applying for cadetships (1 Viewer)

[kablz]

hi i'm currently in yr 12 and aiming to pursue a career as an accountant. I am very interested in the cadetships offered by firms in particular the Big 4. Although, I am very new to this concept. Are applications for cadetships usually completed online? Is it necessary to attend the ICAA Cadetship evening and other seminars? What are the best means in assuring a position as a cadet? Any other help/advice is welcome. Thx in advance

 

[Newbie]

im not a cadet but i worked with a couple of them

the info evenings are pretty useless but its important to do your due diligence on what kind of work the firms do because they always ask you "Why do you want to do accounting".

to be honest

co op program is better than cadetships

 

[Vagabond]

co op program is better than cadetships

He's made it clear that he'd like to work in big4... The cadets train the co-op students and are accelerated much faster. If you're going to be "honest" and pretend to give some sort of useful advice at least explain yourself.

As for the OP's actual questions...

The ICAA info seminar is good in terms of exposing you to the different companies, allowing you to talk to cadets etc. This is a great opportunity for you to learn more about the various positions etc. Also theres usually lots of HR people there which gives you the chance to ask about interviews and what not. Plus its great for getting psyched and in the spirit of things.

I'd also highly recommend attending the individual information sessions offered by the big4 firms. They hint towards the things they want you to say in your application and also you need to expose yourself as much as possible... In the end if you recieve multiple offers you need to consider which you fit in best (they're all quite different.. you'll see this starting from how they reply to your application... the differences couldn't be clearer tbh).. More exposure = easier choice.

Assessment starts with the gigantic online application (in which most candidates are cut off...). Pay extra attention to spelling (I'm 99% sure my EY application was rejected due to a typo) and don't do it at the last minute.

Depending on the company, this will be followed by 1 or 2 interviews, group assessments/presentations, in-tray exercises and even essay writing.

Don't let that scare you though. You'll be amazed at how friendly everyone is. Try to fit in as best you can and you'll do great.

 

[jared_88]

Hey funny you should ask this I just started my cadetship today... Yay

My advice to u is to go to the info evening even just to get the booklet given out which details all the CA companies giving cadetships (how many, in what division, how to apply etc.) You'll find most (if not all companies) have online or email submitted applications (if I can remember right only one company didn't for me).

You can't really guarantee yourself a position but too increase ur chances:
*Apply for every single company you possible have time for (you can be picky later on if u get multiple offers)
*Take time filling in the application forms (and checking for typo's)... (These things surprisingly take up alot of time but are what gets u to the interview stage so be particular)
*Dress well in interviews (in business dress)
*Smile and greet interviews with a gentle but firm handshake
*Be urself in interviews, and don't be too nervous

Also some more advice is to look at mid-tier firms also as I was fairly keen on a Big 4 spot but after being to interviews at their workplaces and meeting ppl there I did NOT like the atmosphere at all (I felt u r very insignificant as there r ppl everywhere), as well as that u get shoe-horned in one specific area (line of service and industry group) straight away which as well as being mundane means u miss out on training in other important accounting areas. So all I'm saying is keep an open mind as this is what I found (however a Big 4 firm may very well suit u, as every1 is different).

Anyways I'll stop rambling on n just say good luck n if u hav any questions, just ask

 

[Newbie]

cadetships tie you to one company whereas coops you get to go around and try out different things

instead of summarising the careers webpage like the above poster
heres the skinny if you have to make a choice

deloitte = chillout town, in danger of falling into midtier, 9 tax partners just left omgbbq?!

ey = asiantown, claims to be 2nd in size although kpmg is

pwc = egotown, number 1, loves stealing clients and bragging about it in its internal papers

kpmg = a bit uptight, everyone has to wear ties in the office

 

[Vagabond]

cadetships tie you to one company whereas coops you get to go around and try out different things

instead of summarising the careers webpage like the above poster
heres the skinny if you have to make a choice

deloitte = chillout town, in danger of falling into midtier, 9 tax partners just left omgbbq?!

ey = asiantown, claims to be 2nd in size although kpmg is

pwc = egotown, number 1, loves stealing clients and bragging about it in its internal papers

kpmg = a bit uptight, everyone has to wear ties in the office

Cadetships tie you down? One of the biggest problems in big4 is retaining their talented people who often end up pursuing just about any accounting/financial role you could possibly imagine..

I'm not going to bother arguing which is the better out of a cadetship and a co-op as I believe they both have their pros and cons and are suited to different people... but relevant to the OP this is a no-brainer.

