新的工作开始了一个礼拜了,随便写点什么,希望能对版上的jm们有一点点帮助我就很开心了~
我的背景,accounting master。几年前刚毕业的时候,赶上了大好形势的末班车。我选择进了很好的school,辛苦读书的同时也校园面试一个接一个,无奈我太自傲,没有认真准备面试,觉得以我的背景肯定没问题啊。面过第一轮接到几个据信后,才发现自己既没有认真改简历,又没有好好准备behavior questions。等大家都开始二面office visit了,我开始了自己痛苦的找工历程。那个时候需要sponsorship,但是对很多公司不是问题。
我的教训:你可能认为自己已经准备充分了,尤其accounting,真的简单。但是the best person who gets the job in not necessarily the best qualified candidate. It’s the person who knows how to best nail the interview!
我首先做的就是找学院的career center重新修改简历。跟老师mock interview。跟老公讨论,准备了一整套面试问题,一稿一稿的修改。Job hunting is full time job。但是真的比工作更累。转眼圣诞假期过去,虽然没有工作经验,但是还是有些机会。
我的体会:丢掉了校园面试的机会,我能找的无非也就是monster, careerbuilder之类的大众网页。每一个我感兴趣的职位,我都附一份tailored cover letter。如果广告上有附fax number,这是最好的机会。我后来工作的单位,就是我fax过去的。
体会之二:entry level position,对方不期待你有多少经验,但是必须是quick learner & strong starter. Cover letter里要写,面试的时候更要提起。另外一个equally important quality就是team player。没有经验就只能从course work里找线索了。
体会之三:accounting & finance majors,behavior questions 是很重要的。原来找entry level也是,现在换工作也是。我到后面会把我的list(主要是bullet point)列出来。
Entry level 关于简历:我向来都是按照学校career services的instruction,我把学历放最前面,列出主要的course work的方向,和一些volunteer work, scholarship等等。然后是经验,因为毕竟没有多少相关经验,能列的哪怕不是相关的,面试的时候要强调从中学的skills are transferrable to the new job。
没有耽误一天,毕业前一个多月找到了工作,非常喜欢,学到了好多东西,结识了可以让我一生受益的朋友。最近因为家庭,必须要跟lg走,不得不辞掉原来的工作跟老公搬到新的地方。非常不情愿,甚至有些惶恐,因为搬来的地方失业率一直处于榜首,居高不下。我去年这个时候就知道了,断断续续地也把简历放到网上,看到相关不相关的都扔一份简历,简历投了不少,但回应很少。也接到recruiter的电话,发现异地找根本不行。搬来后因为仍然给原来的老板work from home半年,一直到4月。
Wfh最后一个多月,忙季过去了,我开始认真找工作了。无奈机会仍然不多。但在老公的催促下,仍然开始修改cover letter。
我的体会:cover letter真的很重要,能投的机会不多,我每一个都很认真地看下job description,然后根据工作要求重组我的cover letter. 我的cover letter大约顺序是这样的。
第一段,先自我陈述一下,哪里读的书,哪里工作,积累了哪些经验,我相信我的背景和经验一定会对贵公司有所贡献。
第二段,根据我的理解,贵公司的工作要求candidate必须要有a,b,c,这恰恰是我在过去工作学习当中用到学习到的。然后结合原来的学习和工作,再一遍强调为什么我是个good fit.
