Trending interview questions in Finance and Accounting jobs

Perspective of the interviewer:

• What does ‘challenge’ mean to you?
• How did you took up the challenge?
• Your story on how you converted challenge to a success.

Tips:

1. Instead of thinking during interview, it would be better to think through in advance and practice for such a good question. Ideally, this question gives an opportunity to leave a good impression on the interviewer.

2. Create a storyline to highlight the situation, action and results. Make sure that the description is not too lengthy and at the same time, not too small.

3. The reply can be prepared around 3 key aspects – Situation, Action and Result as described here-under:

Situation should be expressed in 2-3 statements highlighting critical aspects of the problems, limitations you faced that created challenge for you and also the timeline (if applicable) to resolve the problem.

Action is the key to explain your initiatives and your ideas that turned the situation into your favor. Keep it simple to understand within 2-3 statements highlighting clearly your thought-process to overcome the challenge. Try using words that leave positive and leadership impressions such as ‘I created’, ‘I implemented’, ‘I organized’ etc. 

Result is something that should be spelled out very clearly preferably in smaller statements but in measurable terms to have a noticeable effect., like Before due date, In percentage, In Currency terms etc.

Few examples:

As an Accounts Manager:

Situation: Soon after ‘Accounts In-charge’ of my company left, I was promoted as ‘Manager- Accounts’, we received a notice from Income Tax Authorities to substantiate a very high amount in last year ITR as ‘business expenditure’. The timeline given was 3 weeks from the date of notice. Company stakes were interest and penalties , impact on goodwill and additional tax payment of around 3 million INR. The expenditure in question was pertaining to multiple payments made to Group Company abroad towards implementation of systems for better Internal Control.

Action: I coordinated with our Group Project Director through Skype, convinced him to buy his time for meetings with relevant people in Group Office. I got explanations and necessary documentations to support the logic behind cost distribution (cross charges) to our entity. Also, I got MOUs and Group Policy to substantiate the fact that the amount booked in our entity was as per agreed terms. I also held various meetings with Income Tax Commissioner to share and explain Group Accounting Policy. Finally Income Tax office agreed that the charges were towards strengthening Internal Controls thereby having direct benefit into our business operations across all the key business processes.

Result : Based on the documentary evidences, meetings with Internal as well as External stakeholders, I was able to respond to the notice and got the demand letter of INR 3 million quashed . I was awarded by our Group CFO as Trend Setter of the year 2022. 

As a ERP Project Manager:

Situation: By our IT Steering committee, I was selected as ERP Project Manager in addition to my regular responsibilities as Accounts In-charge. The project was to steer as Functional Lead for Finance process implementation in our Group company. It was a challenge for me since I had no previous experience into system implementations and due to sudden resignation by ERP Finance Lead, I was handpicked by the management.

Action: I worked with business analysts, project manager and local accounting team to validate all the key documents (As-Is, To-Be, Gap Analysis), conduct UAT and trainings. To manage my regular responsibilities in Accounting domain, I provided knowledge transfer, empowered and motivated my assistant to steer the accounting team in crucial period.

Result : I successfully implemented ERP in our Group Company to the satisfaction of steering committee with all the project deliverables and milestones that saved around INR 1 million. I was also awarded by our Group CFO as Employee of the year 2022.