New Financial Planner Interview Preparation Guide

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This question is useful in determining behavioural traits. The way a prospective candidate likes to be managed offers insight into their core values. For example, if they speak highly about a manager who offered them flexibility and independence, and you know that this will not work for your team, then this particular hire is not suitable for your organization.

Here is your chance to run through all of your experience. Be concise and if you have done multiple roles, mention something specific for each one. Show that you have a lot of experience and are flexible.

Multitasking is a necessary part of an administration job, so say that you enjoy multitasking and the challenge of ensuring that multiple functions and jobs are completed accurately and on time is part of what motivates you in your work.

Ideally, you will be able to touch type well, so say yes to this. Shorthand is a dying art and fewer people are learning how to do this well. If you have the opportunity to learn it, then do so, because some managers like their administrators to be able to take down shorthand.

Meeting people and speaking to customers is often a vital part of being an administrator. Say that you enjoy talking to people and that interaction with other people is often what makes the work most interesting.

Goodwill is an intangible asset that is defined as the excess value of the purchase price over the fair market value (book value) of an acquired business. For example, if Walmart is sold for $100 billion with PP&E book value of $50 billion, equity of $30 billion, and debt of $10 billion, then the goodwill paid for Walmart would be $30 billion--the total sales price ($100 billion) minus the book value (Assets-Liabilities) of $70 billion.

The organization acquiring Walmart would show a decrease in cash of $100 billion to finance the acquisition, an increase of $50 billion to PP&E, an increase of debt of $10 billion, and goodwill of $30 billion.

Finance managers must be able to plan, organize and coordinate the various moving parts of the finance department. A true leader, however, also connects people to the vision of their organization and empowers them to achieve it. A leader is transformative, establishes a culture of continuous improvement and inspires those around them.

This is similar to the strengths/weaknesses questions - what you like least must be turned into a positive trait. Say that you enjoy the challenge of meeting deadlines and of working in a team environment. For what you like least, say that you do not like it when you see disorganised work and a poorly managed diary; you feel the need to help organise and manage the workload.

A deferred tax asset (as its name suggests) is when a company pays more in taxes to the IRS than they actually owe (as shown as an expense on their income statement). This is an asset because it can be used to offet future tax expense in the future. Deferred tax assets can result from differences in revenue recognition, expense recognition, and net operating losses.

You know how many random requests admins get each day, right? This question allows the interviewer to assess how you’ll deal with that.

Say that they are very good and that you can communicate well face-to-face, on the telephone and via the Internet on email. Tell us about a time in your professional career when you went out of your way to complete a task for someone else

Hopefully, you have some real experiences - but you may have forgotten them by now. Think back and try to recall a time that you may have helped somebody when they were under pressure or off sick.

If you have experience, mention the packages you have used. If not, get some training in the most important packages before your interview. Ask your recruitment consultant what are the best packages to learn.

Strong successfully fielded this question by going with her gut. “My response was out of my mouth before I knew it: ‘Because I'm smart,’” she recalls. She followed that up by outlining the positions she’d previously had that gave her the necessary skills for the job.

This question allows interviewers to see how you react when put on the spot, which happens to administrative assistants all the time, and how confident you are in your abilities.

No hard-and-fast educational requirements exist for those planning to become financial planners. A person with a verifiable track record of investing success can land a financial planning job even if he was an art history major or has no college degree at all.

You'll want to start with net income and then proceed line by line through the major adjustments (depreciation, deferred taxes, and working capital changes) required to arrive at cash flow from operations. In your explanation you'll also want to mention the following:

☛ Capital expenditures, purchase of intangible assets, sale of real assets, and purchase/sale of investment securities to find cash flow generated from investing activies.
☛ Issuance/repurchase of dept, sale of equity, and payment of dividends to find cash flow from financing activites.
☛ Adding the cash flows from operating, investing and financing activities your able to come up with the total change in cash.
☛ By taking the cash balance at the beginning of the period and adjusting it for the total change in cash you arrive at the cash balance at the end of the period.

Ideally, you have some real work experience that you can talk about. Talk in some detail about what you did and why it was great. If you have no direct work experience then talk about an event where you helped a friend to resolve a problem and that these skills can be used in administration and customer care work.

An interview question such as this assesses whether the candidate thinks analytically about his or her career. Are they making a decision that will help them stay at the company long-term? Fundamentally, you want someone who is invested in the role and the organization.

My career is my number one priority right now, so I would not have a problem putting in extra time to complete a project.

Being positive is important because often a person’s attitude to their work can come across in their writing and presentation. Administrators sometimes provide the first impression a customer has of a business, so a positive and professional outlook is needed at all times.

Say that an administrator plays an important role in ensuring that diaries are properly managed and that all outgoing correspondence is well written and all incoming correspondence is read and delivered to the relevant managers quickly.

Absolutely. A company that's experiencing a deterioration of working capital (i.e. decrease in accounts payable, increase in accounts receivable) can show positive net income but be in financial trouble in the future. It's also possible to show positive net income while in financial trouble by manipulating financial statements (e.g. revenue recognition, expense recognition, etc.)

☛ Why do you want to work for us?
☛ What do you know about us specifically?
☛ What are your main motivations?
☛ Do you think technology has a role to play in this position?
☛ How will you keep ahead of the curve?
☛ What are your main strengths and weaknesses?
☛ Why are you perfectly suited to this role?
☛ Do you have any questions for us?

☛ What are the first questions you ask about a new client or project?
☛ What is your client portfolio?
☛ Walk me through the process of assessing our current financial status.
☛ How do you check your work for accuracy? (e.g. ensuring correct data entry in large spreadsheets)
☛ What methods/metrics do you use to evaluate a company’s performance?
☛ What is a cash flow statement? Is this enough to tell whether a company is profitable?
☛ What financial management software do you have experience working with?
☛ In your opinion, what are the biggest untapped markets and most challenging financial regulations in our industry?

☛ Can you describe a typical day(week) in this department?
☛ What are the responsibilities of this position?
☛ What are the strengths in this department? What are the weaknesses?
☛ What would your past assistants say was the best part of working for you? What would they say was the worst?
☛ What direction do you see the company going in the next five years? Do you feel that there are any threats to its success?
☛ Why did your last assistant leave the position? What were his/her strengths? What were his/her weaknesses? What is he/she doing now?
☛ What characteristics did your best assistant have? What about your worst assistant?
☛ How often are performance reviews performed? Who conducts them?
☛ What skills are most important to you in an administrative assistant?
☛ How do you reward and encourage the people who work in your department?
☛ Are there any ongoing production issues in this department?
☛ How have you dealt with personnel problems in the past?
☛ What are some of the biggest challenges for a person in this position?
☛ What is the most rewarding aspect of this position, in your opinion?
☛ Do you (Does the company/department) support memberships in professional associations, and continuing professional development?
☛ What would you describe as the role of the administrative staff in this office?
☛ Are overtime or weekend hours expected?
☛ What do you like most about working for this company? Are there changes you would make?
☛ What do you like least about working here?
☛ Do you encourage the department to work as a team, or concentrate more on individual contributions?