Finance associate Interview Questions
Finance associates utilise a wide variety of basic financial functions to provide clients with advice and guidance on strategic planning for long-term financial decisions. Companies and individuals look to them for financial expertise when deciding on a broad range of financial matters, including investments and annual budgets.
Top Finance Associate Interview Questions & How to Answer
Here are the top three finance associate interview questions and tips on how to answer them:
Question No. 1: Can you explain the steps needed in the tax preparation process?
How to answer: This open-ended question is designed to test your fundamental knowledge base of the financial skills involved in the process of preparing taxes and tax calculations as well as your ability to contribute to their team. You should work through a sample tax preparation scenario with a client from start to finish, highlighting areas in which your knowledge base is exceptional.
Question No. 2: Have you ever guided staff or a colleague with regard to financial regulation compliance? If so, what was your process? If not, how would you approach this?
How to answer: This open-ended question demonstrates your knowledge of standards, industry regulations and fiscal policies. It also provides proof of your ability to promote best practices when it comes to financial regulation compliance. Provide an example of working with a team using this process. If you have not guided anyone through this process, provide best practice steps and how you would work through them with a team.
Question No. 3: What is your preferred financial software? Why?
How to answer: This open-ended question is designed to showcase your knowledge of available financial software and your ability to evaluate the proficiency and applicability of such software. If possible, refer to several financial software options in which you are proficient so you can further demonstrate your breadth of knowledge in this area. Share how you have used, or would use, these software options.
What would you do, if you are in a situation where in you are requesting for a certain input from a very senior person in the management and he is not replying back to your emails, phone calls etc. And this input is crucial for you to meet a deadline.
8 Answers↳
to know the right way
↳
Convey to the right chanel
↳
I would start with emails, if that does not work, I would personally try to catch the supervisor and make sure I explain the situation or possible get the right advice I seek. Less
At a party everyone shakes hands, 66 hand shakes occur, how many people are at the party?
9 Answers↳
12
↳
You can suppose there are n people in the room and think of them in a row. The first one has to shake hands with (n-1) people (because he doesn't have to shake hands with himself). The second one has already shaken hands with the first one, so he has (n-2) shakes remaining... and so on. So you have to sum: (n-1)+(n-2)+(n-3)+...+1= (n/2)*(n-1) Then you have to solve (n/2)*(n-1)=66 and you get n=12. Less
↳
n(n-1)/2=66 so n=12
Pretend 1% of the population has a disease. You have a test that determines if you have that disease, but it's only 80% accurate and 20% of the time you get a false positive, how likely is it you have the disease.
8 Answers↳
1%. The first sentence gives you all the info you need.
↳
1% chance if using global population. Chances would decrease or increase depending on certain variable or demographic factors so I would say you need more data to give a specific answer. Things like age , gender , race , need to be taken into consideration if you are a 33 year old male and the subject disease is ovarial cancer then you have 0 percent chance . If you are a 40 year old nun and the disease is The clap you have less probably of being infected than say a 26 year old prostitute .. Less
↳
Sample: 1,000 X=10 P=.8 If the test is only 80% accurate then 8 of the 10 infected will be positive and 2 will walk around unbeknownst, but 20% of the non-infected population will be falsely identified, 1000-10=990 (non-infected) 990*.2=198 (false positive) + 8 (true positive)= 296 (total positive tests) Of this population only 8/296=2.7% were correctly identified. This is the chance you have the disease Less
Why Siemens? Tell me about yourself
7 Answers↳
Out of my over 30 years in Sales I have lead the most successful teams even through 2008 to 2012 which were very rough and tough times here in the states. My team remanded ever dedicated and we came up with creative ideas to make it through that recession. Less
↳
I have been in Sales and Sales development for over 30 years. I owned my own company for the first 12 years and we ranked number one more than once in our franchise history . I have strong team building skills and motivational skills as a leader. I have been top in my profession for almost all of those years. Less
↳
I would love to hear more about your opportunities. Thank you for your consideration Less
Walk me through your resume
6 Answers
Where will you be in five years’ time?
6 Answers↳
Working for the company
↳
In the next few years as a human resources practitioner, I am look forward to deepening my skills and taking my knowledge base to the next level so I can contribute even more to the growth of the organization. Less
↳
In the next few years as a human resources practitioner, I am look forward to deepening my skills and taking my knowledge base to the next level so I can contribute even more to the growth of the organization. Less
what product should we choose to carry if we only have one cube foot storage left in our warehouse?
6 Answers↳
Digital media.
↳
Gift cards
↳
Whatever carries the highest unit contribution margin. Need a decisioning metric which considers top line revenue along with variable costs. Less
You have a Balance Sheet, Income Statement, and a Cash Flow statement. If you could choose two out of the three statements, which two would you choose and why?
6 Answers↳
You can make the SCF from BS and IS
↳
This is a straight accounting question. You can make Cash Flow from Balance Sheet and Income Statement, so BS and IS is the answer! Less
↳
@hussein: There is only one correct answer, and it is the Balance Sheet and Income Statement. Less
Why do you want to work at sidra
5 Answers↳
I am biomedical engineering and i need a job so i can hel u in your company and i need to improve my self Less
↳
Carrier growth and development my skills in advance equipment
↳
I am a Family Nurse Practitioner, like work abroad had working experience at middle East , fluent in Arabic Less
There are two stocks with the same expected value, with variance 0.3 and 0.2 and correlation 0.5. What proportion of each stock do you invest in to yield a minimum risk portfolio?
5 Answers↳
17/44 of the stock with variance of .3 and 27/44 from the stock with variance of .2 Less
↳
No, if you can short, the variance could be reduced even further since the stocks are correlated. Less
↳
Above answers used variance in portfolio variance equation, rather than std. Answer is .386 for security with var .3, and .613 for security with var .2 Less