Financial Analyst Skills Interview
Author:
Alycia Damp, PhD IRHRA Financial Analyst interview assessing key skills required for success. We've also included a few motivation and values questions to help you make the best decisions about your candidates.
Focus area:
Question
1
Why are you interested in making a career move to our company as Financial Analyst? How do you see this opportunity within the context of your career?
What does this question reveal?
Candidate exhibits fit and motivation to join the company
Explore tips
- Is seeking an opportunity to grow by applying and developing multiple skills
- Wants to make a defined impact on others and the organization’s success
- Is motivated to add value to the company's culture and work environment
- Is passionate when discussing how this connects with their strengths/interests
- Exhibits awareness of the role expectations and the organizational context
Question
2
If senior leadership asked you to help them understand whether their business was financially solvent, what information would you need, and how would you calculate how much financial runway they have?
What does this question reveal?
Candidate has the ability to understand financial reporting and financial solvency
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- Understands the relationship between financial reporting and financial solvency
- Highlights specific indicators that could help reflect financial solvency
- Discusses assumptions and other factors that could impact financial solvency
- Considers how the result will affect day-to-day business operations
Question
3
If we asked you to create the financial reporting structure for the C-suite, what reporting structure would you suggest? What data would you include, and which Business Intelligence tools would you use?
What does this question reveal?
Candidate has the ability to develop and present financial reports for the business
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- Identifies basic information like financial statements and high-level KPIs
- Structure contains information relevant for the company leadership
- Elaborates on BI tools and expands on how to select a suitable provider
- Elaborates on their reporting approach (e.g. daily, weekly, quarterly reports)
Question
4
Imagine you are determining whether or not a new project will be profitable. How would you evaluate a proposal to either accept or reject the project?
What does this question reveal?
Candidate has the ability to use business valuation methods to evaluate investments
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- Demonstrates how they create a structured framework to assess a project
- Outlines various reasons for moving forward with a particular project
- Mentions making qualitative outcomes measurable (e.g. via a scorecard)
- Shares examples from past experience with similar situations
Question
5
Describe a time you had unexpected challenges with a financial process/aspect of a project. What happened? How did you respond to the problems, and what did you learn from the experience?
What does this question reveal?
Candidate has the ability to develop solutions for problems stemming from unexpected financial challenges
Explore tips
- Describes context and specific financial challenges
- Explains how the problem arose and identifies key cause of the issue
- Considers the pros and cons of different solutions to resolve issue
- Communicates issue to other parties and solicits input from others if relevant
- Explains which solution they implemented and justifies their decision
Question
6
Improving a budget plan is essential for grasping opportunities in a volatile economic environment. Considering that pretext, what approach and practices would you employ to run a more flexible budgeting plan?
What does this question reveal?
Candidate has the ability to improve a budgeting plan and make it more flexible
Explore tips
- Acknowledges challenges of budgeting in volatile financial periods
- Understands interdependencies between moving parts (e.g. revenue/cost forecast)
- Highlights ideas to create more flexibility ahead of an uncertain year
- Discusses early warning signals to recognize when the business veers off budget
- Discusses the importance of tracking information for budgeted versus actual KPIs
Question
7
Tell me about a time you found an unexpected deviation from a planned budget. How did you analyze this variance and what was the outcome?
What does this question reveal?
Candidate has the ability to analyze budgets and deal with variances
Explore tips
- Discusses how they identified the cause of the variance
- Analyzed potential sources of variance (positive and negative drivers)
- Considers whether the variance is important
- Discusses types of variance (materials/labor, variable overhead/fixed overhead)
- Shares learnings or best practices for dealing with discrepancies
Question
8
Imagine we tell you that we plan to increase spending on one of our product lines. What information would you need to help make a recommendation on where to allocate more resources?
What does this question reveal?
Candidate has the ability to make sound recommendations on resource allocation
Explore tips
- Proposes a method to acquire financial information to support the decision
- Identifies various ways to make comparisons between the products' potentials
- Discusses internal and external data (e.g. industry benchmarks)
- Interprets hypothetical results and discusses next steps in the analysis
Question
9
What are the key aspects of building a forecasting model that is easy to maintain? How do you monitor the accuracy of a pre-existing model?
What does this question reveal?
Candidate has the ability to influence business decisions by establishing and maintaining credibility
Explore tips
- Outlines a structured approach to assessing the quality of an existing model
- Examines whether the old model is used to make any decisions
- Highlights the challenges of measuring the accuracy of an old forecasting model
- Considers how deviations can occur in the forecasting power of an old model
- Discusses ways to keep forecasting accurate and simple
Question
10
When it comes to spreadsheets, what best practices would you want your team to adhere to? How would you make sure a spreadsheet remains easy to maintain?
What does this question reveal?
Candidate has the ability to spot areas of strength and areas of improvement
Explore tips
- Identifies best practices and common pitfalls when using spreadsheets
- Discusses practices to adhere to (e.g. separating assumptions from facts)
- Shares strategies from past experience for efficiently maintaining spreadsheets
Question
11
Imagine you are teaching someone how to build a financial model. What are the most important spreadsheet tips and tricks you would recommend, and why?
What does this question reveal?
Candidate has the ability to utilize Excel shortcuts to increase efficiency
Explore tips
- Notes key shortcuts (dates, navigation, VLOOKUP, conditional functions, etc.)
- Discusses conventional formatting tips (e.g. inputs and outputs by color)
- Discusses structuring the model in a logical way by grouping information
- Highlights ways to find help or resources efficiently and effectively
Question
12
Imagine you are required to do a final review of the annual financial statements before sending them to the CFO. What method would you use to quality check the reports to ensure all data and summaries were accurate?
What does this question reveal?
Candidate has the ability to apply attention to detail when reviewing statements
Explore tips
- Understands key reporting elements of financial statements
- Identifies key steps and indicators they would use to check accuracy
- Acknowledges the significance of accurate and thorough reporting
- Draws from related past experience and highlights key learnings and takeaways
Question
13
Tell me about a time you found an error in a data model or analysis that compromised the output or findings. How did you identify the error, and what did you do in response?
What does this question reveal?
Candidate has the ability to pay close attention to detail and detect data errors in their work
Explore tips
- Describes the context and how they identified the error
- Proactively searches for errors or minimizes errors in their work
- Identifies the cause of the error to find the optimal solution
- Communicates error to other stakeholders if relevant
- Discusses learnings and issues to avoid in the future
Question
14
Based on your past work history and professional experience, in what type of work environment were you the happiest and most productive?
What does this question reveal?
Candidate shares preferences for organizational culture and workstyle aligned with your company
Explore tips
- Discusses attributes that align with your organization
- References different organizational factors (people, place, work, etc.)
- Highlights the values that shaped the environment/culture
- Shares a story from past experience to support their claims
- Justifies why it made them happy and productive
Question
15
What is one thing you wish I had asked you in our conversation today?
What does this question reveal?
Candidate displays self-awareness of unique strengths and value-add
Explore tips
- Gives a response that is relevant to the role in question
- Justifies their suggestion by explaining their value-add
- Exhibits strengths that were not previously covered
- Further demonstrates their value-add and competitiveness as a candidate
