Insider has published an ‘as-told-to- essay from EY Americas Vice Chair — Talent Ginnie Carlier in which she offers insight on what the firm is looking for from prospective hires. One takeaway: add a “personal purpose statement” to your résumé if it doesn’t already have one. This is not a bland objective — those have been out for years — but rather a short statement on who you are, what you bring to the table, and what you’re looking for.
She tells a story about a candidate who stood out to her:
I’ll never forget this one candidate who came in and completely won me over through his story and taught me a valuable lesson about looking beyond a résumé.
He was a full-time accounting student who also bartended to support his family and was interviewing for a role on our assurance-services team. He offered up his story at the start of the conversation by talking about how his work as a bartender had prepared him for a career in professional and client services. He told me why he was working so hard and his aspirations for continuing to help out his family while pursuing his goal of becoming an assurance professional.
Over the course of our conversation, he owned his narrative by focusing on how his experience would set him up for success at EY. He painted a compelling picture of how the skills he acquired bartending would translate to being a high performer at EY. This experience wasn’t necessarily “traditional,” but his mindset, positive attitude, and clear ability to overcome hurdles made him stand out.
When candidates share their thought process and the actions they took when faced with new and challenging situations, we can better understand their ability to adapt, overcome obstacles, and navigate uncertainty. For instance, they can share an example of how they handled a project where all the information was not known, or what happened when an assignment suddenly changed, requiring a significant pivot.
While you probably aren’t listing after-school jobs in fast food and minimum wage gigs you took to help you through college on your résumé, as evidenced above those jobs do teach you skills that you can apply to the professional services environment. Like acceptance for being underpaid, teamwork, and working with a hostile public without losing your temper. More on how to apply unrelated experience to your CV here.
Read all her advice:
I’m a head of talent for Big 4 accounting firm EY. Here are the qualities I look for in candidates and how to showcase them in interviews. [Insider]
