1. What motivates you as Financial Administrator?

This is your chance to detect what drives your finance candidates. Dig further to find out whether it's about the money or the finance industry itself. Keep in mind, the desire to make money doesn't necessarily equate to a sufficient drive to succeed or real passion for the business. It often comes with limitations.

2. Do you play sports?

If a competitive spirit is crucial for thriving in the role you're interviewing for, this question will do the trick. Playing sports, whether currently or previously, is a great way to determine whether your finance candidates have a competitive nature.

3. What motivates you in your job as Financial Administrator?

Finance interview questions that examine your motivation are designed to assess whether you will be a good motivational fit with the job opportunity and the company. Make your motivation relevant to what the finance job provides. Most finance positions require self-motivated people whose motivators include managing a challenge, getting the required results, achievement and recognition.

4. What is your greatest achievement as Financial Administrator?

For some finance candidates, the answer may be related to a specific project they undertook or an award they received. If they don't share insightful details about why they feel this was their greatest achievement, be sure to question further. Ask yourself: Is this relevant to the role they're interviewing for?

5. Explain me do you consider yourself a leader?

Oh, yes, absolutely. I have all of the leadership qualities. I'm extroverted, but I also happen to be a terrific listener. I consider myself a “big idea” person, but I can also be hard-nosed and practical when necessary.

6. Tell me if you could only pick one, what stock would you pick and why?

This is one the few industry-specific questions that will give you a better sense of your candidate. Are they a risk-taker, or do they play it safe?

7. Tell us under what circumstances have you found it acceptable to break confidence?

When the person doing the confiding has shared the fact that she was doing something unethical - and if I felt that I might be able to stop her behavior by telling someone else about it.

8. Tell us are you willing to relocate?

This should be a no-brainer for candidates who are truly passionate about the role. Any hesitation in answering this question should lead you to question them further.

9. Tell us are you better at “managing up” or “managing down”?

If you aren't good at “managing up,” you rarely get the opportunity to “manage down.” Fortunately, I've always been quite good at self-management. I've never had a deadline that I didn't meet.

10. Tell us is it more important to be lucky or skillful?

I think that it's more important to be lucky, although being very skilled can help to create more opportunities. Certainly, [at my former job, my boss'] confidence in me inspired the decision makers at our firm to trust that I could do the job. But clearly, I also happened to be in the right place at the right time.

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