Accounting Interview Questions & Answers

I applied to the fast track option for Deloitte which was an intensive 3 step process taking place over 1 week.

The interview contained questions testing competencies in areas such as teamwork, leadership and knowledge of the market (I would point out that the presentation on the previous day actually gave advice on what they were looking for). In essence, the interview consisted of questions like 'tell me about a time when you had to make a difficult decision?'

Finally on passing this stage, I made the 5 minute presentation, which was then scrutinized by senior management. For example, I was questioned on why I had suggested a certain tax law change to see if I could stand against criticism.

'Tell me about a time when you had to make a difficult decision' (Gauging the level of difficulty is key)
'Tell me about a time you had to multitask, and how did it work out?'(Finding a example which sounds difficult enough, opposed to 'I was doing 3 coursework assignments at once!')

On a more general basis, each interview question required 2-3 examples for each competencies. For example, I would have to describe 3 times when I had to work as part of a team. This can get tedious considering the interview is up to an hour long and I needed 2-3 examples for each question.

Be prepared: research the company and think about how YOU as a person would fit in there (e.g. do you car about corporate sustainability? are you outgoing?). You need to walk into an interview know what you are going to say about yourself, even if you do not know the questions.

Most companies do provide you with what they are looking for beforehand, so you can get an idea of what they are looking for.

Have more than one example for each competency, and make sure they are varied! I have failed in the past because most of my examples have been from my previous employer and I appeared one sided. Think of extra-curricular examples such as uni societies.

Lastly - when answering questions, be clear and to the point. The reason I did not get the offer is that my interviewer had to dig for more information by asking extra questions, as my answers were vague at times.

The assessment centre involved going to the company offices where we had a 20 minute presentation with a Partner on the story of Deloitte, followed by a 30 minute Q&A session with first and second year Trainees.

Once this was completed, we took part in 2 individual 'email exercise', the first of which where we had to respond to emails using multi-choice answers. The situation was that I was a manager in an office and was provided a large variety of documents which contained information such as work schedules for my team and their skill sets, costs of potential ventures, etc. This section tested both my attention to detail as well as consistency. The second part was composing an email to give an opinion on which venture a client should invest in, using the information provided. Each of these sections was 30 minutes long.

If we passed, we were invited back the following day and asked to prepare for a one-on-one interview and 5 minute presentation for senior management on changes to tax law.

My initial telephone interview was about me re-locating to Inverness from Balloch which lasted about 10 minutes. The telephone interview was to assess my willingness to re-locate 180 miles away and what I knew about Inverness. The second interview was with the operations director and the assistant operations director which was more an informal conversation about aspects on my CV and and generic interview questions such as why I wanted the job and what i could bring to the role.

What do you attributes do you think that this role requires?
Describe a situation where you led a team and went the extra mile?

Always act confident even if you are feeling exactly the opposite. And always ask questions when they offer at the end. It makes you sound keen and enthusiastic.

There was no assessment centre.

Initial telephone interview lasting around 15 mins - quite short asking key questions on why i wanted the role and what i knew about the business

Describe a time when you have had to work with people of different cultures or back grounds and the difficulty you had with it

try and think up as many potential questions as possible and think of answers, so you are prepared as much as you can be

quite relaxed, lots of breaks throughout the day. Had to do a presentation that required a lot of knowledge about the energy sector. Other applicants were applying for engineering roles so had a lot more knowledge than me. Interviews wit 2 members, quite friendly, trying to find out how much i knew about the job and abuot the company in depth

The interview was the best interview I've ever had! The interviewers were so lovely, it felt casual enough to make you want to engage in conversation and was done in a large room with others being interviewed around you so there were no awkward silences. The questions were simple, no tricks involved! Generally the questions were what you expected: name something you've failed at, name a time you've done group work and how did that turn out, why are you interested in KPMG etc.

Being asked what you had failed at and how to respond to that - always a hard one to answer!

Go in feeling relaxed - the whole layout meant it was really relaxing and simple but overthinking means you won't go in and be yourself! I think the most important thing was that your personality shined through, it seemed less dependent on knowing all the answers and having done everything under the sun. Just go in with enough real life examples of the key attributes and just be yourself!

The assessment day consisted of three parts: a group exercise, an interview and a written exercise. The group exercise involved designing an app, producing it from concept to actual format and then presenting it to a member of staff. This was really enjoyable and allowed you to show working well in a group. Then there was the interview. Thirdly was the written task which involved making recommendations for a company based on a set of financial information. This was the most difficult as the time was limited and you had to know what to put down and what to omit as there wasn't time to do it all. Finally, they put on a drumming session to release some stress and that was great fun! All in all the day was amazing, lots of time was allowed for socialising, lunch (which was included) was delicious and it was nice to make real friends in a calm environment!

