boost your employability - university college dublin · employability means… •skills and...

Boost your Employability Lorraine Toole Graduate Recruitment Manager

www.pwc.com/ie/graduate

PwC

Agenda

• About PwC

• Professional Services

• What does Employability mean?

• Competencies

• Developing Employability skills

• How to relate your competencies during the recruitment process

• Reasons for failure

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September 2010

PwC

About PwC

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• 161,718 people worldwide in 154 countries

• 2,000 people

• 7 Locations

• Dublin Waterford

• Cork Wexford

• Limerick Kilkenny

• Galway

PwC

PwC recruitment facts – Graduate Recruitment 2010

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Vacancies

250

Interviews

700+

Applications

2000+

1882

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About PwC

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We focus on three things: assurance, tax and advisory services.

But we don’t think ‘off-the-shelf’ products and services are always the way to go. How we use our knowledge and experience depends on what our clients want to achieve.

PwC

Professional services

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PwC Services

Risk Assurance Solutions

PwC

Assurance

Our assurance teams, audit the financial statements of a vast array of clients and get to know how businesses really operate.

In Assurance Co Ops will conduct audits on client accounts, using our innovative auditing methodology, and provide additional business advisory services, including performance measurement and corporate reporting, to meet the needs of investors.

Clients include global players, middle market organisations and smaller fast growing companies.

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PwC

Tax

Our tax teams help businesses and individuals make the right tax choices for them.

In Tax Co Ops will provide tax advice on; mergers and acquisitions, treasury and finance, international structuring, indirect tax, expatriate tax and tax compliance.

Clients include global players, middle market organisations and high net-worth individuals.

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PwC

Advisory

Consulting – Our teams work with private and public sector clients looking at areas such as business operations, finance, IT, HR and people and change management.

Risk Assurance Solutions – This team specialises in business process, system controls, internal audit services, risk management, corporate governance and data management.

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PwC

What does employability mean for you?

Employability means…

• Skills and experiences you have gained at school and university or through employment or extracurricular activities

• How you relate these to the competencies assessed during a company's recruitment and selection process

• Think about your experiences and use these as your examples and try and relate to work

• What have you learnt by this experience? Developing yourself to be successful in your job applications

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What are employability skills

• The skills that you have developed inside and outside of university that you can transfer to the workplace

• Also referred to as transferable skills or competencies

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Why are they important

• Our business is based around our clients

• These skills are needed from day 1 not from day 100!

• For our business to succeed we need you to demonstrate these skills from day 1

• So that our clients are provided with what they would expect from an organisation such as PwC – exceptional service

• You get the most out of your working career

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What competencies do we assess?

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PwC

PwC’s competencies

Develop self and others through coaching

At PwC we take personal development seriously

• It’s about getting the most out of others and yourself

• Are you committed to developing yourself?

• Demonstrate the things you’ve done well

• Act on feedback

Being passionate about development – and able to show it!

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PwC


Communicate with impact and empathy

Wherever you join us you’ll need to be a confident communicator

• It’s making yourself heard

• Get your point across

• Bring others around to your way of thinking

• Express yourself clearly in conversation and on paper

Know how to express the examples to us

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PwC


Be curious: learn, share & innovate

At PwC we’re big believers in life-long learning

• It’s about going that little bit further

• New ways of doing things

• How have you made the most of learning opportunities

• How do you share your learning

Committed to learning and using your learning

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Lead and contribute to team success

• We work in teams across all of our business areas

- What examples do you have where you have worked as part of a team?

- What role(s) did you assume whilst operating in these teams?

Think about the different roles within a team situation

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Be passionate about client service

• We’re passionate about what we do and we’re able to deliver the results to our clients

- Have you contributed to a sports group or a society or a meeting?

- Have you gone beyond expectations in a part time job?

It’s about offering a helping hand and going that ‘extra’ mile

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PwC


Build & sustain relationships

We build and maintain strong relationships with our clients and that

means we’re able to offer them the strongest solutions

• Have you maintained working relationships with people?

• Have you demonstrated an ability to get on with other people?

• Have you met a ‘client’ deadline/delivered what you said you would?

It’s about showing loyalty

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PwC


Demonstrate courage & integrity

Honesty and Integrity is vital to a business like ours

• Have you diffused a situation using tact and diplomacy?

• Have you spoken up when you feel something’s not right

• Have you delivered the best standards and maintained highest levels of confidentiality?

It’s about keeping your cool

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PwC


Acquiring and applying commercial & technical expertise

At PwC you’ll be building upon your commercial and technical

expertise – on the job learning/training courses

• Have you done your research

• Have you sought out opportunities to develop expertise

It’s knowing how to add value

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PwC


Manage projects and economics

At PwC your ability to deliver work to the highest standards is vital

• Have you juggled different priorities?

• Have you handled different resources/budgets?

• Have you dealt with the unexpected?

It’s always having a plan B

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PwC


Be open minded, agile with change and practical

We never stand still at PwC, our business and client needs are constantly changing and that means we need to adapt but maintain 100% commitment and the highest quality work.

• Have you adapted to unforeseen situations

• Can you work out the best solution when you come across the unexpected

It’s being adaptable

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Developing employability skills

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Skills can be developed through a variety of experiences

University

• Group work

- Communication, team working, adapting to change.

• Individual assignments

- Managing projects, resources, communication

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• Sports and societies

- Positions of responsibility, motivation, relationships

• Work experience

- All experiences develop employability skills

- Bar work – managing relationships, passionate about client service, dealing with the unexpected

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PwC



• Volunteering and not for profit activities

• Unpaid work experience and volunteering are good opportunities to develop employability skills

Examples

• Societies, charity fundraising - persuading individuals to gain funding

• Student advice centre – empathy, diffusing an issue

• Charity event –e.g. running a marathon – doing something outside of your comfort zone

• Community involvement – developing others

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1. Develop Self and Others through Coaching

2. Communicate with Impact and Empathy

3. Be Curious: Learn, Share & Innovate

4. Lead & Contribute to Team Success

5. Build & Sustain Relationships

7. Manage Projects & Economics

6. Demonstrate Courage & Integrity

8. Be Open Minded, Agile with Change and Practical

9. Acquiring and Applying Commercial & Technical Expertise

10. Be Passionate about Client Service

PwC

How do you relate your competencies during the recruitment process?

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PwC

Interviews

Situation

Set the scene

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Interviews

Task

What did you have to achieve

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Interviews

Action

Explain what you did

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Interviews

Result

Describe the outcome

Remember the interviewer was not there so explain concisely and articulate clearly the answer you are delivering. The interviewer cannot make assumptions, you need to deliver the detail.

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Reasons for failure

• Attending the interview but not preparing for it

• Providing superficial information or waffling

• Failure to listen to the questions and answering a question that was not asked

• No structure to answers

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Find out more

www.pwc.com/ie/graduate

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North Wall Quay, Dublin 1 (which is authorised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland to carry on investment business). As the context requires,

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Questions ? The best of luck with your applications

boost your employability - university college dublin · employability means… •skills and...

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