Job Application Experiences

I think the content of last week’s knowledge has taught me a lot of negotiation about finding a job. I understand what the focus of the employer’s attention in the negotiation is. Their goal is to fill the job requirements, hire the best employees, and save on employment expenses.

However, for job seekers, we also need to get aware of some knowledge to help us negotiate with HR. First of all, it is imperative to understand the position before applying for a job fully. For example, we need to understand the requirements of this position, the required capabilities, development space, and other factors. This information can help us to respond better to the issues that the company may raise in advance and increase the potential for obtaining positions. Secondly, fully discovering your value will also be very helpful in the job search. As a potential employee, I should think about my unique strengths and what benefits I can bring to the company so that employers can believe that I deserve this position during negotiations. Thirdly, knowing the salary standard for this position can help me to have more basis in the talks, so I am more likely to get a salary that I think is satisfactory. Besides, set a negotiation goal and stick to it. In the negotiation process, we should try our best to satisfy ourselves the previously set goals. The professor also gave detailed guidance on other benefits and factors to be noted in the job search. For example, in addition to the basic salary, we have to ask if we can get other subsidies and benefits, vacation system, etc. More importantly, it is essential to figure out the promotion space for this position because it means whether you can get a longer-term development in this company. Finally, we must understand that practice is critical. It may be challenging to satisfy yourself in the first negotiation, but contact always makes the result better. In general, being fully prepared and storing more knowledge and skills will allow us to increase our chances of success in our job search. In this era of rapid development, learning and diligence will never let you down.

1. What am I good at?

I think my expertise and great patience are my strengths. I really like the major I study, so I can always treat it with the utmost patience to achieve the right result. I believe that perseverance and patience are the winners of life. In addition, I am good at planning my time and life. The plan allows me to see what I should do in the future, and I can prepare myself well in advance. Therefore, I can be more confident about many things.

2. What do I value?

I value the matching of my future career and my hobbies. I also hope that what I have learned can be fully demonstrated in my work. I don’t want to waste my time and ability to do meaningless things. I hope my ability can be affirmed by my family and future colleagues.

3. How did I get here?

I have been studying at OSU for three years and I think every step of my life is very important. I am very happy that I chose to study in the United States. Although I am far away from the familiar environment, but I can see every progress of myself. I tried to overcome the difficulties of language and professional knowledge, and gradually made myself a person with potential in professional competition.

4. Where am I going?

In the future, I want to focus on applying my professional studies to the corresponding work. My goal is to become a marketing manager in the next three to five years. I know this will not be an easy task, but I will be more focused. I still have some deficiencies in communication and innovation ability, so I pay more attention to exercise these two aspects in the next stage.

The results of my International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) test are basically the same as I expected. In my own understanding of my personality, my extroversion index is not high, but I think I am an organized, planned, and trustworthy person who can control my emotions. These are my five indexes of personality.

EXTRAVERSION 26

AGREEABLENESS 83

CONSCIENTIOUSNESS 80

NEUROTICISM 15

OPENNESS 38

I like to explore the world, but I usually go with people with close relationships. I have a relatively fixed social circle. I am very friendly to people around me, and I am very optimistic about life. Many familiar friends feel happy and free with me. When I get along with a team, I usually do not like to be a leader, and I have a low level of stimulus. However, I am willing to accept other people’s proposals and it is easy to build strong friendships in this team. I have a good degree of trust in others, and believe that this world is a moral, equal, and common progress environment. Therefore, when I deal with things, I will respond to ethics as much as possible and be responsible for many things. I do not like to do some impulsive behavior to break a certain contract. I think such behaviors is easy to cause a lot of trouble to others and myself. Therefore, I will try my best to prepare fully and move towards my goal. My score on neuroticism is low, but I am actually a little bit worried. I feel that now I can control my emotions well and make my behavior meet the standards of social needs, but I am not sure whether long-term restraint and high supremacy will bring me to another extreme.

