Will part-time job experience help get a job after completing a commerce/eco degree?? (1 Viewer)

[seremify007]

Re: Will part-time job experience help get a job after completing a commerce/eco degr

To be honest I'd rate KFC/McDonalds/hospitality higher than book keeping when I conduct interviews. Book keeping really only says you have some technical background (probably not to a sufficient level of what you'd do as a grad) and that you are dedicated to the career path- but working in hospitality could teach someone how to work in a well controlled, fast paced team environment which involves a combination of client-facing, being trustworthy, teaching others of different skills/ability/interest, etc. That to me is far more relevant.

ps. Newbie- not everyone here is interested in applying for the highly competitive 6-figure finance grad jobs so whilst your input is appreciated, it isn't necessarily wholly relevant to all situations.

 

[Newbie]

Re: Will part-time job experience help get a job after completing a commerce/eco degr

i think its quite dangerous that you give these kids such a diluted warm and fuzzy view of how things work.

i had two points.
1. kfc/mcdonalds experience isnt bad, you do it, learn stuff and move on, however if you are stuck there after 3/4 years at uni. then sorry you will get stomped in interviews

2. With the finance industry jobs being destroyed, you have armies of highly ambitious and motivated banker wannabes from uni who will not get those jobs and will apply for big4. These guys will carry multiple internships and extracurriculars into an interview, so kfc guy doesnt stand a chance. its pretty bad if after 3/4 years of uni, alll you can talk about infront of 2 partners is your experience at kfc

and also btw my first job was also a waiter, i loved it, learnt a lot and moved on to other things.

 

[seremify007]

Re: Will part-time job experience help get a job after completing a commerce/eco degr

i think its quite dangerous that you give these kids such a diluted warm and fuzzy view of how things work.

Again, appreciate your feedback and under some circumstances what you say would probably hold true, but given the Op's original question of whether or not work experience in a part time job would be beneficial in getting a grad job, my response and remarks still stand. Relevant work experience is always positive, but candidates should always be prepared to answer the "why?" question in relation to both their internship placements and why they should be considered suitable for the position being applied for.

Also, I'd dare say your finance/IB/etc background would put you in a very different mindset to what the average accounting/commerce graduate employer is looking for in candidates applying for a graduate position.

 

[Mystery ATAR]

Re: Will part-time job experience help get a job after completing a commerce/eco degr

The answer to this thread should of been simply yes. However it is how relevant that work experience is to your job.

I work in sales at retail, this is more relevant to trading than a KFC checkout chick. So, think of it that way. So newbie is right.

 

[asadass]

Re: Will part-time job experience help get a job after completing a commerce/eco degr

2. With the finance industry jobs being destroyed, you have armies of highly ambitious and motivated banker wannabes from uni who will not get those jobs and will apply for big4. These guys will carry multiple internships and extracurriculars into an interview, so kfc guy doesnt stand a chance. its pretty bad if after 3/4 years of uni, alll you can talk about infront of 2 partners is your experience at kfc

Don't Australian firms tend to only offer internships to those in their penultimate year? So unlike American students, Australians can really only get one decent internship on their resume.

Newbie, assuming the above statement is true, would it be best for students who want a finance-based job to participate in other interesting activities (volunteering overseas etc.) in the other uni breaks? As opposed to being the 'kfc-guy' in uni breaks.

 

[Mystery ATAR]

Re: Will part-time job experience help get a job after completing a commerce/eco degr

Don't Australian firms tend to only offer internships to those in their penultimate year? So unlike American students, Australians can really only get one decent internship on their resume.

Newbie, assuming the above statement is true, would it be best for students who want a finance-based job to participate in other interesting activities (volunteering overseas etc.) in the other uni breaks? As opposed to being the 'kfc-guy' in uni breaks.

That would be a yes regardless. Who doesn't want to go overseas.

 

[seremify007]

Re: Will part-time job experience help get a job after completing a commerce/eco degr

Don't Australian firms tend to only offer internships to those in their penultimate year? So unlike American students, Australians can really only get one decent internship on their resume.