As for you're big4 skinny... Hmmm... I'd tend to disagree.

Here's how the three firms recruited:

EY: Used cadets working overtime to notify people of interviews
PWC: HR ppl working on their sunday made the phone calls
KPMG: Everything was auto-mated via SMS (Yes.. SMS)

That's cold hard history. Draw your own conclusions.

 

[Newbie]

you cant use recruitment as an indication of what its really like
my skinny is based on working at two of them and having mates work at the others

and heres where big4 go on friday nights if thats a factor for you in choosing a place

deloitte: go home and drink alone haha lol

pwc: cargo or shelbourne

kpmg: moretons! or kings st wharf

ey : pavilion and GALAXY WORLD OMGLOLLER DDR TIME

 

[kablz]

thankyou all for your help. ey seems very interesting to work with and yes i will be more open minded with regards to firms. i also find the whole university thing quite perplexing. I understand that under a 2+2 regime, a cadet works full time and undertakes part-time study for the first 2 yrs and the 2 yrs that follow involve full-time study. I'm pretty sure i would like to do a commerce/business with a double major in accounting and finance. but i don't get the whole choosing subjects, credit points etc. Is there a place/site which u are able to understand the ins and outs of uni. i tried looking at the websites of universities but its still confusing :S uts seems the most convenient location considering to the close proximity to accounting firms. but is uts a good university? there is a consensus that unsw/usyd are better. i'm not sure how so. i no it probably depends on your circumstances but opinions would help sorry for the questions overload. i'm just so :S wen it comes to this

 

[dils1989]

hey im also startin a cadetship at deloitte next week so juss thought id giv my 2 cents - as for ure q on applications its basically been given above and also i believe that deloitte is lookin at starting up their cadeetship program again after merging with horwath (thats how i ended up with deloitte). one suggestion i will make is that u DONT leave it to the last night or even the last 2 days.. getthem done ahead of time. iirc, the applications came out abt a month or so before the closing dates and i would also recoomend applying for EVRYTHING! not only cadetships but also co-ops. even if u dont get an offer for evrything if u can get a few interviews it can help a lot coz u get that experience and it may also help with future interviews as ur nerves are a bit calmerr

the question abt the structure of the programs - u mentioned the 2+2 program which i believe pwc,kpmg and ey do but a lot of the mid tier firms and deloitte also do a sandwich program. this basically means for me that for the first yr ill do FT work/PT uni, and then evry yr after that ill do my first semester of uni full time with no work and then 2nd semester of uni part time with FT work.

the choosing subjects part isnt really important atm to be honest - u can look at all that stuff in the 3 month break u hav after hsc and after finding out wat uni ur gna go to as each uni is different

as for the uni's q - from wat i understand, uts business has a more practical course than unsw's more theoretical approach but im not really sure abt that thats juss wat iv herd. uts is convenient for a lot of ppl, especially those at ey as it is very close, however if ure in the city u most prob hav to catch a bus or train to uts and u can catch a bus to unsw neway - in my situation i can catch a bus basically from outside my office to unsw and it doesnt take too long at all. as for usyd, i was under the impression that most firms dont allow u to go there as they dont offer night classes - in my contract it said i had to choose between unsw, uts and mq.


hope that helps haha wow thats a long reply

 

[redruM]

you cant use recruitment as an indication of what its really like
my skinny is based on working at two of them and having mates work at the others

and heres where big4 go on friday nights if thats a factor for you in choosing a place

deloitte: go home and drink alone haha lol

pwc: cargo or shelbourne

kpmg: moretons! or kings st wharf

ey : pavilion and GALAXY WORLD OMGLOLLER DDR TIME

More like Deloitte: Brooklyn

 

[jon0_o]

I'd recomend the ICAA evening .. the talks wasn't that helpful but it's good to talk to ppl n ask q's, individual info nights I went to once I got an interview to meet the people (EY and PwC have a pre-interview mingling day) ... and definitely spend time on your application, you can tell if someone's just done a last minute job or put in a lot of effort, some of the q's are the same but most companies asked fairly different q's, but if you really want it .. it's worth putting in the effort.

