Accounting Interview Questions & Answers

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 telephone interview was the 2nd step in the recruitment process, after the application and online tests. It lasted around 45 minutes, as I was told. I was asked a set of basic competency questions and some business-related questions. I had more or less prepared using various forums so I was able to answer most questions with relative ease.

The scenario questions were difficult as you cannot really prepare for them. I was asked 2 of these types of questions. The interviewer will first describe the scenario both of which were quite long and boring. One was about time-consuming tasks with similar deadlines and the other one about a group situation

Prepare thoroughly using popular forums where participants have usually described in detail what to expect. However there will always be tests you cannot fully prep for, such as role play and e-tray. Which is where I think I struggled - so make sure the preparation is there and then the rest is a bit up to luck!

Report writing, role play and e-tray. The report writing is straightforward, candidates are given various texts and then asked to write a report with recommendations. Role play involved two situations, one with an unhappy client and another with your manager. E-tray was quite hard, there were numerical questions, voice mails, video messages.

Tasks: An initial verbal reasoning test to assess there was no wrongdoing during the online test. This was then followed with the unique KPMG immersive assessment centre (based on an imaginary company), where tasks followed what would be a typical day for a new graduate. This included a Virtual Office exercise, writing a report with recommendations based on the company, and then two role-playing exercises with a potential client and your manager. The format was designed as a natural progression as you learned more about the company, for example you could use all the information you gathered from the in-tray exercise to use in the client meeting.

Due to the nature of the immersive AC there were not any personal questions asked. I would say some of the questions from the potential client were difficult, where the exercise is designed for the client to have aggrievances and you need to overcome them and build a relationship. So for example one question the client had was "in the past we have had a difficult working relationship, how do you plan to overcome this in future?". This required innovative and immediate quick-thinking answers to address client concerns.

Carefully choose which information to read, if you analyse everything given to you, you will easily run out of time on all of the tasks.
Relax as much as possible during the role-playing exercises, although make sure you time keep during your client meeting.

We all did a verbal reasoning test consisting of 30 questions in 17 minutes. After this the immersive assessment centre begun, prior to starting the tasks everyone was given 15 minutes to take in all the background information we had been given. In the morning everyone did an in-tray exercise lasting an hour, and then the virtual office exercise lasting an hour as well. In the afternoon, the groups were split up with some doing their role-playing exercises, whilst the rest of the group had lunch. After every single task there was also a 10 minute self-review exercise where we commented on what went well, what did not go so well, and how we might change our approach if we faced with a similar scenario in future.

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.

First of all was the phone interview. It lasted roughly half an hour including my questions on the end. They were the typical competency based questions along the lines of 'Why do you want to work for HP' etc...

I was told that i would find out the results of my interview within 5-10 days but i was actually called the morning after which was fantastic.

The face-to-face interview was scheduled for the following week in the London offices. It was a 2 hour interview which consisted of 1 hour with an HR representative and one hour with a Technical representative.

The HR interview was a development of the phone interview with more questions on my knowledge of Accenture such as: What HP does, What does the role entail and who are their main competitors.

The Technical interview comprised of questions that asked me to describe situations that demonstrate i have the technical skills to fit in with HP.

Both interviewers were very calm and made me feel so comfortable. Overall from the point of me applying online to hearing my final result was less 3 weeks!

They asked me some questions like:
-Identify the 3 main problems of this company.
-Suggest solutions to the problems.
-How could the company fix the problem quickly (ie. quicker that the suggestions you already made)
-What will the result be after the problem is fixed.

Google typical competency questions as through the process you will be asked them all! Ensure you know what the role you are applying for does and read up on HP clients (they may ask). I also know someone who got asked about a recent news story they were interested in, so be prepared to answer that (if it is about one of their clients they are even more impressed). Be confident and don't be afraid to say that you don't know. At the end of the day, every graduate they take on is there to be trained. You don't need an accounting background, in fact the more diverse the better, gives you more to talk about.

The assessment centre was very friendly. I was given a tour of the office and introduced to staff in the department where I was applying to.
I then had a panel interview with three members of staff that lasted about an hour; and was then given 30 minutes to prepare a presentation .
I then had a 1-on-1 interview with the recruiting manager which was very informal and lasted about 45 minutes before spending 30 minutes delivering the presentation I prepared early.

The initial interview was very much standard, with standard interview questions. Ensure you read the competencies they are looking for before hand, and make sure you come up with at least 2 examples for each.

Why train with MBDA and not the Big 4? My best advice would be not to slate the Big 4. I said I did not want to be a number rather than a person, and it turns out my interviewer had trained with a Big 4 firm.

Know the industry in which the organisation operates. Do not leave it until the night before to look it up.

