Job Interview Tips

I am the Big Four.

 

This language is wonderful.

I wonder if Deloitte are so luxuriously absorbent, whether they would consider absorbing me?

 

Deloitte were by far the worst auditing firm I ever had to deal with.

 

Results of a recent pay audit Deloitte did on our firm are due soon!

 

Good luck with that.

 

Haha thanks guys, basically have an offer from one of the big four and an offer from a medium sized firm. Weighing up where is the best place to undertake a training contract and wanted to know if anyone had been through either.

 

No full time work yet but got an interview for a masters in a couple weeks. Going to quit the supermarket and focus on my freelancing to fund my time back at Uni.

Anybody been to St Mary's in Twickenham?

 

It seems to be very secretive this big four lark. I still don't know who they are.

 

Big Sam, Big Ron, Big Ben & Biggles.

 

Depends on how you want to do exams.

Medium sized firms are generally combine work and study at the same time. They give you leeway when you fail exams.

Big 4 is time off work so you can spend months at training centres being spoon fed and then do exams at the end. Obviously gives you higher chance of passing but if you fail you get dismissed (that's what Andersen did the others might allow you one fail)

 

Used to be big 6 accounting firms. Coopers, PWC, Arthur Andersen, KPMG, Ernst & Young and Deloitte. Coopers and PWC merged into Price Waterhouse Coopers. Arthur Andersen was destroyed in the Enron Scandal. 4 left.

 

So Coopers merged with PWC into Price Waterhouse Coopers - so what was the difference between the original two firms, assuming the C in PWC also stood for Coopers?

 

Oh - typo by me. It was Price Waterhouse and Coopers & Lybrand which were the original names.

 

I have an interview next week for a job i'd really like. I was told in the last interview that I had, that I kept belittling my achievements and I shouldn't do that, but my POV is that I don't want to oversell myself and get the job and not be able to do what I had claimed. Any one got any tips for this?

For example in my placement year I did the very basics with Google Analytics, so I can use it, but wouldn't know how to do anything advanced. What's the best way of conveying that without playing myself down?

 

Simply have pride in what you have achieved so far and suggest that it was the tip of the iceberg of what you think your abilities are; as an analogy they wouldn't expect an apprentice mechanic to be able to design a Ferrari yet there's no reason why without the right guidance and environment that the apprentice wouldn't be able to do so in the future.

 

Out of the big 4, I'd go with Woodrow Wilson. I think he's the one with the biggest chance of leaving a legacy.

 

Be worth researching the training side and whats on offer. We use one of the big 4, and apparently they stripped back lectures and it was mainly home study. Also seemed to be long hours before and around the exams.

I'm actually sitting some accounting exams next week, and am lucky enough to take some annual leave to focus solely on them (I work in Industry not practice) but that's what i'd mainly focus on. Get as much exposure as you can, and pick the best training package on offer. Obviously the one of the 'Big 4' looks great on a CV, but with that can come more pressure, so you have to weigh up your options.

 

Simply put, anyone who can walk into a job and immediately fulfill every requirement of that job on day 1 is overqualified for the position.

You don't need to be able to do a job flawlessly from day 1. What you need is sufficient skills to get by while you pick up the ropes, learn the organisation and then grow into the role. If you're not growing into the role, there is no personal growth and you're probably settling for jobs that you're way overqualified for.

Obviously that doesn't mean you lie like Pinocchio just to land a job; that'll never end well. Ridiculous example, claiming you're fluent in French when you can't speak a word is doomed to fail if you're working as a translator. But don't ever look at a list of job requirements and think "well, I can't do some of those so better keep looking". Job descriptions are nothing short of wish lists from the recruiter. The chances of them finding someone who fits all of them are very slim, even more so if it's anything other than a highly, highly specialised position. Your aim is to fit your skills into as many of their needs as possible and pick up the rest as quickly as you can.

Just have a realistic idea of what your skills are and what you can do, find a position that gives you ample personal growth space, and go for it. You'll be amazed how quickly you pick up the things you didn't know if you put the effort in. As long as you're not flat out embellishing skills you don't have, you'll be fine.

 

I hope you get the job of the big guy made out of bricks,

 

I'd go for Ringo, personally. Very underrated.

 

Surprisingly id say the Buffalo is the most difficult to bring down, followed by the leopard.

 

The framework of a job interview is saying "I have done x which involved z, I enjoyed that particular part of z that your company happens to use most often and want to learn more" in order to hedge your bets and look good.

 

Thanks for the advice guys. A further question - when they ask 'what do you know about our company' how much detail should you go into?

 

Not a lot more than a brief interweb search.

A bit about what they do. The products they produce, the history and their standing in that market. Maybe who owns them.
You just need to show you've spent 5 minutes researching them. be careful not to repeat the about us section on their own www site word for word and if you're using Wikipedia check the facts.

 

Know when it was founded and by whom, their major clients and flagship product(s), the size of the company and if applicable how many locations the company operate from. They wouldn't expect you to log on to company house and reel off facts of their accounts but do find out whether turnover/profit are increasing.

If there are any national media/trade magazine articles about them or their work it wouldn't hurt to briefly comment on that provided it was positive news.

The purpose is simply to show willingness on your part to make an effort, you don't need to bore them to death with facts.

 

Been offered a place on masters the evening after my interview! Must've gone well then!

Sent from my HTC One A9 using Tapatalk

 

Congratulations!

 

That would make you a Masterdon.

 

Just got invited to an interview on Thursday where i'll go in for a chat and stay afterwards for beers and pizza to watch the England game. I think i've found my dream job haha.

 

Don't get drunk!

 

Amazing how often people get that particular judgement call wrong.

A few years ago, my (then) employer organised a work trip to a baseball game.

One of the girls in the financial department got absolutely wasted (mistake 1), then decided it would be a good time to get the twins out...in front of everyone she worked with (mistake 2).

Amazing how daft some people can be.

PS: because I just know someone is going to ask: she was a stunner with a nice pair.

 

Telephone number pls.

 

I qualified with one of the big firms many, many years ago (when there were more than 8 of them).

Assuming you're going into audit, the advantages of training with a big firm are that you will have access to far more technical expertise than you are likely to have in a smaller firm. Also, you'll be working on larger audits with bigger audit teams - good banter, and good for camaraderie.

The disadvantage is that you might not get the same sort of exposure to "proper" accounting that you might get in a smaller firm. Auditing the cash section of a large plc isn't going to teach you as much as you having to prepare a set of accounts of a smaller client who brings you all his paperwork in a shoebox.

If you struggle with professional exams, smaller firms may be more disposed to letting you have more attempts to pass.

 

Must have been a wrench to leave colleagues like that ! :]]