your emotions, using your emotions to guide your decision making
etc.) and, ultimately, whether or not youll fit in to an organisation.
Personally, I know that every student just wants a grad job at the end of the day,
but I think its really important that you answer the personality test truthfully.
The test acts as an indicator as to whether or not the culture of an organisation
suits you. If you have provided responses that you think an organisation wants
to hear, and then you get the job, you might feel as if the firm isnt the best
cultural fit for you.
Game Changers
Soon, these aptitude and personality tests may be a thing of the past.
Big 4 professional services firm KPMG have taken to gamifying their approach
to hiring graduates.
Instead of traditional testing, KPMG have introduced gamified recruitment
assessments which combine gamification with analytics, big data, predictive
psychometric models and cloud technologies.
To break this down, candidates are given 10 minutes to complete a game that
will measure their mental agility, cognitive speed, attention, spatial aptitude and
numerical reasoning.
The overriding concept behind this is to provide a better opportunity for digital
native students to showcase their talents by immersing potential graduates in a
game-like assessment where they will respond naturally.
This process will filter out 60% of candidates before KPMG recruiters even look
at a single resume.
Gamification assessments are already widely used in the United States and are
predicted to take up a larger market share in the Australian graduate recruitment
market in the future.
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Chapter 6: Interviews
General
An interview should be a conversation with a purpose.
Those that do succeed in securing a grad job dont get through by sheer luck.
The best way to ensure your success during the interview process is to prepare
and research.
This means preparing your own responses to commonly asked questions (see
the end of this section) and researching the company youre interviewing for.
Above all else, make sure you can articulate confidently why you want to work
for this firm and what you can bring to it.
Also, remember that during this process, you are also interviewing the firm too.
During the interviews, youll get a good feel of how the firm operates, what type
of people work there and whether or not youll fit in. Make sure you take notice
of this and consider what may be best for you.
In addition, try and keep up to date with the news including national,
business and industry specific headlines. You never know when this may come
in handy.
Finally, if your interviewer is just responding to you with a blank face and
giving you absolutely no indication at all they are even hearing what you are
saying, dont take offence.
This technique is used to ensure that there is no bias in assessing candidates.
For example, if an interviewer is overly enthusiastic with one applicant, and less
enthusiastic with another, there may be an unfair bias towards the former
candidate.
The following chapter will be broken down into the specific types of interviews
youre likely to encounter, as well as my tips and suggestions for each of them.
Video Interviews
Video interviews are the new version of phone interviews.
They provide recruiters the chance to finally put a face to the name behind an
application and the opportunity to virtually meet you.
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Therefore, you should treat the video interview as if you were actually meeting
your interviewer for the first time.
Prepare, dress up and make the video as professional as possible.
That is, try and find a white background to film in front of, make sure youre
wearing a professional shirt/blouse (and tie, if applicable) and try to ensure there
isnt any noticeable or distracting background noise.
Depending on the type of organisation, the format of the video interview may
differ.
Some video interviews will consist of a set of pre-recorded questions where
youll be given 1-2 chances and a set time limit to record your answer.
Other video interviews will have pre-recorded questions but infinite
opportunities for you to re-record your answer until youre satisfied with it.
Another more innovative approach, known as the selfie interview, will ask
applicants to record a 2-4 minute introduction of themselves.
This allows candidates to showcase their verbal communication, personality,
creativity and ultimately how well they can sell themselves.
Here are some general tips to succeed in the video interview stage:
Prepare! (I honestly cant stress this enough!) Think about the prerecorded questions that are likely to come up (see the end of this chapter
for examples and responses) and make sure youve prepared appropriate
answers for them. Usually, you wont have enough time to articulate and
think up a great response on the spot, so its vitally important that you
have some examples at the tip of your tongue!
Just try and imagine that your interviewer is sitting on the other side
and dont do anything that you wouldnt typically do at a real interview.
Look into the camera. Again, if you imagine your interviewer is in front
of you, you want to be making eye contact with them (and you dont
want to make it look like youre staring at their ear the whole time).