The assessment day was split into 4 activities- written exercise, group exercise, presentation and an interview with 2 managers. The written exercise required time management, so my best advice would be to take a watch. My feedback suggested I required further analysis of the topic, however given the time constraints I struggled to see how this was possible. The group exercise was based around allocating a fixed budget to various projects, and why. My best advice here is to fight your corner, and show the examiners that you can argue your idea. The presentation was my pitfall. Ensure you know the company thoroughly and the market in which they operate. This company is within the military industry so I believed it was hard to find information out, however think outside the box. What current activities are going on in the military? Wars etc. The second interview was not much different to the first interview, just with different people. You get given plenty of opportunities to communicate and interact with the other people on the assessment day, and get provided lunch with current graduates.

-Online Application: Competency based questions about your experiences so far followed by a numerical test.

- One on One Interview held in their London Office: This was with a member of their HR department.
Questions: the questions asked strongly followed their online core competencies- one from each competency. Also followed by asking about your motivations for the role, and your experiences.

At the end you're able to ask any questions you have (recommended to find some to ask).
If successful the will email you two days later asking you to book an Assessment Centre slot, roughly the following month.

- Who are the stakeholders in the auditors?
- what differentiates us from our competitors?
- how does this role fit into your career path?
- how does this role fit within the organisation?
- what specifically do you have that would make you excel in this role compared to anyone else?

- make sure you have 2-3 examples from each competency on their website and make sure you can give background information as they will ask a lot of follow up questions. Its really helpful to follow the STAR (situation task action result) approach but make sure you try and make your answers succinct enough for HR to write down and record.
- Also make sure you have read up a fair amount on who the NAO are, what they have done recently, any news stories, their value for money reports, who their competitors are, how they fit in within the government- what their relationship with them is and why you think this role is important for your career.
- really make sure they know how much you want this position and what qualities you have that they are looking for.

Assessment centre takes place the following month.

After completing verbal and numerical tests online, I was invited to the 1st round interview. It was with a member of graduate recruitment and it lasted around an hour where it was split into 2 sections; a section where I had to talk about an article and a section where I was asked about the role and myself. The article section was a newspaper clipping where I had to summarise information given and answer any questions. The second part of the interview was on why I had applied and background information about myself; previous jobs, my university course and choices etc.

I found the article most difficult as it was on a topic that I had little knowledge about and struggled to apply the information given to the questions asked without giving my general opinion.

Write out a list of questions that you may be asked and fully answer these and prepare before you go into the interview. Also, look up any compmany values and try to apply situations you have been in to demonstrate these.

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The competency question was fine, they just asked general questions which I have already mentioned during the phone interview.
There was a group exercise/presentation and they expect you to talk. I was too shy and did not want to interrupt anyone and I was also afraid I was going to say something wrong but that is not what they expect from you. I obviously did not get the job and when they called to say I was unsuccessful they mentioned my lack of attitude in the group exercise/presentation.
The last interview of the day was with the manager of the area I applied to. They expected me to know too much about business, to give business advices and suggestions to the fictional company we were talking about. He asked questions which I believe only someone with a lot of knowledge in business would be able to answer, it was quite confronting and I lost all my confidence. I ended up not being able to answer anything correctly. Even though the questions itself were not actually related to the role I was applying to, you are still expected to know a lot about business.

What should (the fictional company) do in order to gain more profit?
What should they change?
What solutions would you give to the company?

Talk during the group presentation, no matter what!
When you go to the interview with the manager, be sure about what suggestions you are going to give to the company. They expect you to know a lot about business, regardless of the position you are applying to.

In the group presentation/exercise they gave us information on a fictional company. We were asked to find the issues with the company (which were very clear and easy to find) but also to give advices on how to proceed.

The first stage of the application was the personal information and then there was a situational, numerical and verbal reasoning test.
After this was a phone interview which lasted about 45 minutes. The interviewer introduced them self and told me about their background. Then it was straight into the interview questions. It was a competency based interview focusing on KPMG's competencies of career motivation, delivering quality, collaboration, continuous improvement, professional judgment, seizing business opportunities, innovation and resilience.
They also asked a fair amount of questions about commercial awareness. This was my first interview and wasn't as prepared as I should have been so some of the questions caught me off guard and I didn't really provide good answers to the questions. The interviewer was friendly enough but if you haven't done your research, the interview will be tricky. The interviewer would ask a lot of follow up questions to your answers such as "Why do you think that?"

Pick a company that has had some troubles over the past couple of years and give four ways to help this company.
What has been going on in the business world that affects the company.
A more junior staff member undermines you in a presentation to a client stating that what you are proposing could be done more efficiently. How do you respond to the staff member? How do you respond to the client?

Make sure to do your research on the company and the role and what you will be doing in your first year. Work on commercial awareness and read websites such as Accountancy Age. Don't go in underprepared as you cannot provide adequate answers to some of the questions without preparation.

Did not attend assessment centre