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Learn how to answer these Financial Analyst interview questions before you walk into your next interview!
Whether you're seeking an entry level job as a Financial Analyst or are interested in obtaining a better position to advance your career, you know how important it is to make a great impression on interviewers. Fortunately, you don't need to rely on luck to ace those interviews, if you properly prepare for the most common Financial Analyst interview questions.
To help you with that preparation, we've compiled 27 general, technical, and behavioral Financial Analyst interview questions, along with great sample answers, that you can customize to create responses that show what you can bring to the company.
Common Financial Analyst interview questions
1. What made you decide to pursue a career as a Financial Analyst?
“That's a great question. My love affair with numbers began as a small child and has continued throughout my life - long before I started to realize just how powerful data can be when it comes to fueling progress and enriching people's lives. By the time I was in high school, I knew that I wanted a career that would merge my love of data with my analytical thinking, and eventually realized that this role perfectly aligned my passion and talents.”
2. What's your greatest strength and how can it benefit our firm?
“I would have to say that my greatest strength is my commitment to detail. While some Analysts can easily get focused on the big picture to the exclusion of those details, I've always found that the underlying data points have their own story to tell. As your Analyst, I would always be mindful of those minor details that often provide early warnings about emerging trends - both positive and negative.”
3. Describe your biggest weakness to me and explain why it won't stop you from being great in this position
“I've been told that my perfectionism can sometimes be disruptive in a collaborative environment, so that's something that I try to be cognizant of in my daily work. Thankfully, that self-awareness keeps me grounded and helps me to focus on not only being as accurate as possible, but on keeping the team moving forward too.”
4. What goals would you have for your first couple of months in this job?
“After the initial onboarding process, I'd focus on solidifying my familiarity with the company's financials through consultation and collaboration with my supervisors and team members. I'd also focus on acclimating myself to the company's communication and reporting processes. I'd strive to be acclimated and ready for productive analysis well within that 60-day time limit.”
5. Where do you see yourself in five years?
“Five years from now, I'd like to see myself as the person that management turns to when they need answers to complex financial questions. As someone who believes that the solution to most problems can be found somewhere in the underlying data, I'd like my analysis to be a major tool to drive the company's future profitability and success.”
6. Are you better working alone or in collaboration with others?
“I like to think that I am equally productive in either setting. However, there's a time and place for everything. In my previous role, our process often involved individual Analysts working on separate parts of a project and then collaborating at the end to merge ideas, perform a more holistic analysis, and create conclusions that were used to generate valuable reports.”
7. What tools do you typically rely on for report creation?
“I pride myself on being tech savvy and have done my best to familiarize myself with a wide variety of analytical tools like Cube, Limelight, Clockwork, Maplesoft, and Oracle BI. Of course, Excel is a valuable tool that gets regular use for all analysis. I've found that most common analysis software programs can be highly effective if they can meet my data collection, management, and visualization needs.”
8. Why do you want to work with our company?
“I've been following [company name]'s success for some time now and have always been impressed by your data-driven approach to decision-making. That focus on using data to create solutions has been a passion of mine for many years now and has determined my career trajectory. As a member of your team, I would bring that same commitment to data-driven solutions to this organization.”
9. How do you deal with pressure while maintaining the highest level of quality in your work?
“My view on pressure is that it's just one more thing to manage. Pressures are all around us when we're working, so it's important to be able to recognize stressors so that they don't catch you unawares. I always try to prioritize what needs to be done and commit to firm deadlines. Give every competing issue its own set deadline, and many of those stressors seem to magically disappear.”
Financial Analyst technical interview questions
10. If our company is showing positive cash flow, does that mean that we're doing well? And if not, why not?
“It might indicate sound financial health, but it could also mask some underlying issues. For example, it's possible to show positive cash flow if you've been putting off outgoing payments while getting rid of inventory. In that case, the delayed payments would create the illusion of positive cash flow.
Another example might occur if the company is enjoying good revenues for a few months, but underlying trends strongly suggest that future revenues will be dramatically reduced. The only way to know for sure would be to examine other financial reports to ensure that the cash flow statement is consistent with other financial data.”