第三段, 有时候根据工作要求,有时候没有这一段,大约讲工作要求的d,e,f,我没有类似的经验,但是我积累的h,I,j,经验说明了我是个quicker learner & strong starter。另外我有什么certificate,所以我相信我一定会很快上手。
第四段, 最后一段了。简略陈述一下我非常感兴趣,和再次强调我的qualification.最后呢,就说我附上了简历,希望虽然从对方那里听到消息。
简历:有了经验以后跟fresh grad时候不一样了。一个好朋友把她的简历发给我,我参照她的修改的。有了经验,一个qualification summary更有效,然后是工作经验,然后是education。
就这样,在每天就三个两个的机会当中,我开始陆陆续续接到phone interviews。然后onsite。我能做到的就是,每一个phone interview,我几乎都会顺利拿到onsite。我想,我的面试准备为我争取到了这仅有的不多的机会。我的面试提纲附在最后了。
另外,因为monster, careerbuilder,craigslist上面每天也就仅有那么几个机会,有些还不一定是真的。那我除了准备cover letter和面试,剩下的时间大部分花在去indeed上面搜索。
我的体会:indeed网罗了几乎local所有的工作机会。大海捞针也找到那么几个很对口,但是monster, careerbuilder上面没有的机会。另外我们当地还有local fox news job section,也跟indeed类似,网络各方面信息。我想只要功夫下到了,机会还是有的。
关于recruiter: 这个真的要靠运气了。很多recruiter联系我,但最后拿到的几个offer里没有一个是recruiter帮我找到的,还是要靠自己。只有一个,最后还需要我去third round,我再拿到其他两个offer后就决定放弃了。如果你碰到一个很有经验,又对你很上心的recruiter,也可能work out出来很多机会。
准备面试就是要从几个方面,能做到知己知彼,面试就不发慌了。面试问题思考也好,跟别人mock interview也好,背诵也好,只要最后自己说服自己就行了。我喜欢准备个提纲,从这些点描述我自己。这样不论对方怎么问,都拉到自己的这些经验和skills。我的总结肯定不是最好的,能给还在找工的jm们有所借鉴我就很开心了。
1. About yourself.
2. Know the company/position well - job related.
3. About your last job, your work experience (or your school and education).
4. Career related
5. Skills related.
1) About yourself
I. Tell me about yourself (version 1).
· Strong accounting technical skills
1. FR
2. Audit & tax
3. Budgeting
· Strong communications skills and team working skills – built up from rigorous training at school & years of work experience
1. Team player
2. Lots of experience of team cooperation & client interaction
· Quick learner & strong starter
· My learning ability set me apart from other candidates and helps me adapt to the business environment more quickly
· Reliable, hardworking & devoted
II. Tell me about yourself (version 2).
· Chronically list why moving to this region, experience and education
· I am really excited about this opportunity and believe that my experience and education prepared me well for this position.
III. How could you contribute? (Why should we hire you?
· Strong accounting background and rigorous training, and my skills are my strong qualifications.
· Extensive working experience in ** accounting in **area
v Developed skills through the experience
· Quick learner
· Hardworking, teamplayer & willing to learn
IV. How quickly
¨ After a little orientation & brief period of adjustment and learning curve.
2) Job related
1) What kind of job are you looking for? (also CAREER GOAL)
An opportunity just like the job at xx.
(i) An environment where I can utilize my accounting technical skills.
(ii) Work w/ a group of excellent people & learn new things all the time.
(iii) Advance my career & grow myself w/ the company through hardworking, strong performance and continuous contribution.
(I always use the first two points as the short term goal then the third bullet point as the long term. Eventually then want to find someone to stay and contribute. )
In summary, opportunity to -
(i) Use my skills and make contribution to the firm
(ii) Perform and grow
(iii) Work w/ great people
(iv) Be recognized.
2) What challenges are you looking for?
Challenges = opportunities
Opportunities to –
(i) Learn new things all the time
(ii) Work on weakness & turn them into strength
(iii) Become an expert through hardworking AND working with other people
Biggest challenge now is to adapt to the business world quickly & continuously improve myself in terms of technical & business knowledge.
3) Work environment you want to work in?
Manager – challenge employees all the time, provides guidance on the work products (such as reporting & closing), and provides feedback on my work, offer recognition.
People – open-minded, willing to work in a team and willing to help each other.
4) Overtime?
Being in the accounting/audit/tax field, overtime is a way of life. I don’t mind working overtime if needed. But the most important thing is to plan ahead, set priorities, follow milestones and try to get work done smoothly.
