How the selection process works
When choosing people for the Accounting Graduate Programme we use a mix of CV and application review, ability and personality testing, phone and face-to-face interviews, and a handful of tasks and discussions on assessment days. It's a robust process that allows us to look at people in many different circumstances.
The selection process
1 March 2011 to 31 March 2011
Applications are open. You can apply online, attaching a CV and transcript, and answering a few screening questions. During this time we'll be attending the Auckland, Waikato, Victoria, Canterbury and Otago Universities' Finance and Accounting careers fairs, so come and have a chat with us.
Mid March 2011 to late March 2011
A 10 minute mini phone interview. People who have had their application accepted will be called to discuss their application further.
11 April 2011 and 12 April 2011
Interviews. Successful candidates will be invited to our assessment days. These involve an interview with two people from our Finance team, a verbal and numerical reasoning assessment and an early evening event. The purpose of these events is to give you as much information about Telecom as possible, as well as for us to find out about you. You'll get to meet current grads on the programme too.
Mid April 2011
Reference checking.
Mid April 2011 to late April 2011
Contracts will be offered to the people who have been selected.
Preparing for your interview
Before your interview you should find out all you can about Telecom. See our website, search online and browse newspaper reports and other media. This will help you decide whether Telecom is the place for you.
The best way to prepare for interview questions focusing on behaviour is to practise. Think about the specific situations you have been in that show.
- Drive - being ambitious, resilient, challenging yourself
- Learning agility - being curious, critical, open-minded
- Interpersonal effectiveness - in communications, relationships, teams
- Self-awareness and management - knowing your strengths and weaknesses, being open to feedback and development
- Analytical thinking - understanding a problem
- Team membership - contributing to the team
- Planning and organisation - establishing plans and priorities
- Initiative - independently taking action
Interview tips
The interview should be a good experience for everyone involved and a chance for us to get to know each other better. Interviews are mainly based around your past behaviour and competency. We'll ask about experiences you've had in the past to see how you might handle a similar scenario in the future.
We might ask you to "Tell us about an important decision you have made". Your response will tell us how you'll handle important decisions on the job. Be specific with your answers, and talk us through a particular task or project you have worked on or situation you've been in. A good response would be structured like this:
- Provide context - a brief outline of the specific situation you were involved in or the task you were working on.
- Tell us what you did - this is the most important bit. What actions did you personally undertake?
- Describe the impact of your actions - briefly describe how things worked out because of what you did.
- STAR - This is called the STAR technique - (S/T) Situation or Task, (A) Action and (R) Result.
On the day
We want you to feel relaxed - the best way to do this is to be prepared, arrive on time and, most importantly, be yourself! What we're most interested in is you.
