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Preparing for a Finance Interview

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″ shape_divider_position=”bottom” shape_type=””][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_link_target=”_self” column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” width=”1/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid”][vc_column_text]Interviewing has changed a lot in the last few years. Ten years ago, interviews comprised going through your resume. Applicants were prepared for personal questions like ‘Tell me about yourself’ and “What are your strengths and weaknesses?”

Those days are long gone. Interviews in the finance sector are a grueling mental workout. It’s much like preparing for an exam and it makes sense.

Companies are going to pay you to be efficient and they are hiring you to make sure you can do the job. Hiring is a costly process. It requires time on the part of both the HR and line management. They take time out to interview you and then discuss the interview internally. That is time taken out of the business. Their time is expensive and ergo, the process needs to yield fruit. This is why you need to approach your finance interview like you would a marathon and not a sprint. Start well in advance and realize that these opportunities are hard to come by.  Wasting them is not an option.

Finance interviews today are usually divided into the following:

  • An aptitude test – much like a GMAT, which tests your analytical and mathematical skills
  • A domain interview – to test your finance knowledge and your analytical skills
  • A personal interview – to gauge communication and organizational fit
  • A group discussion – a topic is given to a group and the group is asked to debate it

While there may be many more rounds, the above can be taken as the minimum.

Preparing for an Aptitude Test

  • Practice, Practice, and Practice

At Imarticus, we have a weekend aptitude test sessions where students are taught how to take them. After that, students are advised to practice every day. The India Bix site is a good place to practice.

Finance Domain Interview Tips

  • Study, study, study
  • Divide your study into parts

Be prepared for the kind of questions you can get on various topics. Here are a set of sample questions to give you an idea of the kind of questions you can expect.

Accountancy Basics

  • Walk me through a cash flow statement
  • How does FCFE flow from Net Income?
  • Consolidate the two balance sheets
  • Here are three financial statements. Now calculate ratios
  • ROCE and ROE related questions

Valuation

  • Discounted Cash Flow (DCF): We say Earnings Before Interest and Tax (1-tax) + depreciation/amortization- changes in working capital – capital expenditure. So should the amount of tax deducted be the actual amount paid or the one that is before giving the effect of interest?
  • What is WACC? How is it calculated?
  • What are the ways to value a company?
  • What are the problems with DCF valuation technique?

Equity Research (If it is an Equity Research Role)

  • Pitch me a stock
  • What is your investing strategy?
  • Give me three undervalued stocks
  • Do you believe the Sensex is fairly valued at this point? What is the Price/earnings of the Sensex?

Mergers and Acquisition (If it is an M&A job)

  • Walk me through the M&A process
  • What is the difference between the buy side and the sell side and how does it matter for a banker
  • What is an LBO?
  • Talk to me about the Indian M&A market
  • Describe the latest deal that piqued your interest
  • Why M&A?
  • How would you go about researching a new industry
  • What is winner’s curse?

Analytical/Logical reasoning

  • How many litres of paint are sold in Mumbai every year

General Questions

  • Why Finance?
  • What interests you about Investment Banking?
  • What area of finance interests you? Be prepared for questions in this area?

The Personal Interview

  • Walk me through your resume
  • Talk about a time where you were disappointed with what you achieved. Tell me how you handled it?
  • Tell me about a time you led a team?
  • Are you ready to work the long hours?
  • If you have included interests like tennis, basketball, music, reading and so on, be prepared to back them up. For instance, if you are interested in tennis, make sure you know the rankings, a little bit about your favourite players and your own tennis routine.

Don’t take anything in your resume for granted. Be prepared to back everything.

These are only examples of what can be asked. There are numerous websites that can help you prepare. Imarticus Learning has an entire Interview Test Preparation short course. We take mock interviews to make sure you are ready for your interview. Students are videoed so that they can understand what they are doing wrong.

To learn more about the Imarticus Learning Interview Process, email us at info@imarticus.org[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Tips for Cracking Financial Analyst Interview

Posted on by Imarticus Learning

There is a certain glamour attached to the job of a Financial Analyst, it is a vital part of strategizing within any organisation. They are the ones who guard the secrets of the given organisation, and with all the data and analysis, they are able to guide establishments in making the right decisions.
Any profile of a financial analyst will have to be relevant in three areas, Education, Experience and Professional Credentials. Education could be either from finance or any other field with related certifications like CFA. Experience depends on what the organization is looking for I.e., a junior or senior analyst. And lastly, Professional Credentials will be the knowledge you have in the given field or role.

Here are the tips for cracking Financial Analyst Interview

Understand the position

Before one gets into what to expect, you, as a candidate need to be clear about the position you are applying for, financial analyst could mean different things in different organisations hence you need to read the job description of the organisation you are applying into, and understand the role responsibilities in detail before you face the interview.

Prepare for the Interview

Every organisation which is hiring, after the initial screening will like to understand if an applicant has the right skills to excel in the given role.
To assess the same, an interview will most often revolve around three stages,
(I) Experiential Situation (II) Specific Role Based Questions & (III) Behavioural Questions.
An interviewer could start the interview in any format, from behavioural to technical or vice versa. Your handy tool will be to prepare and anticipate the questions.
A detailed research on the interviewer and the organisation that they represent will be one factor that might or will differentiate you from the pack.
There are specific answers and feelers that the HR and the process owners need to get from an applicant while considering to fill the position.
Behind every stage of an interview, the questions are asked to get an insight of a candidate’s ability and overall talent that they promise to bring to the role.
Read on to understand….

Experiential Skills

  • An interviewer is trying to gauge your reaction in a given situation. Today, an expectation from a financial analyst is to be good at marketing, along with other technical skills, yes! That is right, building a great strategy is wonderful, however, if you are unable to communicate the benefits to the non–technical audience, the battle is only half won.
  • Not only communication skills but, persuasion and passion for your job are what is being examined here. Efficiency in thought, ability to come up with valid approaches is what the interviewer is looking for. Remember, there are no right or wrong answers here, it is how you are able to convey what you are saying is right, that matters.
  • The more you marry your answers to, financial, logic and technical skills, the more your theory will have an impact.

Specific Role Based Questions

  • This is the part of the interview where you need to throw some serious financial jargons and explain the relevant financial methods, into explaining how and why certain reports need to be generated.
  • Brush up your financial skills, review all the application areas, and try to make a case study of whatever information you can gather about the organisation, through research. There is nothing more impressive than you are linking the company’s situation as an example in answering questions
  • Certain interviews would also give case studies, hence ensure that you know the technology you apply to your financial analysis. Practice concepts of actual financial statements.
  • You need to be clear on the headers you should look at while explaining a report. Clarity in financial fundamentals and ratios should be maintained while answering questions.
  • Also linking your answers with similar projects you have done in the past or read up about would be great.
  • Lastly, an interviewer is also looking at the excel and technical proficiency in generating appropriate reports. After all, a major portion of your time will be spent doing repeated procedures.
  • The question here is generally based on understanding if your practical knowledge matches what is mentioned in the CV. maintain congruence in what you say.

Behavioural Questions

  • Questions in this category are basically to understand your personality. Speak about your career goals and personally how do you see yourself grow in the role while working for this particular company.
  • Focus on your positivity, on how you handle failures or missed deadlines, flexibility in working as an individual contributor or with a team, commitment to putting in long hours etc…,
  • Speak about your success, from failures in particular, which shows patience, maturity and resilience.

Look Sharp, Confident, and let your skills speak for themselves!

Also Read: What Do You Need To Learn To Become Financial Analyst