Ways that people get multiple internships on their CV for a grad role: scholarships, coop placements, competition prize winners, connections, lying about when you'll finish your degree, career path changes, cadetships (some people would class this as an internship depending on how long they worked/role/firm/etc), etc.

 

[Trebla]

Re: Will part-time job experience help get a job after completing a commerce/eco degr

This thread is just lol. For the record, Newbie you've misinterpreted what I said and created this whole KFC guy persona. I'm going to clarify some things here.

ANY work experience is better than none. Ideally you would be finding something related but these are often more difficult to find. However, at the end of the day it is the skills that you pick up from the work experience (known as 'transferable skills') that employers look for rather than the experience itself.

In fact, working in fast food is actually a very valuable thing for graduate employers because it shows that you know how to work under intense pressure and have gained some considerable customer service skills. If you want to be a trader for example, that sort of experience in working under pressure definitely comes in handy.

As from the quote above, all I have said is that working in fast food has value to an employer. NEVER did I mention anything about working for a fast food chain only and nothing else (which was an unforunate assumption that Newbie made). A student should have a variety of activities in his or her resume and fast food should not be discounted as something worthless on a resume.

dude you did not just compared kfc to trading. for the record, dont ever make this comparison in an interview. "oh yeah i think my time and experience at kfc would be highly relevant for a finance job" = banned

anyway the first part is right, any experience better than none.
however if i see you have done 3 years of kfc and nothing sorry im not going to hire you. obviously different if you owned the franchise but then you wouldnt be applying for a job in the first place.

I don't know who you recruit for Newbie, but from my experience going through multiple graduate recuitment processes I can say that recruiters on campus (from the banks and the big4) and careers advisors always tell us to include any type of work experience on the resume. They say don't disregard things like working for Woolies or Maccas because if you worked well under those conditions then you have demonstrated skills in communication and teamwork for example. In fact, I have actually been explicitly asked in an interview during the recruitment process by a bank: "Outline your customer service experiences. That could be something like Macdonalds or Woolworths...". It is more about WHAT you did on the job and what skills you have gathered from it rather the job itself. Further evidence is that some of my friends who have fast food as their main work experience have gotten graduate jobs in banks and the big 4.

so your answer would be yeah there was this one time when the fryer broke and all those hungry guys were outside.or this guy really really wanted a thigh piece but we ran out? wtf man. good luck in your inteviews.


funny thing is i asked this question 20 times this week in interviews so heres some of the competition your KFC guy faces in the real world. (btw this is investment banking interviews for analyst class of 2013)

some responses i got were:

"while i was in cambodia building an ophanage, i...."
"while i interning at the court of arbitration at the Hague, i..."
"while i was managing my student association's US$200,000 stock portfolio, i..."

while the weaker responses were "While i was interning at [wall street bank], i..."

kfc guy...

If you did some pretty impressive things on the job then the name or label of the job should not be relevant. As a recruiter you should know that is the action (as per STAR) in the situation that is important, not the label or stereotype of the role itself.

i think its quite dangerous that you give these kids such a diluted warm and fuzzy view of how things work.

i had two points.
1. kfc/mcdonalds experience isnt bad, you do it, learn stuff and move on, however if you are stuck there after 3/4 years at uni. then sorry you will get stomped in interviews

2. With the finance industry jobs being destroyed, you have armies of highly ambitious and motivated banker wannabes from uni who will not get those jobs and will apply for big4. These guys will carry multiple internships and extracurriculars into an interview, so kfc guy doesnt stand a chance. its pretty bad if after 3/4 years of uni, alll you can talk about infront of 2 partners is your experience at kfc

and also btw my first job was also a waiter, i loved it, learnt a lot and moved on to other things.

Again, you've assumed that working for KFC somehow means you are not allowed to concurrently pursue other extra-curricular activities or even extra jobs.

