The Art of Selling Oneself
Heartiest Congratulations at the outset, your final results have just been declared and it’s time to be on cloud nine. And why not? 12-15 hours of rigorous efforts, torn between the articleship and academics, burning the midnight oil for days, weeks, months and years together – it is not everybody’s cup of tea to be able to cross the threshold pass percentage established by the ICAI, nationally, every year. So let you hair down, soak yourselves in the triumph of achievement and party hard – boys and girls – this is certainly a once in a lifetime moment for all of you.
This milestone achieved, you have miles to go ahead. From a purely ‘study-go-work-repeat’ routine your life will undergo a big change i.e. ‘update-go-sell-work-repeat’. Clearly, study gets replaced by update, which is a must for CAs, just as it is for Engineers, Doctors, Architects, Lawyers, et al. The new activity that gets introduced, once again applicable to all young professionals, is the selling. No, this not selling of any product or services, the selling here is that of the self, your own self. Why should any employer be interested in you, what is the value-add that you bring to the table to the employer’s advantage, how will the employer stand to benefit by offering you the job and not anyone else, what is your professional and personality distinction that distinguishes you from the thousands of other who are all equally qualified. It is this phenomenon that I call as the ‘art of selling oneself’.
So we now clearly know that the next threshold or challenge that awaits all of you young CAs is that of proving your worth in the selection processes of various employers. To clear certain myths right at the beginning let us understand that while ICAI has prepared you very well and carefully on your accounting, finance and governance acumen, good professional employers are not willing to exempt you from your personality assessment based on your AIR or single attempt accomplishments etc. So you need to be prepared to take all sorts of questions in the interviews – many of which may never have crossed your mind in the yesteryears. And why do they need to ask you such whacky questions and not keep it simple is because the questions in the interview are usually simple and not really whacky. It’s just that you never gave them a serious thought due to your seemingly overflowing daily routine.
So, “Tell us about yourself?” is 99% of the times, the first question (asked in some form or the other), isn’t it? Selling yourself, effectively, starts right from here. And invariably we start off saying the same things that are written in our resume, verbatim. Some of us even follow the same words, comas and full-stops, in the same order as stated in our CV. Not only have we lost the first golden opportunity to SELL ourselves, we have actually communicated to the panel that since you gentlemen do not know how to read, let me give you the audio version of my resume. Conversely, in my 3 decades of interviewing experience and in some of the best colleges across the country, I have come across some very creative young professionals who have described themselves in such utopian words, exquisitely drafted and memorised, that I have had the intense desire to get up and touch their feet, honestly. And then I have wondered, that is introducing oneself such a peculiar question that elicits such an artificial response and over selling? Why can’t people just be simple, honest and transparent?
A simple answer such as, “My name is Chavvi and I try to keep a balance between my head and my heart in all decisions that I take…” or “I am Ramesh and I am a self-made man. I believe in competing with my own self and raising the bar of quality, continuously, internally” or “I am Manasvini and I am a keen observer and an active listener. People say I am introverted but I think my work speaks for me” or “My name is Yatharth and I firmly believe in learning from my mistakes and never repeating them.” Simple one or two short sentences to describe yourself as a person apart from being a CA etc. makes it so refreshing to hear, right at the start of the interview. But my strong word of caution here is not to follow the CtrlC + CtrlV technique that has become so prevalent in this internet era. One must deeply introspectand see the top of the line one or two attributes that best describe them as an individual. These lines of self-description should be spoken with complete poise and control and definitely not like a mugged up verse. Eyebrows going up or a quick question to seek clarification or explanation on these lines from trhe interviewer is a very healthy sign indicating the onset of a positive interactive session. Selling well begun, is half done.
It would be very unfair for me to conclude this article here, without sharing some of the frequently asked non-technical questions, usually in the preliminary HR round. Good employers screen out candidates in the HR round itself, hence it must be taken very seriously. Here is a sample list that all CA job seekers must be prepared to answer:
- Why did you choose to be a CA?
- Why do you think you fit into this role?
- But you do not have any experience apart from your articleship?
- Ok, so what is your goal in life, say 10-15 years from now, what would you have achieved?
- Are you open to traveling – 20 days a month? How much have you travelled till now?
- Tell us about your biggest mistake in life? What did you learn from that?
- Who do you consider as the source of inspiration in life and why?
- What is your expected salary/package?
- Would you like to ask us anything?
All the above questions are fairly straight-forward and easy to answer for anyone with average communication skills. Therefore, some of the good employers like the Big Fours or multinational banks when interviewing for business consulting or non-auditing global positions, check for the presence of mind, width and depth of professional reading and understanding and also the ability of the candidate to think progressively with an open mind rather than limiting themselves to direct application of governance and compliance frameworks. Such interviewing panels would definitely ask a few quasi-technical questions like the following:
- If you were to become the Finance Minister of our country – what one change would you introduce to arrest corruption?
- Cryptocurrencies have not been legitimised in several countries, including India. What are your views?
- Our government is disinvesting from almost all PSUs. In light of this do you see any change of roles for the CAs?
So prepare well and read extensively about the business and financial world – domestic and international. I always recommend my mentees to read just one or two good books from the domain of Finance and Governance. Books like Dr.RajanRaghuram’s “I Do What I Do” or “Good Economics for Hard Times” by Dr.Abhijit Banerjee and Dr.EstherDuflo are excellent reads for CAs. Candidates must carry such a book, along with their portfolio bag and keep it upright on the table(not hide them on their laps) during the interview. Glancing on the book the interviewers are bound to ask a few questions about it, what’s so good about it and what are the candidate’s views about the author etc. Candidates must be prepared to answer them, boldly and confidently, to break ice in the interview and build a healthy wavelength with the panel members for the ensuing part of the interaction.
Last, but not the least, is the research that candidates must do about the organisation they are interviewing. Simply reading their websites would be quite an incomplete preparation. Effort should be made to find out all the reasons (positive and negative) for which the organisation was in the news over the last couple of years. The best time to clarify some genuine aspects about the organisation, identified through the above research, is at the very end of the interview when asked “Would you like to ask us anything?” That leaves a lasting impression about the candidates’ awareness and professional confidence in interviewing. Wow, by this time you have already started to sell yourself, proficiently.
Wish you all the very best for your ensuing interviews. God bless you all.
Diptamoy Goswami
Mentor and HR Consultant @ Jaipur
Faculty GMCS – ICAI Jaipur since 2017
Member Board of Studies – IIS University, NEP Mentor – Global College of Entrepreneurship and Commerce
Author : BIG-10 Bizarre Interview Glitches – published in 2016
Positions held in 30+ years of corporate journey since 1986
Vice President Corporate HR, Viom Networks Ltd. (Tata group Co., now with ATC) Gurgaon,
Head Corporate HR Ops. Reliance Communications, Mumbai, Head HR – Bharti Foundation (Airtel Group) Gurgaon,
Vice President Corporate HR Vardhman Textiles, Ludhiana, National Head HR IndiaMART – Noida