NATSUKI - ASSISTANT MANAGER (AUDIT AND ACCOUNTS) AT GREENBACK ALAN
ACHIEVEMENT
SITUATION BEFORE COACHING
WHAT WE WORKED ON
COACHING RESULTS
NATSUKI'S FEEDBACK
Natsuki secured an Assistant Managers (Audit and Accounts) position after 9 coaching sessions at Greenback Alan - one of the top accounting firms in the UK.
Unemployed accounting professional with 10+ years experience in Japan, looking to move and secure a job in the UK.
Natsuki approached me 2 months before her planned move from Tokyo to Edinburgh, where she was about to start her Master’s studies after working in accounting and finance for more than 10 years. She enrolled into a Master’s course to get familiar with life in the UK and make finding a job in London easier. Natsuki was determined to secure a job position before her visa expired. She was aware that she lacked understanding of the UK recruitment system and ability to convince a company to sponsor her visa. Natsuki understood that being good wouldn’t be enough, she needed to be the best, and this is why she decided to work with.
The key challenges she was facing were:
• She could only work for companies that sponsors work visas
• Language barrier and cultural differences
• She had very introverted personality
• She lacked understanding of recruitment processes in the UK
• She lacked understanding of her own strengths
• She didn’t know how to create a CV to highlight her accomplishments and strengths
• She didn’t understand how to “sell herself” effectively while writing cover letters and answering application and interview questions
• She lacked experience at presenting herself at interviews
Natsuki was very clear about her career direction – she wanted to capitalise on her previous 10 years’ experience in finance. So we started our coaching with me helping her to identify and define her “star” factor to make sure she stands out in a job market, makes her a desirable candidate for companies that agree to provide her visa sponsorship. Through the carefully designed exercises I helped her to identify her strengths and define the value she can add to a financial company. Also I created a personal brand for her which helped Natsuki to highlight her “star” factor in her CV, cover letters and LinkedIn profile by creating a strong personal brand.
Natsuki’s situation wasn’t an easy one – given the fact that she required visa sponsorship she couldn’t rely just on checking job adverts and making applications. She needed to expand her professional network to discover positions that were not advertised. Networking was a particularly big obstacle for Natsuki as she had an overtly introverted personality. I thought about networking strategies that would work and shared tricks and tips about approaching people I’ve developed myself throughout my extensive networking experience. I also provided Natsuki with a confidence boosting toolkit – practical tips on how to become confident in professional and personal situations. Together we worked on speculative applications to generate more job opportunities. My suggested networking strategies have enabled Natsuki to identify and approach the firms she would like to work for. Her newly developed networking skills led to receiving job interview invitations.
I’ve also helped Natsuki to develop her interview skills. I’ve helped her to create her unique personal story to emphasise her skillset and prepare examples to competency and strength based questions and conducted mock interview practices for Natsuki to practice her answers and gain more confidence. My feedback on how to improve her answers ensured that her answers were exactly what hiring managers wanted to hear.
Natsuki was offered an Assistant Managers (Audit and Accounts) position after 9 coaching sessions at one of the top accounting firms in the UK. Her situation was particularly hard – being Japanese, Natsuki could only work for a company which would sponsor a work visa. My suggested networking strategies have enabled Natsuki to identify and approach the firms she would like to work for. Her newly developed networking skills led to an informal interview invitation which later led to a formal recruitment process where she received an offer. Most importantly, her dream of moving to the UK came true. She was extremely happy to be able to work in the Western working environment and enjoy all the benefits of living and working in the UK.
“I would like to update you with fantastic news! I got an offer from Greenback Alan just a few minutes ago. I am so happy and I wouldn’t have done it without your help.”
