The Next Step
Here's a little insight into my world of job-hunting..
I applied for a position in Information Risk Management (IRM) in the Birmingham Office of KPMG last November, which largely involves risk assessment in the client-side area of IT-based projects, as well as advisory on IT issues for business assurance.
I also applied for a position in Information System Assurance and Advisory (ISAAS) in the Birmingham Office of Ernst & Young last November, which involves advisory on a wide range of information technology related issues for assurance and IT effectiveness.
If (being blinded by the boring corporate lingo) you haven't realised it by now, they are pretty much the same job.
Having been offered 2 first-round interviews in the 2nd week of December, I had to shorten my long-awaited holiday to Malaysia from 3 weeks to a measly 16 days (the things you have to do to get ahead in life!). All was not lost, I was invited to attend assessment centers for both positions.
Before I knew it, both companies were almost competing with each other to get me to the end of the application process first - it really was quite fun to be in the middle of! I remember someone from E&Y trying to convince me to drive 300 miles (rather than 40) in order to attend an assessment center a whole week before the one I had at KPMG, and them arranging my first-round interviews only 22 hours apart from each other.
The assessment centers went fine - it's worth saying that the other applicants in the group exercise really made the difference by not hammering down on each other - it was almost refreshing how mature everyone was! When the final round interviews had to be arranged, they were 2 days apart from each other - last Wednesday (18th Jan) with KPMG and one last Friday (20th Jan) with E&Y. What are the chances?
Having performed (what I thought was) horribly for my interview/presentation at KPMG on the 18th, I prepared myself thoroughly for E&Y on the 20th - hoping to perform rather more.. magnificently. As it turned out, my interviewer at E&Y was unbelievably friendly and asked all the right questions, making the interview an extremely pleasant experience. I felt confident.
I arrived home at 2.30pm from my interview on Friday the 20th, and promptly opened a new e-mail from.. KPMG! It was a notification of a job offer - praise GOD! All my worries had been for nothing, and the stress and effort of job-hunting had all finally paid off. To top off the spectacular day, my interviewer from Ernst & Young called at 4.10pm offering me the job there as well! 2 job offers sent within 3 hours of each other, now THAT has got to be something to rejoice about..
.. and now the hard part.. choosing between the two! I shall await the big white envelopes containing the contracts that partly define my future - amazing days ahead.
All glory to the one who sits on the throne.
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What you should also know
I applied for a position in Information Risk Management (IRM) in the Birmingham Office of KPMG last November, which largely involves risk assessment in the client-side area of IT-based projects, as well as advisory on IT issues for business assurance.
I also applied for a position in Information System Assurance and Advisory (ISAAS) in the Birmingham Office of Ernst & Young last November, which involves advisory on a wide range of information technology related issues for assurance and IT effectiveness.
If (being blinded by the boring corporate lingo) you haven't realised it by now, they are pretty much the same job.
Having been offered 2 first-round interviews in the 2nd week of December, I had to shorten my long-awaited holiday to Malaysia from 3 weeks to a measly 16 days (the things you have to do to get ahead in life!). All was not lost, I was invited to attend assessment centers for both positions.
Before I knew it, both companies were almost competing with each other to get me to the end of the application process first - it really was quite fun to be in the middle of! I remember someone from E&Y trying to convince me to drive 300 miles (rather than 40) in order to attend an assessment center a whole week before the one I had at KPMG, and them arranging my first-round interviews only 22 hours apart from each other.
The assessment centers went fine - it's worth saying that the other applicants in the group exercise really made the difference by not hammering down on each other - it was almost refreshing how mature everyone was! When the final round interviews had to be arranged, they were 2 days apart from each other - last Wednesday (18th Jan) with KPMG and one last Friday (20th Jan) with E&Y. What are the chances?
Having performed (what I thought was) horribly for my interview/presentation at KPMG on the 18th, I prepared myself thoroughly for E&Y on the 20th - hoping to perform rather more.. magnificently. As it turned out, my interviewer at E&Y was unbelievably friendly and asked all the right questions, making the interview an extremely pleasant experience. I felt confident.
I arrived home at 2.30pm from my interview on Friday the 20th, and promptly opened a new e-mail from.. KPMG! It was a notification of a job offer - praise GOD! All my worries had been for nothing, and the stress and effort of job-hunting had all finally paid off. To top off the spectacular day, my interviewer from Ernst & Young called at 4.10pm offering me the job there as well! 2 job offers sent within 3 hours of each other, now THAT has got to be something to rejoice about..
.. and now the hard part.. choosing between the two! I shall await the big white envelopes containing the contracts that partly define my future - amazing days ahead.
All glory to the one who sits on the throne.
-------
What you should also know
- I also applied to Accenture (Business Consulting) and PriceWaterhouseCoopers (Business Recovery Services) and was unsuccessful in both applications.
- I completed an internship with Volvo Logistics last summer, but realised it was a job that I was very good at, but didn't want. A job in Advisory is almost perfect.
- I will now not be able to complete my application process with Deloitte for IT consulting due to having to reply to these offers within 2 weeks of receiving them.
- The Lord is good and His mercies endure forever.
posted by JoSh at 12:53 pm
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