Jason's Ultimatum
Member
well I just googled how long federal resumes should be, and it seems to be 3-5 pages.
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Applying for jobs is exhausting and soul-crushing
- Thread starter Moofers
- Start date
well I just googled how long federal resumes should be, and it seems to be 3-5 pages.
Manmademan
Member
depending on your experience. this is true whether you're in public or private sector. several people here have already told you that your experience doesn't justify 1 page, let alone 3.
you get 10 years in the industry, then 3 pages *might* be justifiable. Again, HR managers aren't idiots. We know what resume padding is, and doing it does not help you.
entremet
Member
I don't want to do IT work. I'll be bored out of my mind doing coding.
id like to be closer to DC, but I only have a little over a grand saved, and I help my mother financially with the bills since she has arthritis and can't work.
maybe there are certs for accounting jobs that dont require an accounting degree?
im starting to feel like shit now. Everyone telling me I have a dead end job that's not helping me with finding a career.
Now I go into work tomorrow where it'll be busy as shit due to fathers day, and our district manager wants us to set next weeks ad until we close, which will be at 10pm. It'll take us at least 2 hours minimum to set it, thus being there until 12am or later.
There are certs for accounting. They're not like technical certs, which are pretty frictionless to take. They're heavily regulated by accreditation bodies since accounting is regulated financial field.
CPA (Certified Public Accountant) and CMA (Certified Managerial Accountant). They usually require experience and/or coursework. It's not an entry level thing.
The best way to get experience is to start as an entry level bookkeeper. Bookkeeping is a skill you can pick up on your own by reading books, watching YT videos, or taking classes at a local community college.
elrechazado
Banned
As manmade said, you don't have 3-5 pages of content, so this remains irrelevant. It seems like you really don't want any advice or aren't listening to sincere feedback.
Jason's Ultimatum
Member
earlier today I already put my current job at the top and my education at the bottom.
I don't want to do IT work. I'll be bored out of my mind doing coding.
id like to be closer to DC, but I only have a little over a grand saved, and I help my mother financially with the bills since she has arthritis and can't work.
maybe there are certs for accounting jobs that dont require an accounting degree?
im starting to feel like shit now. Everyone telling me I have a dead end job that's not helping me with finding a career.
Now I go into work tomorrow where it'll be busy as shit due to fathers day, and our district manager wants us to set next weeks ad until we close, which will be at 10pm. It'll take us at least 2 hours minimum to set it, thus being there until 12am or later.
Friend, I sent you a PM trying to help you and several others have been trying to help you all day. People are telling you that your resume is trash, and you're responding by arguing with them and saying some completely irrelevant shit about how your sister got hired with a shitty resume, so, uh, take that!
Nobody gives a single fuck about your sister. Your sister is not applying for jobs for you. If you actually want help, if you actually want a different result than you've been getting for the last 4 years, then stop being so damned defensive and fix your broken ass shit.
Take out the bullshit, and add the real shit. If you don't have anything *real* to add, well I guess there's the root of your problems right there. Fix that part too.
I've had double the amount of education and maybe 5 job positions--I still fit in on one page--usually just 1-3 sentences to describe the most important responsibilities/accomplishments.
Have you tried emailing your resume to your college's career services department for review?
xKilltheMx
Member
Dropped by to say, after a year of no job self hate I finally got one. It's not directly civil engineering like I hoped but it is an engineering position and it's a start. I took advice on resumes and gaf for my video interview so I dropped by to say thanks guys!
My tip (and what helped me get the job from the person who hired me) was volunteer work I did after graduation. The side work I did too also helped, so even if it's not related list it on there if you don't have work experience. Make sure it has transferable skills to list out.
Good luck everybody! (now to keep it Oh god I'm terrified)
My tip (and what helped me get the job from the person who hired me) was volunteer work I did after graduation. The side work I did too also helped, so even if it's not related list it on there if you don't have work experience. Make sure it has transferable skills to list out.
Good luck everybody! (now to keep it Oh god I'm terrified)
I got my first full-time job yesterday being a college lecturer. I finished uni back in 2011 but have been freelancing every now and then since to stay afloat. There were some tough times going down to a virtually empty bank account and not spending. So my freedom is gone now, noooooo! However...
