1. UCT Graduate Recruitment Handbook 2010 - Text Section

Graduate Recruitment Handbook

CAREER DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME (CDP)CENTRE FOR HIGHER EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT (CHED)

2010

- Job search guide for students

- A to Z directory of participating employers

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UCT Graduate Recruitment Handbook 2010 3

Contents

GRP Information

Employment Opportunities -

Where to Begin 6

Company Showcases 48

Career Fairs 12

Presentations 48

How to use the Directory 50

The A-Z Directory 52

Job Search Information

CDP Services 4

Skills for Work 8

A Job Search Road Map 14

What’s Your Affininty 16

How to make your Postgraduate

Diploma Work for You 18

Selection Methods 20

CV Guidelines 24

Cover Letters 28

Preparing for Interviews 30

Psychometric Tests - Why not to

be scared 38

What’s your Case? 44

Options beyond GRP 100

The 2010 Graduate Recruitment Handbook is published by theUCT Career Development ProgrammePrivate Bag X3, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, 7701Telephone: +27-21-650-2497 Email: [email protected]://www.careers.uct.ac.za© University of Cape Town 2010Articles may only be reproduced with written permission from the Editor.Printed by Creda Communications, Cape Town.

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UCT Graduate Recruitment Handbook 20104

CDP Services to StudentsCDP Mailing ListIf you are not yet registered on our mailing list, we encourage you to do so.Students are informed via e-mail and SMS about upcoming talks, events andopportunities. You may either register at our reception or online. Go towww.careers.uct.ac.za/reg

Career Information Centre (CIC)The CIC is the hub of UCT’s Career Development Programme. It houses a wealth of career related resources including books, files, magazines, videos and pamphlets as well as internet access for searching company information and specialised sites.

Reference materials include employer information, NGO directories, career specific titles, postgraduate options, gap years, skills for work and interview skills. You will also find practical guides on developing CVs and cover letters.

Opening Hours: Monday to Friday: 09h00 to 16h30. The CIC is open during university vacations.

Talks and WorkshopsWe deliver a series of talks and workshops to students throughout the year onCV Development, interview skills, researching careers and gaining workexperience. Please collect the Talks Schedule at our reception or access it online. Enquire about the CV Development for Postgraduates talk at our reception.

Career Guidance Registered UCT students and recent graduates in need of detailed individualguidance may book an in-depth 45 minute session with a Career Advisor.We also offer a CV Review service to those who have attended the CVDevelopment talks and/or used the resources in the CIC. CDP provides a Quick Queries service where students can consult a Career Advisor for approximately 15 minutes on a first come first served basis. The Quick Queries service is available on Tuesdays: 14h00 – 15h30 and on Thursdays: 10h30 – 12h00.

Career Awareness TalksThe Career Awareness Talks series was devised to cover areas of work whichtypically do not feature in campus based graduate recruitment activities. Speakers present personal stories of their dynamic career trajectories — challenging many typical student career expectations. You may come and view previous Career Awareness Talks on DVD in our CIC. Topics include work experience with Working for Médecins sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders) and a range of other topics from careers focusing on Architecture to new occupations being forged in Social Media and Climate Change.



The Mock Interview Programme (MIP)The MIP enables students to experience a practice job selection interview with a professional recruiter and receive feedback on their performance.

Careers FairsAnnual Career Fairs provide students with an opportunity to meet and interact with graduate recruiters at a central location on campus. In 2009, during the second semester, more than 150 organisations set up their stalls for the day at 2 General Career Fairs and 2 Sector Specific fairs for Law and Accountancy.

Graduate Recruitment ProgrammeDuring the annual Graduate Recruitment Programme in 2009, more than 190organisations attracted graduate talent by participating in presentations andselection interviews on campus, whilst also offering internships and bursaries. All students can use the GRP to research different employment prospects by attending a wide range of talks to help them explore options and make informed choices.

CDP also publishes the annual Graduate Recruitment Handbook which contains job search information for students and the A-Z directory of participating employers.

www.careers.uct.ac.zaThe CDP website is regularly updated with information about our services and events. Also view the job search and career development articles under CDP the resources tab.

Career PortalThe Career Portal is an online communication tool designed to complementcampus based recruitment activities, connecting UCT students and alumni with opportunities in the world of work. The Career Portal extends our reach to students, alumni and employers beyond the annual graduate recruitment cycle and after a gap year, time out or first job. There is also a link service for bursaries, scholarships and vacation work for students. It can be accessed by clicking www.careers.uct.ac.za/careerportal

Work/Study ProjectThis project links students to short term, part-time and casual job opportunities to help generate income and provide work experience opportunitieswhile studying. §



Employment Opportunities for Graduates - Where to Begin

So it is time for that all important task of finding employment after 3-5 years of studies at UCT – where do you start? Navigating graduate opportunities is like a project – it requires loads of understanding of what the “as is”

situation is coupled with a review of what the “to be” situation can be.

So let’s assume you wish to be gainfully employed – the “to be” situation. In order to even start thinking about what that will look like, your focus should start with analysis.

Who are you and what do you have to offer the future world of work? On analyzing your skills set, you would come up with a range of competencies, attributes, attitudes, interests and preferences that make you the person that you have become. The challenge is to know what all of that comprises before you start analyzing which opportunities that potentially suit your profile.

Write down the skills you have developed thus far – in and out of the classroom. For example: As a graduate you might have developed organizational skills – often managing your time as well as others; you would have had to work in teams and developed effective communication skills; you would have had to solve problems and be flexible and adaptable when you are faced with challenges; and you would have used technology in your assignments and by this stage have an intermediate understanding of various packages.

All employers are looking for resourceful, effective communicators who are problem solvers with a qualification in a major offered at UCT. Ask your friends and family what they think your key attributes are that make you an ideal team member or participant in a group situation – what do you bring to the party?

Once you have a clear picture of who you are and what you have to contribute, start writing down the key areas that you find interesting. If organising is your strength, there are a number of graduate opportunities in almost every sector calling out for planning and organizational skills.

Then start looking at the opportunities out there for graduates – such as the opportunities advertised in the Directory Section of the Graduate Recruitment Handbook. Find out who is employing graduates with your skills and qualifications, in the city you wish to work?

What is important is that you do the analysis up-front. Graduates sometimes come to us at the end of their final year and say “there was nothing available for me from the Career Development Programme”.



Why do you think that is? Perhaps what you were looking for is not typically offered through campus based programmes – if so, you need to understand where these opportunities are and if they even exist – in other words – analyze the landscape out there to ascertain whether there is demand.

Graduate Recruitment Programmes offered at Universities via the traditional career fairs, events and presentations often are a small fraction of what is available. The profile of organisations that come onto campus are generally large commercial and state-owned entities who have graduate needs in excess of 10 or more opportunities – sometimes up to 400 vacancies per annum.

It makes sense then for them to spend their recruitment budget on flying around South Africa visiting the campuses and letting graduates know what they are looking for and how to apply. Small and Medium Enterprises and Not for Profit Organisations on the other hand, don’t have big graduates programmes with large intakes of graduates – they typically have demand for 1-3 graduates a year and would not have the resources to mount a glossy graduate recruitment campaign with extended travel budgets to visit all the Universities.

If you know this up-front, then you can customize your opportunity search to target the companies and opportunities that suit your profile and save a lot of time and effort.