Unis, I think it depends on personal pref .. I personally always wanted to go to UNSW or USYD, now UNSW. But that's cos I have a lot more friends there I like the atmosphere, campus etc. and when your not working I reckon I would had a lot more fun at UNSW. My thinking is, if you weren't on a cadetship where would you go (fun wise), education etc didn't bother me to much cos they're all pretty much the same and on a cadetship you'll graduate with a job anyway. If it's not friends or something on campus that's pulling you to UNSW then UTS is definitely more convenient. And I know some ppl didn't like full time uni that much, but I'm really looking forward to it and I rkn it'll be heapsa fun, but everyone's different. I kinda didn't like the idea that UTS doesn't have a campus so people js go their for classes n then leave after to the city or home, but that suits some ppl. I was looking forward to js bumming around campus, playing sport etc, but if you can't see yourself js hanging around doing nothing then I guess UNSW doesn't have as much going for it. and yeah USYD has no night classes

Saying all this I'm not actually taking my cadetship now .. but I thought about all this a lot before and I talked to quite a few people about it.

And one more thing, try to apply for as many as u can and if possible set up your interviews so the ones you want the most are last. That way you have the most interview experience by that time, cos my first one was KPMG which was a disaster and it got steadily better as I went along. It gets a lot less nerve racking.

 

[La Divina]

Hey!
Im in year 12 as well and hoping to do a cadetship next year as well. im a bit lost about it though so better clear things up...
1.How many cadets do the big 4 take?
2.Deloitte doesnt have any online applications atm do they? will they put them up soon when applications are due? or do we mail it to them?
3.For the people who are doing a cadetship, how much of you interviews focused on extra curricular activies? What do they look for in that. Did you guys do work experience to help you get the cadetship?
4.What are some good mid tier firms?

would love replies! thanks!

 

[Vagabond]

Hey!
Im in year 12 as well and hoping to do a cadetship next year as well. im a bit lost about it though so better clear things up...
1.How many cadets do the big 4 take?
2.Deloitte doesnt have any online applications atm do they? will they put them up soon when applications are due? or do we mail it to them?
3.For the people who are doing a cadetship, how much of you interviews focused on extra curricular activies? What do they look for in that. Did you guys do work experience to help you get the cadetship?
4.What are some good mid tier firms?

would love replies! thanks!

1. This is disclosed in a small ICAA booklet. (Ask your careers advisor for one... it lists all the major mid-tier and big4 firms, application details, descriptions etc.)

The Assurance/Auditing divisions within big4 take the most people, about 30-40 by the end of the process I think?

What often happens however is that the same person will recieve offers from a few or even several places and end up knocking back all but one.

Unlike mid-tier, big4 firms don't usually accept offers on the basis of filling numbers... if your not in you're not in. Mid-tier however will often lower their standards until they find a person to accept the offer.

2. Deloitte is the smallest of the big4 in Australia and last year they didn't take Cadets.

3. In terms of your initial written/CV application, no extra-curricular = no interview.

Once the interview/assessment has been offered, I found that big4 concentrated more on "who you were" whilst mid-tier firms hammered the "what have you done".

As for work experience, it def. helps. Many firms asked me to talk about my work experience (they do this to piece together what sort of person you are).. additionally I was able to use work experience in some of my answers for their questions.. eg. "Tell me about a time where you had an unforeseen problem and how you went about fixing it" ... I could bring up/adapt history from when I worked as an administrator and come up with a great answer. You don't come across too well when all of your answers include "Well this one time at school...."

The bottom line is work experience is great, but it def. doesn't havent to be anything accounting/finance related..

4. Grant Thornton and Felsers were my favourites. PKF was the only firm I hated with a passion. It was funny... My friends all sent their application online and ended up writing about 500 word answers for each question. I printed out the application and wrote 1-2 line answers (since it was on paper the input boxes didn't expand) and I still got an interview.

Generally though, you had "why accounting/us/<insert decision you made regarding anything>" questions and "tell me about a time where you demonstrated leadership/teamwork/how you worked out a problem" questions.

Hope that helps.

 

[redruM]

BRW top 100 list - an apply everywherr

 

[La Divina]

Yeah thanks twas helpful! =)

I asked about that booklet before but apparently she had only one copy so she wouldnt give it to me. Is there anywhere else i can find that info, flyhigher website perhaps?

1. Is Deloitte going to take cadets for next year?

2. You say that Big4 concentrated on "who you were", what questions did they ask in reagards to that?

3. Which of the Big4 firms had group interviews? Also, do partners interview you in the initial stages? Or do exisiting cadets or someone else?

4. With the extra curricular, do they focus mainly on what you achieved in year 12 or whole schooling life?

5. Is it really a good idea to apply for a lot of firms? I mean its a bit hard to remember company structures and what not for like 10 of them...or are they pretty much similar? How many do you recommend should be applied for?