If youre reading from notes that youve typed up on your laptop (tick
good preparation), make sure you dont make it too obvious and try not
to read it word for word.
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Assessment Centres
An assessment centre is where a group of students are invited typically to the
employers offices to participate in a set of exercises designed to simulate
different aspects of the work environment.
This will usually be the first chance that recruiters have to finally meet you in
person, so assessment centres provide a great opportunity for recruiters to assess
your overall personality and, more importantly, how you communicate and
work with other people.
The most common type of activities both in a group dynamic and, less likely,
as an individual youll encounter during an assessment centre include:
During each activity, an assessor will sit with on your table to rate each
individual on pre-defined core competencies. Some of the main competencies
include:
Leadership
Teamwork
Negotiation
Problem solving
Initiative
Adaptability to change
At first, it may seem intimidating having an assessor rate youre performance, but
its really important to just focus on the task at hand and soon, youll forget
theyre even there!
Having sat through countless assessment centres, here are my personal tips on
how to stand out:
Be a team player. Putting your team first is vital to your success. This may
sound counter-intuitive (after all, youre the one trying to get the grad job,
not the whole team) but acting in your teams best interest shows that
you understand the task at hand is not all about your individual success.
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Bring in quieter members of the team into the discussion. Part of being a
team player means being inclusive and listening to everyones opinion.
There will inevitably be some members of your team that either:
a) feel intimidated by the level of discussion that is happening;
b) naturally are soft spoken and just like going along with the crowd;
and/or
c) actually want to participate but feel as if they would be interrupting
the flow of ideas.
If you notice that someone hasnt said anything for a while (or at all), feel
free to say What do you think about this <insert name here>? or Is
there anything you would like to add <insert name here>?.
This shows the assessor that youre aware not everyone has had their say
and that you are interested in ensuring that everyones opinions are
heard.
Try and get the balance right. In every assessment centre that Ive ever
been to, there is always someone in the team who is the loud dominant
one. Theyre usually pretty easy to identify theyre rather obnoxious,
overly assertive and generally thinks that the team activity is all about
them. You dont want to be this person. As suggested above, you want to
be an inclusive team player that doesnt shout over the ideas of someone
else. In my experience, this loud, dominant applicant hardly ever gets
through to the next round.
By the same token, dont be too quiet. I know it may be hard to offer
your opinion when everyone else is shouting out theirs, but try to find an
opportunity to say what you think.
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Be weary of your team size. This may sound like a strange thing to say,
but from personal experience, the size of your team drastically affects
the overall team dynamic. Generally, a team of 3-6 people is a good size
that allows everyone to have their say. However, anything above a team
of 6 people may mean that it becomes rather difficult for you to get your
point across. In these circumstances, you may need to adjust your
behaviour to become slightly more assertive to ensure that youre heard.
Final Interview
First up, congratulations on making it through to the final interview!
By this stage, youre probably part of the elite ~5-10% that have made it through
from the many hundreds, if not thousands, of applications.
Having said all of this, you can be sure that the remaining applicants are also of
a pretty high calibre.
I think this adage best sums up how to succeed in the final interview: failing to
plan is planning to fail.
That is, preparation is key.
See the following section The Type of Questions You Should Anticipate for
some general themes and questions that are likely to come up.
Other than this, here are some general tips on how you can ace your final
interview:
If you know who your interviewer is, do a quick Google search of them.
This will give you an idea of their professional background, how long
theyve been with the company and what division they belong to. You
may be able to use this information to your advantage by asking relevant
questions in your interview.
Use the STAR method. As reiterated above in Chapter 4, using the STAR
method to answer an interviewers questions will provide a familiar
structure and clear signpost to your response.
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o How do you see the company evolving in the next three years?
o Can you tell me what your typical working day looks like?
o What sort of training or career development opportunities do you
offer?
Experiencing a steep learning curve. As with any new job, there is often a
learning curve at the beginning where new employees learn about
expectations, key skills and the culture of the firm. Often, this process
can be quite overwhelming, but I think it is necessary to embrace it and
be a sponge to absorb as much information as we possibly can.
