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.
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.
11. Tell us an example of a win win situation you negotiated?
This financial interview question explores your ability to communicate information or alternatives in a manner that gains agreement and acceptance. Show how you are able to look at the position of others, present alternatives and reach an agreement that is positive for all parties.
12. Tell us are you willing to work all hours?
Depending on the available position and the company culture, it may be necessary for your potential finance hire to work late to ensure their responsibilities are completed. Their answer to this question will reveal if they're dedicated and passionate about the role.
13. In your resume, it looks like you were fired twice. How did that make you feel?
After I recuperated from the shock both times, it made me feel stronger. It's true that I was fired twice, but I managed to bounce back both times and land jobs that gave me more responsibility, paid me more money, and were at better firms.
The morale here is very high. I've been exposed to the “seamy underbelly” of this business, but I'm still passionate about working in it.
14. Explain me when do you think you'll peak in your career?
I come from a long line of healthy, hardy, mentally active types, and so I confess that I never even think about “peaking” in my career. That having been said, I do think it's important to have some self-knowledge, and to recognize when one is past one's prime.
15. Explain me what has been a major achievement in your working career?
Discuss a relevant achievement, the challenges you faced in getting there and what made you successful. Discuss why it was important to you, making the reasons relevant to the finance job you are interviewing for. Emphasize how your achievement can be translated into success in this position. Find sample answers to this interview question at employer interview questions
16. Please tell us what would previous coworkers and managers say about you?
Zeroing in on how others perceive your interviewee is essential to finding out whether they're a match for the position and your company as a whole. Jot down what your candidate shares with you and follow-up with their references to see if the descriptions match.
17. Tell us what are your strengths and weaknesses as a finance professional?
Provide an interview answer that demonstrates your self awareness and insight. Use the list of strengths and weaknesses to help formulate your answer.
18. What was the worst class you had in college?
What would that professor say about you? These two questions will allow you to dig deeper into the potential weaknesses and challenges of your finance candidates. You'll also be able to take a closer look at how well they handled this situation. While they may have hated their creative writing class, would their professor say they put their best foot forward in spite of it all?
19. Please explain what steps do you take to ensure an optimal budget?
I work with others in my company's leadership team to outline the company's financial and business goals, both for the coming year and in the long term. I base my budget on these goals as well as on the company's current financial situation and projections for short- and long-term expenditures and revenues. A large part of coming up with a suitable budget is working with all departments in order to have comprehensive and accurate information.
20. Explain about a recent high stress situation you were in. How did you manage it?
Finance jobs demand the ability to work well under pressure. The interviewer wants to know whether you are able to perform under stress and cope with difficult situations. Show that you can stay calm and are able to plan to reduce stress.
21. Tell us what can you bring to this role that you're certain other applicants can't?
Get to the bottom of why this finance candidate truly deserves your attention. It could be their precise role-related experience, achievements within the industry, or even their unique personality. This question is also important for testing your candidate's level of confidence - is it too much or just right?
22. Explain me a tough financial analysis problem you faced recently?
Your ability to identify key issues and detect problems from relevant information is key in your answer. Your skill in breaking down, organizing and analyzing information is under the spotlight with this interview question.
23. Tell us how aware are you of internal politics that may affect your performance?
I'm sensitive to internal politics and respect authority figures. But I also do my best to never become embroiled in office politics. At my level, I consider this to be a wise course of action. I like people and can pretty much work with anyone. So I concentrate on doing my job, listening to directions, surpassing expectations, and leaving the internal political battles to the politicians.
24. Tell us you have changed careers before. Why should I let you experiment on my nickel?
As a career-changer, I believe that I'm a better employee because I've gained a lot of diverse skills from moving around. These skills help me solve problems creatively.
I believe that a company needs both A and B players. When you're pitching new business, you want the A players on the front line. But behind the A players, you need the B players who can hammer out the details of the projects and stick with them on a day-to-day basis. Having too many A players on the team leads to ego clashes and a disorganized, anarchical way of doing business.
