Mirage Prospects

Did you know that recruiters generally spend an average of six seconds reviewing an individual resume? Make the most of this time. It's all about standing out.

5 Tips for Acing an Assessment Centre 🤺: 1) Bring a watch and volunteer to keep track of time. 2) Use encouraging language and be a team player: “that is a fair point, John. To add to John’s point, we should also consider...” 3) Be empathetic. If a team member is silent, bring them in and ask for their views on the task. This shows leadership. 4) Remember people’s names. Use this to your advantage to appear more personable.... 5) Summarise the arguments at the end to ensure everyone is on the same page. Bonus Tip: Try to enjoy it (or at least look like you are!), show the interview that you work well under pressure. ______________________________________ *These little things add up and the interviewer will be observing all the details. Go in confident, with our tips in mind and win that offer.🤝
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Many of us make the mistake of creating a description-led CV rather than an action-led one featuring concrete results... ____________________________________ Don't underestimate the importance of giving strong leadership examples in your CVs and *quantifying* your performance & achievements! This allows an employer to craft a clearer picture of you as a problem solver, or an executer, beyond the words on the paper. These are also areas that you can later elaborate on during interview stage to show yourself off in your best light 💡 This 2018 we are getting these job offers!! 🤝 #MirageProspects

At Hult Business School, we delivered a CV workshop and advised students on the best way to approach interviews… there were some great questions and a lot of chin stroking so we hope you guys left knowing something that you didn’t before you arrived!
Thanks to all the students that attended!

Welcome to our page!
We will be posting updates on all things career, personal and professional development💡
Our aim is to help you develop an edge as we support you in achieving your career goals! 🏙

It was fantastic to meet all the students that turned up to the Mirage Prospects career event at King's College London on 6th December. We had a blast and hope you learned more about how to break into banking and consulting!

Testimonial from...
Kushal Talsania: Warwick University, BA History and Philosophy
"Luke has been a great mentor in guiding me towards achieving my career aspirations. He has advised me on a variety of different areas to ultimately help me reach such aims by: teaching me about the world of finance, particularly investment banking; helping me understand how to overcome various obstacles along the way, as well as embrace multiple opportunities at university; improving my CV and making it more appealing to future employers; and generally laying the foundations and preparing me for work after university which would be essential for success."

Testimonial from...
Yu Xing: King's College London, MSc Banking & Finance
"Luke is one of the most energetic and organized people I have ever seen. After working with him for 2 months I was impressed by his passion towards work. He is keen on helping others and always raises great advice. I benefit a lot from his guidance through my career in the UK."

Testimonial from...
Dogus Yukruk: Queen Mary University, BSc Economics
“Luke is an excellent mentor to work with if you want professional support with your career. Has helped me gain new technical skills within Finance, developed my social skills and helped me standout from a lot of candidates through smart advice. It is a pleasure to carry on working with him.”

---Getting What You Want-----
Many people think getting the job they want involves taking certain calculated career-related steps. Take for example breaking into the illustrious world of private equity.
The career path has been described as:
... Get into an elite high school –> top university –> investment banking –> PE –> Greatness.
However, there is no such thing as a specific path that will get you to the top.
There are two very important things you need to be able to get what you want:
1) be great at building relationships 2) be great a selling your ideas, where Sales = Helping Other People
Much of getting what you want in life involves getting what you want from other people.
Do you want a job? You need to convince the other person to give you one.
Do you want a promotion? You need to convince your boss to give you one.
Do you want a higher income? You need to convince someone to pay your fees.
Do you want your ideas taken seriously? You need to convince someone to take your ideas seriously.
Someone will seriously consider hiring you if you can convince them that you can do either one of the following: • Can you make them money? • Can you save them time? • Can you cut their cost?
In banking, for example, it’s tough to source actual clients at the junior level, but you can suggest ways to find them, methods for saving time or money, or anything else that makes senior bankers’ lives easier.
So, stop following a specific “career path” – because there isn’t one.
There are many possibilities, but no paths.
Cast a wide net and try out as much as you can as early as you can.
See what you like the most, pursue it, and adapt accordingly.
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---ACING INTERVIEWS----
Most interviews fail because interviewees give badly structured answers or completely fail to answer the question.
The PARADE method as advocated by Victor Cheng will help you avoid this common interview mistake. The PARADE method is able to efficiently communicate not just WHAT you did, but WHY you did it, HOW you did it... and the IMPACT of your actions.
... PARADE is an acronym that stands for:
P roblem A nticipated Consequence R ole A ction D ecision-Making Rationale E nd-Result
1) PROBLEM -- What is the problem you or your organization faced?
2) ANTICIPATED CONSEQUENCE -- What consequence did you or your organization face if this problem continued without resolution?
3) ROLE -- What was your specific role in resolving this problem?
4) ACTION -- What action did YOU take? What did you do? Be specific. Say, "I did three things: a) I did X; b) I did Y; c) I did Z."
5) DECISION-MAKING RATIONALE - Explain why you decided to take the action that you did. What other options did you consider? Why didn't you choose the other options? Why this specific decision? What quantitative data did you consider? What qualitative data did you consider?
6) END-RESULT -- After you took the action that you did, what happened? What was the outcome? Be specific -- when possible, cite a quantitatively measurable outcome.
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----COVER LETTER TIP----
Cover letters are often underestimated.
Without a good cover letter it is a) hard to stand out, and b) easy to get overlooked.
... There are a few things you can do to stand out, listed in no particular order: 1) Get your brand names into the first sentence or paragraph
2) Show you did your homework about the firm (very important). Why do you want to work for that particular firm? What's your unique reason? How sure are you of your preferences? Why?
3) Talk to people at the firm. Do your homework. Then in the cover letter, name names... mention the names of people in the firm you've spoken to, what they said about the firm, and why what they said got you interested in the firm.
4) Explain why you'd be a good fit for the firm. Don't assume the person will figure it out by reading your resume. POINT OUT the difference and make it EASY for the person to tell.
Make your cover letter STAND OUT and you will get noticed!
Make it EASY for the reader to figure out HOW YOU ARE DIFFERENT than the other applicants.
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---- RESUME ADVICE -----
Many people obsess over how the resume is formatted. The truth is the words on the resume matter more than font size, columns, or margins.
WHAT you say matters more than how you FORMAT what you say.
... The most important thing is the major accomplishments are easy to read. Here is what firms are looking for: 1) Big Brand Name Employers or Schools 2) Academic Performance 3) High Standardized Test Scores in Math 4) Evidence of Leadership and People Skills 5) High Achievement Career Experiences (Proportional to Length of Career)
Many different formats work, but a few general guidlines apply: * Put your education experiences at the top. Make sure the name of the school you went to is easy to read.
Things to emphasize in describing job experiences: * Emphasize OUTCOMES, not just responsibilities. * When possible, quantify your accomplishments with numbers. * Don't write everything you did on the job, focus on what is most relevant to the firm.
If you have an unusual combination of skills, be sure that comes through in your resume. Bust the stereotype.
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Mirage Prospects has enabled me to not only increase my knowledge of the investment banking world, it has also strengthened my internship and future job prospects. This organisation has a very communal feel to the way in which it deals with its mentees, despite completing the internship. I have still been kept in touch regarding a variety of aspects which influences my ability to get a job later on, including my university studies all the way to other job applications.

I have obtained insight information in the finance industry and the application techniques through the excellent workshop, which helped me to do career planning. I have recommended mirage prospects to my friends.