Four Must-Reads for Successful Interviews: Partner talks about the Big Four and how he interviews

The top four must-read partners for successful interviews talk about how he interviews

"Afraid" of going to an accounting firm

Chinese college students are very creative. They call the last test for applying for a job at the Big Four accounting firms - the partner interview - "afraid" of the interview. The English word for partner is Partner, and college students call it "fear" for short.

Accounting firms recruit a large number of students from universities every year because the talent structure of accounting firms is a "pyramid" type. Every year, employees are promoted after gaining a lot of practical experience and passing job evaluations. Just like upgrading your studies in primary school, you cannot repeat a grade. At this time, many employees will resign after promotion and go to work in other industries. The work experience they gather at accounting firms and the perspective they see on complex business issues often help them step into a new, more senior role. In addition to serving clients, accounting firms’ greatest contribution to a healthy and mature economy is actually cultivating accounting talents. This is very important in developed economies. Students come to our firm for training that usually lasts over 8 to 10 weeks per year. Also, as soon as you enter the company, on-the-job training arrangements for apprenticeships begin immediately. Students are assigned to specific work projects, and their tasks and work results will be checked by senior staff, reviewed by managers, and reviewed by partners. After level-by-level inspections and repeated reviews, students know what quality is and what professional work attitudes and methods are.

Recruiting outstanding students to work in the company, absorbing fresh blood, preparing future talents for the company, and selecting future partners is the talent strategy of accounting firms. Every accounting firm is unambiguous in its recruitment of college students, devoting energy and resources to attracting college students. Through information sessions, we conduct face-to-face introductions to college students, hoping that college students will apply for job positions in the firm. After passing the online application assessment, group selection (evaluation center), and manager interview (sometimes twice), these candidates are "dreaded" by the partner interview.

What is a partner?

The promotion path in an accounting firm is very clear. The position held by college graduates in their first and second years is called "Associate". I have not seen a more appropriate Chinese translation, but based on my understanding of the meaning, this position is called "Apprentice" or "Attaché". Some people also call it "deputy". Ten years ago, when computer technology was not so popular, these apprentices jokingly called themselves "movie kings" and "movie queens" - they (they) were responsible for the photocopying work. During this two-year apprenticeship, I mainly do some basic data collection and analysis work, and assist senior employees to complete certain areas of a project. Occasionally work independently with clients, but usually under the supervision of managers and senior staff.

In the third to fifth years, apprentices are promoted to senior staff. In these three years, the most important thing is to pass the CPA exam and become a "professional talent." Senior staff need to lead their own projects or complete sub-projects within a larger project. Confidently deal with clients and report issues to managers and partners. When reporting a problem, you should generally have your own opinions and propose solutions. Senior staff typically also lead two to three apprentices.

After the fifth year, senior staff are promoted to managers. In an accounting firm, promotion to manager is a big deal. To me, promoting a partner is less exciting than promoting a manager. After being promoted to manager, I had my own office and secretary for the first time. The title of manager began to be widely respected in the industry. If you are a manager of PricewaterhouseCoopers, you can enter the office of the financial director of any large company in New York, London and Hong Kong, discuss complex business issues with them, and propose accounting and tax treatment plans. The manager is also the hardest working person. They face customers, the team below and another important “customer” that is the most difficult to deal with - partners.

There are senior managers above managers. In addition to possessing the qualities of a manager mentioned above, the additional definition of a senior manager is best described through the following example.

If an accounting problem is raised to the level of a senior manager and the senior manager has no solution, then the problem is an industry problem and must be resolved by the accounting firm (PricewaterhouseCoopers), the industry association (Institute of Certified Public Accountants), the government regulatory department (the Ministry of Finance) , China Securities Regulatory Commission, China Banking Regulatory Commission, etc.) and customers (industry representatives) must resolve it together. Accounting firms' expectations of the technical abilities of senior managers are very high.