Fitting into the firms corporate culture. Ive always believed that a firms
culture plays a huge role in determining its success. Id like to think that I
share all of the firms values such as taking responsibility, being
determined as well as having an immense desire to learn. However,
culture is an intangible item that is very difficult to articulate in words
and something that can only be truly experienced when youre in the
firm itself.
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As always, remember to use the STAR method when answering these questions.
Describe a time when you came up with an idea that required you to get
the support of others.
Describe your greatest personal or professional achievement to date.
Describe a time when you were faced with a stressful situation. How did
you cope and what was the result?
Give me an example of a time where you set a goal. What steps did you
take to try to achieve that goal? Were you successful?
Tell me a time when you had too much to do and too little time. How did
you manage to complete all your tasks?
Give me an example of a time where you had to cope with interpersonal
conflict when working in a team. How did you deal with it and what was
the result?
Give me an example of when you showed initiative and took the lead.
Describe a situation where others you were working with on a project
disagreed with your ideas. What did you do?
Describe a time where you demonstrated leadership skills.
Describe a time when you were able to successfully work with someone
who you found difficult.
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Feedback
The smartest graduates actually use rejection to improve and make their next
application even more effective.
Until you land a job, you should constantly be asking yourself What could I
be doing differently that might get me better results?
If youve progressed through to the assessment centre stage or further, always ask
for feedback.
If youve been rejected earlier on (i.e. during the written application or video
interviews stage) then youre more unlikely to receive feedback simply due to
the sheer number of applicants however, it doesnt hurt to try and ask anyway.
Email the HR recruitment division (or your particular interviewer), be
appreciative, thank them for their time and ask them if they have any feedback
for you to improve upon your next application.
You may feel as if youve already given each application everything youve got,
but realistically, there is always more you can do to increase your chances.
Accept this, use the feedback youve got, stop repeating the same mistakes and
wasting your time and energy.
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Dont limit yourself to one sector or industry. You might have your mind
set on working in a business related field, but perhaps you could also
reconsider sales or an administration type of position?
Time and time again, I hear that employers are much more interested in
your relevant work and life experiences rather than education
credentials (this is why further postgraduate studies may not be the best
option around). Take up a part time job (your universitys career portal is
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a great place to start looking), create your own opportunities, or even just
take some time out to travel and soak up what the world has to offer.
Consider doing an unpaid internship. Personally, Im not a fan of these
unpaid internships as, to some degree, you could say it is labour
exploitation of students. However, these unpaid internships are very
popular in both the UK and US and, if youre desperate for some work
experience and the organisation really takes your fancy, then why not
give it a shot?
It pays to ask those who are in the know. You can do this by attending
loads of networking events, being active in LinkedIn groups, keeping in
touch with your professional contacts etc. Sometimes, internal hiring
opportunities will arise down the track and it always helps if youre a
visible candidate.
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The prized 9-5 doesnt really exist. Of course, this is highly dependent
on what industry you work in, but the general expectation is that you
work until whatever youre working on is completed (or until your
manager/colleagues leave).
Youll be pretty tired for the first month or two. Most graduates finish their
final year at university, have a nice three month holiday/break then dive
into a full time graduate role. The first one or two months will be an
adjustment phase for your body and mind, so be prepared to feel
somewhat overwhelmed and tired with the hours and demands of full
time work.
Sometimes, you just got to fake it till you make it. This is particularly the
case when youre dealing with clients who expect you to know things. I
would recommend just going with the flow it usually all works out.
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Find a mentor. Whether this is your assigned buddy, a manager you get
along with particularly well or anybody else, make sure you have a goto person who you can ask all the stupid questions to. This persons
experience and knowledge will be invaluable to you, particularly as
youre learning the ropes.
Prioritise learning over working. When you first start, youll obviously
need to learn how to do the work before you actually do it. There may
come a point where youve learnt all you need to do the job at hand and
it just becomes easier to focus on completing the work and not stepping
outside of your comfort zone to learn more. Always try to remember that
working is secondary to learning and, ultimately, learning and your
professional development will add more value to you than just getting
the job done.
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