The Career Development Programme has a range of resources to assist you in analyzing and promoting your skills and can offer advice by way of talks, workshops and individual sessions to assist you in thinking through that all important first step in your ongoing career development. §



Analysing your Skills for Work

For some time there has been a growing trend for graduate employers to emphasise the need for a strong set of skills or “competencies” in their new recruits. Gone are the days when employers could afford to take on a

very raw graduate and spend a couple of years training them up. Graduates are now expected to “hit the ground running” when they start work.

Recruiters examine applications for evidence of skills; these will also be evaluated at interviews and assessment centres. Graduates must therefore know how to identify and provide evidence of their skills. This is often a case of teasing out the transferability of a skill learned in one context to its application in another. Any graduate can point to their academic achievements as evidence of a general intellectual ability, so employers are interested in additional abilities. These can be generic such as communication skills, or specific such as fluency in a particular language or knowledge of a statistical package.

Recent years have also seen the advent of a new set of responsibilities, namely career management and personal development. As the world of work changes graduates are less likely than ever before to obtain a “job for life”, and employers are consequently less concerned with guiding an employee’s long term career path. Graduates must therefore acquire an ability to assess their own continuing needs both in terms of marketability (keeping professional skills up to date) and personal satisfaction (matching their interests to market opportunity). They must be willing and able to participate in the “lifelong learning” culture that is evolving.

All of which means students and graduates need to be able to analyse, develop and record their constantly evolving skills profile. This is itself a skill, and one that is vital not just when applying for jobs, but in choosing a career. On the opposite page and overleaf are brief descriptions of each skill and how it can be evidenced or developed.

There is a growing awareness that graduates will need to be able to assess their skills profile, opportunities and marketability continually. As more jobs are offered on a fixed term basis there will be periodic requirements to re-assess career choices, make changes of direction, and retrain. Repeated job hunting or job creating will be required, and this will entail developing skills in networking, self-promotion, etc. as well as developing an attitude of self -reliance / self-belief and adaptability. A commitment to lifelong learning (both formal and informal) to maintain the relevance of your skills, as well as to develop personally, will therefore be crucial. §_____________________________________“How to Analyse your skills for Work” and related titles are available in the Career Information Centre, ground floor, Hoerikwaggo, on Upper Campus.



DESCRIPTION EEVIDENCE & DEVELOPMENT

CommunicationSpeaking and writing clearly and accurately, listening and reading accurately, and negotiating or persuading customers or colleagues.

Structuring a report or essay effectively, presenting a proposal to a committee using technical aids, having a job as a sales person, teaching or tutoring.

NumeracyUnderstanding or expressing ideas numerically, extracting conclusions from raw data, explaining accounting information to others, or analysis of lab results.

Being the treasurer of a society or handling cash on behalf of a restaurant you work for, generating spreadsheets for a project, following the financial world and shadowing the stock market.

Information TechnologyKnow the basic word processing, spreadsheet and presentation programmes, and specialised systems for your field of interest. These days knowing how to use email and searching the internet are essential.

Take a course, or teach yourself by experimenting in computer labs. Use library databases and search engines.

Working with othersAlmost all jobs have some sort of team work component, or require one-to-one communication, influencing, negotiating, answering queries from the public, or managing the work of others. Working with others calls for sensitivity, responding objectively, and also decisions around the level and depth of information you need or can give.

Collaboration with others in group projects, managing a team or project, clubs andsocieties you belonged to, voluntary work, teaching or tutoring, and other communityactivities.

Organising / Taking responsibilityUsually graduate jobs involve taking responsibility for your own work or the work of others, and employers will be looking for those graduates that have managed a project, set objectives, planned the use of resources, juggled projects, created solutions to problems or anticipated solutions for possible problems, and have an eye for both the big picture and the detail.

Planning for past projects, organising to complete projects with the help of others, any work experience, events management, travel abroad, family or shared accommodation responsibilities.

More overleaf



DESCRIPTION EEVIDENCE & DEVELOPMENT

Problem solvingThinking logically and laterally and using ingenuity to remove or get around difficulties.

Use your degree knowledge in a technical context, think of new improved ways to be more efficient and effective in your studies or job, use creativity and “penetrate the unknowns”.

Business or commercial awarenessAwareness of the priorities (in depth or as a serious interest) of the firm or the current economic or political issues affecting thecommercial or public sphere.

Knowledge gained through reading newspapers and financial journals. Engage in small scale entrepreneurial activity, fundraising.

FunctionalThese are specific skills developed in a specific context, for example, languages, software packages, degree-related knowledge or manual ability.

Learnt in daily environment or from a specialised school.

Career managementIt is crucial that graduates know how to assess their skills profile, seek out relevant opportunities, and maintain their level of marketability in our constantly changing economy where a “job for life” is not guaranteed.

Show transition learning (coping with significant change), self-awareness (knowing your strengths, values, abilities and motivators), opportunity awareness (know where and how your skills can be applied in the market), and decision learning (make informed choices and review and re-assess goals, and lead a balanced life).

Personal attributesThese are underlying attitudes and behaviours that make you employable, for example, being a self-starter, having a “can do” attitude, showing commitment to the organisation you work for, being goal-oriented, desiring excellence, being decisive, having an awareness of cultural and social issues, using common sense.

Manage conflicting priorities, start a new club, show your stamina in sporting or lab activities, having a methodical approach, and show your reliability, being self-aware at every step of the way.



How to make the most of the annual Career Fairs

General Fairs (9am-3pm)2 August 2010 - Jameson Hall18 August 2010 - Jameson Hall

Sector Specific Fairs (9am-3pm)6 May 2010 - Law, in Kramer Quad3 August 2010 - Accountancy, in Jameson Hall

The Career Fairs give students an opportunity to explore potential employment prospects with a number of different organisations from a range of industries. Companies come to campus to showcase what they have to offer and students are encouraged to make the most of this opportunity to gather information, ask questions and network.

While the Career Fairs are occasions for companies to market themselves and scout for talent, it is primarily intended as an opportunity for students to sample and research different employment prospects and to find out more about the graduate labour market.

How to approach the Recruiter

Start by introducing yourself… E.g. “My name is J. I’m a 6 year student in the faculty of O majoring in $ ”

Ask about the company and possibilities for graduates from your discipline or area of study. In some cases this will be in addition to their target recruitment group (for example, HR positions in Engineering firms or Marketing in Financial Services).

Find out about graduate opportunities within that organisation, the work environment and future career prospects.

Explore openings for work experience and tips on how graduates might best use their time at university to prepare themselves for the world of work. Search out opportunities for job shadowing, vacation work, internships etc.

Make enquiries about changing work trends, company hiring policies and the main skills and competencies they are seeking from graduates.



Be aware that graduate opportunities come in many forms. Bear in mind that industry specialists also employ general managers, while HR, finance, IT and marketing professionals are required across all sectors.

Be open to a wide range of employment opportunities, maximise your options and keep abreast of current skills and work trends through active career research.

TIPS

Collect information and brochures - web addresses and contact details are • always useful.Try to visit all the stalls, don’t restrict your enquiries to one company or • sector.Ask about hiring trends, skills requirements, recruiting methods and future • training opportunities. Follow up with further research. The UCT Career Portal will link you to • company websites. Also visit the Career Information Centre in Hoerikwaggo on upper campus. §

Students browse the employer stalls at the Career Fair.



