ACCOUNTING INTERVIEW QUESTIONS. Table of Contents

Transcription

1 ACCOUNTING INTERVIEW QUESTIONS Table of Contents General Questions Page 1 Accounting Specific Questions Page 4 Company Specific Questions BB&T Page 4 Deloitte Department of Justice Page 4 Page 5 Ernst & Young Page 5 KPMG Page 5 PWC Page 5 RAFFA Page 6 Washington Post Page 7 Questions to Ask Interviewers Page 8 Personal Questions: General Questions Briefly walk me through your resume. Tell me about yourself. Tell me about your experience. What motivates you? What is the most recent book you have read outside of school? What are your short-term and long-term goals and how will you achieve them? Where do you see yourself in 5 years? In 10 years? What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses? (Typically 2-3 each) How would your peers/family describe you? How would your supervisor, professor, and a teammate describe you? What are the three most important events in your life? Define leadership? Are you a leader? What s the difference between a leader and a manager? Tell me about a time you had an ethical dilemma. What did you do? Name 3 characteristics that distinguish you? Describe one of your most significant accomplishments at school and at work. What skills are you lacking, and how do you plan on attaining them? How smart are you? How do you know you are smart? What argument should I make to my partners for your candidacy? Are you the type of person who plans everything out and sticks to a plan or are you the type of person that changes and adjusts your plans frequently? Support with examples. Page 1 of 8

2 Academic Questions: What schools did you apply to? Why did you choose George Washington? How do you feel you stack up against everyone in your class? (Academically, professionally, etc.) Why did you choose your undergraduate institution? Why did you choose your particular major/concentration? Why did you go to Business School? What activities are you involved in at school? What were your goals when entering GW? What did you get on your SAT and/or GMAT? What was your undergraduate GPA? What is your business school GPA? Any other graduate programs? Summarize the skills that you learned in your major/concentration in 3 simple headings. Tell me about your coursework and how it has prepared you for the job? Company: The three questions you will always get: Why accounting/auditing? Why our firm? Why you? What other firms are you considering? What are the differences between us and them? Who are our competitors? In which areas is our firm strongest / weakest? Do you have any questions for me? What other industries are you considering? Why? Work Experience Questions: *If you cannot answer a question with an example from work then choose a school related or personal example. Tell me about a time when you faced adversity and how you overcame it? Tell me about a high-pressure experience you have had and how handled it? Talk to me about the leadership positions you have held, whether in a personal, academic, or professional setting. What were your responsibilities at your last job/internship? Why did you choose to work there? Tell me about your efforts to accomplish a goal or meet a standard in your last position. What were the goals or standards? Give me an example of what you did to meet them. What was one of the toughest problems (or assignments) you have ever encountered at work? Describe the situation and what you did about it. Describe a situation in which you recognized a potential problem as an opportunity. What did you do? Describe a time when you encountered unexpected obstacles or setbacks when you tried to accomplish objectives and deliver what was expected. What was the outcome? How has your past work experience made you suitable for this job? Tell me about the most complex project you ever worked on. What was your approach? What role did you play? What problems did you encounter as you tried to find and implement a solution? Give me an example of a time when you successfully worked within a team. Page 2 of 8

3 Describe a complex or challenging team project of which you are particularly proud. What was the accomplishment? What was your role and contribution? Have you ever been part of a group or team that was floundering? What was going on? What did you do? Tell me about a time you worked with a group of people who were very different from each other, including yourself. What was that like? What were some of the situations that came up? How did you handle them? What role do you play in team situations? Have you ever worked on a newly formed team? How did it go? What did you do? Have you ever worked on a dysfunctional team? What was the issue? What was the outcome? Have you ever worked on a cross-functional/cross-departmental team? What was the outcome? Tell me about a time when you helped someone else achieve a goal. What did you do? Tell me about an instance where you faced an ethical issue. What was the outcome? Tell me about a time when you successfully resolved a conflict. Tell me about a failure, and what you learned from it. Tell me about a time that you were able to persuade a co-worker, client, or supervisor that your idea was more effective than theirs. What s not on your resume that you want me to know about? * Also refer to the Sample Behavioral & Evaluative Interview Questions Worksheet Page 3 of 8

4 Accounting Specific Questions Why Tax? What is EBITDA? Walk me through the major line items of a Cash Flow Statement. Say you knew a company s net income. How would you figure out its cash flows? What is the difference between a balance sheet and an income statement? What is goodwill? How does it affect net income? What is the difference between Purchase vs. Pooling? What are deferred taxes? How do they arise? What is working capital? Company Specific Questions BB&T Undergraduate Internship What are you looking for in a company? How does BB&T meet those expectations? There are a lot of banks, what makes BB&T stand out for you? Deloitte MACCY Full-Time - Staff Tax How to negotiate with client? Tell me about a bad teamwork experience. Undergraduate BACCY Audit Associate Full Time Tell me about a time when you had to carry out research on a particular subject area? Do you consider yourself to be smart? Tell me about a time when you had to work with a group that was not pulling their weight? Tell me about a time when you had a conflicting schedule/had to carry out many tasks. How did you handle it? Why should I pick you to join Deloitte? Tell me about a time when you had to give up something in order to help someone else succeed? Interviewee Says: Be yourself, it was a friendly environment and they were very supportive. Page 4 of 8

