Have an upcoming interview? Stressed about what you might be asked? Fear not, as we have prepared a list of common interview questions here in this article! Excited? Read on!
Motivational questions
Tell us about yourself.
Why do you want to work here?
What can you bring to our company?
Why should we offer you the job over the other candidates?
What are your biggest strengths/weaknesses?
What are your short-term/long-term career goals, and how can this role help you achieve those goals?
Where do you see yourself in 5 years time?
What are 2 things about you that we should know which are not on your resume?
When answering these questions, the key is to focus on what the employer is looking for and your skills and qualities. Highlight your achievements, and back them up using personal examples from your studies, work, or extracurricular activities.
Behavioural questions
Describe a situation when you needed to persuade others to follow your idea. How did you convince them to agree with you?
Tell us about a situation in which you had to adjust to changes over which you had no control. How did you handle it?
Give us an example of a time you worked in a team environment. What did you contribute, and what did you learn from the experience? What worked well, and what would you change?
Describe a time when you have needed to use effective communication to resolve a difficult situation.
Describe a time when you made a mistake and how did you deal with it?
Tell us about a time when you had to deal with a difficult colleague.
In preparing for these, make sure you have a pool of different experiences to show you’re well-founded, and avoid using the same group assignment example at university for all questions. For certain questions on problems or difficulties you encountered, make sure to also talk about what you learnt or what you could’ve done differently, as this shows you’ve reflected and taken something away from the experience. Here is an example, using the STAR method outlined in this article:
“Once, at work, my manager asked me to pull over numbers from a financial model he was working on in Excel into a Word report. As I had various other tasks on hand at the same time, while this task was relatively simple, I did it quickly and assumed all figures were in dollar terms as the first few numbers were presented with ‘$’ in Excel. However, after completing the task, my manager let me know that some of the latter figures are actually in percentages, and after double-checking the model it appeared that I had overlooked the units of these numbers in my haste. Fortunately my manager had checked the report prior to submitting it to senior executives, but I still felt very ashamed of myself. This experience taught me to be meticulous in my work, and never neglect details or dismiss a task as small.”
Situational questions
What would you do if a client made a compliant about you/the firm?
What would you do if you disagreed with one of your colleagues?
Here is a problem we faced recently – how would you approach it?
Different companies will ask different situational questions, but the key for answering these is to be methodical in your thought process, as that is the most important part of your answer the recruiters focus on, rather than your conclusion.
Commercial awareness questions
What are factors that have affected financial markets in recent months? How will this impact on our clients?
What are your thoughts on (a recent news/trend)?
These questions test your business acumen and awareness of what is happening in the industry. Before your interview, make sure you do some research and read up on relevant financial news!
Now, it’s important to remember that these are only indicators of possible questions that might come up, nevertheless, having a bank of personal examples and responses will be extremely helpful in helping you overcome any tough question. Good luck!