First off let me mention that my experience of the selection process will probably be different to many of the graduates applying for this role (I applied through a recruitment agency). The first step of the selection process was the verbal and numerical tests, I was invited to sit these in the RSM office and did not take these online.
I was given a booklet with the numerical and verbal reasoning information mixed together, I was given 10 minutes to read through the booklet before being given the test paper with the questions on. It is important that you don't rush this step, read through all of the information and try to understand it. I was with 2 other people in the same room and they both made notes, I decided not to make any notes because of the time constraint and instead jotted down what information was on each page so I could easily refer back to it. I was given 20 minutes to answer 40 verbal reasoning questions and 35 minutes to answer 30 numerical questions. If you have reading the information properly this is not too hard, the difficultly lies in being able to access the correct information quickly.

I was then called back for an assessment day this consisted of an interview with a member of the HR team and an audit manager followed by a case study and a partner interview. I was the only person to attend this day so there was no group exercise.

The first interview was a competency based interview, they asked about my A level grades, my university experience and general examples of key competencies that I had demonstrated. I would suggest that you come with examples but don't learn answers off by heart, it should sound genuine. They then asked me to step outside and they discussed whether to take me on to the next stage, you could be sent home at this stage.

I then progressed to the case study. I was given a one page report on a company that was failing and was asked to produce a 10 minute presentation to a partner. The case study was not hard, most of the information is handed to you and its all common sense and commercial awareness. I was worried about this stage but for me it was the easiest of the lot.

I then had an interview with the partner, this was much less formal we discussed the case study, how RSM could help the company in its current situation and some general questions about myself, my education and my work experience. This interview was conservational and relaxed and the partner seemed really interested in what I had to say and was extremely passionate about the firm. I hope this helps for those who have interviews in the future, best advice is to be yourself, be honest, be relaxed and be prepared.

Describe a time when you have had to deal with a conflict?
Describe a time when you have had to convince someone of your potential?
Describe a time when you have persuaded a team to follow your direction?

One of the things that they said they like about me was that it was obvious that I had done my research. Read accountancy age, financial times or business news so you can show a genuine interest in the current financial climate.
Make sure you know what audit is what you will be doing day to day. If you can find out changes that have happened in the industry recently such as new European Audit Directives or changes to legislation that will effect the firm then this will give you an edge. Just relax, you are there because they are impressed with you up to this point. You are all graduates with next to no experience so be confident; if you go into an interview thinking it is the be all and end all you will become nervous, there are loads of opportunities for graduates so don't stress and enjoy the experience.

The interviews and assessment centre was rolled into one, I have described the structure and content of the assessment centre in the interview section.

For this job role there were two sets of interviews. The first was a telephone interview which was the most difficult stage of the process for me as you had 35 minutes to answer 9 questions. During the interview the interviewer kept cutting me out to ask follow up questions and then rushing me for answers due to time constraints. Luckily I got through that and went on to a one-to-one interview with a director. This interview was far more relaxed and was just a general conversation. The director just wanted to know more about me as an individual. The purpose of that was to see if I would fit in with the team and weather he'd want to work with me.

I feel the most difficult question of the interview was 'why do you want to work for us?' The reason I say this is because you need to plan your answer carefully for this question. You need to carry out research before the interview but can not sound robotic during the interview so have to make it sound natural.

My advice for the interview (as well as the rest of the application process) is to just be yourself. Do not try to be someone else as this will show during the process. Make sure you carry out extensive research before the interview, relax and be yourself. There's no trick questions and they just want to get to know you as an individual. They know you possess the skills required for the job (shown through the other stages in the process) so take the interview as your chance to show yourself as an individual.

During the Assessment Centre, I had to complete three tasks. The first task was a numerical and verbal reasoning test. This was fairly similar to the online tests done previously but was done in person and on paper. The second task within the assessment centre was a written case study. Within the study I received a booklet of information. Using the information I had to write a one page (both sides) proposal outlining which schemes I would chose from the booklet and why. The key to this task is structure. Make sure you have a set structure whilst writing. The final task of the assessment centre was the group exercise. Here with 4 other people we had to discuss a range of ideas (given to us individually before the task) and come up with the best ideas.

Firstly there is an online application form to pass.

Then there are two stages to the Public Sector Internal Audit (PSIA) recruitment process which is different to the other schemes the recruit for.

The first stage interview was with a senior manager. Firstly I received a test booklet which I had 45 minutes to complete. it contained a mix of numeracy questions and verbal reasoning questions. The numeracy isn't difficult (just brush up on your mental maths as its without a calculator). The verbal reasoning was things like word association- however these can be practised for free online.

