1.) Tell us about yourself.

• My name is Divyam, but I prefer to be called Div. I recently graduated from Trent with
an Honours degree in BBA. I also specialized in Finance and minored in Economics
during my tenure. And I managed to pass with an 87% grade. I managed to achieve the
Dean’s Honour Roll for a total of 5 times, Trent In-course scholarship for 2 times, and
a President’s Honour Roll during my tenure.
• I have experience as a secretary of the French club at Trent, where I used OneNote for
recording meetings and did room bookings and risk assessments for the club.
• During my Academic tenure, I gained advanced-level experience in Microsoft Office,
which includes Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and OneNote.
• I had a plethora of courses and assignments that required me to deal with these software,
such as creating diverse portfolios in Financial Economics, analyzing and presenting
Trade patterns of different companies in International Trade, Regression Analysis in
Econometrics, giving presentations using PowerPoint in a few mainstream business
courses, and so much more.
• Currently, I am pursuing my CSC designation and plan to complete the course and pass
with flying colours within the next two months. I am also studying French alongside
and want to be completely fluent at it within the next 1.5 years.
• In the long term, I want to pursue an MBA at the UofT. Along with that, I want to get
my CFA/CPA designation. I honestly want to get both, but haven’t decided in what
order yet.
• I also play chess. I have honed my problem-solving skills from studying chess, which
has helped me learn very quick in every field.

2.) why do you want to join this firm?

• Has been in the biz for quite a long time, considering the first office established in
Canada in 1926, it’s been almost 100 years!! and has been growing exponentially, which
attracts me as a potential employee.
• As an Associate advisor, I’m especially drawn to the opportunity to work closely with
an experienced advisor and be mentored while supporting clients in meaningful ways.
• I attended an event last year at the Ptbo branch and was overwhelmed by the amount of
positives that I could point out at the workplace.
• The environment of the office was very positive with all the employees being happy to
work there. David and Shawn were showing us around the office and were making
jokes in between which also left a good impression, in terms of having a professional
yet playful vibe.
• I saw employees belonging to variety of age groups working together with great
synergy and compatibility. And there’s so much more than that.
• To encapsulate, I could imagine myself working there and NOT FEELING TIRED AT
ALL. I don’t think I need to explain further why I want to join this firm J

3.) The job description emphasizes excellent verbal and written communication. Can you give
an example of a time when your communication skills made a difference in an academic or
leadership setting?
 • While I was working as an Orientation Leader at Trent last Fall, I was given the
responsibility to come up with icebreakers to allow the set of 40 fresh students that my
co-leader and I were assigned to, to jell up with each other, find companionship and
loose some nerves.

• I quickly came up with an idea. I asked the room full of students “Hey who all know
how to play a musical instrument? Show me a raise of hands, please” To which, almost
all of them raised their hands with smiles on their face and their eyes lit up at the same
time.
• Then, I asked a few of them about what kind of instruments they played. After that, I
asked them to make a group and discuss among themselves that which instrument do
they think is the best instrument among all.
• They were all so passionate about the activity and were participating with zeal. Believe
me or not, this is the same set of 40 students who were so scared to talk to each other
before.
• They concluded that Saxophone was the most awesome instrument and gave their
reasoning behind it.

• The mission was definitely successful as they all had smiles on their faces, were eager
to talk to each other and exchanged social media, whereas, beforehand, they were so
intimidated that it seemed like they were having a hard time breathing hahaha.

• This made me realize how I have a knack for bringing the best out of people. Be it an
individual or a group. I was able to make them talk to each other, share laughs, feel
companionship, and all sorts of other positive feelings J They even shared their
gratitude with me at the end of the session.

Questions to Ask them:-

1. What does success look like in this role in the first 6–12 months?

2. What is the best way for me to be in touch with you after this interview? Email? Phone?
LinkedIn?

3. Let’s say I get hired, and hopefully I do. What is the first thing that you would be
walking me through as a part of my training? Is there some kind of software that I
should start gathering knowledge about? Some kind of Licensing, mayhaps? (Just so I
can start working early on and be prepared J)

4. How is mentorship structured between the Associate and the Senior Advisor?

5. How does IG support professional development or licensing (e.g., CFP, LLQP)?