This. You guys have to be acquiring experience even if you're not employed. Demonstrate that you actually want to work in the industry.
I'm a software engineer, so when I'm unemployed I need to be working on open source projects. My wife is a social worker, when she is unemployed she needs to be volunteering in the community. Artists draw, athletes train, writers write, dancers dance. Do whatever the equivalent to that is for your field, then write what you've done on your resume.
You can't say with a straight face a "I want a job in aerospace, but for the last 9 years all I've been doing about it is spreading guacamole on burritos. That's been keeping me pretty busy" That resume is going in the trash.
Jason's Ultimatum
Member
they wont see if its been more than two years since graduation. Plus, a career advisor from college is the one that told me what to write for my private sector resume I posted.
I'm curious, what jobs should I be applying for based on my experience? I've been applying for clerk/admin assistant jobs, because I've done the duties while interning with the usss. Anything else?
ThLunarian
Member
I am so tired of applying for jobs and getting rejected.
I only graduated a month ago, but I have been applying for jobs for two years and haven't gotten a single job offer in all that time.
I have a Master's degree in Accounting, I've passed three of the CPA exams, and the economy is booming! It shouldn't be this hard.
I've been told my resume is very good but apparently my weakness is my personality during interviews (I am pretty sure I have all the tactical stuff - appearance, responses to behavioral questions, etc - locked down).
I'm just not sure what to do :/ And student loan payments loom in the distance like a guillotine waiting to fall.
Sorry for the rant. Thanks for listening.
I only graduated a month ago, but I have been applying for jobs for two years and haven't gotten a single job offer in all that time.
I have a Master's degree in Accounting, I've passed three of the CPA exams, and the economy is booming! It shouldn't be this hard.
I've been told my resume is very good but apparently my weakness is my personality during interviews (I am pretty sure I have all the tactical stuff - appearance, responses to behavioral questions, etc - locked down).
I'm just not sure what to do :/ And student loan payments loom in the distance like a guillotine waiting to fall.
Sorry for the rant. Thanks for listening.
I think the idea that your resume needs to be concise is an outdated one.
The origin of the idea is the notion that your resume is going to be filtered by a human. Humans don't want to spend a lot of time on each candidate and get bored easily, so if your resume is overly long they will get annoyed. The idea makes sense.
The problem is that this idea has failed to adapt to a reality where many companies now use computers to perform the first round of resume filtering. Computers don't care about the length of the document; they care about searching for the qualifications that have been programmed in to their algorithm. The way the computer-based filtering works is that it searches for specific criteria like skills or degrees and scores them based on the number that are present. To optimize for computer-filtered searches, you want a resume that lists as many skills and qualifications as possible.
Some people keep two different resumes, one tailored for computers and one tailored for humans, but it is increasingly difficult to know which one to submit for a given job. And in the future the most common case will probably be computer filtering for the first round or two, followed by human filtering, so you really need a resume that works for both scenarios.
What I advocate to people is to make your resume as long as necessary to include any skills and experience that you think might help you get the job. However, you should still assume that a human will only read one page. This means that you organize the resume to put all the most important and attention-grabbing information on the first page, then you can use subsequent pages for supplementary information that may be needed to satisfy the computer's checklist.
The origin of the idea is the notion that your resume is going to be filtered by a human. Humans don't want to spend a lot of time on each candidate and get bored easily, so if your resume is overly long they will get annoyed. The idea makes sense.
The problem is that this idea has failed to adapt to a reality where many companies now use computers to perform the first round of resume filtering. Computers don't care about the length of the document; they care about searching for the qualifications that have been programmed in to their algorithm. The way the computer-based filtering works is that it searches for specific criteria like skills or degrees and scores them based on the number that are present. To optimize for computer-filtered searches, you want a resume that lists as many skills and qualifications as possible.
Some people keep two different resumes, one tailored for computers and one tailored for humans, but it is increasingly difficult to know which one to submit for a given job. And in the future the most common case will probably be computer filtering for the first round or two, followed by human filtering, so you really need a resume that works for both scenarios.
