Hi all,
How are you? Hope you all are well.
As you may know, the job market this year is really tough for everyone and it’s the worst year from I know. But some of our trainees still can receive opportunities of phone interviews and face-to-face interviews. Good news is the platform Vision Accounting provides to you works. However bad news is, so far only a few successfully secured roles in public practice firms.
In the current job market, opportunities won’t come up to you every day. If it does, are your ready to nail it? A trainee told me when the interviewer asked a question “what’s your main strength”, she required the lady to repeat the question three times and she still didn’t get the question. I am not blaming her not being able to understand the question. It’s not that easy to pick up everything in a phone conversation. But we have to find a way to avoid this type of thing happening to you. My suggestion is,
First, Google phone interview questions and try to practice on phone with your friend; As long as they call you, your resume does the job. You have met their minimum requirements. All interviewers have a question list. Believe it or not, they might get the questions by Google as well. If you have known those questions, the possibilities you can’t pick up is limited.
Second, there is no problem at all if you got accent, you speak slow or you are not confident with your grammar. It’s not IELTS. They are not hiring sales or TV hosts. But they are judging you by your voice. Your voice has to be firm, warm and friendly. And if you are smiling when you answer the phone, on the other side of the phone line, they can tell. So it’s not time to play cool.
Third, if unfortunately you just can’t get certain question after you say “beg your pardon, sorry or can you repeat it”, you don’t need to be embarrassed. Instead, you should try to grab a few key words and ask the interviewer “how do you mean, do you mean....” and you can bring up what you think they are asking. Then they will use different words to describe the question.
Last, after every interview, you should write down questions you have been asked. If you were not successful, you should try to learn from it. It’s not because of you are not lucky. There must be other reasons.
Some trainees complain that they have been sending out 20 applications in a couple of months but haven’t got any responses. I would say, when you add a “0” at back, maybe it will be different story. Job searching process won’t be easy for anyone. If you are having interviews, I appreciate if you can share your stories to us. In this difficulty time, we have to inspire each other and work together.
Hope you all have a good weekend.
Cheers,
Rachel Hao
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