 

[Mystery ATAR]

Re: Will part-time job experience help get a job after completing a commerce/eco degr

Any work experience is good

/thread

 

[Newbie]

Re: Will part-time job experience help get a job after completing a commerce/eco degr

Lots of quotes haha surprised you missed this one.

Mate, behavioural questions: "Tell me about a time where you achieved something under pressure".

you are going to look a trader/banker/partner in the face and use KFC as an example of a time you achieved something under pressure. Nice.

 

[Newbie]

Re: Will part-time job experience help get a job after completing a commerce/eco degr

Trebla, please reread this one, despite you quoting it. you just gotta read man.

dude you did not just compared kfc to trading. for the record, dont ever make this comparison in an interview. "oh yeah i think my time and experience at kfc would be highly relevant for a finance job" = banned

anyway the first part is right, any experience better than none.
however if i see you have done 3 years of kfc and nothing sorry im not going to hire you. obviously different if you owned the franchise but then you wouldnt be applying for a job in the first place.

Also interesting to hear about banks asking about customer service experience, clearly not the same banks i am talking about or work at so thats fine. nothing wrong with working at CBA as a teller

 

[seremify007]

Re: Will part-time job experience help get a job after completing a commerce/eco degr

you are going to look a trader/banker/partner in the face and use KFC as an example of a time you achieved something under pressure. Nice.

Why not?

It's not so much the setting which matters but rather what experiences can be drawn out from them. I've had some pretty impressive bartenders come through interviews with great examples of how they adapted to coach staff with different learning backgrounds/styles, working with challenging customers, maintaining professionalism, etc.

 

[Trebla]

Re: Will part-time job experience help get a job after completing a commerce/eco degr

Thanks Newbie for ignoring what I said before.

you are going to look a trader/banker/partner in the face and use KFC as an example of a time you achieved something under pressure. Nice.

As already addressed in my post and supported by seremify007:

If you did some pretty impressive things on the job then the name or label of the job should not be relevant. As a recruiter you should know that is the action (as per STAR) in the situation that is important, not the label or stereotype of the role itself.

Also interesting to hear about banks asking about customer service experience, clearly not the same banks i am talking about or work at so thats fine. nothing wrong with working at CBA as a teller

FYI this was for a potential graduate role at CBA . I've also been asked a similar style question (relating to interpersonal skills) by Macquarie (an investment bank). Besides, you can't deny that customer service experience and skills are extremely valuable, particularly in banking because you are serving the needs of clients.

So my point remains well supported in my previous post that you should not see work experience in a fast food or retail chain as something worthless in your resume (no matter how long), especially when recruiters themselves ask for it. The important thing is what kind of skills and experiences you develop from the work experience.

To Newbie, since you're probably going to ignore any further arguments I make and not address them properly to support your arguments (thanks for proving my point in the post below), I see no point trying to get a proper debate going.

End of discussion.

PS: For the record, I've never worked in a fast food chain myself.

 

[Newbie]

Re: Will part-time job experience help get a job after completing a commerce/eco degr

theres no debate when you are wrong kfc guy.

Gone through another 100 resumes this week for the summer interns next year. not one fast food mention. Maybe im in a different industry to you.
Although i think if someone did bring up KFC to try an answer an interview question, i might give them the time of day simply because its amusing and something different. but then afterwards, the resume still goes into the bin

 

[Newbie]

Re: Will part-time job experience help get a job after completing a commerce/eco degr

Why not?

It's not so much the setting which matters but rather what experiences can be drawn out from them. I've had some pretty impressive bartenders come through interviews with great examples of how they adapted to coach staff with different learning backgrounds/styles, working with challenging customers, maintaining professionalism, etc.

yes agreed that its the skill/example/experience that counts. however, when someone else comes in displaying the same skill/example/experience in a context of something much more optically impressive, kfc guy over there goes into the bin.

its like two waiters, ones at an RSL, ones at tetsuyas or something. same sht carrying plates. but its not the same is it.

my final advice on this is - if you are applying to an investment bank, do not put a fast food/retail job in the resume. it will go into a bin. feel free to use that first job to leverage into something else - its great, i did it, everyone does it. but if you are stuck at that kfc job, its not good enough.

also, we look for relevant experience. not any experience. so jokers who want to compare the pressure they faced at kfc to what happens in a real job, please dont apply. this is not where you belong.

