MAA310 Accounting and Society - Assignment 3

Description / Requirements

Aim

The aim of this assessment is for you to articulate your personal brand as a Commerce (Accounting) graduate. In doing this assessment, you are to articulate your employability skills, relevant to a graduate position within the Accounting profession. If you are already employed within your chosen career, consider what your next career move will be.

You are required to self-record a video where you pitch yourself to a ‘Recruiter’, for a particular position you are interested in. The video should be around 4.30-5 minutes long, with a maximum length of 5 minutes.

First, select the end goal: a graduate position within the Accounting profession.

To achieve this, identify an advertised Accounting graduate position you are interested in applying for. When reading the position description, consider

• the organisation background, culture and goals
• the requirements of the position,
• the daily tasks,
• the skills expected, as outlined in the selection

Do not just use the title of the position to decide on whether you are interested in the position or not.

The position must be one an Accounting graduate could apply for within a year of graduation, and one that matches your skillset and experiences. If you are already employed within your chosen career, consider what your next career move will be.

Take a copy of the position description, as you are required to include this in your submission. Select a position description that is appropriate to your capabilities and experience. For example:

• if you are graduating this year – graduate programs or entry-level full-time positions
• if you have already found work post-graduation – select positions that you would hope to be able to apply for in the next 3 – 5 years
• if you are mature-aged – you will need to judge which positions are suitable given your background and Think about why you came back to university, and how your studies will influence and benefit your career progression
• if you are planning to continue your studies – select positions appropriate to when you will ultimately graduate and seek to enter the

Prepare your pitch.

You are to prepare and present a five minute pitch. The purpose of the pitch is to convince a recruiter you are the most suitable and appropriately qualified applicant for the position you have selected.

Within your pitch, demonstrate clear alignment with the following:

• the work values that are important to you and the values the employer Are you able to explain clearly and succinctly how you make a great organisational fit?
• the skills and strengths you are bringing to the role and how these will have an impact in achieving the objectives of the division or unit you would like to
• your motivation for this particular role and How do your interests match the position, employer, and/or sector?

This will require extensive research into the organisation, their culture, products/services and clients. You will need to reflect on how your values and motivations align with the organisation, its culture, products/services and clients.

Contextualise your pitch to the position you are applying for. This includes not only the experiences and skills you discuss, but also your location, language, attire and body language.

A successful framework for your pitch comprises:

• Introduction
• Your Why - What has motivated you to apply for this position?
• Why You - Why should you be the one hired to fill the position you are applying for?

Both ‘Your Why’ and ‘Why You’ should address: How are your values and motivations aligned with the organisation? What value do you bring to the organisation?

Introduction:

1. Start with a hook! Craft a captivating hook to grab the attention of your Get your audience to want to hear your message.
2. Introduce yourself, the organisation and the position you are considering applying
3. Your story:

What are the defining moments and experiences of your life that got you where you are today and interested in doing the work that you are pitching for?

The introduction should be about 3 – 4 sentences in length.

Your why:

No matter who you’re promoting yourself to, any good interviewer will ask some version of the same question: “Why do you want to do this?” Reframe your response to this by thinking about “How your “why?” benefits the organisation you are applying to”.

Use your research and reflections to provide a narrative that demonstrates alignment between the organisation and yourself. Here you are addressing why you are interested in applying for the position.

Why you?

Discuss the specific skills you have developed through your course that would make you the ideal candidate for the position you are considering.

Base your discussion on accomplishment statements, providing evidence of your skill level through situation, action, and achievement.

You will need to provide evidence for the majority of the position’s requirements. Select a position to apply for where you are able to provide evidence for most of the position’s requirements. Include examples to demonstrate you are suitably qualified and skilled to complete the position’s tasks. Examples include experiences from paid employment, internships, study abroad and should be diverse. You can include some example experiences from your studies, but these shouldn’t make up the majority of examples. The examples used should prove you are well suited and prepared for the role you are applying for.

Create a narrative that has a natural flow, demonstrating your skills and experiences. Creating a story will be far more engaging for your audience and therefore more memorable, than just responding to each of the position’s requirements. Focus your efforts in justifying how the organisation you are applying to will benefit by having you work for them.

Presentation

The way you present your pitch is completely up to you. There are no marks allocated to PowerPoint slides. However, you should be mindful of your audience and how you are “promoting” yourself. Marks are allocated to your verbal and non-verbal communication, and how well you demonstrate your work-ready communication skills.

Help resources

Searching for a job is difficult and time-consuming. It can also be difficult finding a role that best suits you. Watch this video (5 min 17 sec) to get some tips on how to search for positions that you are potentially interested in.

One of the success factors for being considered for a position, is how well you “tailor” your application, and any communication you have with the organisation you are applying. Tailoring means highlighting the skills and experience most relevant to the job you are applying for, in a manner that is consistent with the organisation’s culture and communication style. You will need to research the organisation in order to tailor your application and your pitch. Explore employers through DeakinTALENT’s Employers webpage as a start to your research.

Providing a good pitch is based on developing a Personal Brand statement – a statement you use to convey your values, passions, talents and experiences. It is usually only a couple of sentences used to grab your audience’s attention. This infographic steps you through the process to develop your Personal Brand statement.

Use this link to access ideas on how to video and what to include in your Pitch. This site explains how to pitch yourself in one minute, but it is a great starting point for this assessment.