What I advocate to people is to make your resume as long as necessary to include any skills and experience that you think might help you get the job. However, you should still assume that a human will only read one page. This means that you organize the resume to put all the most important and attention-grabbing information on the first page, then you can use subsequent pages for supplementary information that may be needed to satisfy the computer's checklist.
entremet
Member
This is highly suspect.
Do you live in super small town or something? Have you thought about moving to a big city? You don't have to move blind, but interviewing and such at your closest bigger cities? You can then secure a job and relocate.
If you're bombing interviews, I highly suggest joining Toastmasters. It's a nonprofit educational institution with chapters all over the world. Their focus is on public speaking and leadership.
Accountants aren't usually the most vivacious of people, so there could be some very big blind spot that interviewers are noticing--lack of eye contact, mumbling--I don't know, but I'm just giving you my ideas.
Your field is very much in demand.
Dragon1893
Member
Yeah, it sucks. After I graduated I found a well paying job right away, was there for 5 years until a combination of bad management and the economy going down the toilet caused the whole thing to crash and burn.
Been getting by on part-time jobs and freelance work since then, also opened a business but it's not going too well, people just don't have any money in their wallets around here.
I have a degree, speak 4 languages, am highly professional and extremely dedicated to the companies I work for but noone is willing to give me a chance.
I see people with jobs basically not giving a shit and just taking the job for granted and it's frustrating.
So yeah, I think I'd just say fuck it if I didn't have a son who fortunately gives me the strenght to face anything head on.
Been getting by on part-time jobs and freelance work since then, also opened a business but it's not going too well, people just don't have any money in their wallets around here.
I have a degree, speak 4 languages, am highly professional and extremely dedicated to the companies I work for but noone is willing to give me a chance.
I see people with jobs basically not giving a shit and just taking the job for granted and it's frustrating.
So yeah, I think I'd just say fuck it if I didn't have a son who fortunately gives me the strenght to face anything head on.
ThLunarian
Member
I live in Charlotte, NC, so the size of my city isn't the problem.
I don't FEEL like I'm bombing interviews; I've made it through multiple stages of interviews many times, only to be turned away during the final round. There was only one instance where I felt like I made a very specific mistake that blew it. Every other time it's been a mystery to me, and feedback has been very vague and suspicious. The only reason I wonder if there's a flaw in my personality is because I can't come up with any other reason.
I'm working with 5 different staffing agencies that specialize in finding accounting jobs for people. I went through campus recruiting in the fall and struck out on all four interviews I had. I've scoured job listings on indeed.com and LinkedIn. I've tried to network through friends and classmates all over the spectrum. I've tried big CPA firms, small CPA firms, and everywhere in between.
I'm just not getting hired and I can't figure out why. It's beyond frustrating.
I don't FEEL like I'm bombing interviews; I've made it through multiple stages of interviews many times, only to be turned away during the final round. There was only one instance where I felt like I made a very specific mistake that blew it. Every other time it's been a mystery to me, and feedback has been very vague and suspicious. The only reason I wonder if there's a flaw in my personality is because I can't come up with any other reason.
I'm working with 5 different staffing agencies that specialize in finding accounting jobs for people. I went through campus recruiting in the fall and struck out on all four interviews I had. I've scoured job listings on indeed.com and LinkedIn. I've tried to network through friends and classmates all over the spectrum. I've tried big CPA firms, small CPA firms, and everywhere in between.
I'm just not getting hired and I can't figure out why. It's beyond frustrating.
entremet
Member
That's strange. Have you asked why you're not getting positions?
Have you tried seeing a career counselor? There may be some blind spots somewhere that you may need help identifying.
But it sounds like your resume is fine and your interviewing skills are decent if you're getting to the later rounds.
It could just be that you're getting matched up with more qualified candidates--maybe they have more experience.
All job hunts are basically a process of elimination for the company. It just could be that the candidate pool for your prospective jobs may be beating you in specific areas.
ThLunarian
Member
All great points. I've been trying to ask what I'm doing wrong and I keep getting met with "Oh don't worry, you'll find something soon enough. Your field is in demand, after all." Basically, nobody knows what I'm doing wrong.
I've met with career counselors on my school's campus as recently as this past spring, but I haven't considered looking for one outside of my school. That could be an idea.