For potential employers, my character has many advantages and disadvantages. First of all, I am a responsible person. I will make full preparations for my commitment to meet the standards required by the company as much as possible. I can cooperate well with other members of the team to help the company’s projects go smoothly. Moreover, I can control my emotions and my desires. These personality traits are very important in teamwork. However, my shortcomings are also obvious. First of all, I am not an outgoing person, so in some new areas and when facing new customers, my performance may not be outstanding. It may take me longer to adjust to a new team or environment. This may cause trouble for other members. In addition, I do not like to explore exciting things, nor do I have good leadership skills. This means that my ability to innovate new things and control projects is somewhat lacking. My career development space may be hindered by this. These may also be obvious personality weaknesses for the company.

If I am the boss of the company, I will choose who to hire based on the position of the person. First of all, if this position requires very professional and superb technology, then I will choose to hire Avery. He can usually show a low level of enthusiasm. However, at critical moments, such as when it is necessary to improve the company’s overall level of innovation, or when solving difficult problems, he will have a very good performance and bring great benefits to the company. However, if this position is a position that requires daily work, then this position requires employees to insist on doing every step. Then I will choose to hire Jaime.

If the position is a programmer, I think employees like Avery are more valuable than Jamie. A good programmer must have outstanding talents and high innovation ability. He may not have to insist on doing something trivial every day. However, once he is urged to solve a certain malfunction or develop a new program, his ability and intelligence will be very important. His maximum performance, the superb technical ability, and innovation, will solve the key problems for the company and bring huge wealth.

While some positions do not require employees to have high potential and innovation ability, they only need to insist on doing their daily work to get good results, such as clerks and maintenance personnel. Such positions require employees who have diligence and carefulness. Therefore,  people like Jamie will be more valuable.

Brand: The first impression that I want to give my potential employers is a sense of enthusiasm and the ability to cope with pressure. The confident eye contacts during the self-introduction is very important at the very beginning of the interview. My behavior and language need to show my great desire to work in this organization. My strengths include analytical skills, organization, and persistence. I will introduce my major and internship to prove my strengths. My weakness is perfectionism. I want to do everything best, and I like to plan everything in advance. Since I have considered too many factors, I sometimes hesitate when making a decision. However, I think this kind of perfectionism makes me different to a certain extent.

Situation Wanted Ad: My name is Liangui Li, a junior student at Oregon State University. I am a double major in Marketing and Management. I am looking for a job in marketing operations. I previously worked as an actuary assistant in an insurance company in China. During my internship, I helped actuaries to collect, organize, and analyze statistical data. In addition, I also participated in the modeling and maintenance of actuarial models, and assisted actuaries to understand the basic situation of insured investigation. These tasks can assist actuaries to conduct more accurate financial analysis and asset risk assessments. Accordingly, they can formulate company business plans and financial budgets. Therefore, this work strengthens my practical ability to apply knowledge. At OSU, I studied many courses in marketing and management, such as finance, market analysis, economic management, etc. I am also very good at math and computer courses. These courses have helped me gain solid basic skills, which, I believe, are necessary for future career development. I am ready to accept new challenges and apply the knowledge I have learned to my work. If you are interested, please contact me at lilia@oregonstate.edu. I look forward to hearing from you.

My last job was as an intern in an insurance company as an assistant actuary. When I applied for this position, the job description gave me a clear career direction, so it greatly affected my Decision of applying to this job. 

I can still remember some content in the job description. An actuary is a profession that uses actuarial methods and techniques to assess future financial risks. Because my major is finance, I feel that the job of an assistant actuary can allow me to better use what I have learned, so it is very suitable my work direction. In addition, the job description also details the work content and responsibilities of the actuary assistant, for example, to help collect, organize, and analysis statistical data. Also, it requires to participate in the modeling and maintenance of actuarial models and assist actuaries in the basic situation of the insured conduct surveys. Besides, assisting actuaries to formulate company business plans and financial budgets is also important. I think these kinds of work match my major very well owing that I have learned financial, mathematics, economics, and computer courses in school. Therefore, this job can exercise my practical ability. Moreover, the job description also includes job requirements, such as academic qualifications, majors, basic skills, work experience, and so on. These requirements allow job seekers to more clearly match themselves and evaluate whether this position is appropriate for them. My academic qualifications and the basic knowledge of majors suits the requirements well, but I have little work experience. However, my comprehensive abilities and skills were similar to internship positions. Therefore, I successfully obtained that internship.

