Job application process and best practices

Job Application

Why are you applying for a role in your chosen area? (Demonstrate your suitability for the position(s) sought.)

In September of 2002, I graduated with honors with a degree in Civil Electronic Engineering from the Free University of Brussels (V.U.B). Although I enjoyed studying this discipline and pursuing my degree, I have come to realize that my naturally extroverted personality is far more suited and more fulfilled in the fast-paced world of business and finance. This is why I have decided to apply for an entry-level position for the Financial Management Program (FMP) at General Electric.

I do not only seek an education for myself in my new, chosen field. I also believe that my background has given me, as a person, a good deal that I can offer to GE as a company. A civil electronic engineer, such as myself, is often confronted with highly complex mathematical and IT problems. The Financial Management Program (FMP) would provide me with an ideal opportunity to use my strong analytical skills in the service of GE and my fellow trainees in the program.

My desire to interact and communicate effectively with people is a skill often sadly lacking in the engineering world, but one which I have been happily able to execute in many other endeavors, including my 1995-1997 work at Hanoar Hatzioni (Antwerp, Belgium), the International Youth Organization The international nature of communication at this program came naturally to me, given my own varied background. Working with the FMP would also provide me with the opportunity to put my fluency in languages and the cultures of the world into my daily career as well as my life. I have been fortunate enough to be able to travel to different places including spending six months in Australia, where I took Business English classes at the University of Sydney and four months in Madrid to learn Spanish. I speak, all told, five languages as French is my mother tongue, along with my grounding in Dutch and Hebrew at school.

My determination to become securely grounded in so many languages highlights most importantly, perhaps, the final key asset I could bring to GE. I do not view my education as a closed entity -- I am always applying myself and adding new elements to my resume and to my fields of expertise, from engineering, to communication, to languages and beyond.

A friend of mine graduated from the FMP in 2002 and told me about the intensity and leadership-oriented nature of the program. She gave me a very realistic view of what to expect as an FMP's fast pace environment as well as whetted my appetite for its intense introduction to the nature of financial management. In the website's program description, one individual noted, "my best memories of FMP come from my training seminars. Every couple of months, you meet FMP's from other businesses for classes, tests and presentations. The seminars gave me the opportunity to visit many European cities plus make friends all over Europe.... "

The international environment that I crave, the intense emphasis on personal and intellectual learning, as well as the social environment of the financial world makes the program ideal to combine my currently strong grounding in the world of engineering, my social and expansive interest in international communication, and deploy these combined interests into the world of high finance.

GE's working environment is very dynamic and requires individuals to strive to achieve their stretch objectives. Describe a challenging occasion, which required your persuasive skills and ability to organize people in order to reach a successful outcome.

As a child, I was an active member of an international youth movement in Antwerp. When I became older, I was elected in my first year to manage a group of 40 children and, after a very successful performance review; I was elected the following year as the leader of the whole movement. This made me responsible for over 250 people.