Maybe it's my competition. I don't know. If it is then there really is nothing I can do about it, since I've already maxed out on my education. That's either depressing or comforting or both, I'm not sure.
Whatever the reason, it's really putting a damper on my year.
Thank you for offering your input. If you or anyone else has any more, I welcome it.
I'm okay with the premise of this post, even though I still feel like most of the time there's an HR stooge filtering your resume, not a computer.
Both my wife and I had problems getting our boilerplate resumes past HR, and we had to start tailoring them slightly to every job that we applied for. For example, if a job says it wants you to know HTML, your resume can't just say that you have multiple years of experience building commercial websites. The hiring manager will understand the correlation between the two, but the HR guy will not. Actually write all they keywords that they're looking for in your resume.
Assume there's a kindergartner with a red crayon sitting at a knee high table and circling word matches between your resume and the job posting. The redder your resume is at the end, the more likely that the actual hiring manager will get to see it.
Dragon1893
Member
entremet
Member
I've been on long job hunts.
The secret is to develop a system. For example, I would do x number of applications per day consecutively.
If I was not getting call backs, I would change my strategy, get my resume rewritten, do some networking, etc.
In the meantime, you should also be finding success outside of your job search for the psychological pick me up.
Get regular exercise, hang out with friends, read books and articles about your field, gain new skills during the downtime, volunteer.
Basically, success is contagious. It will help you with your outlook as your press on.
Just filling out applications all day and waiting is a strategy for discouragement.
Jason's Ultimatum
Member
It's shocking you can't even get an entry level accouting job. Maybe book keeping? And you live in Charlotte, which is like a hub for finance jobs.
BTW, I may be moving to Charlotte really soon. Gotta get out of this hell hole Florida.
ThLunarian
Member
To be fair, I am focusing on jobs at Public Accounting firms or on Internal Audit jobs. I am willing to hear out basic bookkeeping-level jobs, but they're not what I'm actively pursuing.
And the rest of my life is very active. I go to the gym often and have a healthy relationship with my girlfriend. I'm also studying for the final CPA exam. I even have full-time employment as a pizza guy, so that I can pay my bills while I'm looking for a real job.
In the immediate stretch of time after being rejected from a great position, though, it hurts a lot, and those other things get pushed to the back of my mind. That's where I am right now :-/
Hey GAF, I'm looking to build my resume from essentially scratch and I'm wondering if any of you know any good resources for doing so. I'm a CS major in his junior year at the moment, but I want to get into the internship/part-time job game ASAP and this is without a doubt the first important step.
ThLunarian
Member
I feel and share your pain. You'll get through this. We both will.
entremet
Member
What city are you in Florida?
I like my hell hole in Orlando, thank you very much. Although I spend more time traveling than time in my house. But I still love it when I'm home.
Captain Tuttle
Member
I would suggest doing some volunteering, surely there is a non-profit supporting a cause that you care about that could a highly trained accountant a couple of times a week. I'm not talking about the Red Cross either, look for something that is local, better way to make contacts.
Good luck and keep at it. I was unemployed for 5 years while I was a stay at home Dad and looked for jobs for at least 2 years with no luck. I happened to fall into the job I have now, making more money than I did at my old gig. I just about gave up too.
GreenMonkey
Member
For Jason's Ultimatum: Dude, your resume is a mile too long considering your experience. Like all the others have said. 4 months experience of anything should be a paragraph, tops on your resume. Like I have for the older positions on my resume. Honestly I've even considered dropping most of this stuff...it's mainly only on there to show that I'm older, and I've got a background actually working with people (important to have something *other* than just I/S & data crunching stuff on my resume IMO). But I've boiled it down to the bare essentials for each job.
Clerical Assistant/Damage Estimator Jan 2000 - Aug 2000
BAY AUTO AUCTION - Bay City, MI
Damage estimation of off-lease vehicles, vehicle condition reports, posting charges to customer accounts, authorizing client pickup of property, auctioning vehicles, clerical duties.
Technical Support Representative Sep 1999-Dec 1999
MERCURY NETWORK - Midland, MI
Helping customers at the front desk, setting up new internet accounts, troubleshooting dial-up internet access.