A job search road map

So, you’ve finally arrived at the point where (hopefully) you can see the graduation light at the end of the tunnel… now what? This is a question I found myself pondering about 2 years ago, as I was nearing the end of

my MSc studies in Chemical Engineering at UCT. As seemingly disorganised as it was at the time, my thought process around this really centred on three key questions:

How do I make sure that my career ambitions are aligned to my 1. interests, personality and work style?Which employment sectors did I want to explore at the beginning of 2. my career?How do I best prepare myself for the job search process?3.

My hope is not to give you a “one-size-fits-all” roadmap to planning and executing your job search process, but to share my experiences with you and by so doing, hopefully give you some meaningful guideposts to use on your way towards landing that dream job!

Looking back, my preparation for the job hunting process began at least a year and a half or so before the end of my studies, when I actively participated in on-campus extracurricular activities in student societies and thus gained an understanding of how I worked and interfaced with others.

As a member of the AIESEC UCT Executive, I became aware of the fact that I enjoy working with and leading teams, coming up with creative ideas and doing “project-type” work that is varied in its nature. However, even with this new-found self-knowledge, I still felt very ill-prepared for the real “world of work”. This is where taking up a few internships proved incredibly useful in understanding what “being at work” means. By the time the Graduate Recruitment Programme started, I had already completed three internships in employment sectors that I was interested in, over and above my exposure to the mining industry through vacation work as a De Beers bursar – in management consulting, business and in academia. I would strongly encourage you to visit the Career Development Programme and ask about available internships– they would be more than happy to assist!

“Great”, I thought, “so now I know how I like to work and have some ideas about where I would like to work (in terms of sectors) – but where do I find these job opportunities and how do I best prepare for submitting job applications once I have found them?”. This is where the UCT Career Development Programme (CDP) really helped. The Graduate Recruitment Handbook presented me with an incredible range of job opportunities from some of the country’s top employers in engineering, consulting, business, government and even non-profit organisations.



Mondli Guma hopes to graduate with an MSc in Chemical Engineering in 2010 and is currently on the Anglo American Graduate Programme.

The Career Fairs were also another great way to meet potential employers “face to face” and get to know more about their job opportunities. Thereafter I was able to narrow down my job search to a target handful of companies which I felt offered opportunities that were the most closely aligned to my career goals. However, I still felt that I needed to do some groundwork to sharpen my interview skills and update my CV and target my cover letters. Once more, the CDP was indispensable in this regard: I consulted the career counsellors, attended Career Awareness Talks and participated in CV workshops that they offered. A key highlight was enrolling for the Mock Interview Programme (MIP) which proved very useful in preparing me for interviews, given how closely the experience simulated a real interview and the insightful feedback received from the interviewer afterwards. By the time graduate recruitment gathered steam on campus, I could not help but feel really prepared for the process; probably the single most important factor that will guarantee you success in the job search – your own self confidence!

As a result of my work experiences and “job search skills” gained through the CDP, contrary to most students I found the job search to be a much less stressful and enjoyable experience than most. I feel that my targeted approach to employment was the right strategy for me – I applied for graduate positions with four companies, and received employment offers from all four. In the end, my decision to join the Anglo American Graduate Programme was quite an easy one: I wanted to join a global organisation that would expose me to the world of big business and provide me with an international career and leadership development platform – all this while remaining relevant to my background and interest in the mining industry. I joined the company in February 2009 as

a Strategy & Business Development Analyst and have already been fortunate enough to be rotated into a new role this year, where I now manage an enterprise development fund. Needless to say, I am loving every minute of it!

In conclusion, I will reiterate that to ensure that you land that dream job, nothing beats doing your homework – both on yourself (knowing your goals, work style and preferred working environment) as well as the job market in terms of opportunities available. The Career Development Programme present an amazing opportunity to be able to achieve both while on campus – use it! §



What’s your affinity?

Well done for holding the UCT Graduate Recruitment Handbook in your hands right now. There are many other things you could be doing with your time but you are investing it wisely. Let me tell you

of the return on investment I experienced.

When I was a student, I used the Handbook to get vacation jobs at a ski resort in the USA and then at a club in Ireland. I graduated with a BBusSci in 2002 and completed my PGDA the next year. In order to qualify as a Chartered Accountant, I needed to complete 3 years of practical training, and I completed those in 2006. I am grateful for the help that the Handbook provided in guiding my job search, but that is not the point of this short article. This article is an attempt to share some BIG PICTURE tips and also to introduce you to a possible career in education.

THE BIG PICTURE: I propose that within each of us is a desire to work - we love taking the different elements that are available to us and weaving them together for greater human flourishing - we were created for this. A musician takes the different musical notes and weaves them together to create a song that leaves others mesmerized and taken to another level of human flourishing. A cleaner sweeps the streets and others flourish because they are not tripping all over the place and diseases aren’t being spread amongst the debris. I am currently a UCT lecturer in the Department of Accounting and this is the place where I hope to encourage greater human flourishing. Backtrack to the end of 2006 when I finished my articles though. I had a big decision to make, much like the one that you have to make at the end of this year, what will I be doing next year?

I looked at three elements when deciding what to do:

AFFINITY – What is it that you really enjoy doing? Think specifically of activities that energise you – if you pour hours into doing something but yet it leaves you excited and eager for more – you are looking at something that could hold the key to your future career. Presenting material to others and answering tough questions is what I love to do. Ask yourself “What do I love doing?”

ABILITY – Are you good at what you want to have as a career? This can best be gauged by asking people that you interact with regularly. Ask them what it is that you are good at. Ask your family and close friends, they might point out aspects that you would not have ever considered. Tell them to be honest. Having an affinity for something is sadly not enough - we’ve all seen those people singing on Pop Idols who loved singing – they really had lousy voices though (and dishonest friends who never told them the truth!). Singing was not something that they were going to have as a career. Ask yourself and others “What am I good at?”



OPPORTUNITY – Are there employment opportunities for you in this career? This is where the Handbook is invaluable. You can look through the list of prospective employers and start to match yourself to the gaps that are opening up. The Handbook is the starting point to find out the basics of available opportunities.

In my role as a Commerce Student Advisor, I see a lot of students who are struggling to make decisions about their future. One of the major reasons is that they all seem to have only monitored the OPPORTUNITY side – they have never stopped to honestly assess whether or not they have an AFFINITY or ABILITY for what they have studied. I strongly encourage you not to make the same mistake. All three elements are important.

In conclusion

I want to be excellent at what I do in life and I suspect that the same is true for you. I chose a career in academia and education because I come alive doing it (I have an AFFINITY for it) and others tell me I am good at it (I have an ABILITY for it) and importantly I have an OPPORTUNITY to do it (UCT hired me!).

If you find that OPPORTUNITES are not coming your way (South Africa has an incredibly high unemployment rate and that includes some university graduates), I encourage you to participate fully in the Graduate Recruitment Programme but also to explore entrepreneurship as a possible source of employment. If you have the AFFINITY and ABILITY, make your own OPPORTUNITY! §

Paul Maughan lives in Leslie Commerce Room 5.24 and can be visited. Alternatively email him: [email protected]



We, Joshua Raizon from Harare/Zimbabwe and Constanze Schmidt-Rhode from Hamburg/Germany met in February 2009 as two out of sixty Management students who enrolled with the University of

Cape Town in order to learn in a one year-crash course (Postgraduate Diploma Enterprise Management, PDEM), what the building, running and management of an entrepreneurial business in the real world is all about.

In the first week of the course, the sixty very nervous and excited PDEM students were encouraged to choose teams of 4-6 partners and open their own business as the practical part of the course. We immediately decided to form a team, hardly knowing each other but believing that Joshua with his Hospitality Management degree and myself with a Medical Science degree would be able to reach the outmost level of creativity and academic achievement within our

business.

