The preparation guide to be Interview-ready!

  

Hello Everyone!

The result season is here and heartiest congratulations to all who've cleared with flying colours! The journey so far was gruelling but the path ahead is no less (not trying to scare but a reality check beforehand is always better).

Becoming a CA is a great milestone but it is only battle half won. At this point in time, I really want to burst the bubble that one is going to get jobs on the platter (and rank holders are no exception). The world there out is extremely competitive and one really needs to stand out to bag their desired roles.

Having experienced multiple interview opportunities across my journey (during articleship, industrial training and post-qualification) and having a great bunch of people around to guide me through this, I believe I am in a decent position to write about the process in detail.

We Chartered Accountants are never trained for such processes and often lack the correct approach here. By way of this article, I desire to list down at length the aspects which are extremely essential for cracking interviews with top firms/corporates. Hope the same really helps in bridging the gap!

There are 2 broad aspects that I would want to talk about here -

- The preparation checklist covering broadly the areas to check out while preparing

- The approach and attitude during the interview

1. Preparation checklist

    Trying to exhaustively cover all the important areas - a tick on all the below would make one interview-ready to a great extent -

• Building the 'stand out' resume-

This is the most important step which is actually going to give you a ticket for the actual interview. Not going into a lot of detail since this can be a standalone topic in itself. 

But one tip - make sure the most important aspects of the CV are highlighted in a summary paragraph at the start of the CV so that it does not skip the eye of the recruiter.

For eg - Rank XX, Articleship with XX, or National level player in XX

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• The 'Introduce yourself' answer

This really sets the tone/direction of the interview and has to be prepared well in advance.  Try to frame the answer in the form of a story- touching upon the foundation to academics to work ex, extracurricular, hobbies and career aspirations.

It is preferable to not get into too many specifics (like mentioning the % secured at various levels) but the idea should be to get the interviewer to know you better as a person.

There is a high chance that the interviewer could pick up something unique from this answer and the following questions could revolve around the same.

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• HR questions

These are going to be the most common and frequent questions asked in any interview. Examples of such questions would be -

 -Strengths and weaknesses

-Family background

-Biggest achievements

-Why CA/Why this Industry/Why this Company/Why shift from XX to XX

-Give an instance where you could demonstrate your leadership/team player skills/problem solving     skills

For such questions, it is advisable to prepare a document with well-thought answers to all the questions and read it once before going for any interview. These questions must be carefully answered to build a good impression.

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• Articleship/Training experience

 This question has a lot of emphasis for freshers. The only way to gauge your work-related aptitude would be to question around the articleship experience.

Make sure you're prepared for questions like -

 - Work profile in little detail

- Biggest learning

- Challenging situation

- Best assignment/Working with listed clients (if any)

- Qualitative traits

- Technical questions related to the profile (Audit/Tax)

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• Current Affairs/Budget Amendments/Economic policies

 This is been asked a lot recently to gauge the ability of candidates to be updated with the current trends. Try to read about -

 - Trending Business news/Political issues/Economic or Industry trends - Eg: Farmers protests/Bitcoin/Gamestop Saga

- Budget updates - Very important (Especially anything in the budget that would impact that organisation/industry)

- Economic policies and fair idea of Interest rates/Stock market trends etc.

 Reading the newspaper on regular basis for a few days before the interview really helps! All you got to do is install the right apps and switch on the notifications in case you are not habituated.

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• Company Research

Knowing the company you are interviewing for is equally important. Make sure to study their website well and focus on the following -

- The product portfolio/brands

- Vision statement/Cultural highlights

- Annual report glance through with a focus on Current profits/EPS/Few important ratios (Debt-equity ratio/Current ratio)

- Chairmans' letter

- Company in recent news - Any M&A transactions/Any new initiatives/CSR

- Anything that is unique/uncommon for the company/industry 

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• Technical questions

Generally, people focus on this bucket a lot and ignore all others. But the irony is that very few companies tend to focus a lot on technicals (as far as my experience goes). You are a CA and that defines your technical capabilities to a large extent but what interviewers generally gauge is a little different than what you think.

 The widely tested skills here are -

 - Ability to explain complex concepts in a layman's language

- Your understanding of logic behind provisions and frameworks

- Your ability to look at the bigger picture and practical insights

 Apart from glancing through your academic books, make sure you also know how are things applied practically. The major focus here should be on 2 aspects - the profile you are interviewing for and the profile you have worked into.

 Eg - If I am interviewing for a finance role and I have done my articleship in tax - then my major focus should be to review the technicals of finance and tax rather than focusing a lot on accounting and auditing standards.

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• Hobbies and extracurriculars

The interview generally tends to revolve around your hobbies if you really have a unique/uncommon element there. And if you do, make sure you know about it in a lot of detail (avoid bluffing hobbies since this may ruin your interview if you are not able to prove that you are really into it).

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• COVID implications 

Since we are interviewing in times of Covid, one can expect questions around-

 - Covid impact on that industry

- Covid initiatives by the company

- Shift in buying patterns/distribution during Covid and so on...

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Note - This pretty sums up the preparation part. However, in most interviews- even if you mess up a little on the above questions, having the right attitude and approach can get you in. I can't emphasize the importance of the approach/attitude enough during interviews.

 2. Right Approach and Attitude -

    Sharing a few tips in this regard which worked wonders for me and for a lot of people I have interacted with -

• Be as natural and real/honest as possible -  People do think that manipulation gets you in but honesty is far much appreciated

•  Appear interested and eager - the interviewer must really sense that you are pretty much interested in the role 

• Confidence - Appear confident but do not overdo it

• Logical approach - It is absolutely alright to not know the final answer but if you try and approach any question logically - the job is done

• It is absolutely okay to say 'I am not fully aware at the moment but would definitely read about this post the interview'

• Demonstrating eagerness to learn and grow is what most people look at

• Do not lose your calm during a stress interview - they are only trying to see your ability to deliver under pressure. Once you realise it is a stress interview, give your best short irrespective of the interviewer's response.

• No bluffing or making up things - doesn't work well with a lot of recruiters

• Be smiling and cheerful - helps to build more comfort and helps in easing out the conversation

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Additionally, try and think of 2-3 relevant and genuine questions that you would want to ask at the end of every interview.

The above is pretty exhaustive for all kinds of interviews. Any specific questions - happy to take up! Also, do let me know any suggestions for upcoming posts.

Thank you!