Finance Interview Questions

The field of finance, accounting and banking are diverse and yet closely inter-related. Jobs in the financial sectors are one of the highest paid careers in the US and their interviews range from questions about your personality to the ones testing your financial knowledge. Although one can't prepare for each of the finance interview questions, it is definitely important to keep one's basic concepts extremely clear. This can help an individual to crack the interview.

Finance Interview Questions and Answers

Candidates who are interviewed for jobs in finance operations or finance sector jobs must have skills of numeric ability, share market, capital investment and various other branches of finance. Here is some information about finance interview questions for freshers.

Describe yourself?
Well, we all know that this is the most basic question that is asked in any interview, however, an excellent response to this question is like winning half the battle. This question can convey to the interviewers your confidence and passion for the work. In regards to the answer to this question, you can mention about your strengths and positive aspects of your personality. You can also talk about your hobbies and areas of special interest.

Tell us about your educational qualifications?
This question can be answered by summarizing your interest areas since your school days. You must talk about your educational qualifications and what motivated you to pursue a certain field. In case you have some work experience, give examples of challenging projects that you handled while working in finance field. Always substantiate your answer with some authentic examples. This is one of the most important finance interview questions. Read more on tough interview questions.

What are the goals that you have established for your career?
This is one of those finance interview questions that can easily answer about your career plan and how serious you are with respect to your career. In a response to this question, you can mention about your goals that you have planned to achieve within a time gap of two to three years, like taking financial advisor certificates and then working for two years to understand the industry. Read more on good interview questions.

What steps have you taken to achieve your goals?
This question is an excellent way to make your prospective employers believe that you are genuinely interested in this career. This is one of the most interesting finance interview questions that must be answered with confidence. In an answer to this question, you can talk about the research you have done before coming for the interview about the firm and after doing the research you found out that the firm supports worker and reimburses for tuition of a MBA degree in the future. You can say that you plan to do your MBA after two years and working in this firm will be rewarding for you in career terms. Read more on common interview questions.

Finance Interview Questions to Ask

Here are some more interview questions for finance jobs.

• How do you take up challenges?
• What are the parameters that one must consider while choosing a stock?
• Which is better for a firm, debt or equity financing?
• What factors make impact in mergers and acquisitions?
• Explain interest on a certain capital?
• What are your strength areas in finance?
• What does success and failure mean to you?
• What are the merits and demerits of various accounting packages that have been used by you recently?
• Through some examples explain the cash flow statement with pipeline theory?
• What do you mean by accumulated depreciation?
• What do you mean by fictitious assets?
• What is meant by the term trail balance?
• What is consolidation?
• Give some names of efficient software that are used in accounting packages?
• What are your strengths?
• Why do you want to choose this career?
• What is Purchase Order?
• Define Reconciliation Statement?
• Explain what is meant by company code?
• What are sundry creditors?
• Explain differences between accounts and finance?
• Explain the terms: fixed cost, variable cost and marginal cost?
• What is the significance of Break Even Point?
• Explain what is meant by charging back?
• How does goodwill affect the net economy of a firm?
• Describe a current event in the market that has significantly affected the market?
• What have been your proudest accomplishments?
• What is recession and discuss factors that cause recession?
• Do you think the banking system needs improvement in the procedures after recession has affected the country?
• What according to you is an ideal job for you?
• What is data audit stored?
• What differentiates between pay check and pay slip?
• Describe some problems that you faced while working on your previous position?
• Differentiate between I-banking and Private Equity?
• Which magazines you prefer to read for business news? Do you read Wall Street Journal? If yes, what is the latest news today?
• Name some newspapers that you read for financial news of global economy?
• Which is a better indication of firm's growth? Balance sheet or income of statements?