It has been a busy month for our Rovers. Two of our Rovers recently got jobs in careers that they have been working towards and credit our 180th Pacific Coast Scout Group for getting them hired above the competition. We want to share their story today to highlight their successes.
Karen Wong
Job Title: Treasury Accountant
What do you like about the job? I am learning many new things!
What did you do to prepare for the interview?
First thing I did was contact Clarice Fu (my past mentor) and Abby Syyong (current mentor), which lead to a series of events:
- Reading my Insights profile to phrase my strengths more professionally
- Doing mock interviews with several department heads
- Getting references from John Chow, Clarice Fu and Kevin Li
How did the crew help you prepare for this?
The whole application process went really quickly. After I received the phone call, the company asked me to go in for an interview the very next day and required a reference check the day after. With less than 24 hours to prepare for the interview, I received the help and support I mentioned above from at least 8 people in the Scout Group. It is amazing how people in this Scout Group are so responsive (and quick too) when it comes to helping each other out. At the interview, I was able to support a lot of my examples with projects and experiences from this Scout Group. Just yesterday, my new employer said that one of the things he really liked on my resume was the amount of volunteer work I do.
I have gained so much from all these wonderful people such as the support from each other, hands on experiences and transferable soft skills. When the time comes, I will in turn do what I can to help other Rovers.
Elaine Au
Job Title/description:
Technical Assistant position as a Co-op student with the Federal Government. The job is to assist a project that quantifies the amount of aluminum and other trace metals in commercial soy products. I will be able to contribute to standardize the concentration of trace elements in soymilk and also contribute in determining the daily allowable limits of trace elements for children.
What did you do to prep for the interview?
- Prepared and practiced my answers to typical interview questions. (eg. Tell me about yourself, what are your greatest strengths and weaknesses, what do you know about the position and why do you want this job etc.) and although the interviewer did not ask these questions, I had enough examples to answer the questions that I hadn’t prepared for.
- For government positions, the interviews are very technical and are made into an exam format, where the person who has the highest score will get the position. So knowing that, I researched about soybeans as they would be the focus of the project – which really helped because the first 3 questions asked were about soybeans!
- A week prior to this interview, I had my first in-person interview. For that, I got a “pep” talk from my mentor Vivian Chan and from Scouter John Chow – and their words of encouragement brought confidence that stayed with me even for the interview.
How did the crew help you prepare for this?
When the interviewer asked me “What can you bring to this position?” I listed out three qualities that I possess, and every single example I provided came from experiences I’ve had in the Scout Group. This speaks a lot about what our Scout Group offers – the soft skills that we develop in this group is very much applicable to everyday life. I am usually not very good at thinking on my feet, but because I have lived through these experiences so many times while in this group, these examples and stories came naturally to me.
Congratulations to the both of you
Between experience relevant for modern work, Getting The Job workshops, practice interviews, and mentorship, our crew is proving we provide what young adults need to get ahead in today’s work environment.