After the 12th or 13th year, if your performance is good and your business develops well, you will be invited to join as a partner.

Partners are "independent decision-making units" in an accounting firm. The legal responsibilities between partners are joint and several. In most countries, they have unlimited liability for the business they engage in and cannot escape it. Therefore, there needs to be very strong trust between partners. Partners represent the highest-level professionals in the business community and are on an equal footing with business elites. More importantly, they have the confidence and ability to express opinions on the practices of senior management for the sake of shareholder interests and fair financial information. They attend company board meetings and enter the offices of board chairs and CEOs.

Of course, what partners value most is the future successor of their business - the final interview for college students must be completed by the partners. At this time, the college students were a little timid and called it "fearful", which is indeed understandable.

What qualities do partners value in students?

Every year I interview more than 20 students and see the students’ different performances. To be honest, I value overall quality more, and I also firmly believe in elitism. I hope that our students will develop well-rounded and perform well, but also be down-to-earth and not impetuous. Below are a few cases from my interviews, written down and shared with you.

A student came to my office. He was very simple and timid. When answering questions, she was not the kind of student who could impress me the most, but she tried to clarify her ideas and communicate with me in a very real way. In the last few minutes, I asked her what dad did for a living. She said her father was a taxi driver. When she said this, I could feel her confidence and gratitude to her father. I think she was not pretentious and expressed her relationship with her family very naturally and the efforts she was willing to make in her generation. I hired her.

This is a student who makes my eyes shine. She was dressed conservatively but elegantly. She speaks English fluently and expresses herself confidently, but she attends a relatively ordinary university. One look at her shows that she is a very good student. Within three minutes, I made a decision that I would definitely hire her. My task was to prove to her that we were an excellent company and worthy of her joining. I started asking her, in your life, when did you first hear the name PricewaterhouseCoopers, and who told you? She said it was in high school, and her grandfather told her. I found it very strange that PwC was very young in China. If her father had told her, I would have found it strange that her grandfather also knew about PwC? Later, she told me that her grandfather had served as the deputy secretary of the United Nations. long. However, when she applied for the job, no one in her file knew this fact. She didn't say that either. She said that she did not do very well in college and her family did not have the support to let her go to a prestigious university in Beijing. Apart from the fact that she really couldn't find a job, her family wouldn't rely on their connections to introduce her to a job. Everything depends on yourself. I'm glad that I convinced her and she joined our company. Now she is a very good senior employee of the company.

China’s college entrance examination system still leaves scars on the hearts of many students. Every time I ask my classmates what is the biggest setback they have ever experienced, nine out of ten of them will answer that they did not do well in the college entrance examination and did not get into their ideal prestigious university. There is a classmate who graduated from an unknown school in Hebei. After graduation, she went to work as a teller in a bank. While working as a teller, she was admitted to a graduate school in Beijing. Postgraduate results and performance are excellent. As the reader can guess, I couldn't care less about her graduate performance. I asked, what was your biggest achievement while working as a teller? What did you learn? She said that she was the best at counting banknotes in the bank. She can also more accurately verify the authenticity of RMB banknotes. This is a national commercial bank, and it is not easy to be rewarded as an expert in counting banknotes. She can do one thing, love another thing, and work hard for it. I hired her because of her hard-working hands.

How to prepare for a partner interview?

The partner interview is the final step for an accounting firm to recruit talents. There are not many such checkpoints on the road of life, so for such an important interview, it can be said that you need to prepare for it and work hard for it throughout your life. This secret of pursuing happiness for the future in one's life is the science of success. The purpose of my article is not to introduce the science of success. Readers should read other monographs in this area. However, there are some small things that students can still pay attention to, change, and earn a few more points for themselves.

Dress appropriately. In the first year of college, you have to make a suit, learn to tie a tie, and wear leather shoes. Suits and shirts must fit well. Don’t wait until you’re interviewing for a partner to wear a suit for the third time, or you’ll feel awkward about it. Leather shoes must be polished and the heels must be neat. When partners look at students, they will definitely look at your leather shoes.

