Personnel Adviser Interview Preparation Guide

There is no one set structure for a financial plan, which means there is wide variation. “Some people might give you 50 pages of stuff you don’t understand like charts and graphs, and another planner might provide a five-page snapshot of your financial situation, With a sample, you can say, ‘I really want that in-depth analysis,’ or ‘I don’t understand that.’”

If you are older, you may want a younger adviser who will outlive you. If you are young, you may want an older adviser who has been through difficult economic times.

Services could include retirement planning, manage securities, estate planning, tax planning, insurance, long-term-care advice, newsletters, and so forth.

Good responses include index funds, real-estate investment trusts (REITs), highly rated bonds, certificate of deposits (CDs) and a portion of money markets. Be cautious when the replies seem to promote managed funds, individual stocks, a directly owned real-estate property, reverse mortgages, commodities, long short funds, partnerships of any kind including master limited partnerships (MLP), options, hedge funds, investments with limited withdrawal privileges, collectibles, thinly held securities, and annuities with high costs and lots of fine print that provide flexibility for the insurer but not you.

Also be VERY cautious about replies that imply the adviser can do much better than the S&P 500 index with the adviser’s selection of equities. Very few professional beat the index, and it’s rare when they beat it for several years in succession.

I personally don’t think they should because I believe a home is an investment of last resort, perhaps convertible to a reverse mortgage when elderly at which point it is a debt, not an investment.

My passion for helping people reach their financial goals is much stronger than my ego. Every client deserves my respect and I pride myself on my professionalism and integrity. I am confident in my communication skills and comfortable varying my approach if necessary.

There is no right answer to this question, only wrong ones. You don’t need to make book out of this answer, just something short and positive is best. After all, it really does not matter to the interviewer, as long as you don’t say something foolish.

The point here is to convey to the interviewer that you are not leaving because you are mad, tired, bored, overworked, underpaid, or job hopping, just that you are leaving your job on because.

Share with the interviewer an example of a project that you worked on, perhaps you had to put in long hours and time on the weekend to meet a deadline and that in the end you completed the project or task on time and under budget and made your department or company look good.

“Yes; absolutely. It is not uncommon for my boss to tell me that I am one of the most reliable employees he has. He even makes such remarks on my evaluations. I believe he thinks so because I am dependable and I just get things done without having to be supervised and in the end it just makes him look good.”

This may seem like a trick question to many job candidates, but it really tells the potential employer what sets this person apart from the rest. This question may be difficult to practise ahead of time, as often the response is best phrased based on the flow of the interview itself. Listen and learn throughout, then use that information to ask the interviewing manager what they are looking for and play to that response in a relevant and honest way.

This isn’t an invitation to boast – you are being asked to match your strengths to the qualities needed to do the job. Don’t forget, it’s a very specific question. Why are you suited to this job, as opposed to any other? Thorough employer research will save the day, as it will enable you to match your skills, interests and experience to the job role and the company.