Computer Lab Monitor Jan 1999-Dec 1999
DELTA COLLEGE - UNIVERSITY CENTER, MI
Assisting students with computer use and problems; phone troubleshooting help for students using Delta College Michnet dial-up internet access.
Grocery Cashier Jul 1996-Aug 1999
MEIJER, INC.- MIDLAND, MI
Grocery checkout, cash handling, customer service. Received Bronze Award for Best Grocery Cashier, Midland Daily News’ Reader’s Choice Awards, summer 1998.
Short and succinct. You can go a *bit* longer given your lack of relevant experience, but you should absolutely have a 1-page resume. Your internship should be something like the above - at most, 4 or 5 lines. The trick is to have relevant keywords (So your resume makes it past the computer HR filter) but not so much that it looks like you're just rambling / bragging how little experience you have. It looks not-humble at all.
At most, something like this (An I/T example from my resume). It can get longer as you have more responsibilities:
System operator
-Monitoring and 1st level troubleshooting of 800+ production systems.
-Level 1 troubleshooting of alerts, rebooting systems, incident call support.
-Client/application support-requested file restores and other client cases from the Global Service Desk.
-Creating and updating procedures and documentation.
I've been reading this thread, my wife spent 6 years as a stay-at-home mom, but went and got a graduate degree, and then another one, during her mom time. She struggled for years to get a job so I sympathize. She recently got let go for ridiculous reasons from her last 1.5 year job, but just scored a job, for the first time, making semi-decent money. In fact I sent her to this thread to read it when she was still job hunting.
I'm willing to provide perspective from an I/S standpoint, I've helped management look over a lot of resumes and I've helped interview quite the handful of people over the years. I've participated in quite a few over the last several months.
Clerical Assistant/Damage Estimator Jan 2000 - Aug 2000
BAY AUTO AUCTION - Bay City, MI
Damage estimation of off-lease vehicles, vehicle condition reports, posting charges to customer accounts, authorizing client pickup of property, auctioning vehicles, clerical duties.
Technical Support Representative Sep 1999-Dec 1999
MERCURY NETWORK - Midland, MI
Helping customers at the front desk, setting up new internet accounts, troubleshooting dial-up internet access.
Computer Lab Monitor Jan 1999-Dec 1999
DELTA COLLEGE - UNIVERSITY CENTER, MI
Assisting students with computer use and problems; phone troubleshooting help for students using Delta College Michnet dial-up internet access.
Grocery Cashier Jul 1996-Aug 1999
MEIJER, INC.- MIDLAND, MI
Grocery checkout, cash handling, customer service. Received Bronze Award for Best Grocery Cashier, Midland Daily News’ Reader’s Choice Awards, summer 1998.
Short and succinct. You can go a *bit* longer given your lack of relevant experience, but you should absolutely have a 1-page resume. Your internship should be something like the above - at most, 4 or 5 lines. The trick is to have relevant keywords (So your resume makes it past the computer HR filter) but not so much that it looks like you're just rambling / bragging how little experience you have. It looks not-humble at all.
At most, something like this (An I/T example from my resume). It can get longer as you have more responsibilities:
System operator
-Monitoring and 1st level troubleshooting of 800+ production systems.
-Level 1 troubleshooting of alerts, rebooting systems, incident call support.
-Client/application support-requested file restores and other client cases from the Global Service Desk.
-Creating and updating procedures and documentation.
I've been reading this thread, my wife spent 6 years as a stay-at-home mom, but went and got a graduate degree, and then another one, during her mom time. She struggled for years to get a job so I sympathize. She recently got let go for ridiculous reasons from her last 1.5 year job, but just scored a job, for the first time, making semi-decent money. In fact I sent her to this thread to read it when she was still job hunting.
I'm willing to provide perspective from an I/S standpoint, I've helped management look over a lot of resumes and I've helped interview quite the handful of people over the years. I've participated in quite a few over the last several months.
