Interview at Ernest and Young

One day I get a call from a human resource representative from E&Y. She asked me whether I was still seeking a job. I answered that it is still relevant and asked her to describe the job that they were offering. She told me that the job is in the risk management department and that it is a new team. The recruiting process consists of three elements: human resource interview, English test and a professional interview.

The company’s headquarters are in Tel Aviv so I asked her if we can squeeze the human resource interview with the English test and the professional interview all in the same day. The only day that fitted the criteria was Monday noon so I agreed and we set the date.

That Monday I arrived at the secretary’s desk and said that I was there for an interview. She contacted the interviewer and told me to wait for a while until he is ready to see me. At that time I went to the bathroom to freshen up.

About five minutes before our designated interview time the interviewer walked up to me and told me to follow him to his office. We had a little small talk and then he started elaborating about E&Y. He described the company as a very large and global company that has a few branches:

1)   Assurance Services – financial audit, accounting advisory services, fraud investigation etc.

2)   Tax Services - includes business tax compliance, human capital, customs etc.

3)   Transaction Advisory Services (TAS) - deals with companies' capital agenda – preserving, optimizing, investing and raising capital.

4)   Advisory Services - consisting of four subservice lines: Actuarial, IT Risk and Assurance, Risk, and Performance Improvement.

Then he went on to the micro and talked about the IT risk management. He said that this is a new and exciting field and that he has been working in that field in several positions. The job is mostly for customers that use web services. Actually they are auditing the security of a company’s website regarding their customers. He gave me an example of 888 an online casino company that offers gambling services online. They store many credit cards information and their servers can be anywhere around the world. Their job is to audit all the processes of this company that regard their customers’ personal information and those who have access to these databases. They have customers in Israel and worldwide but this is a new department and a new position.

After explaining the job position he asked me to tell him about myself. I asked him if he could be more specific about the inquiry and he told me that anything that I thought was relevant. I first talked about my military service because I had some IT background and then I discussed why I chose IE and in specific IT as a major.

Later he asked me what I thought about the position and how I pictured the position in my head. I told him that it sounds very interesting and challenging and described the position. Nearing the end he talked about the benefits and that they don’t pay that well at the beginning but it gets better really quickly. We concluded the interview and he told me to wait outside while he calls the human resource representative. He said that I can walk over to the other building and meet up with her. I shook his hand, said that I was pleased to meet him and then we parted. The entire interview was about 40 minutes.

About a two minute walk from the building there was another building that I had already seen on the way over. I entered and walked to the secretary’s desk. She told me to fill a personal information form and wait. After a few minutes the human resource representative walked up to me and gave me the English test first as she was busy at that moment.

The English test was pretty long. It consisted of three parts:

1)   Reading comprehension – Like the Bagrut exam.

2)   Replacing a word in a sentence with its synonym.

3)   Writing about my “recipe for success”.

The test was not very difficult as I’m quite good in English but it did take me almost an hour to complete. I didn’t prepare for the exam but I would advise others who are not that confident in their English to prepare of it properly.

After that I had the human resource interview. It also started with a little small talk and then some personal questions. After that she asked me to tell her about myself from the high school era. I described it and added some facts that I thought were important such as the fact that I lived in the US for two years. In addition, she asked me about my military service and my duties there. She also asked me what my senior officer in the military would say about working with me. I answered that he would tell her that I’m a hard worker, I get things done and I am pleasant to work with. Later she asked me why I chose IE and I answered that I wanted to choose either Information Technology or IE and that I chose IE because you can get a broader knowledge in many fields such as: Economics, Information Technology, Finance, Marketing, etc. I added that I chose to study an additional B.A degree in Economics because I wanted to gain more knowledge in that field.

She later inquired on how I function in team work. I replied that I like working in a team and that I have a lot of experience in that. I gave my final project as an example and elaborated about our team and its members. I described each person’s contribution to the team and what was my role. She asked me whether we had tackles in the team and I responded that we had but we dealt well with them by carefully explaining our position regarding the issues.

Later she wanted to know about my position as a T.A. in a course at the Technion. I described my position as a T.A. that was responsible for the composition and grading of the homework assignments. I elaborated regarding my interaction with the teaching staff including the lecturer and the other T.As.

We discussed the fact that I volunteered at Perach in a special program. This was apparently important to the company as many of their employees do volunteer work on behalf of the company’s name.

After about fifty minutes we concluded the interview and she elaborated about Ernest and Young. In addition, we talked about the salary that I was expecting. I told her my sincere expectation and she replied that it is very crucial as she had many nominees with various expectations. We had a little bit of more small talk and concluded that an answer will be given in a week.

  

פרופיל עובד למחלקת ERM – סניור-מנג'ר

להלן מידע כללי על פרופיל העבודה והמאפיינים הנדרשים מעובד במחלקת ERM.

תמצית התפקיד:

ניהול והובלת פרויקטים/משימות – עבודה עצמאית וקידום נושאים מול הלקוח (בעיקר ל- ERM), בשלב זה הדרישה אינה כוללת יכולת ניהול צוות ועובדים, אולם בהמשך יתכן וידרוש לנהל צוות קטן.

יכולת לימוד עצמית (חובה)– הפרויקטים (בעיקר ERM) שונים אחד מהשני, הן בתהליך ובדרך שבה הלקוח בוחר והן בתעשייה ונושאי הסיכון שאנו נדרשים לטפל. לפיכך, התפקיד דורש יכולת לימוד עצמית בנושאים חדשים, יכולות חיפוש מידע במאגרים ובאינטרנט ברמה גבוהה,  ניתוח מידע וחשיבה יצירתית.

יכולת ניתוח תהליכים ואירועים (יתרון) – פרויקטים דורשים היכרות והבנה של תהליכים עסקיים בחברה.

עבודה מול דרגים בכירים – עמידה ונוכחות מול דרגים בכירים (פרויקט ERA), הובלת צוותי חשיבה הכוללים עובדים מקצועיים בדרגים שונים.

מאפייני אישיות וכישורים

·         יכולת ניתוח והבנה עסקית

·         ראייה מערכתית רחבה

·         ייצוגיות ויכולות הצגה טובות

·         כושר ביטוי בעל פה ובכתב

·         יכולת עבודה עצמאית ועבודה בצוות

·         יחסי אנוש טובים ותקשורת בינאישית טובה

·         עצמאות ויכולת לימוד עצמית ועצמאית

·         שליטה מלאה במאגרי ידע באינטרנט ובארגון.

·         שליטה מלאה בשפה האנגלית – בדגש על כתיבה.

מאפייני נוספים שיש לבחון:

·         גמישות בשעות העבודה. לא בהכרח עבודה בשעות רבות, אולם לעיתים עובדים מול חו"ל וגורמים בכירים בחברה הדורשים גמישות מסוימת מצידנו.

·         ניידות – נסיעה ללקוחות שונים בארץ

·         נכונות לביצוע נסיעות לחו"ל - אופציונאלי

השכלה וניסיון:

·         תואר ראשון או שני בתעשייה וניהול – חובה

·         תואר בכלכלה/ניהול/מערכות מידע/חשבונאות/משפטים – יתרון

·         ניסיון בניהול והובלת פרויקטים - יתרון

·         ניסיון תעסוקתי במגוון תעשיות, היכרות עם תהליכי עבודה שונים. ידע בתחומים שאינם פיננסים (כגון: שרשרת אספקה, מכירות ושיווק, מערכות מידע, איכות סביבה וכד') .