Following the guidelines of the course to create a green storage product for a young and fashion orientated market, the idea of the Whippit was born - a wallet that would be of outstanding quality, incredibly funky and fashionable but safe and convenient at the same time. Such a wallet would catch everyone’s eye when taken out, but be so convenient and easy to use that it would replace the ordinary wallet.

Not only the colours and shape had to be special, but also the fabric, ostrich skin, which customers would easily recognize. The Whippit is intended to stand out with bright pastel colours and make a statement, showing that its owner knows about fashion and appreciates outstanding quality of leather and style.

How to make your Postgraduate Diploma work for you



Joshua and I, with the business skills that we learned in Accounting, Marketing and Management classes, then began to market and sell the product within South Africa (even in one of the shops of the V&A Waterfront) and due to high demand at the end of 2009 decided to export the product to Europe and particularly Germany with great success.

It was clear from the beginning that the Whippit business should not be a fashion trendsetter with regards to young accessories, but also give something back to society and that’s why we decided to donate €5 from every wallet to the Homestead, a shelter for homeless children in Cape Town.

Joshua and I are still running the Whippit business successfully and have maintained the donations to the Homestead until today, which has enabled us to have proudly donated several thousand rands to support projects for homeless children in South Africa.

We are also proud to say that we have extended our product range to various genuine leather wallets, handbags and belts and most products are successfully exported to Europe. Whippit, a product made by young South African entrepreneurs, will be featured in several high-gloss fashion magazines in Germany before the Soccer World Cup 2010.

We are employing a leather manufacturer in Darling who is employing mainly women from the local community in his workshop to help him with the production of the wallets.

I can only encourage young people to sign up for PDEM. It has taught us how to be open to business opportunities.§



Selection Methods

There are a range of different selection techniques used in graduate recruitment. The process first entails scrutiny of applications for the purpose of determining candidates’ suitability for employment in

particular positions. Here candidates are judged on their application documents, and then granted an interview, or invited to participate in further processes. Candidates need to give a good account of themselves on and meet the basic requirements of the job in order to progress beyond this stage.

After the initial screening, information about candidates is collected using one or more of the following selection methods:

• Interviews• Personality Inventories• Cognitive Assessments• Work Samples / Job Specific Assessments• Assessment Centres

This article provides an overview of the different approaches to job interviews and various assessment methods that the job seeker may typically encounter.

InterviewsInterviews are all about making the best matches. Both the company and the job seeker want to determine if there is a correct fit between them. To this end, recruiters conduct various forms of interviews and these may vary between the first and second rounds.

Interviews can be conducted by one person, or by a panel. Many organizations choose to start with a screening interview which is intended to see which of the candidates should be invited to further selection processes. This could take the form of a relaxed, open-ended conversation, or all candidates could be asked the same series of questions.

Competency-based or behaviour based interview questions are the most commonly used style of questioning. These explore past behaviour on the premise that this is a good indicator of future performance, particularly with regard to problem solving, team work and dealing with setbacks. As a candidate you will be asked to describe a situation where you displayed a particular behaviour. Your answers can be drawn from any part of your past experience.

Assessment CentresIn the assessment centre approach, candidates are assessed with a wide variety of instruments and procedures. These include ability and personality measures



as well as a range of competency-based interactive simulation exercises. Typical simulation activities include in-basket exercises, leaderless group discussions and role-plays.

Various competencies are under assessment such as planning and organising, problem analysis, decisiveness, interpersonal sensitivity, initiative and client-focused service orientation. In all of the exercises, trained assessors evaluate the candidates’ behaviour according to a rating scale.

In-basket exercises ask candidates to sort through an “in-basket” of letters, memos and reports. Candidates are asked to respond proactively with action plans and problem-solving strategies. The purpose of the in-basket is to measure how a candidate manages information, conflicting priorities and how they make decisions.

Leaderless group discussions are exercises in which the group of candidates form a simulated “management team” and are given various situations to respond to. There is no designated group leader and candidates are evaluated on the basis of their behaviour in the group discussion (e.g. teamwork skills, interpersonal skills, leadership skills).

Role-plays are simulated situations where candidates are designated a certain role and must interact with another employee to address a number of hypothetical issues. Participants’ performances are evaluated on the basis of their displayed behaviour. Other types of exercises may include having to prepare for and give a presentation on a particular topic, or complete a written report.

Work sample / job-specific tests assess functional competencies and may form part of the selection process. These assessments require candidates to perform tasks similar to those required in the job, for example, using MS Excel to process and analyse data.

Personality assessments are either electronic or paper-based, self-report inventories.

Cognitive assessments seek to measure abilities such as critical reasoning and verbal reasoning, as well as the individual’s core cognitive capabilities and potential, for example, problem solving, numeracy and logic.

Assessment centres apply the whole-person approach to selection. They can be very good predictors of potential behaviour and job performance, leadership ability and managerial potential. They also highlight areas where development is needed.

continued on page 22



Case Studies

A ‘case’ is a scenario modelled after a real business or management problem. The idea is to test a candidate’s ability in some or all of the following areas: listening skills, analytical and reasoning skills, quantitative skills, ability to organise and present information and hypotheses, ability to manage ambiguity, ability to perform under pressure, understanding of basic business and economic principles and professional poise. A case study could be given to an individual in an interview situation, or to a group to discuss and present a group answer to the business situation.

Classic business situation questions are used to see how much general business knowledge candidates have and how logically they can apply this knowledge to a common business problem. Business questions might relate to, for example profit/loss, organisational structure or marketing scenarios. This sort of question will usually be answered verbally by the candidate and will often be structured in stages. Your interviewer will probably draw on his or her own real, client experience to steer you through the scenario. An example of a business situation might be: “An airline finds that, while its revenues are at an all time high, the company is still operating at a loss. What is going on?”

In tackling a case study scenario, it is important to remember that there is not one right answer, but you are being assessed on how you approach and analyse the problem. Conclusion

When embarking upon any phase of the selection process, candidates need to be confident in themselves and in what they have to offer in terms of their knowledge and skills, including their transferable skills and core competencies. One of the key factors in personal and work success is ongoing self-assessment, which leads to greater self-awareness. Too many candidates make the mistake of thinking that “self marketing” is separate and distinct from authentic self-representation, whereas recruiters’ selection techniques and tools are expressly designed to assess the latter. §

______________________________This article was prepared by the UCT Career Development Programme. Case studies information courtesy of the Careers Service at the University of New South Wales, Australia.

continued from page 21



CV Guidelines

The CV is a multipurpose document, but its main aim is to get you an interview, which might open the door to various opportunities. It can also be used as a self-assessment, marketing and presentation tool.

Careful thought and effort should be given to compiling your CV. It is often the first interface between you and recruiters or employers. Your CV should be carefully designed to present clear, factual data which will create a favourable impression and convey key messages about your suitability as a candidate.

Developing a CV takes time and requires considerable reflection about yourself and what you have to offer a prospective employer. Give yourself time to work through the process and ask family and friends to help you identify your strengths, abilities and skills and give you feedback on your style of presentation. Attend a CV Development talk (see page 52), use the resources of the Career Information Centre and submit your final draft to a careers advisor for review.

Once you have compiled your CV, it can be useful to prepare a summary version, as you may be requested to provide a brief outline of your CV (or resumé) in a one-page format. There is no rigid formula according to which CVs should be constructed. No one size or shape fits all. Whatever format you decide upon, your CV should be organised in a way which assists the reader to establish your qualifications and experience to date and particular skills, interests and achievements you may wish to highlight without wading through too much biographical detail.