Technology

Record your video using any tool you are comfortable with, and upload the finalised video to DeakinAir. You can use DeakinAir to record and edit your video, if you wish.

Detailed instruction on how to use DeakinAir here. Additional resources can be found here.

If you are studying from China, you will need to upload your video to alternate platforms such as MediaSite as you may not be able to access DeakinAir. You can use MediaSite to record and edit your video, if you

wish. Detailed instruction on how to use MediaSite presentation.

Submission Instructions

1. If you upload the video to DeakinAir: Once your video has been uploaded to DeakinAir, make sure the media has been published as Unlisted.

If you upload the video to MediaSite (for students studying from China): Once your video has been uploaded to MediaSite, make sure the media is made available to only shared users.

2.    You are to upload one pdf document to the CloudDeakin Assessment Dropbox. The document should contain the following items:

• The Position Description for the position you are applying for

-        The URL for the video on DeakinAir/MediaSite.

Assessment submissions provided in any other format will not be assessed.

You must keep a backup copy of every assignment you submit, until the marked assignment has been returned to you. In the unlikely event that one of your assignments is misplaced, you will need to submit your backup copy.

Any work you submit may be checked by electronic or other means for the purposes of detecting collusion and/or plagiarism.

When you are required to submit an assignment through your CloudDeakin unit site, you will receive an email to your Deakin email address confirming that it has been submitted. You should check that you can see your assignment in the Submissions view of the Assignment dropbox folder after upload, and check for, and keep, the email receipt for the submission.

Learning Outcomes

This task allows you to demonstrate achievement towards the unit learning outcomes. The ULOs are aligned with specific graduate learning outcomes – that is, the skills and knowledge graduates are expected to have upon completion of their studies – and this assessment task is an important tool in determining achievement of those outcomes.

If you do not demonstrate achievement of the unit learning outcomes, you will not be successful in this unit. It is good practice to familiarise yourself with the ULOs and GLOs as they provide guidance on the knowledge, understanding and skills you’re expected to demonstrate upon completion of the unit. In this way they can be used to guide your study.

Submission

You are to submit your assignment in the individual Assignment Dropbox in the MAA310 CloudDeakin unit site on or before the due date.

When uploading your assignment, name your document using the following syntax: <your surname_your first name_your Deakin student ID number_[unitcode].doc (or ‘.docx’). For example, ‘Jones_Barry_123456789_MAA310.doc’.

Submitting a hard copy of this assignment is not required.

You must keep a backup copy of every assignment you submit, until the marked assignment has been returned to you. In the unlikely event that one of your assignments is misplaced, you will need to submit your backup copy.

Any work you submit may be checked by electronic or other means for the purposes of detecting collusion and/or plagiarism.

When you submit an assignment through your CloudDeakin unit site, you will receive an email to your Deakin email address confirming that it has been submitted. You should check that you can see your assignment in the Submissions view of the Assignment Dropbox folder after upload, and check for, and keep, the email receipt for the submission.

Marking and feedback

The marking rubric for this task is below and also available in the MAA310 CloudDeakin unit site - in the Assessment folder (under Assessment Resources).

It is always a useful exercise to familiarise yourself with the criteria before completing any assessment task. Criteria act as a boundary around the task and help identify what assessors are looking for specifically in your submission. The criteria are drawn from the unit’s learning outcomes ensuring they align with appropriate graduate attribute/s.

Identifying the standard you aim to achieve is also a useful strategy for success and to that end, familiarising yourself with the descriptor for that standard is highly recommended.

Students who submit their work by the due date will receive their marks and feedback on CloudDeakin 15 working days after the submission date.

Extensions

Extensions will only be granted for exceptional and/or unavoidable circumstances outside the student’s control.

Work commitment or holidays or other assignments are NOT grounds for an extension – you are expected to manage these issues as part of your studies. You are strongly encouraged to start early and to continually backup your assignment as you progress. Computer crashes or corrupted files will NOT be accepted as valid reasons for an extension of any length.

Students seeking an extension for an assignment prior to the due date should apply directly to the Unit Chair by completing the Assignment and Online Test Extension Application Form. Requests for extensions will not be considered after 12 noon, 13 May 2022. Applications for special consideration after the due date must be submitted via StudentConnect.

Late submission

The following marking penalties will apply if you submit an assessment task after the due date without an approved extension: 5% will be deducted from available marks for each day up to five days, and work that is submitted more than five days after the due date will not be marked and will receive 0% for the task.

'Day' means working day for paper submissions and calendar day for electronic submissions. The Unit Chair may refuse to accept a late submission where it is unreasonable or impracticable to assess the task after the due date.

Calculation of the late penalty is as follows: this is based on the assignment being due on a Thursday at 8:00pm

• 1 day late: submitted after Thursday 11:59pm and before Friday 11:59pm– 5%
• 2 days late: submitted after Friday 11:59pm and before Saturday 11:59pm – 10%
• 3 days late: submitted after Saturday 11:59pm and before Sunday 11:59pm – 15%
• 4 days late: submitted after Sunday 11:59pm and before Monday 11:59pm – 20%
• 5 days late: submitted after Monday 11:59pm and before Tuesday 11:59pm – 25%

Dropbox closes the Tuesday after 11:59pm AEST time.

Academic misconduct

For information about academic misconduct, special consideration, extensions, and assessment feedback, please refer to the document Your rights and responsibilities as a student in this Unit in the first folder next to the Unit Guide in the Resources area of the CloudDeakin unit site.