Every industry has job interview questions that are specific to the job type and role. Accounting is no different. In fact, when interviewing for an accounting role, you can expect to receive a lot more specialized questions regarding accounting best practices.
Our accounting recruiters in Toronto put together this list of interview questions you can expect to get asked if you are on an interview for an accountant role.
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1. Do you have previous experience with…?
This is a common question asked by hiring managers to get a sense of the accounting tools, software, and systems you have used in previous jobs. If you do have experience with the resource they are asking about, explain your level of expertise. If you don’t, say so. But also explain that you will happily learn the resource.
2. Talk about a time when you made an accounting error. How did you fix it?
Accountants are bound to make mistakes from time to time. Hiring managers want to understand how you will manage these types of situations. To answer this question, explain what the mistake was and the steps you took to fix the problem. Own the fact you made a mistake. Show you were proactive in your approach to overcome the issue.
3. Walk me through the following financial statement/balance sheet – what does this tell you?
Hiring managers will ask these types of questions to see how well you understand the financial documents you will be working with if hired. They may give you a statement to review. When answering the question, make sure to note any hidden mistakes. It may be a test to see how thorough you are. Be prepared to talk about what the statement means in terms of revenue, expenses, and cash flow.
4. What do you see as the biggest challenge in your career to this point?
Hiring managers ask this question to get a sense of your experience and overall accounting industry knowledge. They want to see how dialed in you are to the current and future state of things. To answer this question, you can talk about current and upcoming industry trends (Fintech, for example) and how you anticipate they will influence how things are done in the future.
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