EY looks for natural leaders. Describe your leadership skills.
The hiring managers at EY want to know which skills make you a stand-out leader. They also want to see that you bring a passion for leadership. The goal of your response is to highlight the skills that showcase your ability and desire to be a positive person of influence in the workplace.
Author and speaker Simon Sinek says: "Leading is not the same as being the leader. Being the leader means you hold the highest rank, either by earning it, good fortune, or navigating internal politics. Leading, however, means that others willingly follow you--not because they have to, not because they are paid to, but because they want to."
With this definition of leadership in mind, consider how you influence others because you want to, not because you have to. Perhaps you are skilled at motivating and encouraging others, or maybe you are a person with a lot of creativity whom others want to learn from. Maybe your leadership superpower is empathy or even decisiveness.
Firms like Ernst and Young are looking for leaders who naturally accept opportunities to guide others with confidence. Leadership traits are necessary to complete your work, whether helping to take care of the engagement team during their busy season or making decisions about process and organization while completing your work under tight deadlines.
Before your HireVue interview, prepare examples of when you have been a proactive leader. If this is an entry-level role without a leadership component, the decision-makers will still want evidence that you can take the initiative when there is an opportunity.
Choose 2-3 leadership skills that describe you best and be prepared to give an example of these qualities in action.
The average HireVue interview takes approximately 30 minutes to complete. This one-way video interview typically includes 3-5 questions. Depending on the HireVue parameters set by EY, the asynchronous interview platform will generally give you 30 seconds to prepare a response and up to 2 minutes to answer each question. It's important to note that HireVue stops recording as soon as your time limit is up, so it's better to run under time than overtime.
"In previous performance reviews, my leadership style has been described as attentive, open, and confident. I listen to my team members and give them the room to perform their jobs well. For example, when one of my team members is not hitting their customer satisfaction quota, I will step in and begin coaching. I want to believe they are capable of their job unless they show me otherwise. This leadership approach has worked well with my team, and as a result, we are the top client engagement team in our region."
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