5月2日 晚 简历面试班 作业

Leilei

Behaviour Questions

1. What are your biggest accomplishments? - Payroll           (Collin)

    What are your biggest accomplishments? - AP                   (Amy)

   What are your biggest accomplishments? - AR                   (Crystal)

    What are your biggest accomplishments? - Month End       (Claire)

2. What is your weakness? To what extent do you think it will affect your performance?  (Summer)

3. Which one you will feel more comfortable in a team or work alone?  (Claire)

4. Goole 'management  style'   (Leilei)

5. Tell me about a situation where you had to solve a difficult problem.  (Lulu)

6. How do you rate yourself in meeting deadlines? -AP                 (Zoe)

    How do you rate yourself in meeting deadlines? -AR                 (Sarah)

    How do you rate yourself in meeting deadlines? -Month End     (Amy)

7. What motivates you in your work?  (Claire)

8. What is your plan in next year and/or next 3(5) years?  (Amy)

9. What new skills or capabilities have you developed recently?  (Summer)

10. How did you handle communication conflict?  (Lulu)

Technical based questions

Q 1-3   (Zoe)

Q 4-6   (Crystal)

Q 7-9   (Sarah)

Q10-12 (Amy)

Q13-14 (Claire)

Q15-17 (Leilei)

eugenesissi

What is your biggest achievement? (month-end example).
Start:
When I was first trained to do month-end reconciliation, my firm didn’t have a clear checklist & guidance in place. And by the time they started on the month-end process, the accountant was under so much pressure to close the books faster.  The monthly close used to normally take a week and a half.
Task:
As I’m a kind of person who is always looking for ways to improve my work efficiency, I made some suggestions to my supervisor to speed up the month-end reconciliation.
Actions:
The 1st thing I did was to perform weekly bank reconciliation rather than monthly. Every Monday, I Input transactions into MYOB based on the downloaded bank statement for last week.
Instead of close off accounts payable & receivable on the last working day, I suggested closing off accounts payable & accounts receivable at noon on the last working day with transactions in the afternoon carried forward to the first day of the new month.
After performed for a few times, I created a checklist for the month-end reconciliation to facilitate this process for team members in the future.
Result:
After implemented the suggested extra steps, the time of preparing month-end was halved.

Q3. Which one you will feel more comfortable in a team or work alone?  
What I have learned from the job description is: this position requires someone who can handle team projects which in turn requires great deal of independent work. I would like to work in an environment where there is a blend of both. It’s great working in teams while sharing and learning ideas with each other, but it’s also great to sit at my own desk and work hard productively. My career marks and positive feedback from my current employer shows my individual efforts. Moreover, I was the team member of Relay for Life – NSW Cancer council fundraising event, and my team was awarded the ‘Best Charity Fundraiser of the Year’ 2012. This also shows that I am an efficient team member.  So I am comfortable with both.

Q7. What motivates you in your work?
I’m very results-driven. Performing an excellent job and achieving the desired end result is my primary motivation. I am also motivated by the satisfaction & self-achievement received from getting my tasks done accurately and properly. I think it’s very important that I can give all that I have to my employer and pay attention to every detail so that all my work can be completed as accurate as possible. I guess this is my way to add value to my employer.

Q13. What is your plan in next year / next 5 years?
I strive to be the best at what I do and I want to work somewhere where I’ll have opportunities to develop my skills, take on new challenges, and work with people I can really learn from. I want to spend the next 5 years fully utilizing my soft and technical skills with XYZ, building my career here, and see myself growing with the company.

Once given my answer, take the opportunity to return the question by asking the interviewer: Do you mind if I ask where you see this position leading in the next three to five years?

Q14.  What new skills or capabilities have you developed recently?
In order to overcome my fear of public speaking and to better communicate and interact with others, I’ve joined Toastmaster recently. And I just did my 3rd 5-minute presentation last week. Although speaking in front of so many people is nerve-racking, I really feel that I’ve acquired a lot of soft skills over the past few weeks. Instead of wrapping myself up in my comfort zone, I’m now more willing to step up and to share my views with people outside my usual social circle. Moreover, public speaking has helped fine-tuned my everyday verbal and non-verbal communication skills. Now I’m feeling more confident to interact with other people and get my points across best.

nicoleac

Thanks Leilei to upload all the homework.


Guys, have you prepared yet? We will talk about more this Sat resume & interview class. Please be prepared for your own benefit

Leilei

Q4: Management styles

According to Hay-McBer there are six key management styles.

The DIRECTIVE (Coercive) style has the primary objective of immediate compliance from employees:

The "do it the way I tell you" manager
Closely controls employees
Motivates by threats and discipline

Effective when:
There is a crisis
When deviations are risky

Ineffective when:
Employees are underdeveloped -- little learning happens with this style
Employees are highly skilled -- they become frustrated and resentful at the micromanaging.

The AUTHORITATIVE (Visionary) style has the primary objective of providing long-term direction and vision for employees:

The "firm but fair" manager
Gives employees clear direction
Motivates by persuasion and feedback on task performance

Effective when:
Clear directions and standards needed
The leader is credible

Ineffective when:
Employees are underdeveloped -- they need guidance on what to do
The leader is not credible -- people won't follow your vision if they don't believe in it

The AFFILIATIVE style has the primary objective of creating harmony among employees and between manager and employees:

The "people first, task second" manager
Avoids conflict and emphasizes good personal relationships among employees
Motivates by trying to keep people happy

Effective when:
Used with other styles
Tasks routine, performance adequate
Counseling, helping
Managing conflict

Least effective when:
Performance is inadequate - affiliation does not emphasise performance
There are crisis situations needing direction

The PARTICIPATIVE (Democratic) style has the primary objective of building commitment and consensus among employees:

The "everyone has input" manager
Encourages employee input in decision making
Motivates by rewarding team effort

Effective when:
Employees working together
Staff have experience and credibility
Steady working environment

Least effective when:
Employees must be coordinated
There is a crisis - no time for meetings
There is a lack of competency - close supervision required

The PACESETTING style has the primary objective of accomplishing tasks to a high standard of excellence:

The "do it myself" manager
Performs many tasks personally aBnd expects employees to follow his/her example
Motivates by setting high standards and expects self-direction from employees

Effective when:
People are highly motivated, competent
Little direction/coordination required
When managing experts

Least effective when:
When workload requires assistance from others
When development, coaching & coordination required

The COACHING style has the primary objective of long-term professional development of employees:

The "developmental" manager
Helps and encourages employees to develop their strengths and improve their performance
Motivates by providing opportunities for professional development

Effective when:
Skill needs to be developed
Employees are motivated and wanting development

Ineffective when:
The leader lacks expertise
When performance discrepancy is too great - coaching managers may persist rather than exit a poor performer
In a crisis