1) 3)About last job
I. What do you like most? Least?
¨ Opportunity to learn, grow, and take initiatives
¨ Be exposed to different aspects, interact w/ different people from different groups
¨ People I worked w/ are excellent
¨ Commute
II. Experience through which to build skills in *** technical & communications….
¨ Team cooperation & client interaction
¨ Then relate it to this job opportunity
III. Accomplishments
The best opportunity to sell yourself. Just bring something up that you’re proud of at work and at school.
IV. Challenging experiences
For this question, I just gave an example of how I learned what for the first 3 to 9 months, just to show my strong learning ability.
V. Leadership: I prepared this one, about some projects we had going on which my mgr put in the lead. But it turned out I didn’t get this question a lot. I figured this one is not as important as the teamworking skills for senior position.
VI. Meeting deadlines
¨ Being in the accounting area, I believe I know exactly what deadline is:
¨ During busy season, audit, tax and day to day operation
o The key is to take proactive approach
§ Plan early, set priority
§ Manage time effectively
§ Communicate w/ manager
1) 4)Career related
I) Career goal
(a) Short term –
? Utilize my skills & start making contribution as early as possible
? Gain valuable experience by working w/ the best people
(b) Long term –
? Interested in learning to manage people, project, & business situations
? Become an expert in what I do
? Rise in the org. through hard working & excellent performance
II) Routine? Question such as “our work is routine and quite boring”
(a) First, I don’t believe it is boring – enable me to sharpen my skills, know the clients better, work w/ great people & …
(b) Routine is part of any job – start from routine, devote myself to tough & challenging assignments, learn & grow my career w/… In summary, success is built upon routine.
III) Success? What does success mean to you?
(a) Use my talent to meet challenges in life
(b) Make the best out of myself
(c) Enjoy making contributions & establishing achievements.
5) Skills related
1) Team player?
? Good teamplayer should be able to -
(a) Understand the goal of the team
(b) Commit to a final quality product
(c) Take responsibilities
(d) Has strong ability to solve conflict
2) Greatest strength? Weakness?
· Willingness to learn
· Ability to learn things quickly and adopt easily
For weakness – this is my version – if I have an (such as a different) opinion on something, I usually don’t speak out unless I’m a 100% positive that I am correct. But I came to realize a productive work environment encourage people to speak out. I improved a lot speaking at team meetings etc. during the past few years. Then engage the interviewer to give you some suggestions on whatever you said your weakness is.
3) Conflict or disagreement w/ manager, teammate? How to solve?
· First, discuss & understand the nature of the task
· Research & talk with expert
· Propose different solution & listen to his/her opinion
· Implement what is agreed upon
During the process, remember -
v Open communication is the key
v Put the interest of the firm in 1st place
v Also be tactful, ask a lot of questions rather than making demands
4) Time/project management? Are you organized? (also can be used for questions like handle pressure, etc.)
v From a task mgt perspective –
¨ Go through whole task in mind before starting
¨ Keep final deliverables & deadlines in mind
¨ Allocate enough time to “critical” steps
¨ Follow schedules & milestones
v From a time mgt perspective – for each week & each month
¨ Write down major tasks
¨ Set priority
¨ Start early for tough job
¨ Get the most out of the day
5) Work under pressure?
· Yes, numerous times, e.g., quarter end, year end, critical times –
· But I did well, got recognized and trust from my team
· In order to do so –
¨ Not only work very hard, overtime if necessary
¨ Set priority, mrg time effectively & get help from peers
6) Mistakes?
· Impatience,
· Other mistakes you had at work or school,
· Learn from mistakes, get better result by being tactful
7) Motivation?
· Appreciation & recognization of a successfully complete work
8) How to deal with a manager who micro-manage?
(1) Gain trust from him, pay extra attention & avoid mistakes
(2) Initiate open communications
9) “ideal” mgr?
· Inspiring & challenging employees
· Respect
· Giving feedback
· Offering recognition
10) Difficult co-worker?
· Arrogant co-workers → ask more questions, respect her opinions & prove my strong technical skills.
6) Questions to ask