What employers wantEmployers will usually have a clear idea of the job description for the role on offer and you will probably have received that as part of an application pack. The reader of your CV will first and foremost be checking that you have fulfilled the most basic criteria for the role, that you have at least some of the skills they are looking for. Then they will be checking your experiences for signs that you have the potential to shine in the organisation. Some organisations literally use tick boxes to match off potential employees against their skills requirements. You can help them by demonstrating clearly and, crucially, with good evidence, that you have considered their needs and understand what they are looking for.

For most purposes, CVs should be no more than a page, 3 pages long at most. The task is to convey the relevant information as clearly and efficiently as possible whilst stimulating interest in what you have to offer. Use the resources



of the Career Development Programme to help develop your own preferred approach. As a general guideline, you may wish to structure your CV around some of the categories listed below.

Contact DetailsName, surname, postal address, telephone and fax numbers, e-mail address. This information can usefully be presented in a letterhead format, or in a box on a title page. Please ensure that these are reliable means of contacting you at short notice. [N.B. Will your email address become obsolete after graduation?] See the example below.

ObjectivesIt is not necessary to state your career objectives in your CV. If you choose to do so, be specific: If applying for a job, indicate the position you wish to apply for. If you are seeking to embark on a professional career in a particular field or environment, or with a specific company, state this at the outset.

Education Tertiary - include institution(s) attended, qualification(s) obtained, major courses, date of graduation. Secondary - institution attended, certificate attained, year of matriculation.Additional - training courses attended, including certificates gained where appropriate. Always start with current or most recent studies.

EMILY SITHOLE27A Prong Road Tel: 081 902 6309Luton Park Mobile: 087 460 26285600 [email protected]

EDUCATION

2008 - present University of Cape Town Bachelor of Arts (Film & Media Studies) 2003 - 2007 Glendale High School, Port Elizabeth Senior Certificate (Full Matriculation Exemption)




Extramural ActivitiesThis is where you may mention additional experience, activities, community involvement (social, family, religious, political), sports, leadership positions etc. not covered by “work experience.”

Work ExperienceState year, organization and position held/title, and provide a brief outline of your duties where you think this adds useful information to your skills and experience profile. Include voluntary, part time and vacation work, identifying it as such. All and any work experience counts.

Skills/AbilitiesBriefly indicate where and how you developed and enhanced the particular skills and abilities you wish to highlight. This can also be presented in note form. Avoid complex narrative and business jargon or using the first person. Keep this section brief and to the point, for example, “Leadership: Developed whilst serving as subwarden in my residence and particularly when organising year-end function for 200 people.”

Additional InformationMembership of Professional Associations/Bodies - insert information where relevant.

Awards and Achievements - at both secondary and tertiary level. These may be academic or non-academic. Try to distinguish between achievements and awards. You may choose not to include this section.

Publications and Conferences - insert where appropriate.


WORK EXPERIENCE

March 2009-present UCT Botany Department Research Assistant (part-time) Buchu Project: monitoring growth rates of indigenous plants in W. Cape

2008 Greasy Burger Waitron (vacation work)

2007 XYZ Organisation (full-time) Youth Development Volunteer



RefereesNames and contact details. Make it as easy as possible for the recruiters to contact them - provide telephone and fax numbers, as well as e-mail addresses. Your referees should know you and you should have their prior permission to name them for reference purposes. At least one of these should be able to comment on your recent academic performance.

AttachmentsIt is not necessary to attach certificates, testimonials and personal documentation unless requested.

Dealing with difficult circumstancesDifficult circumstances can sometimes be hard to explain concisely in a CV, but you need to account for any gaps or changes adequately. Always take time to decide how fully you wish to explain career changes, fragmented work experience or a poor or non-relevant academic record. Sometimes this information is better conveyed in the cover letter as are situations where you fear prejudice, for example, as a foreign graduate without a permit, when you are disabled or have a health problem that might affect your working life or a criminal record. It is your choice whether you want to disclose this information or not.

Remember that no one size fits allTo personalise your CV, choose those headings that provide a suitable structure, relevant to your specific experience and profile. For example, you may choose to have sections such as leadership positions, community work etc. as specific sections, if this is appropriate. §

______________________________For more information and assistance with developing your CV, please sign up for the CV talk at CDP reception in Hoerikwaggo. DVDs and other resources on CV writing can be found in the Career Information Centre (also in Hoerikwaggo).



Cover Letters

Your cover letter can be a powerful marketing tool and deserves just as much care as you’ve taken with your CV. The purpose of the cover letter is essentially three-fold: to steer your application to the appropriate person

or department, to highlight your CV (that has been customised in line with the requirements of a specific position) and to draw the recruiter’s attention to you and what you have to offer.

The cover letter should always be neat, brief and to the point. Avoid long wordy paragraphs, exaggeration or pretentious adjectives (e.g. nice, excellent, brilliant, perfect) and business jargon. Standard, clear language will be more effective. As a general rule, do not exceed one side of an A4 page with adequate line spacing - each paragraph should consist of just a few short sentences, using a formal professional style.

Don’t repeat the phrases you have used in your CV, and remember to highlight the main reasons you are interested in this employer and why they should be interested in you. Also, make sure that the summary overview or pen portrait of yourself in the cover letter can be backed up by the information contained within the CV – as evidence of the skills, qualities and experience you have to offer.

As with your CV, one size will not fit all. The cover letter needs to be customised to each context and purpose. Ideally your cover letter should be addressed to a named individual, stating in the subject line what you are applying for.

You may want to take this opportunity to put any interruptions, setbacks or changes of direction in your university studies into context. Where appropriate, you may also choose to highlight personal information that will enhance your application (for example, stating that you fulfill the equity requirement as stipulated in the job advert, or you are someone whose background and experience shows a commitment to working in a particular sector).

The aim is to hit the right tone, sounding keen and genuinely interested, having done your homework on the opportunity and the organisation behind it. Unless you research what the employer is looking for and have spent enough time reflecting on your own skills, priorities and interests, your cover letter could fall into the trap of reading rather hollow – either as a mere checklist of the job requirements or as a set of sweeping claims about yourself and your abilities, devoid of any real substance.

Last, but not least: by the time you have reworked your own cover letter several times, you may not be the best judge of the final product. Consult with family and friends (and Careers Advisors), and please do remember to use the spell and grammar check facilities on your PC. §



Your postal and e-mail addressesYour telephone number

Date (on which you plan to post it)

Reader’s title, initials and nameReader’s designation (eg Marketing Manager)DepartmentOrganisationFull address

Dear Mr/Mrs/Ms Surname or Sir/Madam

1st paragraph: Reason for contact (eg bursary / job / vac job application / informational interview request, etc.) Make this as powerful an opening as possible.

2nd & 3rd paragraphs: Motivation for application / request and highlights of what makes you a good candidate.

4th paragraph: A positive conclusion and statement that encourages the reader to act on this letter.

Yours sincerely (if addressed to a named person)Yours faithfully (if addressed “Dear Sir/Madam”)

SignatureYour name (typed / printed, whichever is appropriate)

Take the trouble to find the person’s name: everyone likes to receive a personally addressed letter. This will help your application stand out from the competition.

As appropriate:State the position, bursary or internship you are applying for and how you learned it was vacant. Give details of how you were referred to the organisation. Refer the reader to any documents you have enclosed in support of your request.

