1. Tell us about a successful team you have been a part of.

This can be a sports team or a

project team at university. What role did you play in the team and what did you

contribute towards the team's success.

a. Team: Gamma Iota Sigma, Alpha Iota Chapter

b. Your role: Ambassador Program Representative

c. Your contribution: Gamma Iota Sigma is an international professional fraternity

whose purpose is to promote risk management, insurance and actuarial science as

professions to students. I am a member of the Alpha Iota Chapter, Gamma Iota

Sigma’s chapter at St. John’s University, and it comes up with the Ambassador

Program, in which members go back to their high school and talk to high school

seniors as a means to promote the organization and the industry. As a result, in

August 2014 I went back to my high school to talk to senior students there about

Gamma Iota Sigma, why I chose to major in risk management and insurance and

why this industry was a viable option for students. My presentation was about 30-

minute long, with an audience of approximately 70 students, all of which turned

in the survey sheets that I gave out at the beginning of the talk. The survey results

showed that about 70% of the students who attended the presentation had a better

understanding of what the risk management & insurance and actuarial science

majors were about, and 50% of the students said they would join Gamma Iota

Sigma if a chapter was present in their college campus. I turned in the survey

results to the board of the Alpha Iota Chapter and they were very satisfied with

them. The Ambassador Program was a success and I believe I played a significant

part in it.
2. Tell us about a difficult problem or situation you have overcome. What did you do and

what was the outcome?

a. Problem/Situation: In summer 2013 I and a friend from high school found out that

our high school (The Olympia Schools in Hanoi, Vietnam)’s basketball court was

vacant after school hours. We wanted to rent it out during these hours and donate

all the earnings to the student government so that the students could have more

funds to organize events. The school initially did not approve of this idea and we

needed to persuade them.

b. What you did: I and my friend came up with an action plan and presented it to the

school’s board members. We would enact strict rules for those who would want to

rent the basketball court in order to prevent them from damaging the court’s

equipment, by requesting the service of the security guards who were already

working for the school. The school would not have to pay the guards, instead the

guards were allowed to make extra income by collecting parking fees and selling

beverages. I created a Facebook page for this small venture and advertised it as

well as manage rent requests on Facebook. We also believed that renting out the

basketball court would attract more people to the school and might increase

student enrollment.

c. The outcome: The school allowed us to try out our plan. After some initial one-

time rent requests, we built up our customer base and our reputation. Afterwards

we landed some big contracts with people who wished to hire the court for a long

term. Before I went back to college I selected and trained a member of the student
 government so that she could continue managing the court. This small “business”

is now two years old and still strong, and the revenue from the court helped the

student government organize a huge prom party last year.

3. What goals have you set for yourself, either professionally or personally, over the next

three years and how do you intend to achieve them?

a. Goal: To secure a career in the finance industry and move up to a senior position,

hopefully as an auditor at KPMG

b. Action plan: I will need to secure a job for graduates, hopefully in the graduates

program at KPMG. The first year after that will most likely be spent on a lot of

extensive training and learning on the job and from colleagues. After training is

done, I will have been familiar with the job and shall perform my duties with

utmost excellence. To improve my chances at a promotion, I will take the

necessary tests in order to earn, if any, certificates and designations that the

company requires me to have.

4. Why do you want to work for KPMG? What area of the business interests you most and

why?

KPMG’s most attractive value is that it strives to act with integrity. In a chaotic world

known as the financial industry, integrity is something rare and valuable. Honesty, clear

communication, respect to individuality, teamwork, commitment – these are the values

that I seek in a company, and these values are the components of integrity, which led me

to KPMG as a natural choice. I am most interested in the company’s audit business. To

 me it is all about making sure that everyone stays honest and in doing so reducing a great

amount of risk for the parties involved. Being a detail-oriented person, I believe that I

will be extremely suitable for this business.

5. What are your hobbies and interests?

One of my hobbies is basketball. It is a team sport – I have to learn to work with different

people’s strengths and weaknesses in order to win. However unlike the traditional

Vietnamese sport, soccer, basketball allows more space for individual performances, so

that each member of a team has a chance to show case his abilities and qualities. I am

also very interested in teaching. From personal experience working as a tutor at St. John’s

University, teaching taught me how to communicate effectively. It taught me not only

how to express myself clearly, but also how to listen to other people. I found out that if I

listened to my students’ understanding of the problem first, I would be able to teach them

more effectively afterwards.

6. Please give three words that you would use to describe yourself and why you have

chosen these word.

a. Positive: I always look for the brighter side of problems, events, people, etc. and

try to channel that positivity into the atmosphere around me. I believe that a

positive and optimistic outlook will relieve stress and help me and other people

work more effectively.

b. Detail-oriented: I have great focus on the tasks that I am working on and I pay

attention to every aspect to make sure that I get them right. I am not afraid of and

embrace tasks that require me to take care of all the little details.

c. Team-player: I can motivate myself to complete tasks on my own, but I work best

with other people. I enjoy the company of others and I value their opinions. I love

talking and communicating as I believe clear communications help make every

process transparent and easier for everyone involved. I embrace the difference

between people and actually consider it necessary to make a successful team.