Because I worked in both KPMG and Deloitte to Senior Management level I often get asked what the Big 4 environment is like from the Graduates I coach every Autumn.  They do get the bells and whistles presentations at college and the fancy websites and brochures to read but we all know those are selling hard.  The Big 4 enter a huge competition every Autumn fighting to attract the very best candidates to accept their offers.  Many top Graduates with excellent academics and placement experience will have the pick of 4 offers if they attend all 4 interviews.  So be under no illusion that these firms aren’t selling with every line they write and every word they utter on campus and in videos.  So how do you as a Graduate read between the lines and really understand what it is like to work in a Big 4 firm?

Firstly, there are people like me who can give you an excellent and unbiased account of the firm’s dynamics and then there are the anonymous accounts on Glassdoor and other company review platforms, though they can be taken with a pinch of salt, as more often than not it is the grumbling review of someone who didn’t make the cut past their traineeship.
 
Here are my top eye openers for you to understand what environment you are targeting.

1. These firms are hierarchical.  That means there is a clear line of command down the chain and as a fresh graduate you will enter near the bottom but above any intern’s present.  The reporting line of a Big 4 is this:
   

 1. There are no guarantees you will make it through the traineeship.  If you fail in your exams repeatedly and for no good reason you will not be kept on.  If you are applying for an Audit position you will be sponsored to take the Chartered Accountancy exams, the ACA, if you are targeting Tax it will be the professional Tax exams.  The Big 4 are a great place to study and work as they get the best exam pass rates.  They have excellent training in place to support your studies and you get regulated study leave to give you plenty of time to grind before exams.  But outside of study leave you will also be expected to work long hours and study in your spare time too.  This can be quite taxing in the busiest parts of the year such as Winter for Audit and Autumn for Tax.
 
2. You will be expected to work in teams and to enjoy working in teams as the firms are keen on keeping high staff morale to prevent turnover.  If you do not enjoy team work you will not enjoy a Big 4 environment.
 
3. You will be expected to work long hours when required.  Sometimes Auditors find themselves working through the night into the early hours of the morning. If you are in the Corporate Finance team this can include several long nights of work in a row and weekends.  There really is no such thing as 9-5.30pm in these firms.  But saying that, in the summer, when it is quieter, a lot get to leave early on a Friday and holidays/time in lieu are mostly fully taken. 
 
4. A Big 4 firm can be a political environment.  The further you go in a firm past Manager level the more competitive it gets.  Accountants bill their clients in time units so the more an individual is billing the more chance they have of getting to Director and then Partner level.  But to get to Director is tough, in a high numbered team, and not everyone will get there, which creates a level of attrition at Senior Manager level when a lot opt out and move into industry roles.
 

5. Getting to Partner is very difficult in a Big 4 firm.  Only the very best will make it.  They will make it by bringing in clients at Director level by doing business development.  That means hard core selling.  They will engage in contacting companies by ‘cold calling’ them and presenting to them.  They will be competing with other firms for this business, so it can also involve excellent charisma and charm and a good deal of contacts in the right decision-making roles.  If you don’t like the idea of selling you will not enjoy being a Director and you will not get to Partner level.
 
6. Partnership is structured into different levels of hierarchy too.  There are salaried Partners which is one step up from a Director and the work is very similar, it’s just that they are paid more money than Directors and will have bigger bonuses.  Then there are equity Partners, not every salaried Partner will be invited to be an Equity Partner. You get invited to Equity Partner level by bringing in huge clients that generate more fees than salaried Partner employees. They ‘buy in’ to the practice by purchasing equity in the firm. Often a loan arrangement is organised, which they will pay off over a number of years from their earnings.They are technically self-employed.

7. Equity Partners also have a hierarchy depending on the firm and the different amount of equity put into the firm. They will have voting rights and decision-making rights on who gets promoted to Director and Partner level. But the most important thing to note is that if the firm incurs any significant losses the Partnership is expected to bail out the firm using their own funds.Equity Partner earnings differ greatly depending on the billings of the team and so it is vital for them to have large corporate clients and to keep them happy. A Partner will do a lot of entertaining of Clients at C Level after work and at weekends to help keep them happy and as clients. They will also work long hours but not as many as the lower levels in the firm.

Hopefully, some of these ‘eye openers’ will be illuminating.  It is vital to enter any role after graduation with your eyes open and I know that at lot of the above is a mystery to most going through the milk-round, particularly those who have no family or friends in one of these firms to talk to.

Please let me know if you have any questions by emailing me 
Here is more information on my Big 4 Graduate Interview Coaching.
 

