{"id":6866,"date":"2019-11-26T12:43:28","date_gmt":"2019-11-26T12:43:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/?p=6866"},"modified":"2022-10-12T07:44:42","modified_gmt":"2022-10-12T07:44:42","slug":"preparing-for-a-finance-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/preparing-for-a-finance-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Preparing for a Finance Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"[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 \u2018Tell me about yourself\u2019 and \u201cWhat are your strengths and weaknesses?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Those days are long gone. Interviews in the finance sector are a grueling mental workout. It\u2019s much like preparing for an exam and it makes sense.<\/p>\n<p>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. \u00a0Wasting them is not an option.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Finance\u00a0interviews\u00a0today are usually divided into the following:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>An aptitude test<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 much like a GMAT, which tests your analytical and mathematical skills<\/li>\n<li><strong>A domain interview<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 to test your finance knowledge and your analytical skills<\/li>\n<li><strong>A personal interview<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 to gauge communication and organizational fit<\/li>\n<li><strong>A group discussion<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 a topic is given to a group and the group is asked to debate it<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>While there may be many more rounds, the above can be taken as the minimum.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Preparing for an Aptitude Test<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Practice, Practice, and Practice<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>At\u00a0<a title=\"Home\" href=\"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/\">Imarticus<\/a>, 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\u00a0India Bix site\u00a0is a good place to practice.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Finance Domain Interview Tips<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Study, study, study<\/li>\n<li>Divide your study into parts<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Accountancy Basics<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Walk me through a cash flow statement<\/li>\n<li>How does FCFE flow from Net Income?<\/li>\n<li>Consolidate the two balance sheets<\/li>\n<li>Here are three financial statements. Now calculate ratios<\/li>\n<li>ROCE and\u00a0ROE related questions<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Valuation<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Discounted Cash Flow (DCF): We say Earnings Before Interest and Tax (1-tax) + depreciation\/amortization- changes in working capital \u2013 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?<\/li>\n<li>What is WACC? How is it calculated?<\/li>\n<li>What are the ways to value a company?<\/li>\n<li>What are the problems with DCF valuation technique?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Equity Research (If it is an Equity Research Role)<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Pitch me a stock<\/li>\n<li>What is your investing strategy?<\/li>\n<li>Give me three undervalued stocks<\/li>\n<li>Do you believe the Sensex is fairly valued at this point? What is the Price\/earnings of the Sensex?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Mergers and Acquisition (If it is an M&amp;A job)<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Walk me through the M&amp;A process<\/li>\n<li>What is the difference between the buy side and the sell side and how does it matter for a banker<\/li>\n<li>What is an LBO?<\/li>\n<li>Talk to me about the Indian M&amp;A market<\/li>\n<li>Describe the latest deal that piqued your interest<\/li>\n<li>Why M&amp;A?<\/li>\n<li>How would you go about researching a new industry<\/li>\n<li>What is winner\u2019s curse?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Analytical\/Logical reasoning<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>How many litres of paint are sold in Mumbai every year<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>General Questions<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Why Finance?<\/li>\n<li>What interests you about Investment Banking?<\/li>\n<li>What area of finance interests you? Be prepared for questions in this area?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>The Personal Interview<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Walk me through your resume<\/li>\n<li>Talk about a time where you were disappointed with what you achieved. Tell me how you handled it?<\/li>\n<li>Tell me about a time you led a team?<\/li>\n<li>Are you ready to work the long hours?<\/li>\n<li>If you have included interests like tennis, basketball, music, reading and so on, be prepared to back them up.\u00a0For 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.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote><p>Don\u2019t take anything in your resume for granted. Be prepared to back everything.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>To learn more about the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/effective-ways-to-tame-nervousness-in-interviews\/\">Imarticus Learning Interview<\/a>\u00a0Process, email us at\u00a0info@imarticus.org[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[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\"...