GreenMonkey
Member
Advice I haven't seen: drop your Master's Degree from your resume and pad out your other experience with a service job that somewhat relates for a year or two. Pick up a job tangentially-related to accounting. Something like nightshift audit at a hotel, administrative assistant position, even maybe cashiering, etc (if you don't have any of this already). Doesn't mean you can't keep applying to better jobs, but do something in the mean time. If it comes up, fess up to the degree.
One of my wife's degrees is in education. You know the jobs that actually called her for interviews, and especially 2nd and 3rd interviews? The degree auditing and reviewing type positions. Because although she doesn't have experience in education (besides an internship), she does have several year's experience working the night audit at a hotel at it seems to relate enough to get some more interest. The more entry-level stuff (admissions, for example) almost never call her. There's not a *lot* of accounting on a hotel nightshift, just a bit of books balancing and closing out accounts, but it's enough to make a difference. My sister is a CPA, and she did the same (worked night audit at a hotel).
have you tried Mock interviews?
Jason's Ultimatum
Member
st Pete, and a minute away from Howard Franklin bridge to Tampa. I live right near Raymond James financial.
entremet
Member
Cover letter should be the body. Resume should be attached.
mmazurkiewicz
Member
anyone know of any job openings in nyc?
entremet
Member
There are tons. It's a major metro. Par for the course.
Just go and Indeed, CL, Monster, and start searching.
Dr. Feel Good
Banned
This is.... Insane. After all these years of you trying to find a new job this is what you've settled on? I will echo the statements of other members here this is a very bad resume. I am shocked with all the advice given to you on this forum over the years hasn't made you improve this.
- The internship is at a point of almost being irrelevant.
- Why are you listing hours per week?
- Why have you not been volunteering for opportunities in the field you want?
- Most of the Sports Authority stuff is filler.
- don't use acronyms people won't know.
Please do not ignore people's advice any longer. Your sister is wrong. What you've been doing is wrong. Your college counselor is wrong. You will be stuck in hell hole Florida for the rest of your life unless you start listening to others advice.
Also format is everything. My resume:
Jason's Ultimatum
Member
This is.... Insane. After all these years of you trying to find a new job this is what you've settled on? I will echo the statements of other members here this is a very bad resume. I am shocked with all the advice given to you on this forum over the years hasn't made you improve this.
- The internship is at a point of almost being irrelevant.
- Why are you listing hours per week?
- Why have you not been volunteering for opportunities in the field you want?
- Most of the Sports Authority stuff is filler.
- don't use acronyms people won't know.
Please do not ignore people's advice any longer. Your sister is wrong. What you've been doing is wrong. Your college counselor is wrong. You will be stuck in hell hole Florida for the rest of your life unless you start listening to others advice.
Also format is everything. My resume:
yeah, I'm going to cut out a lot filler that doesn't pertain to the jobs I apply for. Heck, there are a couple for at least my internship I can knock out. But what about my first bullet point? That was the majority of my work duty, just analyzing counterfeit note reports.
but do I cut out my accomplishments, or create one bullet point that's one sentence or something?
Advocatus Diaboli
Member
This is.... Insane. After all these years of you trying to find a new job this is what you've settled on? I will echo the statements of other members here this is a very bad resume. I am shocked with all the advice given to you on this forum over the years hasn't made you improve this.
- The internship is at a point of almost being irrelevant.
- Why are you listing hours per week?
- Why have you not been volunteering for opportunities in the field you want?
- Most of the Sports Authority stuff is filler.
- don't use acronyms people won't know.
Please do not ignore people's advice any longer. Your sister is wrong. What you've been doing is wrong. Your college counselor is wrong. You will be stuck in hell hole Florida for the rest of your life unless you start listening to others advice.
Also format is everything. My resume:
I love this format. Can you post the template somewhere? While it won't always work -- I'm applying to fed jobs that sometimes require a resume builder -- that's solid. The spacing and "UI" is gorgeous.
Captain.Falafel
Neo Member
Echoing this. What program did you use to go about doing this? That is most certainly an eye-catcher.
echoeing also. Would love a copy of the format.
Fox Mulder
Member
I thought about it and did some side things as an eBay store. I could get like $400 a week half assing it while I've had a real job. Not much really, but I could see getting more out of what I was doing.
I'm training as a contractor and don't get paid until I do my own work, so I've also got to dig up some other money in the mean time.