Recruitment practices ebb and flow with the changes in technology.  Sometimes they are organised brilliantly and seamlessly, depending on the intellect of the Talent Acquisition team but unfortunately, they can sometimes be a broken-down dysfunctional mess.  A few years ago, that bastion of all that is ‘best practice,’ i.e. Google, decided to start a trend called ‘Pipelining’.  

Pipelining, for those of you unfamiliar with the term, means that an internal corporate recruiter can see maybe up to 12 months ahead when particular teams will need to recruit.  Their data analytics lets them know roughly how many hires will be required depending on promotional rounds, attrition rates and business growth.  For example, a company can hypothetically predict in January that a Sales team will require 10 new hires in September, based on relevant factors so they start advertising roles way ahead of schedule.  Before pipelining came along recruitment teams would have waited until maybe 6-8 weeks before hiring in September to begin their candidate search with the expectation that a candidate would have a month’s notice, that would give them another month to source and then time to interview and offer the candidates.  Pipelining pre-empts that by sourcing the candidates maybe 3-6 months out, sometimes even longer.  The recruiters in the sales hiring example above will start pipelining and sourcing candidates in February, advertising the roles on their website and Linked In and other platforms inviting applications.  Then come July they will start interviewing the banked candidates that loaded into their database back in February, so they don’t have to do things at the last minute.  It sounds like a good idea doesn’t it?

Why Pipelining Doesn’t Always Work

Unfortunately, there are good and bad pipeline practices everywhere. The main problem arises when the employer doesn’t notify the candidates that they are being pipelined.  The candidate thinks they are applying to a live role that is hiring imminently and the candidate would logically expect interviews to happen in the next few weeks.  But what is happening is they aren’t being contacted at all to let them know what is happening.  Once they have hit send on the application there may be a 6 month wait until they are called to interview.  In the meantime, the candidate gets frustrated and annoyed at the lack of contact.  They may feel that the role has been filled so they give up their hopes of moving to that company and instead look at other roles, that may not be pipelining, in other companies, and they move on to a new job.  All before the first company has contacted them about the ‘pipelined’ job!  What a big mess!

Why is this happening?

The reason this is happening is that many companies forget they are not Google.  They are not sexy in any way shape or form, Google is like a Super model in comparison to most other companies.  Google can afford to pipeline candidates because people are desperate to work there.  Also, most of the time, they let the candidates know that they are pipelining, admittedly mostly after the fact than before it, after all they want to create a buzz and get applications in.  But at least they manage the candidate’s expectations that they won’t be back in contact for x months.

All the other companies have lost the plot in my humble opinion.  They are operating an amateur version of 'Pipelining' and disrespecting their candidates through the lack of communication.

What can you, as a candidate, do about this? 

If you are desperate to move jobs, or are out of work, don’t put all your eggs in one basket, you could be waiting a long time for that job.  Don’t feel you don’t have a voice, ring up the recruitment team and ask the question, ‘am I being pipelined or is this role interviewing in the next few weeks?’  Few candidates bother to pick up the phone these days, so you won’t be hassling the recruiters to call them on this.
If you are being pipelined, then it is up to you whether to continue holding out for that job or continue your search elsewhere.

Be sceptical when applying to jobs at most large companies, pipelining is a huge trend now, so if you manage your expectations that you may not hear back for some time you won’t get anxious or paranoid that the job has gone.
 
For more help or advice on this and any part of the application and interview process please don’t hesitate to book in for coaching.  All my coaching is completely tailored to your individual needs.

Frustratingly, the equality of selling oneself does not seem to be filtering through to our presence on Linked In.  I often have to coach my female clients to up the ante on selling points and achievements, which are either too brief or missing entirely on LI.  While most of the male clients seem to have this covered, with a few exceptions, of course.  In my course 'What to do before Applying for a Job' I explain exactly where to put your big selling messages and promote your profile to the prospective employers in the right way.  Don't underestimate the use of LI for the background research phase, all recruiters in any corporate are crawling all over LI during their search and research phases for talent.  If your LI profile is lacking then it will let you down and you don't want to make life too difficult for yourself, if you have a profile that sells the recruiters will come to you rather than you having to go to the recruiters! A far more relaxing experience.  Here is the article that points out this disparity in male and female profiles on Linked In.  So regardless of whether you are male or female, if your LI profile is lacking this is something to action today. My course is perfect for helping you to attract hiring professionals, like moths to a flame, it is only a couple of hours of work and you can sit back and watch the recruiters contact requests hit your inbox, a much better way to go about your job search.

Onwards and Upwards!

