Month: April 2020

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.