Thanks for answering, i know they are really lame questions lol

 

[lilou]

4. Any extra curricular activites from the last few years is fine! My interviewers were totaly fine about me not doing much during year 12...I just said I was one hundred percent committed to getting into uni!

That said, I did a 12 month student exchange after year 11, run the school amnesty international group, was in the SRC in year 10, ran the publishing group in year 9, played and umpired netball, was a form captain in year 8 PLUS I had 2 and half years experience in retail, where I was Sunday manager.

ALL my extra curricular stuff was BEFORE year 12, and they were ALL fine with that!

 

[La Divina]

4. Any extra curricular activites from the last few years is fine! My interviewers were totaly fine about me not doing much during year 12...I just said I was one hundred percent committed to getting into uni!

That said, I did a 12 month student exchange after year 11, run the school amnesty international group, was in the SRC in year 10, ran the publishing group in year 9, played and umpired netball, was a form captain in year 8 PLUS I had 2 and half years experience in retail, where I was Sunday manager.

ALL my extra curricular stuff was BEFORE year 12, and they were ALL fine with that!

Relief!

i changed schools at the end of year 10 and haven't done much in my new one, so i was a bit worried!!!

But you did a 12 month exchange when you were in year 12...doesnt that count as extra curricular sort of?

 

[lilou]

i wasn't in year 12...i took a year off between year 11 and year 12 to do the exchange! yr 11 in 2004, France in 2005, yr 12 in 2006!

It would have been a nightmare getting credit for my studies in France..plus i did half of French year 11 and half of French year 12 while i was away...which means I didn't get the French school certificate (they have a different school year in the northern hemisphere!)

 

[Vagabond]

Heh

Yeah thanks twas helpful! =)

I asked about that booklet before but apparently she had only one copy so she wouldnt give it to me. Is there anywhere else i can find that info, flyhigher website perhaps?

1. Is Deloitte going to take cadets for next year?

2. You say that Big4 concentrated on "who you were", what questions did they ask in reagards to that?

3. Which of the Big4 firms had group interviews? Also, do partners interview you in the initial stages? Or do exisiting cadets or someone else?

4. With the extra curricular, do they focus mainly on what you achieved in year 12 or whole schooling life?

5. Is it really a good idea to apply for a lot of firms? I mean its a bit hard to remember company structures and what not for like 10 of them...or are they pretty much similar? How many do you recommend should be applied for?

Thanks for answering, i know they are really lame questions lol

Not sure about fly higher... Your best bet is to look on their website for more information.

1. Not sure. They just merged with Howarths, who DID take cadets last year. So I think they will?

2. Don't get me wrong, both look at who you are.. But I found that especially at the partner interviews, they tended to try to talk to you casually and really "communicate" with you. It was more or less how you come across. With a certain partner I ended up discussing how to get fake visas to travel europe... so if you manage to get that casual then you don't have much to worry about

Also, the big4 assessments were much more diverse. You can prepare all you want for an interview, but there's no hiding who you really are when you are doing a group presentation/case study, in-tray exercise, etc.

3. Initial stages = either a HR person or a manager in the division you are applying for. Final stages = partners or senior directors. I think KPMG was the only big4 firm that didn't have a group interview.

4. Well, I don't think it matters when you did things so long as you have plenty to talk about.

For me doing everything in year 12 worked to my benefit...

Basically during the summer holidays I learnt all about these cadetships, took one look at my crappy resume and felt depressed.

In the first 2 terms of school leading up to interviews I managed to jam pack so many activities that I only had to list everything I was doing and people were impressed.. It made me confident. I could sit there, tell them how I worked part-time in administration, ran a YAA company, participated in the yearbook committee, organised fundraising events... AND maintain great marks. A popular focus is how you manage time and juggle committments (after all, full-time work and part-time study isn't a breeze).. keeping yourself busy won't hurt you. Even if you've done nothing to date, it's nowhere near too late. In all honesty, RIGHT NOW.. is not too late to start from scratch

5. I applied for quite a few firms... Nothing can prepare you for an interview more than other interviews. Also, you're always going to have that one bad day.

After getting my first offer, I still had 2-3 interviews to attend to and I did just for the sake of scoping the industry out. Since I was so relaxed, calm and confident (having already secured a job) I came off really well and managed to get myself more offers

For interviews I think there's two things you have to remember above anything else:

A) Don't speak like an idiot = No UMMS... "and like" "and stuffs" ...
B) The faster you break the 'cold formal barrier' and speak casually the faster you're going to feel comfortable and the better you'll come across.

Good luck now!

 

[La Divina]

Thanks!

Btw, whats "in-tray" excerice??