5 Department of Justice MPP Full-Time - Auditor What am I most critical of at GWU? Why do I specifically want to work in the Department of Justice? Why do I want to work in the division of Budget and Performance? Ernst & Young MACCY Full-Time - Staff Tax Introduce yourself A good and a bad group project Activities besides the courses Where do you see yourself within 5 years? Undergraduate Full-Time Why audit? Why Ernst & Young? Tell me some of your experiences with team work: a good and a bad group project. Explain your internship experiences. KPMG Undergraduate Full-Time Auditor Interview questions: Tell me about a time where you took leadership. Did you receive and invitation to interview with any of the other big 4's? Describe a time when you worked in a group that didn t get along well. How did you deal with the team? How did you reach the final goal? Describe a situation when you had multiple deadlines or tasks and how you handled them/organized yourself. If there were two extra inches on your resume to add anything you wanted, what would you add that would make me want to hire you? Price Waterhouse Coopers MACCY - Full-Time - Tax Associate Interview questions: Tell me about yourself. Have you taken any relevant tax course work at GWU? Have you ever engaged in a team work setting and how would you handle the situation where one of your team member is not pulling his/her weight, which would detrimentally impact your team overall evaluation? Please tell me any situation where you worked in a team work setting and achieved a significant achievement. I understand that you are a full-time employee and a part-time student. Please tell me how you have managed your time. Page 5 of 8

6 Interviewee Says: The interviewer kept me for an hour and fifteen minutes (for a 45 minute interview) and expected me to ask about 5-7 questions. One in particular - he actually ask me why I didn't ask him about the policies they had in place for women and how they moved up in the company. Undergraduate Audit Intern Interview questions: Tell me about yourself? Walk me through the essential points of your resume. Why Audit? Why PWC? Why Accounting? As an intern in a firm like PWC, you will have a heavy workload: How do you work on finding the right balance between your life as a student, your extracurricular activity life, and your job in college? Describe a time when you had to deal with a difficult client. What qualities do you feel you possess, that can be beneficial to PWC? Interviewee Says: For PWC, the interview was more structured. The interviewer had certain sets of preformulated questions. The questions being asked were focused on how well you would work in a team setting, time-management skills, and ethics. The interviewer kept me for an hour and fifteen minutes (for a 45 minute interview) and expected me to ask about 5-7 questions. One in particular - he actually ask me why I didn't ask him about the policies they had in place for women and how they moved up in the company. Be YOURSELF: It is really important. They would know if you are trying to be someone else. Know your resume by head and be ready to defend it: Because they will challenge your work experience in comparison to the work at PWC; and you have to be able to convince them that they will be the right fit for you and you the right fit for them. Smile! Even if you do not know the answer to a question asked, stay positive and smile! Send a follow up note, and always be nice. The first interview is the most CRUCIAL! This is where they make a significant amount of cuts. So do your best for that one, because this is where you have to play your cards. RAFFA MACCY - Full-Time Staff Accountant Interview questions: Tell me about why you chose GWU and accountancy. What classes are you taking? What course did you most enjoy? What do you do in your current internship? Tell me more details about your past job experience. What are your strengths and weaknesses? What traits do you think a supervisor should have? Why did you apply for the audit position? Do you have any questions about the company? Page 6 of 8

7 Interviewee Says: Research the company. I heard some applicants had very easy question about their school life, hobbies and things like that. But I have pretty much detail questions and needed to prepare for them before I had an interview. I think be prepared based on your resume is the most important. The Washington Post Graduate Accounting Internship: Why Washington Post? Why do you think you'd be a good fit at the Washington Post? Walk me through your resume - explain previous work experience, why you chose to get an MBA, why George Washington? How will your previous work experience help at the Washington Post? Student experiences: They have been known to use a "Targeted Selection" method of interviewing, which drills deeply into successful experiences in your previous work history. However, every manager has a different interview style, and they can interview the candidates as they see fit. They can include anything from case questions to behavior to technical. Page 7 of 8

8 Informational General Questions To Ask Interviewers Tell me about your background prior to going to business school. Where did you work for the summer? Why did you choose this firm? Where else did you consider? What are the skills that you learned at your previous job that are most applicable to your current job? What is your summer program like? (i.e., from having networked within the firm and/or online research) Be careful here you should already know the answer to this question. It may be better to ask specifically which group(s) they worked with over their experience in the summer program, if applicable). What type of training do/did you receive? What kind of feedback process exists over the summer? Describe three attributes that would define a qualified candidate for a summer intern position? For a full-time position? How much interaction do you have with clients? How much might an intern have? What percentage of the summer interns are hired full time? What is the most common reason for not getting an offer? What are the 2 3 qualities that make a successful accountant? What skills do you most often utilize? What is the typical career progression at your firm? How often are performance reviews done for full-time employees? What is the performance evaluation like for interns? What is one of the least/most attractive aspects of working at this firm? What advice can you impart on someone who is just starting out in this industry? VP and Above What is the most significant difference in your job now as opposed to your previous level? (Be specific to that person) What is the biggest differentiating factor that you sell in proposal to a client? How do you differentiate your firm to new clients? Who are your biggest competitors? Where do you see the firm s biggest opportunities for growth? What is the biggest challenge to the firm in the next 1-2 years? Do you see international growth for your firm? Where? What is the biggest weakness of your firm? How do you anticipate the firm will address this? *See CareerBeam for the most up to date and specific information, issues, and questions to ask. Page 8 of 8