After this there was a comprehension exercise. I was given a sheet of A4 with a case study on. (wont go into details as I believe each is different). I had 10 minutes to read and make notes. Then I was asked things like "What is the issue here? Who are the key stakeholders? What potential solutions can you think of and are there any issues you may encounter with these."
This was something you can't really prepare for, just make sure you think of the stakeholders carefully and make sure you see the bigger picture.
From there the rest of the interview was a standard competency based interview with questions like; " Why Mazars? Why PSIA ( the scheme you've picked? Tell me about a time you've lead a team? What makes a good role model in your opinion, and when have you acted as one?"
Just prepare answers to a broad range of competencies and you should be fine. Also be sure to know Mazars key values.

I was informed I was successful in a few days. The second interview was with a company partner (director). I had to prepare a 5 minute presentation on internal audit, to give at the start of the interview, you will be told this in advance.
After the presentation the interview is a standard competency based interview. Questions like "when have you been creative? When have you adapted your style to suit a team?"
The interview was more relaxed. There were also questions about my work history and university degree, this seemed to be done to get a feel of me as a person.
My only advice for this interview would be prepare standard competency question answers using th STAR technique, and once you're there smile, and let your personality come across- they want to see you, not a robot.

Tell me about a time you have let a team.

When have you had to work flexibly and how did you demonstrate this?

When have you encountered issues in your work of personal life, and how have you looked to over come them?

What motivates you and how do you keep self motivation?

Prepare thoroughly.
Use well thought out examples for competency questions.

Most importantly try not to be nervous and remember to smile. Mazars want to see you personality and how you would fit into the team , as much as anything else.

No assessment centre. There are two rounds of 1:1 interviews.

This was a one on one interview with a very nice member of their graduate recruitment team and she was very good at putting me at ease. Even though I'd filled out a comprehensive application form which included a few competency questions these weren't referred to in the interview with my interviewer instead asking me a range of competency questions to asses if I met their core values.
There were also a few questions on why I wanted to work here, what the role would entail and what I hoped to achieve while working there. The interview slot was 45 minutes but my actual interview took about 30 minutes. The interview would ask follow up questions to the original question in order to help me to answer the question to the best of my ability.

Describe a time when you set a goal above and beyond what was expected for you.

Make sure you do plenty of research in the organisation and all the various functions that they do. You'll also need to have looked at some of the reports they've published as you will be asked to talk about what you've read (it is open ended so you can talk about the ones you've looked at.
Make sure you have plenty of STAR examples as you'll need a varied selection to try and show you have the key competencies that NAO are looking for. Also look at the ACA which is the qualification you'll be studying for while on the graduate scheme as they want to know you've done research into that.

N/A

My initial contact was via email after I had submitted my application which asked me a number of questions around my degree, availability and salary expectations.
The next stage was an interview.
I was interviewed at an Arnold Clark Motorstore.
The interview panel consisted of 2 senior members of the Accounting staff who included the Area Accountant as well as the Branch Accountant.
I was asked a number of skill/competency based questions, technical questions as well as questions which assessed my personality and ability to fit in and work well with my colleagues.
Towards the end of the interview the interview panel and I engaged it general conversation which I felt was a continuation of the assessment on my personality and traits but I felt this gave me the opportunity to assess the management whO I found to be very personable.
The format was formal but did become slightly more informal toward the later stages.

Describe a time in which you have had to make a decision which was not in the best interests of yourself but for your employer. How did you overcome these concerns

Before this successful interview I had attended many interviews (over 10) and the difference at this interview was that I almost pushed myself to be more relaxed.
My advice is to be yourself, Show your personality, evidence your skills, show your drive/motivation, and again be yourself.

N/A

Started with an online application, fairly straight forward stuff. Then onto tests at the head office in blackfriars, just numerical and verbal ones, fairly easy. Then got called back for an assessment day which started with 11 of us in a group exercise. We got given a case study about a business that was failing and 6 options that would turn it round and we had to decide as a group the pros and cons of all options and make a decisions. Just be confident, speak your mind and listen to others, try and be a team player (it's what they're looking for). They then got rid of 3 so there were 8 of us left. Went for manager interviews (just basic competency questions) which were fine. Got rid of another 3 of us so there were 5 left and then we had to do an individual presentation to a partner about a case study you were given (had 30 mins to prepare) then you had a chat with partner about you, what you wanted, why Baker Tilly etc. The X-factor style assessment day was pretty brutal when people left but if you make it through there's a sweet job at the end!

Why BT?
Why accountancy?
Where do you want to be in 5 years time?

Be confident, speak clearly, think logically and be a team player. You're all graduates with zero experience in the working world and on paper you're all the same so you need to stand out from the others on the day. Dress smart, have a shave and shine your shoes (basic stuff). Be confident, stand up and sit up straight all day. Be attentive and don't drift off at any point, they're watching your every move. Most importantly, you need to relax and be yourself as if you are, the rest will come easy. Do some reading on the company and express a genuine interest in your role / the company and talk with enthusiasm!

As above