New Compliance Manager Interview Preparation Guide

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Yes, I had a supervisor ask me to change the status on a client on an governmental application for a loan to married filing separately from married filing joint, his reason was by changing the filing status changed the clients adjusted gross income. I felt this was situation where the supervisor wanted me to compromise my integrity and I detailed how the clients adjusted income could only change if client received a raise or a cut in pay that just changing the filing status did not change their adjusted gross income.

What would you do if you sniff out inappropriate behavior on the bank’s trading floor, but the very powerful head of trading assures you everything is kosher? “I want to know you have guts of steel to stand up to someone like that, as well as the intelligence and skills to know that there is a very high degree of probability that your suspicions are correct,” Lewis says.

This is your opportunity to sell yourself. Be clear about how your skills, education and experience match the requirements of the job. It is often best to back up specific skills with real-life examples. Remember to prepare a few insightful and thoughtful questions to ask the interviewer. Questions can be about the job, the company or the team you will be working with in the future.

This is a general question and could be asked of any applicant irrespective of the industry. Be prepared to answer it well. As a first step, take the time to research the company at which you are interviewing. Do not miss this opportunity to make a good impression by showing how knowledgeable you are about the company’s operations.

Under the United States Sentencing Commission Compliance Recommendations, (§8B2.1(5) (C) of the United States Sentencing Commission Guidelines), an effective compliance program means an organization has taken appropriate steps to ensure laws, rules and regulations are complied with and ethical conduct among employees is promoted. This question tests your knowledge of the requirements of the law governing effective compliance programs.

Depending on what comes first and the most important to finish in the first place.

Be prepared to discuss your previous compliance experience. If you do not have previous experience as a compliance officer, perhaps because you are switching careers, discuss transferable skills. Keith Darcy, executive director of the Ethics & Compliance Officers Association says that “the most important skills include leadership, writing, public speaking, ethical decision-making, communications and training and instructional design.” He goes on to say, "compliance officers should also possess a high degree of courage and integrity due to the confidential nature of the job.”

My work style matching exactlty what cashier job requires by: being careful about detail and thorough in completing work tasks, persistence in the face of obstacles, being reliable, responsible, and dependable, and fulfilling obligations, being honest and ethical, analyzing information and using logic to address work-related issues and problems.

Making decisions that will move this company to a higher level.

Employers want to see a Series 14, CPA, CFE, or other designations to signal you’re serious about a compliance career. “The licenses you have tell me whether I am dealing with someone who has made compliance their profession,” Lewis says. “Certainly people with legal backgrounds are capable of this work, but additional continuing education tells me you’re committed to it.”

Everyone should learn from his or her mistakes. I always try to consult my mistakes with my kith and kin especially with those senior to me.

I enrolled myself into a course useful for the next version of our current project. I attended seminars on personal development and managerial skills improvement.

Interviewers want to hear spirited conviction that compliance departments should be granted power to regulate freely. Come armed with concrete suggestions for improving what are often sticky struggles which require finesse in dealing with various personalities, as well as solid technical skills.

Compliance policies should be accessible to all employees, well communicated, and easy to understand and apply. Responses to this question can provide valuable end-user feedback in this regard. The additional area of “enforcement” may provide some insight into an organization’s ethical tone and employee perceptions about fairness and equality. A quality compliance program will assure that all violators are treated fairly, but equally. If employees perceive that management or others are “above the law,” the compliance program loses credibility.

In a perfect world, you’ll find someone who has hands-on experience with platforms like METRC, BiotrackTHC, MJ Freeway, or some of the other Google platforms that are out there. That said, keep an open mind for individuals who have used similar tools in other industries. Also, make sure their use of these tools is actually compelling. Just entering harvest weight information doesn’t demonstrate in-depth knowledge or ability.

This is an ethics question, and the employer wants to know you respect the ethics codes of the company and can be appropriately tough when needed. Answer this question by letting the employer know you are prepared to fire an employee who violates the company’s code of conduct depending on the severity of the violation, and if appropriate, you are prepared to pursue criminal prosecution.

I actually motivate myself as I believe that I can achieve a lot more provided I a put in the effort and with consistency and time. The thing with me is that I do not like to settle for something I like to challenge myself to learn more.

