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Careers International Students

Application Success During Spring Recruiting

There is a stark difference between successful applications that receive offers to interview and those that do not! Are you certain YOUR application is ready?

With the Spring accounting recruiting season (Public Practice Recruiting) in full swing, many students are submitting their applications in hopes of landing a position that will support their goals of completing their CPA and landing employment in their new accounting field. Even though many would agree they need to have every competitive advantage, some students do not think that getting career support to make sure their application is ready to go and ready to make an impact is part of their successful preparation. However, for most, it absolutely is…

Here Are Seven Reasons Why YOU Need Help!

  1. Validation – Even though many students are competent with their preparation including their resume and cover letter writing skills, they often still feel a slight feeling of anxiety when they click send to submit their applications. A meeting with a skilled career consultant or firm rep can bring validation to an applicant’s thoughts, approach and ideas. This can help with building confidence as they await a call to interview.
  2. Blind Spots – The thing about having “blind-spots”, is we don’t usually know when we have them! And, sometimes we don’t see them until it’s too late. Over the years, discussions with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) have helped me realize how much my knowledge was lacking in one area or another. If I would have tried to move ahead with my lack of knowledge, it might have made me look ill-prepared, produced a lesser result and possibly failed altogether. We have all thrown our hands in the air at some time and said, “Who knew!” Well, somebody did! And, if we had of gotten their perspective, we might have answered differently and ended with a better result. An important realization is to know you m ay not understand everything you need to about your application leaving you with blind spots that could hinder your efforts. If you are able to see this, have enough vision and take the needed steps to get the help you need.
  3. The Power of Discussion – To some this might sounds like receiving psychological help, but it really is about talking about your ideas and approach as well as getting feedback on your documents. I know, talk, talk, talk, that’s all people do sometimes. But dialogue can be so powerful, especially when it raises the unknown or reveals something that was missed or forgotten. Often when I enquire about what people have done in their work, and what they are trying to convey in their resume statements and cover letters, I hear them verbally describe so much more. In these descriptions, they often reveal more impacting information when they are simply talking about what they have done. These discussions then become quite exciting and turn into new and more impacting content. Resumes, cover letters and interview preparation go the the next level of quality content and delivery.
  4. Leveraging Others Expertise – It is always better when we can learn from another’s mistakes and gain knowledge without “the school of hard knocks.” It saves so much wasted time and even some bumps, bruises and disappointments along the way. When connecting with a career consultant that has done thousands of successful application reviews, you are able to leverage that experience and increase the impact of your application. Many times, it’s not what you know, but who you know, when it comes to leveraging knowledge. So many students have asked me to review applications “after they have already sent them!” Instead of me helping them present themselves better, the discussion is more about what they should have done instead. The appointments are not very enjoyable.
  5. Add Value – Once small edits or complete revisions are made to applications, the percentage of the effectiveness significantly goes up. When certain things are added to (or removed from) a resume and or cover letter, they can be the reasons an application turns into an interview offer. After working with my clients to add skills to a resume or relevant connections to cover letters, the documents have increased in effectiveness by 2-3 times. Many clients have said they felt so much more confident with their new revised documents than they were prior to getting help. This can happen for you as well.
  6. The Look – Often people get so focused on their content that they miss the things that makes the first impact – the look. The visual look of documents is very important and can make an impact on the reviewer even before they read one word about you. So, having someone to give you feedback about your personal brand, the look of your layout and the consistency of your documents can go a long way toward displaying the competencies that are expected and proving what we will say we are good at. Margins, headers, fonts and section layouts can all distract from the strength of the words and academics when documents are not formatted successfully. When done well, the content is quickly focused on and the impact on the reader is much greater. It is worth the effort to get your application checked so that you don’t read over your own mistakes or lose sight of the very important impact of your application’s first impression.
  7. You Paid For It! – Your student fees have been at work for you already creating content and making help available for you when you need it – and you probably do need it more that you know. With student fees being as expensive as they are, why wouldn’t you take advantage of what you have already paid for? It’s like leaving money on the table during a business deal when it would have been better to profit from decisions that would have moved the money from the table to your pocket. Take full advantage of the opportunity while you are in DAP, because when you have completed, the door closes on the kind of support you can have during your DAP experience. It would be my pleasure to help you increase your success!

    The DAP Office will continue posting and advertising regular career coaching, Spring recruiting application review opportunities and interview preparation workshops and appointments with Russell Garrett, your Career Consultant. You can register for these through COOL now. Some approaching dates are May 2, 3, 12, 15, 16, 23 along with the Interview Preparation Workshop on May 9th.

    If you are unable to locate any scheduled career coaching slots on COOL at the present time, or for some reason these appointments do not coincide with your work schedule, you can reach out to Russell, your DAP Career Coach, through email at dapcareersupport@sauder.ubc.ca to set up a random online meeting instead.