Here is my latest short course on 'How to Make Sure your Big 4 Applications gets you Interviews'. It has just launched in time for this year's Big 4 graduate applications in September to PwC, KPMG, Deloitte and EY.  Each year, because of my Big 4 recruitment management background, I coach lots of students for their interviews and they have often come to me after sending off their application, sometimes with some really big errors and poor 'free writing' sections in their applications that I had to help them spin answers for in their interview, because I knew the interviewers wouldn't let them away with their mistakes and sadly for others they were distraught that not one of the Big 4 had invited them to an interview and I had to point out the errors on their application, which explained why it had gone wrong for them and help them come up with a plan B.  It is such a shame, and a waste of talent, and it got me thinking that I can design a course to help them before they send off the application and this is what I have just launched.  So if you are looking to bag a place on the very competitive graduate training programme at a Big 4 firm this is the course for you. It is packed with lots of very interesting 'behind the scenes' information, which will enable you to understand just what the Big 4 application screening team is looking for from you, and the pitfalls to watch out for, to make sure you get invited to interview. Don't leave anything to chance sign up for the course and put your best foot forward in your applications.

Good news!  I am currently in the midst of a major update to Interview Ready.  After a big marketing poll, I found a real desire for short online courses to compliment the 1:1 face to face online courses I run.  So starting today, and into the future, I will be adding a selection of informative and educational short courses on all manner of useful topics relating to interview. 

The first short course is all about how not to make a bad application.  Something many of my clients want to know.  Because of course, the secret to getting an interview starts with the application, make a bad or mis-application and your efforts will result in failure.  I have set out in my short course all the pitfalls to avoid and importantly the steps you need to make to ensure you stand a fighting chance of getting an interview.  Click here for the details and the best part is, while I get this all up and running, I am offering a fantastic discount on the course, as I need to get reviews before I start promoting widely and can offer it for the wonderful price of €4.99 a bargain! 

I will be drip feeding new courses, as I finalise them, and really look forward to your feedback and reviews.

If you have any ideas that you think I can make into a short course that you would like to learn about please don't hesitate to get in touch.

I have to bring this to your attention due to a number of people asking me if our coaching is group or 1:1 format, as there are a number of discount providers appearing in the Irish market on Groupon and other sales sites.  We only do 1:1 coaching because Group Interview Coaching will fail to help you in your interview.  Here is why:

1. There is not enough time to focus on you as an individual.  When it comes to coaching one size does not fit all.  Your answers are going to be based on your very own experience, so forget about generic group coaching.

2. In group coaching one or two people will always dominate the coaching with lots of questions and interruptions to get the coach to focus on them. This psychologically is called group dominance, the alpha of the group will always want to dominate others.  You are not paying good money to let someone else get all the attention.

3. You get what you pay for, never a truer word is spoken.  You may as well go and buy a book on how to prepare for your interview, it costs less than group coaching, and you will get exactly the same information.  With 1:1 coaching we go beyond the generics and actually go through each individual answer with you, helping you put the best of you in to all your answers.  No group or book can do that.

4. Every individual is unique, it is up to us as your coach to help you identify your Unique Selling Points, you may not even no what they are.  There won't be time in group coaching for the coach to do this for you.

5. Sometimes there are skeletons or blips in you background that you don't want to talk about in front of a group of people that will get to know your secrets. This is Dublin, it's a small town, and you don't know where you may bump into your fellow group members in the future, one may even be your next boss!  Don't risk letting your faults, or weaknesses become public knowledge.  As a professional coach we enter a vow of confidentiality from the very moment you contact us.

I hope that helps you see why 1:1 coaching is the only way to go with interview coaching.

If you are interested in booking a 1:1 confidential coaching programme get in touch here.

Just  under three weeks until deadline for applying to the top 5 law firms.  These applications are getting trickier than ever before, giving yourself plenty of time before applying is a must. 

Here are the deadline dates:

A&L Goodbody:  Dublin office 21 October 2016, Belfast office 23 January 2017
McCann Fitzgerald: 21 October
Matheson: 26 October
Arthur Cox: Dublin office 21 October 1pm, Belfast office 11 November 2017
William Fry: 20 October 5.30pm

Note the two deadline times for Arthur Cox and William Fry!

I am really unsure as to why Matheson have left this on the long finger, the firms are competing for the brightest and the best and the sooner they can get the best into the interview room the sooner they can offer them a role.  I am sure Matheson have their reasons..

This is the first step of a big process, to make sure you get the choice of traineeship, that you want, interview coaching will help enormously, making you feel more organised and professional. 

As always at this time of year, the Big 4 Accountancy firms will be conducting nearly 1000 interview in November and there will be overlap with the law firm interviews making this the busiest time of the year for interview coaching.  We are already fully booked for coaching from October 28th to 4th November, please make an appointment for coaching as soon as possible to avoid disappointment. 

Good luck in your applications!

