CA Achievers program - 2009 (3 Viewers)

[nellyei]

I've been through an assessment centre before. The best tips are:

*Be yourself - They chose you for the interview because of this very fact.

*Dress to impress - Yes it may sound superficial, but appearance is everything, people! Don't want a scruffy looking person to come to the accountants place, now do we??!..So professional attire only.

* Don't EVER ever try to put on an act - that just ends up backfiring.

*For the group assessment process - always be friendly with the other candidates, but never TOO friendly - they are still your competitors.. Just be friendly enough to engage in a good discussion with ALL of them.

*Always be polite to your interviewers and thank them for their time, firm handshakes etc...

ours is a one on one interview going for 25 minutes

 

[Studentleader]

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Unfortunately, in this instance you have not been selected for a final interview.

Quite happy that I didn't get in actually - I think I wouldn't be able to get any 'valuable' experience out of the program.

I'm wondering if it was just because not intending to go into finance/accounting or due to my shit GPA (failed a unit last semester.)
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[mrmoney]

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Quite happy that I didn't get in actually - I think I wouldn't be able to get any 'valuable' experience out of the program.

I'm wondering if it was just because not intending to go into finance/accounting or due to my shit GPA (failed a unit last semester.)
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You serious this is probabaly one of the best things you can do career wise in you intial years at uni....

in terms of getting a grad job in this market the more experience and industry contacts you have the more employable you will be...

this year i was applying for vac work and had way to many interview call backs to attend...

this program is rated very highly amongst hr at top firms

DO NOT DISCOUNT THE EXPERIENCE YOU WILL GAIN FROM A PROGRAM SUCH AS THIS IT IS EXTREMELY VALUABLE

you will learn more in your first week at work then you have in your entire first or second year lol and thats the truth

 

[mrmoney]

Oh and for the individual interview if you have not yet completed it.... just be yourself and show you actually have a passion and know where you want to go...

for me i want to work in finance so i asked to get into a corporate advisory type role and got as close as you would get in first year vac work in this market...

good luck guys and rememeber be yourself

 

[mrmoney]

When you say awesome work experience what do u mean? Like work experience in many different jobs or like work experience in areas related to the program?

i mean consistent work with promotions to higher ranks... a simple example not me but an example none the less instead of just being a checkout chick... being a checkout supervisor......

amount of jobs may work against you also.... (no employer loyalty)

 

[Studentleader]

You serious this is probabaly one of the best things you can do career wise in you intial years at uni....

in terms of getting a grad job in this market the more experience and industry contacts you have the more employable you will be...

this year i was applying for vac work and had way to many interview call backs to attend...

this program is rated very highly amongst hr at top firms

DO NOT DISCOUNT THE EXPERIENCE YOU WILL GAIN FROM A PROGRAM SUCH AS THIS IT IS EXTREMELY VALUABLE

you will learn more in your first week at work then you have in your entire first or second year lol and thats the truth

Heres the email I got back from CA:

[FONT=&quot]Hello Jack,[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]The Achiever Program is highly competitive and this year there was an extra large number of applications with only 20 positions on offer. Yes because your degree was wider and you mentioned your interest in becoming an investment banker I did not think that the employers participating would be suitable to your future career goals.[/FONT]
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I'd rather work on my programming over summer than work somewhere that is probably not going to get me to where I want to go.
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[Arowana21]

man, so u actually told them directly what path you want to head to, and they still rejected you.
this makes me feel even worse now, cos im first year, and i dont even know all these different kinds of accountants, different types of sectors and stuff like.
On one of my responses when it asked, what area of accounting do u like? I had no clue u had to specify types of sectors or something. I just elaborated stuff like, what i have been learning about accounting at uni is like, and why i like it and find it interesting...etc that kind of stuff.

Do they expect a first year student to know everything about accountants, the different types of sectors for both accounting and finance, the different job titles...cos man, if thats so, then im pretty screwed.

 

[Studentleader]

man, so u actually told them directly what path you want to head to, and they still rejected you.
this makes me feel even worse now, cos im first year, and i dont even know all these different kinds of accountants, different types of sectors and stuff like.
On one of my responses when it asked, what area of accounting do u like? I had no clue u had to specify types of sectors or something. I just elaborated stuff like, what i have been learning about accounting at uni is like, and why i like it and find it interesting...etc that kind of stuff.

Do they expect a first year student to know everything about accountants, the different types of sectors for both accounting and finance, the different job titles...cos man, if thats so, then im pretty screwed.