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"pages":[],"coe":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6866","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-finance"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Preparing for a Finance Interview - Finance, Tech &amp; Analytics Career Resources | Imarticus Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/preparing-for-a-finance-interview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Preparing for a Finance Interview - Finance, Tech &amp; Analytics Career Resources | Imarticus Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[vc_row type=&quot;in_container&quot; full_screen_row_position=&quot;middle&quot; scene_position=&quot;center&quot; text_color=&quot;dark&quot; text_align=&quot;left&quot; overlay_strength=&quot;0.3&quot; shape_divider_position=&quot;bottom&quot; shape_type=&quot;&quot;][vc_column column_padding=&quot;no-extra-padding&quot; column_padding_position=&quot;all&quot; background_color_opacity=&quot;1&quot; background_hover_color_opacity=&quot;1&quot; column_link_target=&quot;_self&quot; column_shadow=&quot;none&quot; column_border_radius=&quot;none&quot; width=&quot;1\/1&quot; tablet_width_inherit=&quot;default&quot; tablet_text_alignment=&quot;default&quot; phone_text_alignment=&quot;default&quot;...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/preparing-for-a-finance-interview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Finance, Tech &amp; Analytics Career Resources | Imarticus Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-11-26T12:43:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-10-12T07:44:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Imarticus\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Imarticus\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Preparing for a Finance Interview - Finance, Tech &amp; Analytics Career Resources | Imarticus Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/preparing-for-a-finance-interview\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Preparing for a Finance Interview - Finance, Tech &amp; Analytics Career Resources | Imarticus Blog","og_description":"[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\"...","og_url":"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/preparing-for-a-finance-interview\/","og_site_name":"Finance, Tech &amp; Analytics Career Resources | Imarticus Blog","article_published_time":"2019-11-26T12:43:28+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-10-12T07:44:42+00:00","author":"Imarticus","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Imarticus","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":["Article","BlogPosting"],"@id":"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/preparing-for-a-finance-interview\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/preparing-for-a-finance-interview\/"},"author":{"name":"Imarticus","@id":"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ab6f5d6a5f886f9c342d36fe82345e61"},"headline":"Preparing for a Finance Interview","datePublished":"2019-11-26T12:43:28+00:00","dateModified":"2022-10-12T07:44:42+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/preparing-for-a-finance-interview\/"},"wordCount":863,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Finance"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/preparing-for-a-finance-interview\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/preparing-for-a-finance-interview\/","url":"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/preparing-for-a-finance-interview\/","name":"Preparing for a Finance Interview - Finance, Tech &amp; Analytics Career Resources | Imarticus Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-11-26T12:43:28+00:00","dateModified":"2022-10-12T07:44:42+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/preparing-for-a-finance-interview\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/preparing-for-a-finance-interview\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/preparing-for-a-finance-interview\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Preparing for a Finance Interview"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/","name":"Finance, Tech &amp; Analytics Career Resources | Imarticus Blog","description":"Finance, Business Analysis &amp; Data Analytics Certification Courses - Imarticus","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"Imarticus Learning","url":"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/imarticus-green-logo-01.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/imarticus-green-logo-01.png","width":2872,"height":894,"caption":"Imarticus Learning"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ab6f5d6a5f886f9c342d36fe82345e61","name":"Imarticus","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e8a531718254934732fb6092dcfc063e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e8a531718254934732fb6092dcfc063e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Imarticus"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/imarticus.org\/"],"url":"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/author\/imarticus\/"}]}},"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Imarticus","author_link":"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/author\/imarticus\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/category\/finance\/\">Finance<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"[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\"...","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6866\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6866"},{"taxonomy":"pages","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages?post=6866"},{"taxonomy":"coe","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imarticus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coe?post=6866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- This website is optimized by Airlift. Learn more: https://airlift.net. Template:. Learn more: https://airlift.net., Cached Timestamp: 2025-03-14 12:19:28 UTC -->