I can't believe Autumn is here again, last year's coaching seems like last week for these prestigious graduate placements.  We are already in the midst of coaching students for these interviews and, as always, expect to be fully booked out.

Hopefully, those of you applying are giving a lot of thought to your applications.  These applications are your key to interview invite.  The most important thing is not to miss the deadline!

Here are the deadline dates this year:

KPMG:   5pm Wednesday 19 October 2016 for ROI Universities and Friday 28 October 2016 for NI Universities
PwC:      5pm Wednesday 19 October 2016 for Assurance, Tax and Risk and Monday 17th October for Consulting
Deloitte: 5pm Wednesday 19 October 2016
EY:       Thursday 6 October 2016 for Advisory/IT/Data and Cyber  Wednesday 19 October 2016 for Assurance, Tax, Transactions and Risk

Don't leave anything to chance, the roles available, although appearing plentiful, are not a dead certainty, you must perform to the best of your abilities in the interview, or risk disappointment.  Maybe you have your heart set on one particular firm, please don't make the mistake of putting all your eggs in one basket and only apply to 1 firm, apply to them all and give yourself better odds.

Our coaching is run by Clare Reed, ex Head of Recruitment at Deloitte and Head of Professional Recruitment at KPMG, she still works in recruitment, as an executive search consultant for the Big 4, and knows these firms well.  You can trust her to give the best advice and guidance in your answers and her track record over the last 8 years in graduate coaching is very impressive.

To book your coaching go to our Graduate Programme page and use the easy to use online booking system.

Best of luck to everyone interviewing this year.

Having worked as a recruiter in both recruitment agencies and industry over the past seventeen years, I have been assisted in my recruitment endeavours by great people and great machines. Technological advances today means company recruitment data management has never been easier.

For example, you may apply to a position advertised by an agency, or a company, by submitting a CV electronically, via their website, or a third party, such as a Linked In. You might expect the recruiter to open your CV, read it, assess it against available jobs and then decide whether to interview you, or leave you in the system for future roles.   However, a machine – the recruiter’s database, known as a talent management system (TMS), may be initially assessing you, particularly if you have applied to a larger company.

Any time a job specification (spec) hits the desk of the recruiter responsible for finding a suitable candidate, as in ‘Find me an accountant, someone ACA qualified, audit experience, FS clients, Big 4 background’, the recruiter firstly checks their database to see if there is matching candidates for that spec already in their database. So they type in the keyword search tool of their Talent Management System spec words such as: ACA, Audit, Auditor, FS, Financial Services, PwC, KPMG, Deloitte, Ernst and Young, and hits the search function and up pops the list of results – the candidates matching the key word search. If the list is lengthy, say over 50 candidates, they may then cut the list by asking their database to show only candidates submitted in the last 3 months, as there is a higher chance these candidates may still be looking for a role. Recruiters can also add detail after the initial screen of your CV by adding specific keywords against your detail on the database to assist them in their search, for example Audit people management experience.

What does this mean for you?

It means you have to guess what keywords the recruiter may use to find you and you have to think like a machine by assisting it to find you. Your CV must not only sell you, it must also be filled with keywords that may be used in these searches.

Let's say you are looking for an auditor position, make sure you use variations of auditor: audit, auditing, audited, if you have FS clients use variations and synonyms: financial services, FS, banks, insurance, funds/fund, anything the recruiter might enter in the search tool. Some TMS prioritise candidates with higher keyword counts, therefore repetition of the main key words is a good thing but resist from taking away from the 'sellability' and readability of your CV.  Five or six repeats of the same keyword is better than 50 because it’s good to be found but you still have to convince the human, when they open your CV, that it looks professional and sellable to the hiring manager.

Place important key words towards the top of the CV, as TMS sophistication can rate keywords higher if they are found towards the top, you can use the summary section to highlight key skills that the job spec is asking for. A good place to start when trying to identify key words is the job specification, as the TMS may be using this to identify key words to match with your CV.  If you are still looking for a job two months later then send your CV in again, otherwise your recruiter’s search may miss you if they only search for recent applicants.

So there you go by thinking like a human and a machine you stand a greater chance of getting to the top of the list of a recruiters search when they use a TMS.

Recap:
* Know your keywords, look at job specs, pick keywords out and make sure you have them on your CV
* Use synonyms and variations of keywords
* 5-6 repetitions of a particular keyword is fine but make sure your CV still reads and sells well too

*Place important key words towards the top of the CV

* Resend your updated CV in to the recruiter via the TMS if you are still looking for a role two months later

I offer a CV assessment as part of all my Interview Coaching Programmes.  If you aren't sure your CV is selling you well enough or if it reads well for the TMS, as well as the Recruiter, let me help you by booking in on a programme that suits you.