I said I have an interest for risk management but that'd be from a mathematical perspective as opposed to an accounting one. I'm dropping commerce next year anyway - I just wanted to get into a bank for general 'work' experience really - beats working at coles all summer or something.

Hopefully I can work in my uncle's chem lab.

 

[Vagabond]

man, so u actually told them directly what path you want to head to, and they still rejected you.
this makes me feel even worse now, cos im first year, and i dont even know all these different kinds of accountants, different types of sectors and stuff like.
On one of my responses when it asked, what area of accounting do u like? I had no clue u had to specify types of sectors or something. I just elaborated stuff like, what i have been learning about accounting at uni is like, and why i like it and find it interesting...etc that kind of stuff.

Do they expect a first year student to know everything about accountants, the different types of sectors for both accounting and finance, the different job titles...cos man, if thats so, then im pretty screwed.

You're sorta expected to make the effort and find out what careers actually involve. It would demonstrate that you're more genuine and prepared.

Amount of knowledge would depend on your stage, e.g. if you're in highschool going for a cadetship you probably wont need to know more than a basic outline of your employer and their broad role in the market and how that attracts you.

By the time you're a graduate you should be ready to talk about how your prospective role specifically facilitates the the rest of the business, the direction of the market/future movements, what your daily duties might be, where do you think the price of oil is going, etc.

If you took a look at the CA site they've got profiles of CA's with different experiences that you could have drawn from.

 

[Vagabond]

Heres the email I got back from CA:

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I'd rather work on my programming over summer than work somewhere that is probably not going to get me to where I want to go.
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I'm surprised that they were that up front with you but you've only got yourself to blame... not that you were that keen in the first place but..

You basically just applied for a job and told them that your motivation is that you want a different job.

Come on... honestly!

If you were going to take that angle you should have just said that you wanted more real-world experience, insights into how the industry works, etc...

 

[lisztphisto]

me too!
if anyone could provide us with more advice, it would be much appreciated!!

 

[chocolatecake]

Ive finally received a response (Sydney)

Really? How did you go??
I'm still waiting.....

 

[inthegrid]

I got through to the assessment centre for Sydney

Any advice on the group actvitity with 1 minute personal presentation?

Past achievers..what were you required to discuss?

How long will the interview be?

How many people do you think have been put through to the Sydney assessment centre?

Thanks

 

[Arowana21]

great......
i kind of feel bad now. Cos i am on the same boat as chocolatecake, some of my friends have got responses, but i havent even recieved any email yet.

Does this mean, i didnt make it?

 

[Efficient5]

i got a group interview too. yay!

 

[chocolatecake]

great......
i kind of feel bad now. Cos i am on the same boat as chocolatecake, some of my friends have got responses, but i havent even recieved any email yet.

Does this mean, i didnt make it?

Sigh... Don't worry too much now Arowana. i'm feeling bad too but not much we can do now...
i'm sure they would email us whether we made it or not as usual companies would do...so let's just keep our fingers crossed and hopefully we'll get an acceptance email tmr morning!!

 

[Arowana21]

Sigh... Don't worry too much now Arowana. i'm feeling bad too but not much we can do now...
i'm sure they would email us whether we made it or not as usual companies would do...so let's just keep our fingers crossed and hopefully we'll get an acceptance email tmr morning!!

yeh...fingers crossed!

 

[Studentleader]

I'm surprised that they were that up front with you but you've only got yourself to blame... not that you were that keen in the first place but..

You basically just applied for a job and told them that your motivation is that you want a different job.

Come on... honestly!

If you were going to take that angle you should have just said that you wanted more real-world experience, insights into how the industry works, etc...

When I looked at the requirements for the program and emailed them regarding this I was hoping I could get some experience in economics/business statistics as opposed to accoutning which probably wouldn't happen anyway.

 

[blue_chameleon]

When I looked at the requirements for the program and emailed them regarding this I was hoping I could get some experience in economics/business statistics as opposed to accoutning which probably wouldn't happen anyway.

CA = Chartered Accountants.

No point in slamming the program just because it doesn't offer what you are after. Pretty funny that you seem to have missed the whole point of the program though.

 

[Arowana21]

yeh...fingers crossed!

hey, chocolatecake. We still may have some hope, cos i emailed them today, and they said.

'
At the moment the Institute is in the process of sending out letters to inform applicants if they have been successful or not. Please allow another two weeks to receive this letter. '

so yeh, still have hope