Reasons why the organisation should contact you: Highlight how your skills, qualifications and experience will benefit the organisation. Describe the benefit to your future and career development, to be derived from a bursary, vacation job, informational interview (etc.).

Indicate, if relevant, that you would like a personal interview and that you are available at their convenience. Finish with a positive statement that encourages the reader to act on your letter.



Preparing for InterviewsThe aim of the interview

Employers may ask you a variety of questions, but in essence they only want to know three things, and these are the questions you need to answer with evidence:

Can you do the job? – Do you have the appropriate qualifications, knowledge, skills and experience/potential to do what’s required?

Will you do the job? – Do you have the right motivation and enthusiasm? Are you really keen on this job or would you rather be doing something else? If you enjoy the job, you will work hard and they will get value for money.

Will you fit in? Would people enjoy working with you or would you seriously damage morale by being around?

Remember that, ultimately, they want you to be the ideal candidate because they need to employ someone to fill the position – this is your chance to persuade them that it should be you.

First impressions

Most people feel nervous at this point, but try and show confidence in yourself, your abilities and potential. If a hand is offered, shake it firmly – avoid the bone-crushing handshake and the limp, wet shake (a surreptitious wipe of your hand before entering may help!).

Establish eye contact with your interviewer – don’t look at the floor- and smile! The person interviewing you is human after all, not a trained robot. Remember, the recruiter was once in your shoes so they will also try to put you at ease.

The first few minutes of any interview – the way you walk into a room and sit down – are very important as they can influence the rest of the encounter. If you make a bad start it can be an uphill struggle to recover lost ground – so try to avoid slouching, scowling etc. On the other hand, if you are relaxed, confident and polite it will help your performance and will impress your interviewer.

What you say

It sounds obvious, but one of the keys to succeeding at interviews is to listen. Pay attention to the interviewer and answer the question they ask, not the



one you wish they’d asked. Don’t give yes/no answers, and always volunteer relevant information about yourself. Your responses should be long enough to answer the question, but you should avoid going off on a tangent or becoming involved in unnecessarily detailed explanations (it is a good idea to watch the body language of your interviewer, which can often tell you whether you need to expand on something or stop talking). Of course, you will have a set of key points that you want to get across at some stage in the interview. Use your answers to show what a great candidate you are and to illustrate that you have done your research. But do it concisely!

The nightmare interview scenario that everybody worries about is making a complete mess of one of your answers. The more preparation and research you do, the less likely it is that you’ll be completely thrown by a question. Even so, we’re all human and make mistakes, and your nerves might get the better of you on the day. If this does happen it’s not the end of the world, so try not to fall to pieces. The best thing you can do is breathe deeply, calm yourself down, forget about it and concentrate on giving a better answer to the next question. A concert pianist who hits a duff note doesn’t stop the performance and go back to the beginning, but plays right on.

How you say it

The content of your answer is vital. However, the way you put these answers across is equally important – you should never underestimate the importance of manner and delivery because this is one of the ways your motivation and enthusiasm will be judged. Most of us have a tendency to talk quickly when we’re nervous. If you’re like this, try and consciously slow your speech in the interview. This will give your answers more impact and will give you more time to think.

Another temptation is to blurt out the first thing that comes to mind when you’re asked a question. Instead, stop and think before you give an answer. Don’t be afraid to do this – it’s perfectly acceptable to say something like “That’s an interesting question, I’d like to think about it for a moment.” If you do this, use the time effectively to actually think about what you want to say (rather than sitting there in a silent state of blind panic!) Any pause you make is going to seem like an eternity to you, but it will show the interviewer that you are a confident, thoughtful person.

You can make anything sound interesting by the tone of your voice – articulate your thoughts clearly and enthusiastically with a variety of tone and volume. By the same token, your answers may be concise and intelligent, but they won’t have any impact at all if you’re mumbling away with your head down.




Body language

All the time you are speaking the interviewer is looking at you and is picking up all kinds of signals from your body language. It’s important that you’re sitting comfortably because it will help you feel relaxed. Sit up straight with your head back and look at the person you’re talking to, but try and avoid looking as if you’ve had a steel rod surgically implanted in place of your spine (you’ll look tense and nervous). Avoid fidgeting too much because this will distract from what you are saying, though don’t be afraid to use your hands in moderation to illustrate a point. Be conscious of negative actions like slouching and covering your mouth with your hand. Remember, everything you say can be enhanced by how you say it and the way you look.

What questions will be asked?

There are a variety of questioning techniques used to measure you against the qualities the interviewer is looking for.

Biographical questionsThe interviewer uses these questions to find out more about you as a person, and they are often used to settle you into the interview.

Open/Closed questionsOpen questions often take the form of a request to “Tell me about…” These questions cannot be answered by a simple yes or no, and you should use them to provide a succinct, interesting and relevant statement. You might be asked a ridiculously open-ended question such as “Tell me about yourself.”

In this case you should think about the job for which you are being interviewed and the kind of person who fits the job description, then bring out the relevant parts of your own experience in the answer. Questions that can theoretically be answered yes/no are known as closed questions. You should avoid single word answers and use this opportunity to elaborate and steer the questioning towards another interesting aspect of your experience. For example: “Did you enjoy the Spanish option you took?”… “Yes, I found it particularly enjoyable to put what I had learned into practice when I spent the summer travelling in Spain.”

Hypothetical questionsYou may be asked how you would respond or act in a particular hypothetical situation. There is often no “right” answer to the question as the interviewer will be looking at your reasoning and problem solving skills. The scenario





described in these questions may relate to actual situations as part of the position you have applied for or may be totally “off the wall”. In the former case it may be possible to bring in your previous experience - “When I was in a similar situation at…”

If you wish to seek clarification regarding the scenario, ask the interviewer, but keep your questioning succinct and promptly answer the questions. Gather your thoughts before speaking; you don’t have to be an expert – just try to give a logical, sensible and clear answer.

Examples

What would you do if you were marketing director of • Disneyland Paris?How would you persuade doctors to listen to you if you were • a business manager?What would you do if you are a team leader and one of your • colleagues is not pulling his/her weight?How would you deal with the culture shock/loneliness?•

Behavioural/competency based questionsThis style of questioning is becoming a common feature of the recruitment interview. In some cases, all the questions will be of this nature (they may also be identical to those on the application form). The interviewer is looking for concrete examples of what you have done, not what you think you can do. You should use different examples from your academic studies, work experience and social life to provide evidence.

Examples

Desc• ribe an event/task/situation where you have influenced a group to which you belong.Describe a task which you have performed or an event you • have been involved with which has conflicted with your spare time. How did you overcome this?Describe an event where your accuracy and precision has • been relied on by someone else.Give examples of when you were faced with someone • difficult who didn’t want to deal with you.What type of leader are you?• How would you go about solving a problem in a • small team?How do you deal with people who are unresponsive to what • you are saying?





Technical questionsCertain positions require an element of technical knowledge. If this is the case expect to be quizzed on it. Before the interview make a list of your technical abilities and be ready to prove your competence in each, using examples. Re-read any course notes that are relevant to the specialism. The interviewer will be looking at your ability to communicate technical information as well as your actual knowledge.

ExamplesGive examples of how you would use your technical knowledge to solve this problem…(interviewer gives example)You are presented with a piece of equipment and asked to explain what it does.