Rose of Eternity
Banned
Hey! I saw this post over the weekend but was busy marathoning FF14 to give a real reply. Though now I'm in the middle of 9/15 busy season with 100 interns under me so I still can't really go all out. I think I responded to one of your other posts one time? You wanted Big4 right? I forgot if you said which you applied to, you can pm me if you want to get a bit more specific and maybe I can help you out with some of your questions if you happened to apply to mine. I'm quite involved with recruiting and interviewing so at least I can give you some straight answers.
I read some of the responses above, and, to be blunt, some are really bad. As I'm sure you're well aware, recruiting in public and especially B4 is its own beast with its own rules. Unless someone knows it intimately, general advice really won't cut it. Especially not to leave your masters off your resume lol. =X
To the other person that said something like "accountants aren't the most "vivacious," they have no clue that public (B4) from staff to manager is filled with 20-somethings that are absolutely in their prime. They are young, motivated, personable, and all around just fun. It's like graduating college and going to an even bigger one with an even bigger frat. Public accounting in the early years is drowning in stress, alcohol, and sex. And getting paid good money for it lol. I'm not saying we recruit party animals, just that we recruit the best of the best AND someone who knows how to relax and have a good time. At least we try to.
Zaraki_Kenpachi
Member
Have you asked for specifics when they said your personality?
Rose of Eternity
Banned
We wouldn't reply to questions like that in the first place. We don't give specifics. The answer is always "this is as very competitive field." I have my standard go to copy and paste e-mail for all of the people who ask me what they could have done better. We have our own internal reasons as to why we take this approach. That's why I said he can pm me and I can give a bit more insight rather than posting it publicly. How open the recruiter wants to be will vary by office.
entremet
Member
Given your recruiting chops in the field, if you have time, maybe you can do a mock interview over Skype with TheLunarian and coach him in any blind spots he may have?
The guy seems smart and dedicated. It's tough to see young people having hard time finding their first big gig.
I was there years ago, so I'm very sympathetic, but you're obviously more experienced in the field TheLunarian is pursuing.
Rose of Eternity
Banned
We actually offer mock interviews at the campuses we recruit at, at least up here in the NYC area. I can't really go out and specifically help him as it introduces a whole different set of issues. Not to mention at my level I wouldn't really focus my time on a staff level person, as blunt as that may be. It sounds like he has all the boxes checked and is just missing that last bit of oomph to wow an interviewer. Sometimes we do think that someone isn't ready and just needs a solid year of work experience under them to get them over the hump. Unfortunately, a pizza shop is not that.
Right now, myself and a co-worker are trying to refer a mutual friend for my company. He sent us a CV that was completely unacceptable for this kind of position (it might work for academia, but not here). It looks good now, but we have concerns over his interview skills.
I can't speak to every company out there, but here, the CVs just filter out bad candidates from the good. We'll bring in four people to interview for a job, and at that point they're all on the same footing. They all had strong qualifications, we just don't know personal details. Now it's about who communicates best and who "fits" best from a personality standpoint.
Sure, they'll ask about the CV in the interview, but they already know everything they need to know from it. They're just testing the potential candidates comfort levels.
Something to keep in mind for people interviewing in the upcoming days. Will probably be different for places that interview hundreds of candidates for one position. Being in the professional world for some time now, communication is absolutely the best skill to have. Emphasize it.
I can't speak to every company out there, but here, the CVs just filter out bad candidates from the good. We'll bring in four people to interview for a job, and at that point they're all on the same footing. They all had strong qualifications, we just don't know personal details. Now it's about who communicates best and who "fits" best from a personality standpoint.
Sure, they'll ask about the CV in the interview, but they already know everything they need to know from it. They're just testing the potential candidates comfort levels.
Something to keep in mind for people interviewing in the upcoming days. Will probably be different for places that interview hundreds of candidates for one position. Being in the professional world for some time now, communication is absolutely the best skill to have. Emphasize it.
Dr. Feel Good
Banned
Glad to hear people like it. I've actually never submitted it before so I have no idea if it gets traction. I just made it myself in Excel when I got bored. PM if you want me to send over the raw file to your email.