This is a test to see if your candidate is truly invested in compliance. It would also be a good sign if your candidate indicated he or she had spent some time reviewing industry websites, and the websites of state and local regulators. While there are some great consumer focused publications out there, they aren’t exactly the content cannabis compliance professionals should have at the top of the list.

☛ Why should we hire you?
☛ What motivates you to succeed?
☛ Why do you want a career as a Bank Compliance Officer?
☛ How do you decide what gets top priority when scheduling your time?
☛ How would your current or former employer describe you?
☛ Tell me about your customer service experience.
☛ In your opinion, what constitutes outstanding customer service?
☛ Tell me about a time where you had to deal with conflict with a colleague or superior, and how you resolved the situation.
☛ Tell me about your attendance record in your last position.
☛ What banking duties are the easiest and the most difficult for you to perform?
☛ What excites you the most about this position?
☛ How will working for us help you reach your professional goals?
☛ Would you work holidays and weekends?
☛ Where do you see yourself in two to three years from now?
☛ Share an experience you had in dealing with a difficult customer and how you handled the situation.
☛ How would you define success as a Bank Compliance Officer?
☛ Give me a time when you went above and beyond the requirements for a project.
☛ Ten years from now, where do you see yourself?
☛ Have you ever had difficulty with a supervisor?
☛ Tell me about a time when you influenced the outcome of a project by taking a leadership role.
☛ Tell me about your banking compliance experience.
☛ What do you know about our company?
☛ How do you handle stress and pressure?
☛ What is your greatest weakness, and what are you doing to improve in that area?
☛ What is your greatest strength, and how will it help you in this role?
☛ Tell me about your post-secondary, education and how it prepared you for this position.
☛ What attracted you to this industry?

☛ Describe the most difficult compliance or ethics issue you’ve faced. How did you resolve it?
☛ Tell me about your most significant contribution in your last position
☛ Explain a procedure you have implemented in the past for employees who want to report violations
☛ Have you ever encountered resistance when trying to enforce a compliance program? How did you overcome it?
☛ Tell me about a time you faced issues with your subordinates. How did your leadership abilities help you to resolve them?
☛ Describe a time you were involved in an official investigation

1. Tell me about yourself?

2. Why did you leave your last job?

3. Please tell me about your long-term career goals for Environmental compliance officer?

4. What have you learned from your past jobs that related to Environmental compliance officer?

5. In your life, what experiences have been most important to you that related to Environmental compliance officer?

6. What made you choose to apply to Environmental compliance officer?

7. What are top 3 skills for Environmental compliance officer?

8. What characteristics would you search for inside a boss?

9. Let me know about a period when you assisted resolve a dispute between others.

10. What position would you prefer on the team focusing on a task?

11. What's been your greatest professional disappointment?

12. What are most common mistakes for Environmental compliance officer job and how to solve them?

13. Do you consider you're overqualified with this position?

14. How can you offer make amends for your lack of skill?

15. What are techniques/methods list that you used in your work as Environmental compliance officer? Please explain how to you use them?

16. Let me know concerning the most enjoyable you've had at work?

17. Have you got any queries for me personally?

18. Do you know the hardest choices to create?

19. Do you'd rather work individually or on the team?

20. How do you apply ISO 9001 for your Environmental compliance officer job?

21. Do you have any questions?

☛ What procedure should be followed when someone violates company policy?
☛ Imagine you discover an executive has been violating the company’s code of conduct. How do you handle it?
☛ If someone directly or indirectly asked you to overlook a violation of company policy, how would you react?
☛ Considering our line of business, what compliance risks would you advise us to deal with?
☛ Tell me about a time you implemented a compliance initiative that helped your company avoid litigation
☛ Imagine you conduct a site inspection and the manager is behaving aggressively to you. How do you handle this?
☛ If you had to deal with a C-suite executive who didn’t agree with your compliance program/policies, what would you do?