Inappropriate questionsEmployers are not allowed to discriminate against anyone on the grounds of age, gender or disability. Blatant discrimination in interviews is rare, but if you are asked a question that you feel is discriminatory, remain calm and respond positively. You can handle the situation in different ways, depending on your feeling about the question and how much you want to work for the organisation:

Either you can answer the question directly and emphasise, for example, the benefits of your experience.

Or you can ask the interviewer if / how their company uses this as a criteria in their selection process. This will not only give you the chance to think about your opinions, but also will give the interviewer the chance to clarify.

You can refuse to answer the question, explaining that you do not feel it is relevant to your ability to do the job.

If you are asked a question of this nature, you may wish to reconsider whether you want to work within this organisation. §

__________________This excerpt is from “How to Succeed at Interviews & Other Selection Methods” published by the University of London Careers Service, 2000. The full version is available in the Career Information Centre in Hoerikwaggo on Upper Campus.




Psychometric Tests: Why not to be scared

Fast track graduate recruitment processes are amongst the most stringent around and the majority include some sort of assessment. The reason for this is not only that there are a large number of potential applicants for

relatively few positions, but that employers have quite limited information upon which to base decisions.

At this stage in your career even the best CV is only beginning in nature and mostly academic in its scope (that said, an excellent academic record plus relevant work experience is still an important element in any selection decision, so you should not underplay these). Employers need to quickly but fairly differentiate between those applicants that will thrive in their organisations and become valuable members of the team, and those that would struggle, simply get by or who may not enjoy the role. They are after all going to spend significant time, effort and money on the training and development of the successful candidate – so employers want to be sure that they get it right. Testing, or as we prefer to say, Objective Assessments, simply provide more information to help employers make these decisions.

Objective assessments provide information on things that are hard to measure with other methods, for example, your preferred working style, your problem-solving ability, or how good you are at using information in verbal and numerical form. This information is either used to shortlist candidates or to inform an interview process by providing a framework for questioning. All tests are fair and objective; there are no ‘trick’ questions – most good organisations will work hard to treat you well because you are not only important as a potential employee but also a potential customer. There are two main types of objective assessment: Personality or work style, and skills. Personality assessments, such as the OPQ, look at your own preferences for different aspects of work. There are no right or wrong answers; these assessments ask you to outline which of a range of statements are more or less like you. This helps employers to see if you will fit in with their corporate and team culture and if you’d be happy in the role.

Competency tests are more like traditional exams and have right and wrong answers. They assess for example verbal and/or numerical reasoning skills, checking skills, and a range of other skills relevant to the role. Most are timed and are designed to see how you cope under time pressure.




Example 1: Completing a personality questionnaire

In occupational personality questionnaires there are no right or wrong answers, as the questions are concerned with how you typically behave at work. SHL’s flagship personality questionnaire, the OPQ32, has two formats. The first requires you to rate yourself on a number of statements, while the second requires you to choose between different statements that best describe you.

Rating statementsIn these you are asked to rate yourself on a number of statements, on a five-point scale ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). In the example below, the person completing the questionnaire has agreed that “I enjoy meeting new people” is an accurate description of himself.

Making choicesHere, you are presented with a block of four statements and you are required to indicate which of the four is most like you, and which is least like you. In the example below, the person completing the questionnaire has chosen “Enjoys organising people” as most true or typical and “Seeks variety” as least true or typical of him/herself.



Example 2: Completing a verbal ability test

Looking at example and practice tests available on SHL’s candidate helpline, a verbal ability test typically presents you with a number of passages, each followed by several statements. You need to evaluate the statements in the light of the information provided in the passage, and select your answer based on three rules (whether the statement is true or follows logically from the information, whether the statement is false, or whether you cannot say without further information).

Example 3: Completing a numerical ability test

SHL’s numerical ability tests typically require you to answer questions using facts and figures that are presented to you in statistical tables. You may or may not be allowed to use a calculator, depending on the level and complexity of the test.

True False Cannot Say



Students should practise some ability tests before taking them for real so that they can be at the peak of their performance when they do. Be careful of taking too much notice of “urban rumours” about feedback that other students get from organisations. While people are entitled to some feedback from employers after completing assessments, and you should ensure that you get some whether you are successful or not, such accounts tend to take comments out of context.

While questionnaires do inevitably need to be constructed to make it harder to “cheat”, this is not their prime purpose - they are a bona fide attempt to identify who will be a good match for the role. Unsuccessful candidates often blame a test in the same way as they blame an ‘unfair’ interview as a way of rationalising their rejection. The best advice for students would be to prepare well and then go for it! If your CV and experience is as good as you say then there is little in psychometrics to be scared of.

Employers should offer you practice examples of both types of test so that you are familiar with them before you sit them. Examples of SHL tests and information about a typical assessment process can be found at SHL’s candidate helpline (www.shldirect.com).

______________________________________James Bywater is Head Psychologist at SHL.





What’s your case?

Management consulting firms like to hire smart, capable, motivated people who will be able to help them solve the most difficult problems in the corporate world today. We seek to serve our clients on the

top 3 issues that face the CEO or the Business Unit leader, and as a result, the people we hire need to be world class problem solvers. With this in mind, we typically use case interviews to help identify who will be able to contribute to our organization as a problem solver. We would like to take this opportunity to demystify the case interview process, help you understand why we use case interviews, help you figure out how to ‘crack the case’, and help you understand what you can get out of a case interview.

What is a case interview and why do we use them? A case interview is a real-world business problem that requires a solution. If you think of the toughest business challenges that need to be solved, these are good examples of the types of questions we will ask in a case interview. These can range from entering new markets, dealing with the market risks of Nigeria, solving South Africa’s power crisis, or expanding your business into different market segments. Other things that are important about case interviews are that they will typically call on you to demonstrate analytical thinking, logic, creativity, and comfort with mathematics (without using a calculator!). In addition, they are almost always interactive – you will be expected to ask questions, engage with the interviewer, express your opinion, and finally make a recommendation as to how the business in question should solve this problem. Another important thing is that you are not expected to have any knowledge of a particular industry or a particular set of business frameworks.

Management consulting firms use case interviews to evaluate the way you deconstruct a problem and communicate with others. The interviewer will be able to observe real-time “thinking on your feet” as well as gain insight into how you handle ambiguity. Finally a case assesses your comfort with numbers. How can you ‘crack the case’? Of course, there is no sure fire way of cracking the case. There are, however, some tips that you can use that will improve your chances of succeeding. There is a relatively simple four step process that will help you be more structured in your approach, and help you ensure that you are covering most of the important elements.

1. ClarifyMake sure that you have a complete understanding of the question/problem. What helps is to listen closely to the problem definition and ask questions to improve your understanding. You may even need to paraphrase to confirm the problem statement as some information may be extraneous.



Sample Case Study Questions

Can you explain what process you would follow to estimate how many • cars there are in Uzbekistan?A courier company will offer a new packaging and addressing service • where customers can hand over an item directly to the driver. What issues need to be thought about?A well resourced old age home programme wants to improve its • management of Alzheimer’s patients. What would you recommend to the Social Development Commitee overseeing the project?

More samples and model answers can be found at:

http://www.uclan.ac.uk/information/services/kt/futures/careers/resources.phphttp://www.job-employment-guide.com/sample-interview-questions.html http://www.palgrave.com/careerskills/students/psychometric.htmhttp://www.consultancylinks.comhttp://www.uclan.ac.uk/facs/class/cfe/psychassess.htm

Resources in the Career Information Centre (CIC)

2010 Career Awareness Talk DVD: Assessment Practices, presented by Rashida Obaray, Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Karl Heslop, Industrial Psychologist, both from Joint Prosperity. There are a range of books and brochures available in the CIC that cover assessment and selection practice in detail, along with several titles on psychometric tests including:

“The Times: How to Pass Graduate Psychometric Tests”, 2nd edition, 2001 byMike Bryon.

