Firms willing to give applicants a second chance

When starting out on a career, most people set their sights high. They know the senior roles command the largest salaries and have the most interesting and varied work.

Many embarking on a career in accountancy therefore target the larger, more prestigious, firms. As a consequence, the leading practices have the luxury of turning away unsuccessful applicants in droves.

But how do the larger firms treat those who desperately want to work for them but maybe didn’t quite cut the mustard in first interviews? For example, do they encourage qualified accountants, with a few years under their belts, to apply again if they were turned away first time round? Or is it one strike and you’re out?

Stevan Rolls, who heads human resources at Deloitte, says his firm has only formulated a policy allowing graduates to reapply, but has not extended this officially to qualified accountants. Graduates can reapply after 12 months have elapsed, giving them sufficient time to address the issues that led them to ‘fail’ the first interviews.

“With experienced hires, we don’t have the same policy” say Rolls. “We do not have a standard reapplication process; we treat each application on its own merits. We would expect candidates to be applying for more than one job at a time across different firms. If someone got close to securing a job with us, we might reach out and try and match them with another role.

Whatever the final outcome, we want them to take away the message that they should keep us in mind should other opportunities arise.”

A very similar position to Deloitte is taken by Ernst & Young. It also has no specific policy for dealing with previous qualified applicants. Shirley Jackson, its recruitment director (EMEA), points out they always ask candidates if they can keep their details on file should a future role arise.

Jackson says they always keep an open mind and would definitely see someone again if their career has shown progression and their experience now matched a specific role requirement.

Interestingly, KPMG is currently reviewing how it handles reapplications from experienced candidates. Lesley Winterflood, senior manager in KPMG’s experienced hire section, explains: “We don’t have a published policy on reapplications, but we are aiming to bring in a more formal process in the coming months on how we review ‘near miss’ candidates. We will be encouraging our hiring managers to be more pro-active in keeping in touch with strong candidates who, for want of a little more experience, looked like a good fit.

“We try and make our recruitment process as open and transparent as possible. People are our business, so we want to make the recruitment process as positive as possible. We always bear in mind that candidates could be future employees or even future clients.”

And the mid-tier accounting firms? Are they willing to allow candidates to reapply? Alistair Budd, HR partner at BDO, explains its position: “If someone applies for a role at BDO and secures an interview but is not successful, we suggest they reapply in 12 months. However, if someone applies but doesn’t secure an interview, we allow them to reapply in six months.

“We treat each candidate as individuals and on their own terms. We like to pass back useful feedback on how they performed, perhaps helping them focus on areas where they can make improvements.

“In the meantime, being realistic, we also encourage unsuccessful candidates to try other firms and we can suggest useful jobs boards for finding out about alternative jobs."

The situation is similar at UHY Hacker Young. James Lodder, an HR officer, describes its approach: “We don’t actively encourage reapplications but, unlike a lot of our competitors, we don’t discourage them. In this year’s graduate intake, two out of the eight we hired had been rejected the previous year and they’d both picked up more experience and interviewed much better the second time around as a result.”

Lodder says Hacker Young sees a clear benefit in allowing people to reapply. “If someone reapplies it means they have a genuine interest in working for our business. It also shows that, even though they were rejected by us, they’ve had a positive experience and they can see themselves as part of our firm from a cultural-fit perspective.”

Ed Hussey, HR director at Menzies, admits they “neither encourage nor discourage reapplications. There are no terms regarding reapplying.”

Under the right circumstances, Menzies might consider a candidate who has already applied. Hussey states: “It depends entirely on the circumstances – we may have a great candidate but no opportunities, in which case, we may contact them again in the future.”

Cooper Parry, again with no formal reapplications policy, is always happy to hear from previous employees, and has a track record of welcoming back former colleagues. The firm runs an active alumni network to keep in touch with people and track how they are progressing. And it does see strong benefit in reapplications.

Olivia Parrish from its human resources department comments: “We absolutely recognise that to manage talent effectively, sometimes people need to develop their skills and experience elsewhere or that a move is the right thing for them at that time. We have many examples of team members who have rejoined us after spending time elsewhere. This means they bring new skills and a fresh outlook.”

While this is a snapshot of the leading players, it’s clear most firms will look at reapplications with open minds, and will reconsider qualified candidates, especially if it was a near miss first time around and a suitable role is currently available.

So, if you still hanker after working for one of the larger firms, keep in regular touch, stay positive and you might get lucky and land that dream job.

Neil Boom works for onenewspage.com

Further reading:

accountancyage.com/careers