Finance Interview Questions & Answers

Interview went very well. The questions were very challenging, even for Investment Banking. 1st round was over the phone, about my motivation and interest for the job and experience - took 45 minutes. The second stage was a 4 hours personal interview with 4 different senior members, including the partners. The process was similiar to the 1st round only a bit more personal as it was face to face.

How do you consider the tax benefits of interest payments in the company valution?

In investment banking its about the little details. You need to be overall very confident and know you the position and organisation inside out. You have to be technically very fit and the valuation such as DCF in very detail.

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I was approached on Linkedin by a recruiter from PE Recruit. I sent my CV, and then spoke to the recruiter on the phone, who selected my CV to pass onto the company. I then had a phone interview with the HR department from America. The following week I was invited to attend an interview in the London office, with the last I had spoken to from America, as well as the senior investor, and a graduate. I was asked to return the following day, where I had 4x30minute video calls with the bosses in America, followed by a 90 minute Maths and Excel test.
The phone interview questions were CV based, and about my motivations for the job. Eg. Why did I choose to study my course, what interested me about this job etc.
The face to face interviews were very friendly and chatty, to understand more about me as a person/ what I would be like to work with.
The video calls were slightly more targeted, one VP asked if I inherited a grocery store from a relative, how would I go about valuing it. I was also asked about my future plans, and where I see my career headed.
The maths and excel test were all computer based, consisting of formatting graphs and tables, logical problem solving, and then a finance sheet, where I was asked to fid gross margin etc.

I did not study finance or economics at university, so I found the questions relating to their figure sheet the hardest. There were a few terms I didn't understand.

They were only looking for one person, which made it very competitive. They are a very friendly firm, and seemed really interested in the characteristics of who they were hiring, and whether that would be a good fit for the company. Just be yourself, and be friendly. Unlike other finance companies they aren't intimidating in any way.

No assessment centre, just face to face interviews.

When I originally applied for the job, I had to fill out general questions on their site about experiences and so on, then they got in touch with me to complete online tests. These were 2 tests which lasted approximately 20 minutes each. These were numerical and verbal tests, which I found were quite difficult. From this, I was then offered to go to an all day assessment with other candidates. Before the interviewer day, I was asked to send my CV in to them. On the assessment day there was group work, individual presentation, one to one interview and a written exam.

After my presentation I was asked to why I thought the gearing of the company had fell dramatically and in my one to one interview, the most difficult question was "When have I influenced someone and what happened?"

If you get offered the assessment day, make sure you have done plenty of background research into the company to fully understand how the company operates and make sure that the pre-work you are asked to do shows your efforts and your enthusiasm for the job. Throughout the day, make sure you are yourself as if you are pretending to be something else, this will get found out at some point throughout the day.

We were sectioned in to groups of 4 where we had to do a group task where we had to decide and agree on the task which we were given (what to do on a sinking ship). We were then asked to present out individual presentations which we had already prepared (financial performance of the company in the past 3 years). Then we had a one to one interview and a 2 hour written exam.

The initial part was a one to one conversation with one of the recruitment team which tested my knowledge on PPI. Then I was invited in to complete an assessment based on the suitability and elgibility of the claim. This process required letter writing, calculating PPI and the overall format was fully explained. Then I was taken in for another one to one with the recruitment consultant who went through my CV in detail and the interview consisted of some competency questions and why I had applied for the role.

The overall questions asked were not hard however I was asked about my knowledge on PPI. After clarifying everything I knew, the recruitment consultant went on to explain PPI in more detail to me herself.

The main advice I would give is make sure you fully read the case studies which you are provided with and go in fully prepared. During the assessment time flies quick and a lot of the candidates I went with lost out writing time as they were still reading the case study.

We were a small group of 6 people and each given a laptop and notepad. We were given clear instructions which were also presented on a whiteboard as to what the assesment will consist of. We then had to use all the facts presented to us and investigate whether the claimaint in the case study was eligible for PPI refund and then calculate how much they would receive and finally write out a decision letter.

Before even getting to the assessment centre there was numerous online tests that I had to complete. This included the usual numerical, personality and verbal reasoning. If you pass these then you get invited to complete a e-tray online which takes around 2-3 hours. Make sure you practice beforehand as I think only the highest scoring candidates get through to the assessment centre which was the final round.

The assessment centre was a formal format and very very tough in my opinion. There are different tasks to complete throughout the whole day. Each task vary in time from 40 minutes to 2 hours.

The stages I went through was the group task, 1 on 1 presentation, 1 on 1 interview and finally the written report. I was surprised that I did not have to complete the online tests again at the centre. You get a document and a little time to prepare before each section but it is not much and you got to work fast and only take down the key-points or you probably would not read it all in time.

The 1 on 1 presentation was tough. You get a document to read in about 30 minutes. The scenario was to say how would you manage this team with the given information and you have 10 minutes to present to the assessor and then another 20 minutes of them asking you questions about your approach.

Make sure you prepare a lot with the information they give you about each task. Practice what you are going to say in each one and what will your approach be towards each task. Do not try and overpower anyone but do not be the quiet guy also. Make sure you speak your mind and try and keep talking throughout each task. For the written tasks I reccommend taking notes whilst reading through it and think of what you are going to write

Group task was given a document to read over and each member of the group is assigned a department in an organisation. When the group discussion starts everyone has to try and argue what option they think will be good. Each person has an extra document which tells them which option would be best for their department so there can be a lot of disagreeing.

1 on 1 presentation was hard because during the 10 minutes I did not have enough material to say. Make sure you take down everything and if you still have time left then try and give examples of how a good leader will act in general circumstances.

The 1 on 1 interview was probably the most relaxed part as you get to talk to someone in a open environment about how you have demonstrated certain skills. You can use examples from just about anywhere so try and think of some beforehand that would be good to use.

The written exercise is a lot of writing and you have to allocate your time wisely as there is more than 1 task to complete. The tasks might not be allocated evenly so make sure you spend the appropriate time for each section.