“How to Pass Advanced Numeracy Tests”, 2002 by Mike Bryon.

“How to Pass Professional Level Psychometric Tests”, 2nd edition, 2004 bySam Al-Jajjoka

Visit the Career Information Centre (Ground Floor in Hoerikwaggo) for more case study samples.




2. StructureDevelop a plan to solve the problem. Start off with describing your overall approach and then break the problem into discrete pieces/issues. Make sure to state a crisp hypothesis and use a framework if you think this is appropriate. Don’t get caught in the trap of trying to find a framework for every case. If you think Porter’s Five Forces is appropriate, then you should use it, but don’t try to apply it just because you want to show off your knowledge of frameworks.

3. Analyse It is important that you walk the interviewer through your thinking. Whilst you do this you should prioritize your issues and pick one piece to probe further. You can then test your hypothesis with the interviewer. If necessary you should ask for a few relevant facts and then state the findings for your analysis. Probably you will want to refine your hypothesis. If you need more information do not hesitate to probe further and once you are satisfied you can pick another piece to probe.

4. Conclude Finally synthesise your findings. You can start by summarizing the discussion followed by your overall recommendations. Discuss the trade-offs you have made with the interviewer and relate back to the problem statement. Suggest next steps once you feel you have covered everything.

What you should get out of a case interview

We design our case studies to see how you act in business situations. Since we are using real life business problems, you can see the type of work that we do on a daily basis. As the interviewee, you must see this as an opportunity for you to decide if you want to work in this industry and for this company. If you do not enjoy solving these types of problems, then you should re-consider whether or not management consulting is for you. If, however, you enjoy the challenge of solving the toughest problems of industry today, then you will be right at home as a management consultant.

In conclusion, you must remember that the case interview should not be seen as something scary or difficult, but should be seen as an exciting opportunity to figure out if you want to do this sort of work in the future. If you have fun with the case, then you are much more likely to enjoy working as a management consultant. In addition, in my experience, if you have fun during the interview, you are also more likely to succeed in cracking ‘the dreaded case’. §

Adam KendallPrincipalMcKinsey & Company



Company ShowcasesDate Time 1 Time 2 Company

29 July 2010 11h00 15h00 Deloitte11 August 2010 11h00 15h00 Truworths17 August 2010 11h00 15h00 Moore Stephens25 August 2010 11h00 15h00 Procter & Gamble26 August 2010 11h00 15h00 KBR

All company showcases take place in the African Gallery.

Presentations Schedule

Date Time Venue Company28 July 2010 13h00 LS - 2B Sasts Working Adventures29 July 2010 13h00 LS - 3A L'Oreal South Africa29 July 2010 13h00 Kramer

LT3Werksmans Incorporating Jan S. de Villiers

04 August 2010 13h00 LS - 3A Public Investment Corporation04 August 2010 17H00 LS - 3A First National Bank05 August 2010 13h00 LS - 3A The Foschini Group05 August 2010 17H00 LS - 3A McKinsey & Co10 August 2010 13h00 LS - 3A Rand Merchant Bank10 August 2010 17H00 LS - 3A Monitor Group10 August 2010 13h00 LS - 3B CCUSA11 August 2010 13h00 LS - 3A Ernst & Young 11 August 2010 17h00 LS - 3A BDO11 August 2010 13h00 LS - 3B Tiger Brands11 August 2010 13h00 LS - 2B Chilli Adventures Work & Travel



Date Time Venue Company12 August 2010 13h00 LS - 3A Grant Thornton12 August 2010 13h00 LS - 3B The South African Breweries

Limited12 August 2010 17H00 LS - 3A Deloitte12 August 2010 13h00 LS - 2B SASTS Working Adventures16 August 2010 13h00 LS - 3A Absa16 August 2010 17H00 LS - 3A Old Mutual 17 August 2010 13h00 LS - 3A Pricewaterhousecoopers17 August 2010 17H00 LS - 3A Hatch 17 August 2010 13h00 LS - 3B Prestedge Retief Dresner Wijnberg 19 August 2010 13h00 LS - 3A Burlington 19 August 2010 17H00 LS - 3A Merrill Lynch 23 August 2010 13h00 LS - 3A Metropolitan23 August 2010 17H00 LS - 3A Santam23 August 2010 13h00 LS - 3B Sappi Manufacturing24 August 2010 13h00 LS - 3A Procter & Gamble24 August 2010 17H00 LS - 3A Bain & Co25 August 2010 13h00 LS - 3A Baker Hughes

25 August 2010 13h00 LS - 3B TNS26 August 2010 13h00 LS - 3A Metropolitan26 August 2010 17H00 LS - 3A JP Morgan26 August 2010 13h00 LS - 2B Sasts Working Adventures14 September 2010 13h00 LS - 3A Nedbank Topp 15 September 2010 13h00 LS - 3A Clicks2Customers16 September 2010 13h00 LS - 3A Mars Consumer Products Africa20 September 2010 13h00 LS - 3A Toyota SA21 September 2010 13h00 LS - 3A Mazars Moores Rowland21 September 2010 13h00 LS - 3B CCUSA22 September 2010 13h00 LS - 3A Auditor-General of South Africa22 September 2010 13h00 LS - 2B SASTS Working Adventures27 September 2010 13h00 LS - 3A Glenrand MIB29 September 2010 13h00 LS - 2B Chilli Adventures Work & Travel



As you come to the end of your University career, I hope we have provided some useful tools to consider your options – whether that be taking a gap year, studying further or entering the world of work.

Taking a gap year is a wonderful opportunity to any graduate – the opportunity to experience new cultures and gain newfound independence is very attractive to any future employer. All experiences are worthy in that you develop your planning, organizational and communication skills. For those of you that are interested in picking up where we left off and pursuing a graduate opportunity next year, do feel free to contact us on your return as our Graduate Recruitment services are available to all alumni.

The question we often get from graduates is: Should I study further and will this guarantee me employment? Not necessarily – you need to understand what skills are missing in your portfolio that relate to the kinds of opportunities you wish to pursue in the future and whether further study would compliment this. If you intend being part of a global organisation with a fast track management programme, then a four year programme including Honours is ideal – this will develop your research and team work skills further- very important for these organisations. You will notice that some employers consider an Honours as minimum requirement in their organisation. If you wish to go into a specialized field such as some of the disciplines in Science or Economics or be considered for a Research post, then clearly a Masters Programme at the very minimum should be considered. The question is, will it increase your long term employability and objectives?

Entering the world of work is daunting – a 2009 study conducted by the South African Graduate Recruiters Association where 1600 graduates gave their views on what they felt was important when considering an offer, the top three suggestions they gave was to look for a company that was committed to your ongoing training and development, one that had a strong reputation that will compliment your CV and one where long term career prospects was a definite option. A fantastic salary offer is attractive but our experience in the long term is that it does not substitute challenging and interesting opportunities with a clear vision for advancement.

To conclude: Consider your options carefully and make an informed career decision. And if you need help, be sure to use the services of the Career Development Programme (on the Ground Floor in Hoerikwaggo). §

Final Words...


1. UCT Graduate Recruitment Handbook 2010 - Text Section

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