 

[sghguos]

Re: Will part-time job experience help get a job after completing a commerce/eco degr

yes agreed that its the skill/example/experience that counts. however, when someone else comes in displaying the same skill/example/experience in a context of something much more optically impressive, kfc guy over there goes into the bin.

its like two waiters, ones at an RSL, ones at tetsuyas or something. same sht carrying plates. but its not the same is it.

my final advice on this is - if you are applying to an investment bank, do not put a fast food/retail job in the resume. it will go into a bin. feel free to use that first job to leverage into something else - its great, i did it, everyone does it. but if you are stuck at that kfc job, its not good enough.

also, we look for relevant experience. not any experience. so jokers who want to compare the pressure they faced at kfc to what happens in a real job, please dont apply. this is not where you belong.

should i put it in a typical accounting/finance grad job?

 

[KidDang]

Re: Will part-time job experience help get a job after completing a commerce/eco degr

Newbie I think the point here is whether part-time experience, (e.g. in KFC) should be put into your CV or just left out and whether it helps or is beneficial at all and the answer is yes.

No one was trying to compare a KFC waiter to a student intern in JPMorgan.

And really I don't see how a CV with fast food experience then later moving up the ladder to management or becoming a bank teller would get thrown out the bin. I actually feel it shows you have the will to succeed. But I don't have the front-line knowledge to judge this and if its correct, that's something new for me.

btw seremify,
If you happen to see this i got a question,
last year I was working in maccas but recently gotten a job as a bookkeeper in a local accounting firm, from your post earlier are you stating this is a bad move on my part?

 

[seremify007]

Re: Will part-time job experience help get a job after completing a commerce/eco degr

btw seremify,
If you happen to see this i got a question,
last year I was working in maccas but recently gotten a job as a bookkeeper in a local accounting firm, from your post earlier are you stating this is a bad move on my part?

Not a bad move at all. My earlier posts were really trying to highlight you need to show what you gained out of a particular role/job and how it improves your suitability for the role being applied for. In your case, you are learning basic accounting and have shown dedication to the career path (i.e. you're not just applying for an accounting grad role because you 'felt like it' one day). Both jobs have their merits and realistically neither will put you in significantly better stead because technical skills are taught on the job (in most accounting grad roles at least).

 

[Jinks]

Re: Will part-time job experience help get a job after completing a commerce/eco degr

Lots of quotes haha surprised you missed this one.



you are going to look a trader/banker/partner in the face and use KFC as an example of a time you achieved something under pressure. Nice.

I managed to get 3 cadetship offers doing just this, except with McDonalds...

Edit: and i do realise getting a job post-grad is obviously a lot different and competition is harder

 

[Newbie]

Re: Will part-time job experience help get a job after completing a commerce/eco degr

Newbie I think the point here is whether part-time experience, (e.g. in KFC) should be put into your CV or just left out and whether it helps or is beneficial at all and the answer is yes.

yes because you are the authority on recruiting.

you have 1 page, 1 page to occupy 10 seconds of an interviewers time.
first thing i look is to figure out if you are a guy or a girl, some names particularly asians are fkn confusing
then i look at the university scores to make sure you are not retarded.
then you have 7 seconds to occupy my thoughts on something impressive you have done.
usually its your latest working experience, etc

so if i cant see you filling up a page with something better than kfc, sorry you are out.
Because theres another 300 names in the book that may or may not have worked at kfc but have certainly done something better and more impressive than it and have left it out of their resume because the real estate on that one page resume is precious.

you guys need to see reality. its harsh.

btw congrats to that other guy above me who got an amazing 3 offers with mcdonalds on his resume. thats because you were still in high school....