☛ Why are you interested in this role and how would you add value to the team?
☛ Why this firm and not another organization?
☛ What are your long-term career aspirations?
☛ What projects have you been involved in?
☛ What are your dealings with the financial regulators?
☛ How have you been involved in the development of policies and procedures? What do you think are the key compliance challenges for this type of business in the current climate? (This question, in particular, is coming up quite a lot for compliance roles)
☛ In the first 30 days on the job, what would you expect to achieve?
☛ How would you deal, or have you dealt, with difficult employees or situations?
☛ Have you ever experienced a situation where something has gone wrong for you or a team that you were part of in compliance? What did you do to fix it? What did you put in place to ensure that it didn’t happen again?
☛ In your current role, what wouldn’t have been achieved had you not been there?
☛ If one of your former line managers were to describe you, what would they say? Would they highlight any weaknesses?

☛ What is a whistleblower? How do you protect them?
☛ How do you create/implement an internal control system?
☛ What are the main points of an effective compliance program?
☛ Which are the most common compliance issues you have faced as a compliance manager?
☛ What’s your experience in reporting to regulatory bodies?
☛ How do you prioritize tasks?
☛ What’s your experience with conducting compliance training?

☛ Why is the position open?
☛ If someone was previously in the position, what were the circumstances of his/her departure?
☛ Prior to hiring me, would you permit me to meet privately with the chair of the board or committee responsible for compliance oversight?
☛ What keeps you up at night?
☛ For any prior government sanctioned infraction, what are the lessons learned? What changes have been made?
☛ What do you believe to be the greatest regulatory compliance risks facing the company?
☛ What do you believe to be the greatest business risks facing the company?
☛ What do you believe to be the greatest geographic risks facing the company?
☛ Describe the relationship between the company and the regulators
☛ What are the main challenges for a CCO in the coming nine months?
☛ Are there any areas where the compliance program is not meeting management or board expectations?
☛ Do you believe employees are comfortable in reporting potential ethical/compliance infractions?
☛ Have you ever had an outside evaluation of your compliance program?
☛ Is there anything you believe management can do to support the compliance program?
☛ What is the budget/staffing for the Compliance function?
☛ What are the reporting lines for the role?
☛ Can the CCO veto a Due Diligence target?
☛ At what stage is the compliance department involved in establishing a relationship with a business partner?
☛ At what stage is the compliance department involved in the M&A process?
☛ Is it customary for the CCO to sit in operations meetings pertaining to new products and market initiatives so as to advise the business on risk?
☛ What role do you see Compliance playing in management meetings?
☛ What is the formal frequency of reporting to the Board and what is the policy for Board reporting on an as needed basis?
☛ Have executives in your organization ever walked away from a business opportunity for ethical and/or compliance concerns?
☛ Do you feel ethics/compliance is an essential part of a successful business or something that’s just a reality you have to deal with these days?
☛ Do you think that ethical business practices do in fact lead to a more successful business if done the right way?
☛ How do you view the compliance officer – as part of the business or an external function?
☛ What did or didn’t you like about working with their former CCO?
☛ What sort of questions have you raised to the previous Compliance Officer? Have questions been purely technical or have they extended to broader business practices?
☛ What do you and Board leadership think about regulatory compliance risk and whether it is viewed proactive or only reactively?
☛ How do you think compliance can be a strategic partner in achieving your goals? Is it more just “keep us out of trouble?”
☛ Are there ways you believe the compliance program could be a strategic advantagefor the company in terms of its health and growth?
☛ How would you describe the values of the leadership team and what does the tone at the top look like?
☛ Who has authority to fire me?
☛ What are you offering in the way of liability protection?
☛ Am I free to engage my own counsel if necessary in a response to a government investigation?
☛ Can I go to outside counsel on issues before discussing with General Counsel?

§8B2.1(5) (C) of the USSGs requires that an organization have and publicize a system whereby employees can anonymously or confidentially report or seek guidance about potential or actual criminal conduct without fear of retaliation. Responses to this question can help a compliance officer assess the effectiveness of their hotline or other reporting system publication efforts. It may also help the compliance officer assess employees’ knowledge of the organization’s policy regarding employee complaints (i.e. first report to supervisor, etc.) and any training that was conducted regarding such a policy. This question can also be used to explore employees’ perceptions about the credibility of the organization’s non-retaliation policy.