Know how to "chat". Humans are group and social animals. But when they first met, there was a distance between them. You want to close the distance and get him to send you the job offer. Easier said than done. You have a lot to lose, and you feel like he doesn't, so you're nervous. No matter when, you should use some "small talk" to bring everyone closer and add some atmosphere to the deserted scene of two people meeting for the first time. When you come to my office, you can ask, "What have you been busy with recently?" You can say, "I was very sad to see the CCTV annex building burned down across from you." Of course, you can't go too far. Your purpose is to go back to the interview, so that you can leave an impression on him, so that he can write his satisfied comments about you in your recruitment database.

Control the situation. As mentioned above, usually within 3-5 minutes, the partner has made a decision whether to hire you. The latter question is simply his seeking information to justify his decision. Sometimes, I give this interview right to the students, let the students interview me, and let them ask me questions. The situation suddenly changed. The person being interviewed was the owner. Your topic should be very clear, what you want to get, and how to end things and control the situation.

Learn to ask questions. Many students' questions are prepared in advance. This is okay, but if you copy some of the questions, the interviewer will find it boring and have to answer these questions several times a day. You can ask, what motivates you to work in such a hard industry for so many years? But you should add that you may have answered it several times, but I want to hear your feelings personally. You can ask, what are the challenges for the development of China's CPA industry? But you should add that you may have answered it several times, but I want to hear your opinions from a personal perspective.

Customers always come first. At PwC, customers always come first. Only when customers succeed can PwC succeed. At PwC, it's a religious creed. When you come to PwC, you have to adapt to this culture and contribute to this culture. Therefore, when it comes to customer issues, you have to show your truest side. Are you willing to make sacrifices for customer service? If you have the opportunity, be sure to show this side. If your plans in the future may not be "customer"-centric and you are not willing to put in your efforts for customer service, then it is best not to try this industry. You will feel that it is hard work and not worth it.

Learn to say "no", including don't know. You are a student, and sometimes you really may not know something about something. For example, for students studying finance, I ask, could you please explain the option pricing model to me? You can say that I really don’t understand (but don’t say that the teacher’s teaching is not good). For some questions, you can confidently say that this question is not suitable for me. For example, you can answer, maybe I am a very optimistic person, and I do not consider the setbacks I encounter as setbacks. I will accept the challenge and move forward.

Be confident and dare to stick to your beliefs. Confidence has different expressions at different ages. A partner's confidence is the accumulation of experience. Students' self-confidence lies in having a great future, determination to work hard for it, and the courage to take risks. The self-confidence expressed by students to me can be multi-faceted: adapting to the environment, working hard, not being afraid of new things, daring to ask questions, humor and healthy laughter at oneself, etc. are all self-confidence in my eyes. After interviewing a classmate, I have decided to hire her. But I said, I'm sorry, you didn't pass my interview. What's your next plan? Her face suddenly changed.

However, she still said calmly that I would continue to look for other firms and other jobs. After giving a wry smile, she bit her lip and added, I will stick to my beliefs and continue my efforts. Her wry smile as she dared to stand up for her beliefs passed my "stress test" for her.

Conclusion

Once, after interviewing a student, I asked her, are you nervous? She said, no, not nervous. When I stood up to see her off, I shook hands with her and her palms were filled with warm and moist sweat. Can you not be nervous? Looking at her young back walking out of the office, I thought what a wonderful era she has entered, and what a challenging and rewarding future she has entered. All PwC partners have to do is give her this opportunity. She is a little timid and afraid at the door of opportunity, but PwC's enthusiasm and sincerity in embracing talents will eliminate her fear. I sincerely wish them good luck.

Wu Weijun

Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), global director

PricewaterhouseCoopers, partner

New York 300 Madison Avenue

May 6, 2009;