John Bower, our Director – Finance in Switzerland, was honoured to be invited back to the American University in Switzerland (AUS), to deliver another presentation as part of its AUS Speaker Series.

Last year, John delivered the first virtual lecture for AUS’s Speaker Series on Career Control. On Tuesday 18th May 2021, he conducted another virtual session about Career Consultancy for AUS students.

John’s presentation mirrored a live session that EMEA Recruitment goes through with every candidate we have at the final interview stage during the recruitment process. Some recruitment agencies believe that a 40 to 45-minute session with candidates is unnecessary, but we’re proud to focus on the candidate’s journey into a new role.

There is also a personal reason that John finds it important to highlight career planning; no one gave him this level of insight when he was at school or university, so he believes it’s best for people to receive this information at the earliest point possible in their careers.

John used his expertise in Finance & Accountancy to talk through the three stages of a career, explaining that the same model can be used for all other business disciplines. He explained the skills needed to move from the technical stage, to the managerial stage, to the strategic stage in a career, culminating in the reasons that those in strategic positions can earn such high salaries.

He spoke through the differences between being a Specialist and a Generalist, and why Generalisation can make someone more employable.

John will return to AUS in October to deliver a complementary seminar on building your own career plan. He left the students with a simple exercise to complete ahead of the second session, which we perform with candidates before their job interviews.

During the Q&A at the end of John’s presentations, some common concerns were revealed amongst the students. John will seek to advise on some of these issues in October’s interactive session.

If you have any questions about Career Consultancy, please contact John at: [email protected]