Financial Analyst Interview Questions

When interviewing a candidate for the post of financial analyst, it’s essential to pay attention to their education, practical experience, and professional credentials. Their field of study will probably cover finance or accounting. Thus, such credentials as CFA popping out of applicants’ CVs will help you narrow down the initial list of job swappers. Moving on to work experience, if you aim at hiring a middle or senior specialist, include experience-based questions to the interview.

Hard skills questions kit

After the preselecting is successfully managed, proceed to the evaluation of soft and hard skills of a potential employee. Hard skills could be mainly assessed through operational questions and somehow situational. Start with the basic queries touching upon the interviewee’s technical knowledge and how they make use of it. Furthermore, there is also an indispensable question such as how the candidates stay aware of the latest news and financial trends. An experienced financial analyst will answer it straight away. So, that’s how you’ll know whether they are able to fulfill the requested duties.

• Are you familiar with DCF analysis / benchmarking?
• Define the notion of NPV. What’s its area of use?
• What ratios would assist you when evaluating a company?
• Name the crucial points to be taken into consideration if making an investment.
• What are the key tools for you to prepare a yearly forecasting report?
• Imagine you’re communicating to a person who is inexperienced in finance. In what way would you explain them the main financial concepts?
• Think of a situation in which you need to reassure an investor that the company’s performance is a success. Which metrics or concepts would help you succeed?

Soft skills questions kit

Another set of interview questions is intended to evaluate the job applicant’s soft skills. These are personality-based queries that help you gauge the strengths and weaknesses of an office-seeker. Most importantly, you’ll have an opportunity to dig the mine of an FA’s key competencies. If the position that you offer requires constant interactions with other people, make sure you’ve included a question about that in the interview.

• If working with sizeable amounts of data, what is your method to ensure accuracy?
• Tell about a time you had the most difficult financial issue. How did you cope with it?
• Which project do you estimate to be the most successful?
• Describe your actions in case you couldn’t handle deadlines for a project.
• Do you associate your professional credentials with being informed about the recent financial news? In what way?
• Imagine you’ve committed a financial fail. What measures would you take not to let it happen again?