Success Stories

Case studies

J Wen - Accounting. GS. English

• Describe your experience in detail.

I spent several months to try to get an offer from a graduate scheme after I finished my Masters course. Then by the end of the year, I failed all applications and realised that I needed help. I joined the Career Coaching Programme at MC. I was very lucky that I was referred by MC to a boutique investment bank as an intern one month after I joined the programme. After 3 months internship, the firm decided to take me on. But my dream was to get into a large financial services organisation’s graduate scheme. So I continued to apply and get coaching from Mandarin Consulting. Because I was working full time, my progress was slower but I never gave up. After one year submitting applications on and off, I got into a leading accountancy firm!

• What were the main reasons for you to you join the Career Coaching Programme?

I knew I have good academic background but lacked something, but did not know what. I felt I needed help from professionals who have the expertise to help me to get a job offer from a graduate scheme in the financial services sector.

• What did you learn from the Career Coaching Programme?

I learnt so much about job application skills and also through the guidance of my coaches at Mandarin Consulting, I also learn so much about how to present myself, how to gain commercial awareness, how to impress potential employers, how to carry out job application research and how to find job opportunities.

• Which parts of the programme you found most helpful (i.e. career assessment, internship, CV and covering letter revision, interview coaching, assessment centre coaching) and why?

I found the whole process very useful as I realised that many application forms are very difficult to know how to complete and give strong answers. The questions often looked quite simple and short, but it is so hard to know what they are looking for. Of course at the later part of the process, interviews and each area of assessment centre is also an area I would not have got through without my coach from Mandarin Consulting.

• Do you have more confidence now you have gone through the training and why?

Definitely. I have so much experience and know my own competency stories so well that I feel that I can walk into any job interview with total confidence about how to present myself. The skills that I learnt from the CCP did not just get me an offer, it also gave me the essential skills for my future career needs.