Careers Education & Placement Centre

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Careers Education Placement Centre

• Big Five Recruitment Exercise Preparation
• Written Application
• Date 15 September, 2000 (Friday)
• Time 530pm - 700pm
• Venue T6, Meng Wah Complex

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Careers Education Placement CentreEmail
cepc_at_hkucc.hku.hk
Rachel Hong Senior Manager (Employer
Relations) Email rkmhong_at_hkusua.hku.hk Tel
2859 2314
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Application Deadline

• Company Tentative Closing Date
• PWC 29/9
• Deloitte 29/9
• KPMG 3/10
• Ernst Young 3/10
• Arthur Andersen 9/10
• You have 2 weeks to prepare your first
  application for PWC.

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How many applications did they get (1999)?

• Company Applications First Job
  Received Shortlist Offer
• Ernst Young 193 132 68 38 20
• PWC 224 150 67 24 11
• Deloitte 188 65 35 34 18
• KPMG 228 46 20 23 10
• Arthur Andersen 175 35 20 13 7

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How many applications did they get (2000)?

• Company Applications First Job
  Received Shortlist Offer
• Ernst Young 258 162 63 59 23
• PWC 314 154 49 46 15
• Deloitte 234 120 51 16 7
• KPMG 342 80 23 41 12
• Arthur Andersen 149 71 48 22 15

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How long do they spend on each application?

• For most of the companies,
• less than
• one minute
• per application.

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Application Letter

• Make employers want to meet you!
• where did you learn about this position
• your qualification, background, special strengths
• what can you do for the employer
• what attract you to the occupation and the
  employer
• when are you available for interview

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Job content skills - audit

• Primary aspects of work
• Calculating financial and other commercial
  figurework
• Checking that people are following laws or
  regulations
• Using statistical methods to obtain, interpret
  and present information

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Job content skills - audit... (contd)

• Secondary aspects of work
• Presenting ideas and information in writing
• Understanding how businesses and organisation
  work
• Assessing the financial value of goods, buildings
  or services
• work requiring accuracy and attention to detail

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Job content skills - audit... (contd)

• Other aspects of work
• Being interested in aspects of law (e.g.
  business, personal, criminal)
• Dealing with paper work such as letters, forms,
  and records
• Organising and storing information
• Interviewing people
• Travelling around locally from place to place
• Providing advice

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Personal qualities skills - audit

• highly numerate
• capable of interpreting complicated accounts
• an enquiring mind
• a good eye for detail
• be accurate
• be methodical in their work
• an ability to communicate effectively and explain
  results clearly and concisely
• good report writing skills

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Why are you interested in the company and the
job??

• Research!!
• Recruitment/career talk
• career booklet
• company file/newspaper cutting file
• world wide web (e.g. South China Morning Post
  Archive)
• alumni contact/friends
• CEPC homepage

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Application Letter

• Principles
• I. follow the 4S Rule
• - short
• - simple
• - succinct
• - specific
• II. include competency statements
• - should say what the candidate can DO
• - should make it clear what results they have
  achieved

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• Samples from last years successful audit letters

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Resume

• Contents
• Personal particulars
• Summary statement
• Career objective
• Schools attended
• Qualification and examination result
• Thesis/project
• Awards received
• Working experience
• Extra-curricular activities
• Skills
• Hobbies
• Reference

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Resume

• Personal Particulars
• Include only relevant information
• - name
• - telephone number
• - address
• - e-mail address
• Information on your height, weight, place of
  birth, gender, marital status etc are not needed.
• Dont take up too much space with this section

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Resume

• Summary Statement
• A final year student in The University of Hong
  Kong, with major in Finance and minor in
  Accounting. Dynamic, hard-working and
  self-motivated with outgoing personality. Enjoy
  travelling and meeting people. Aspire to
  responsible positions in auditing work.

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Resume

• Career Objective
• An audit trainee position in a well established
  auditing firm where I can use my background in
  auditing and accounting to perform auditing work.

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Resume

• Work Experience
• Start with your most recent or most relevant
  experience,
• Give the company name, period of employment and
  job title,
• Describe your duties and responsibilities,
• Show results.

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Resume - example

• Summer Work Experience
• Hong Kong Government, Industry Department Survey
  Officer
• - Interviewed Senior Manager in 20 foreign
  companies and
• collected sensitive information for a survey of
  overseas
• investments in Hong Kong.

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Resume

• Extra-Curricular Activities
• Include student activities, committees, sports or
  responsible positions that you have held,
• Include related achievements,
• Include title, period, statement of
  responsibilities, and statement of achievement as
  with Work Experience.

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Resume - example

• Extra-Curricular Activities
• Member of the Debating Team, Swire Hall HKU,
  98-00
• Leader of the Team in the 2nd year. Arranged
  competitions, selected competitors, trained new
  debators, and participated in debate.

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Resume

• Skills
• Include other qualifications that are relevant to
  the company
• e.g. language, computer and job content skills

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Resume - example

• Skills (contd)
• Language -
• Communicative Putonghua, completed level 3,
  Advanced Putonghua, Language Centre, HKU
• Computer language -
• Basic, Pascal, Fortran
• Software -
• Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel
• Ability to spot inconsistency -
• Spotted inconsistency in statistics of a 200
  pages financial report of XXX company while I was
  the Summer Helper in August 2000

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Resume

• Hobbies and Interest
• Useful if they are relevant to your career
  objective.
• Avoid being too general such as reading or
  sports,
• Be specific and list achievement, if any
• e.g. reading detective stories, war game
  strategies, literature classics etc.,
• bird-watching and keeping log book of
  species seen,

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Resume

• Professional Membership
• If it is relevant to your career objective, put
  it down
• e.g.
• Student Member of
• the Hong Kong Society of Accountants,
• the Hong Kong Institute of Marketing (marketing
  posts).

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Resume

• Expected Salary
• Leave it out unless it is asked for.
• Do some research and find our what news recruits
  are paid in that industry.
• state a range
• ?? HK 10,000 - HK20,000
• HK 8,000 - HK12,000

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The DOs

• write the letter and resume yourself
• make it error free
• make it look good
• stress your accomplishments
• be brief and specific
• be honest
• keep it lively - use action words (e.g.
  organised, participated, handled..etc)
• address to the right person

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The DONTs

• Incomplete Information
• Poor layout
• Too fancy/complicated
• Incorrect data (e.g. date of birth, year of
  graduation)
• Left out signature

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Other Resources

• Getting the job you really want
• Write, giving full details (video)
• The Miracle Resume (video)
• CDT - Career Development Track
• English Centre - Self Access
• More .......
• Careers Library, 3/F, Meng Wah Complex

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These slides are available at the CEPC homepage

• lthttp//www.hku.hk/cepcgt
• Click the key Lecture Notes

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ANSWERS
QUESTIONS
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Quiz

• Time allowed 20 minutes
• Answer with short phrases or bullet points
• You may refer to your notes

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Quiz Results

• Results will be ready by 19 Sept (Tue) 200 p.m.
  Pick up your answer sheet from the Careers
  Centre.
• Students who have passed the quiz will be invited
  to attend Resume Review Session to be held on 22
  Sept (Fri) 630pm - 730pm and these students
  will have to submit their application letter to
  the CePc by 20 Sept (Wed) 200 p.m.