26. Where do you see yourself in five years as Financial Administrator?
It's important to understand whether your finance candidate's career path is aligned with the position to which they are applying. Bringing on a candidate who's just looking for a “here and now” type of position won't do you any favors in terms of a long-term hire. Watch out for cookie cutter answers that end up sounding more like wishful thinking than actual long-term plans.
I am extremely impatient. I expect my employees to prove themselves on the very first assignment. If they fail, my tendency is to stop delegating to them and start doing everything myself.
To compensate for my own weakness, however, I have started to really prep my people on exactly what will be expected of them.
I would search for new markets for the product while I spurred the engineers to change the product to make it more marketable to its original core audience.
29. Role-specific Financial Administrator Job Interview Questions:
☛ What kind of financial reports does upper management need and why?
☛ What methods/metrics do you use to evaluate the organization's progress?
☛ What are key elements to look at when evaluating the company's investments?
☛ Is a cash flow statement enough to tell whether a company is doing well?
☛ How do you calculate and interpret ROI?
☛ What's your experience with benchmarking studies?
☛ Are you familiar with Oracle?
☛ How do you reward innovation, initiative, teamwork?
30. Operational and Situational Financial Administrator Job Interview Questions:
☛ Imagine upper management asks you to tell them whether the company should continue offering a product/service. How would you go about it?
☛ When you have to deal with multiple priorities, how do you manage?
☛ If one of your subordinates made an error, how would you handle it?
☛ Imagine there's a conflict between two accountants you supervise. How do you resolve it?
☛ If we bought new equipment, how would the financial statements change?
☛ How would you help staff change from a “this is how it's always done” approach to new processes you implement?
31. Top Behavioral Financial Administrator Job Interview Questions:
☛ Tell me about a time your advice to senior management resulted in higher profits/revenues
☛ Recall a time you had to prepare a financial report with a very tight deadline. How did you manage?
☛ Give me an example of a time you solved a problem to ensure goals were met
☛ Describe a time where you showed initiative regarding a financial matter
☛ Have you ever disagreed with upper management? How did you handle it?
☛ Tell me about a time when your knowledge of financial regulations benefited your company
☛ Can you give me an example where you improved the quality/timeliness of the financial information?
☛ What experience do you have in team leadership? How would you describe your leadership style and how has it contributed to the success of the project/department? Talk through how you impacted the careers of the staff you mentored
☛ Give an example of a time when you had a difficult person to manage and how you handled the situation
☛ How many performance evaluations have you conducted in the last 12 months? How did your reports fare and what was your contribution to their performance? What could you have done better? Did you expand the team?
First, I would try to credit her publicly with the ideas that were hers. Sometimes, by being generous with credit, it spurs the other person to “return the favour.”
If that doesn't solve it, I'd try to work out an arrangement where we each agreed to present the ideas that were our own to our bosses. If that doesn't work, I would openly discuss the situation with her.
However, if the person taking credit for my ideas was my boss, I would tread cautiously. To some extent, I believe that my job is to make my superiors shine. If I were being rewarded for my ideas with raises and promotions, I would be happy.
I consider myself ambitious, but I'm also practical. As long as I am continuing to learn and grow within my position, I'll be a happy camper. Different companies promote people at different rates, and I'm pretty confident that working for you will keep me motivated and mentally stimulated for several years to come.
Why is that, exactly? It seems to me that I am probably more qualified to handle this position than anyone, man or woman.
My father's career as a diplomat took our family around the world seven times, and I even spent my junior year abroad in the Far East. I would need far less training than an American man who grew up here and has never worked outside our borders.
I think that with the home office located halfway across the globe, there is a very small risk that one might not have the chance to interact with the key decision makers as often as might be ideal. On the other hand, teleconferencing, email, faxing, and having a 24/7 work ethic will go a long way towards bridging the gap.
