Success of 2016 Resume and Interview Seminar

 Written by Violet Liu

The resume workshop held by CCPAA in 2015 was a complete success. Due to the high demand of the members, CCPAA hosted another resume and interview seminar on February 21th, 2016. To facilitate the participants from the WeChat groups, this event was open to both members and non-members. There were about 30 people attended the seminar, which was truly inspiring and meaningful.

Mia Ma, the director of business development, began the presentation with a brief introduction of CCPAA, which is an independent and not-for-profit organization for professionals and scholars from accounting and related areas. Saice Sun walked us through the agenda for the seminar, continued by introducing the first speaker, Shelly Gu, the owner of S&SG Accounting Services.

Shelly has particular expertise in resume writing, interview skills and job related training for new graduates seeking accounting positions. A list of the necessary components for resume was presented and she provided the detailed discussions on each one. She suggested that different orders could be used for new graduates and the seniors. Wording is another important point as recruiters would get a sense of your capability and level through your illustration of work experience. Shelly demonstrated the benefits of the good resume writing skills by presenting a sample resume. A concise and informative resume would impress the recruiters even when the job hunter only has limited work experience.

The second speaker, Li Li, the Senior Talent Acquisition Specialist at TD, provided a presentation on how to conduct a good interview. She began with a brief discussion for dress codes and the preparation processes. The major part of the preparation rest with the interview questions. Job hunters should be well-prepared for all the possible questions and have examples or stories to support the answers in order to impress the recruiter during the interview. Li Li analyzed over ten common interview questions from the perspective of recruiters. Audiences’ enthusiasm was demonstrated by the active participation and interaction throughout the seminar.

In the second half of the seminar, Sophia K. Chen and Zahir Bashiruddin, shared their interview and work experience from the main stream accounting firms with the audiences. Sophia, who recently received an offer for the senior position at KPMG, pointed out three important qualities of an ideal candidate-systematic, diligent and bold. She incorporated her personal experience in the discussion of each quality. Zahir accumulated extensive experience from both the government and the CA firms, as he transited from the Tax Auditor at the Canada Revenue Agency into the Senior Tax Analyst at Grant Thornton. He pointed out the differences between the jobs in government and the accounting firms and encouraged new graduates to figure out their career interests by trying different positions. Another advice he had for job hunters was about choosing the locations. He suggested that firms locate in rural areas may have less competition and more opportunities.

• The most common point that all the speakers raised was that the well-preparation of the interview is the key to ace the job hunt. Job hunters should know themselves, be acquainted with the company background, job description, and their work experience, and most importantly, be honest and ready to answer various questions during the interview.
• VP of CCPAA, Cheng, together with Mia, expressed great appreciation and presented the certificates to all the speakers during the seminar on behalf of the CCPAA. Audience responded with a round of applause. We would also like to thank our volunteers – Cheng Lin, Saice Sun, Mia Ma, Ray Ding, Justin Liu, Vivian Yu, and Yinhao Wang, together with the four speakers, for making this great events possible for all participants.
• The seminar ended with a successful networking event. Some of speakers provided on-site resume critique for participants while others counselled on career development planning.