Interview Questions for all Finance Professionals

Hello everyone !! Welcome back to TAX DESTINATION blog after long time. It's been 4 months that we released blogs on TAX DESTINATION blogsite as we were more concentrated on expanding our job portal during recent past.

To resume our blogs in the same pace with more useful & relevant content for all our users, we are releasing series on Interview questions asked by major HRs for all roles for Finance professionals .

I'm very much sure that this will also help to all our followers

Please do visit if you haven't visited most viewed blogs from TAX DESTINATION

01. TAX Series -1

02. TAX Series -2

03. Series on Cash Transactions( Series -1)

We will resume all the above blogs & will release Series on TAX Audit soon.

In this series we will concentrate more on Handling interviews & Interview questions asked my major HRs in Interviews for all roles relating to Finance Professionals. We will release the content in few series. If you are attending interviews & getting rejected back to back, I would suggest everyone to go through this series.

Lets begin!!!

Happy Reading!!

Introduction

Handling interviews & getting selected is very much different from writing exams & getting passed.  In Corporates interviews, recruiters would not alone evaluate the knowledge that one possess in academics but they will see four basic qualities in each & everyone

01.Communication levels 

02.Confidence levels

03.Problem solving approach

04.Practical knowledge that you gained

Problems that one finds in real world is very much different from problems that we found in our academics. One needs to adapt & understand the environment in which he is working in finding solutions to the problems in his work place.

I would like to highlight one experience & question from HR that I encountered in one of the interviews that I attended

Question : You are working in a company as Accounts manager in a startup. Manager gave you one work & he asked you to complete the same by end of the day. On the same day - CEO of the company gave you another work and he too asked to complete the work on the same day

Which work would you prefer to do??

Answer : 

It’s a general question , but to answer the same you need to step into the shoes of the role that was highlighted in the question

I replied saying I would like to do the work which will be beneficial for the company as a whole not just for the CEO or Manager

For ex:  the statutory due date for the work given by the manager is 31/01/2022 & due date for work given by CEO is on 15/02/2022. So I will do the work given by manager 1st to avoid penalties rather than the work given by CEO which will be beneficial for the company as a whole

To help you dealing with this, I'm trying to collate all the questions that can be asked in interviews

Generally, there will be 3 basis rounds in every interview.

01.HR Round - This round is more about evaluating your personal characteristics & attributes .

02.Technical Round. - This round is more about evaluating whether you possess the knowledge that is required for the role.

03.Final discussion Round - After getting selected in the above two rounds. This round is all about one to one interaction with higher authorities( Partners or Managers)

In this part I would like to highlight series of questions that can be asked in HR round.

Basically in HR Round they will focus more to evaluate the 4 Basic attributes which was highlighted in Introduction. All Questions that can be asked in  HR round  will be more concentrated on those attributes.

Below are the typical questions among many that was asked in HR Round in interview.

01.Questions to evaluate your Communication skills & Confidence levels.

HR Round can generally make or break your opportunity in a dream company. These are the basic questions that will be asked to evaluate your communications skills & to check how confidently you are communicating. Bluffing while answering these questions will lead you in rejection  

•   Walk me through your resume

•   Tell me a little about yourself or background

•   Why Choose us or why do you want to work for our company?

•   Why audit/tax/advisory?

•   Where do you see your yourself in 5 to 10 years

•   Tell me about the gap in your resume & what did you during those break?

•   Tell me about a time where you has to rate yourself between 1 to 10

•   Why should we hire you?

 02.Questions to evaluate your Leadership skills & Team management

Leadership quality is one of the most important quality that every employee & entrepreneur should possess. One must handle people & time wisely to be an exceptional leader. Below are the questions that can be asked to evaluate leadership qualities.

• Tell me about a time when you had to be a leader

• Give me an example of a time when you were working in a team, and a team member wasn’t meeting their responsibilities (and how you handled it)

• Tell me about a time when you disagreed with someone in your group

• How well do you work do in a team setting

• Tell me about a time when you were had to overcome an obstacle to get something done

• Tell me about a goal you had and how you achieved it

• Tell me about a time when someone asked you to do something unethical & how you dealt with it.

03.Questions to evaluate your Problem solving approach & Handling pressure during your work

These are the questions that will be asked to evaluate how effectively you can solve problem that will come into picture in your work place & provide timely solutions for the same

• Give me an example of a time when you were in a moral dilemma and how you handled it

• Tell me about a time when you had to work under pressure with strict deadlines

• Tell me about a time when you failed or made a mistake and how you handled it

• Give me an example of a time when you disagreed with a superior & how did you handle the same.

• Tell me about a time when you improved a process (or came up with a creative solution)
  
  
• Tell me about a time when you had to handle a difficult or angry customer/client

• What is the most difficult decision you’ve ever had to make at in school/work? How did you arrive at your decision?
• 
  

04.Questions to know more about your personal attributes

• What is your biggest weakness/strength?

• What do you like to do for fun?

• What is your greatest achievement (or What are you most proud of)?

• Do you prefer you like to travel?

• Are you interviewing with other firms?

• Tell me about a time when you had to prioritize your responsibilities

• What city would you prefer to live in?

• What sets you apart from the rest of the candidates?

• If your friends could pick 3 words to describe you, what would they be

• How do you manage your personal life while working with us?

• How do you balance 12 -15 hrs of work?
• 
  

05.Questions to evaluate your knowledge & opinion on the situation happening in the economy

• What do you like best about a career in public accounting

• What is your take or opinion on …..(some event or discussion happening in society( For ex, Lenskart case))

• What would you change about your school’s academic program

So friends these are few questions that can be asked in HR round of interview. Try to read & answer these questions by yourselves. We will provide answer for the same in our next blog & questions for all roles in technical round

Thanks for Reading!!

Nani Balu

Founder - TAX DESTINATION