    So, do a quick shoulder check, you likely have a blindspot! And, take action to move forward with success!

Best of Luck,

Russell

Russell Garrett is the Owner of Protocol Business Solutions, a Certified Career Consultant and your DAP Career Coach. Russell will be delivering workshops for DAP and BCom students in collaboration with the Business Career Centre. Russell is also available to DAP students for coaching appointments secured through COOL, or students can set up a random online coaching appointments set up through email requests. Contact Russell at dapcareersupport@sauder.ubc.ca.

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Categories
Careers

Reminder – Winning Applications workshop for CPA Public Practice Spring Recruit this Tuesday, March 28th, 4:45 pm

As a reminder, DAP career coach, Russell Garrett, will be holding a virtual workshop this Tuesday, March 28th, 4:45 pm for this year’s Spring CPA Public Practice Recruit, focusing on preparing winning application for this Spring Recruit.

Tuesday, March 28th, 4:45 to 6:15 pm – Winning Applications
As accounting firms begin advertising and posting student job applications in the summer, knowing how to prepare an application that fits what they are looking for REALLY matters. In this highly competitive recruiting period, learn how to prepare cover letters and resumes that will help YOU stand out among the hundreds of other student applicants. A winning approach may even yield multiple interviews and offers.

Registration for both of this workshops will be open on COOL until Monday, March 27th.

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Careers

Get application and interview ready for Spring CPA Public Practice Recruit (2024 start dates) – Upcoming virtual workshops on Tuesday, March 28th and Tuesday, May 9th

DAP career coach, Russell Garrett, will be holding two virtual workshops for this year’s Spring CPA Public Practice Recruit, focusing on two upcoming milestone events in this recruitment cycle – applications and interviews.

The majority of public practice accounting firms will be hiring through this cycle, so if you are interested in working in public practice and will have all of your CPA PEP pre-requisites in time to start a full-time role in 2024, attend these upcoming sessions to get your applications ready and prepare for interviews.

  • Tuesday, March 28th, 4:45 to 6:15 pm – Winning Applications
    As accounting firms begin advertising and posting student job applications in the summer, knowing how to prepare an application that fits what they are looking for REALLY matters. In this highly competitive recruiting period, learn how to prepare cover letters and resumes that will help YOU stand out among the hundreds of other student applicants. A winning approach may even yield multiple interviews and offers.
  • Tuesday, May 9th, 4:45 to 6:15 pm – Successful Interviews
    Preparing for an accounting firm interview is different than most students have experienced. Meet accounting companies’ expectations by making sure you know and prepare for every interview possibility. In this arena, introductions, answers, questions, conversations and follow up all matter. Build your interviewing success from “Hello” all the way through to your follow up after the interview is over!

Registration for both of these workshops is now open on COOL.

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Careers Events

Online event | Java in Your Jammies event series with Deloitte

Students, Deloitte invites you to start your mornings with them this month! Join Deloitte Canada’s Campus Recruitment advisors for a series of virtual Java in Your Jammies events. They want to set you up for success! You will have the opportunity to learn about the recruitment process and ask any questions you may have.

Sessions will be offered at 10 a.m. EST and PST to accommodate time-zones.

March 21: Where potential comes to life
First session: 10 a.m. ET
Second session: 1 p.m. ET

March 22: Building your personal brand
First session: 10 a.m. ET
Second session: 1 p.m. ET

March 23 How to Build a Great Application
First session: 10 a.m. ET
Second session: 1 p.m. ET

Register today

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Categories
Careers Events

Reminder – Careers in Accounting workshop series continues on Tuesday, November 1st with Workshop 5 (The Power of Specific Cover Letters)

As a reminder, we are offering a 7-part workshop series this term, which started on Tuesday, September 20th. This workshop series is comprised of 7 sequential workshops that will take you through each step of the career planning process, corresponding to one or more of our Career Toolkits. Not sure how to get started on the accounting career path? Don’t miss this opportunity for tailored guidance and exclusive tips to start you on your way!

The next workshop in this series will be held this Tuesday, November 1st and will focus on cover letters.

Many candidates have told of sending out 50 or more applications before landing their targeted career goal. The level of frustration can be significant and many candidates feel it is personal rejection when not often is the presentation of their story = cover letter that was the issue.

There are few things more impacting than a well written specific cover letter. When candidates move from general cover letters to specific expressions of relevant skills and company knowledge with passion and confidence, the response rate from employer’s climbs significantly.

Discover how you can tailor your letters to specific companies, people and positions and bring out the best of your past to demonstrate your previous performance and help them believe you can produce results again.

Discover how to create an attraction that will compel them to invite you to an interview and eventually make you a job offer.

This workshop will be fully virtual and will be held from 4:45 to 6:15 pm PT and registration will be open on COOL until 11:59 pm pm on Monday, October 31st.

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