Would the outstanding claims of discrimination change the way you felt about the company? Would it influence your decisions to support that company? Would it change whether or not you applied to work for that company in the future? Why or why not?

Whenever I saw a type of news that exposes certain scandals, my initial response was that the news was not credible because I thought the company I like should be good. However, as I read those reports, my attitude may be shaken. Even if the result is unresolved, the fact that the company is about to face public lawsuits proves something. There is a possibility that they have such discrimination. Correspondingly, my view of the company will change. I will be disappointed with it. I think any kind of discrimination is unfair to the victims. A person may be good at both ability and morality, but he is denied only because he was of a certain group. Discrimination is based on prejudice and arrogance. For either a group or an individual, discrimination is very unreasonable behavior.

If I found that my favorite company is facing such a scandal, I will actively pay attention to the development of litigation, and then make my decisions according to the facts. If it is just a farce, I will not change my original intention. However, if this company does have widespread discrimination against individuals from an ethnicity, culture, or belief system I associate with, I will immediately stop applying to work in this company. I think this company lacks certain business ethics and judgment. There is no point in applying to join an organization whose values ​​are contrary to mine. I believe that social identity is very important to me, which is a basic criterion for my activity. If I cannot firmly defend my race and culture, my other actions will go astray.

Claim: Recruitment and selection is a company’s most important function.

Counterpoint: The most important function of a company is to create more values.

Many organizations are more willing to allocate more resources for marketing or product design rather than recruitment and selection because companies pay more attention to direct interests and have an unclear understanding of the importance of recruitment and employees. First of all, companies are more focused on product development is to improve the company’s core strength. Only with high-quality and innovative products can companies gain an advantage in the market and enable consumers to generate consuming needs. Secondly, the purpose of marketing is also to sell products to more consumers and expand market share. Both of these can directly increase the profits of the enterprise and lay the foundation for expanding the production scale, which is also a prerequisite for recruiting more employees.

Many companies decide not to prioritize recruitment and selection in favor of other aspects of the business in order to focus resources more on key business and market development, thus they can obtain benefits within the shortest time. The recruitment of talents cannot quickly show results and direct benefits, so it is not conducive to cost savings for enterprises. However, ignoring recruitment and selection also has great disadvantages. Hiring a bad employee can lead to huge losses. For example, an enterprise may lose a certain business or even receive a lawsuit, resulting in damage to its image. Inside the enterprise, there might be contagious dissatisfaction and disengagement. Therefore, organizations should pay more attention to recruitment and selection for long-term development. 

1. Describe your experiences from the perspective of an applicant for the last job you for which you applied.

The last job I applied for was two years ago during the summer vacation. I applied for an intern at CPIC company in China. Before applying for a job, I browsed many job fairs and company websites to find the job I was interested in and suitable for my professional study. At that time, I hoped that I could accumulate some social experience and understand some corporate culture, so I paid more attention to the company’s reputation and corporate image. I posted my resume on the company’s official website. The next day, HR contacted me by phone to get some basic information and invited me for a formal interview three days later. Therefore, I checked the company’s information and the main authority of the post I delivered in more detail. I believed that being well prepared in advance could give me more confidence to show my abilities. On the day of the interview, HR and department heads participated in the interview. At the very beginning, there was a small test to help the interviewers know my basic ability to do the job. After that, I made a brief introduction to myself. Then, HR introduced the company’s main business scope and corporate values. Then the head of department asked me some questions such as why I wanted to join them and the advantages I had for the job. Finally, we also discussed career prospects and job benefits in detail.

2. Explain how your experiences during the job application process shaped your impression of the job you were applying for and your desire to work there (or in some cases to not work there).

The experience of applying for a job last time impressed me deeply because I think the whole process is very formal. The interviewer looked at my abilities and job matching in a comprehensive way and looked very professional. During the application process, I very much hope that I can successfully join the job and believe that I can learn a lot of useful skills.