Dear Coco,
First of all I would like to thank you for your kindness and for doing the reference check for me so that I can secure this role. I would like to thank Kydie as well for her help during the internship. I have been through two interviews which I would like to share with everyone.
The first one is also the one I got offered is Accounts Manager which is basically doing everything in Accounts. I have been through three interviews and a trial before them giving me this offer.
The first interview was a phone interview by the HR manager. Questions she asked were as follows:
1. Have u experience any other accounting software? How about SAIG (which is commonly used in London)?
2. What is your career goal? ( I told her that I would like to become a qualified CPA)
3. Do you have any sales experience?
4. The job also includes PA to the owner, ordering meals, booking for flight ticket, so do you think you can handle them as well?
5. Have u ever experience in any foreign currency transactions?
Then she asked me for reference check, which was a bit strange procedure.
I find follow up is very important as in this job hunting experience I almost followed up every step.
So one week after the phone interview and reference check, I called the HR again and got a face to face interview.
Questions involved in the face to face interview were:
1. Tell me about yourself?
2. In this role, it would be only you as an accounting person, how would you do if something is new to you?
3. If we have the cashflow problem, which we couldn’t get enough cashflow for this week, however,
we have a bill due this week and the supplier was asking for the money, how would you do?
4. How far are you away from becoming a CPA?
5. Any questions you want to ask me?
(I asked a few accounting related questions which she was not quite sure about the answers, but she said I could ask the accountant next time.)
One week after, I called her and followed up again, then she arranged the final interview with the owner and the accountant.
The last interview went on very smooth, I asked the accountant a few accounting and work related questions before I met the owner.
Then the owner and I discussed a few marketing and international business issues which I had exposed to during my bachelor degree studies.
The second interview was Assistant Accountant position in a Charity association and I was interviewed by the Financial Director, and HR manager.
I didn’t make it successfully, however the feedback they gave me was very helpful.
They praised my resume, my interview performances and my personality;
however, as my lack of experience was a vital drawback for that position, they ended up with selecting someone else with more experience.
They had this 3-page questions list to ask during the interview.
1. Run me through your resume. (This is similar to the question like: tell me about yourself.)
2. What financial functions have you done during your FA experience?
(I told them I do AP/AR on daily basis, monthly Credit card and bank reconciliation, month end preparation: FAR, Prepayment, Accruals/ BAS.
Also exposed to Cost centre and P&L analysis)
3. Have you experienced in GL Reconciliation? How far have you been exposed to GL reconciliation?
(FAR, Prepayment, Bank reconciliations, and credit card.)
4. What do you know about GST?
(I told them in FA we deal with GST, FRE, N-T, and INP transactions. I also told them how to calculate the GST and PAYG on BAS.
This question was out of my expectation so didn’t answer well).
5. How do you get the data for your BAS lodgment?
(GST Summary report in MYOB and Payroll summary report from MYOB.)
6. What are the things that you like most and dislike most in your current job?
7. What would you do if your colleagues’ mistake has impact on your work?
8. What is your work ethic? Do you talk a lot?
9. What would you do if your colleagues become cranky?
10. How would you make sure the financial data you are provided with are reliable?
11. What values you can bring to our organization?
12. What is your salary expectation?
I would like to encourage everyone who is still struggling looking for a job to do follow-ups because it shows how passionate you are about the job and make sure you fully understand the job descriptions before you go to an interview.
Try to sell the strengths that are matching the job description.
Finally, best of luck for everyone!
Kaily |