11. Briefly describe the several types of financial statements
“There's the cash flow statement, which details inflows and outflows of cash from financing, investing, and operational activities. There's also the balance sheet, which breaks down assets, liabilities, and equity - the things it possesses, its overall debts, and its net value. Then there's the income statement that provides details about incoming revenue, outgoing expenses, and net income. Finally, there's the shareholder's equity statement that shows shareholders' assets after liabilities.”
12. If I asked you for a snapshot report of the company's financial data, what would you include in that report?
“Generally, I'd want to make sure that I provided all the key metrics that our leadership team typically wanted to see. That would include important indicators like cash flow, revenue trends, expenses, and net profits - but could include other details depending on the team's focus. I'd also want to include details about my analysis of each metric, to ensure that the team received the contextual information that it might need.”
13. Imagine that you submit a report that you later realize is not entirely accurate. Now imagine that nobody but you realized that it was wrong. What would you do?
“I was part of a team several years ago that produced an assessment for company management that contained some conclusions based on erroneous data. A co-worker and I discovered the mistake two days after our team leader submitted the report, and we immediately brought it to her attention and corrected the error that same day. Given that executive teams rely so heavily on our analysis, it's vital to quickly take ownership of any errors, make corrections, and update analysis, and ensure that leaders have the information and conclusions they need to make the best decisions.”
14. If you were asked to help us design a better budget process, what would your input be?
“Obviously, my exact input would depend on what the current process looks like. But I can tell you which factors I would be interested in looking at as I analyzed that process. I would consider whether the current process has the right level of departmental buy-in, how effectively it has been adjusted to accommodate margin of error, and its historical effectiveness in promoting the company's strategic vision and mission.”
15. When would an analysis lead you to recommend a merger or acquisition?
“I would need to see some specific benefits that our company could enjoy before I would recommend any M&A. Specifically, my analysis would need to strongly suggest that we could achieve cost savings that were otherwise unobtainable, gain access to new markets, gain a major competitive advantage over a rival, or secure new technologies or other innovations.”
16. Imagine that you're tasked with advising our Chief Financial Officer. What types of issues would concern you the most?
“Without reviewing the firm's finances to be sure, I can confidently say that I might lose sleep over some of the same worries that impact many companies in this industry. For example, I would be concerned about vital things like margins, our rate of growth, and sustainable profitability. Liquidity ratios, ROA, capital assets, and credit metrics would also have my attention. Finally, there are issues like cash flow, capital needs, the regulatory environment, and even the company's culture.”
17. If I forced you to assess this company's financial health by reviewing only one statement, which one would you ask to see?
“Given the significant role that cash flow plays in company health, I would tend to rely on that report if I were forced to make that kind of snap judgment. While cash flow may not always tell the entire story, it does provide vital information about the amount of cash that's coming in. That can at least enable me to quickly identify cash flow problems that might indicate more serious financial health issues.”
18. How do you know when to capitalize or expense a purchase?
“To properly determine the answer to that question, you only need to know the anticipated useful life assumption of the item. If the purchase will benefit the company for more than one year, then it should be capitalized. If the expected benefits are of a more short-term nature - less than a year - then the cost should be expensed.”
Financial Analyst behavioral interview questions
19. Tell me about your biggest mistake as a Financial Analyst and what you learned from the experience
“In my first job as a Financial Analyst, I was given a solo project with a tight deadline. The instructions seemed simple enough, so I only asked a couple of straightforward questions. Had I probed further, I would have figured out that certain key information was missing. By not asking more questions, I set myself up for a failed analysis. That lesson taught me to never assume anything; always ask questions.”
20. Describe a project when you faced a tough deadline. How did you overcome the challenge?
“A few years ago, our team had a project with a short deadline and created a plan to ensure that everyone's contributions could get the job done in time. Then two of our executives had a sudden change to their schedule and announced that the reports needed to be submitted several days early. As a team, we came together to modify our work plan to meet that new deadline.”
21. Tell me about an instance where you disagreed with a colleague and how you resolved that conflict
“I'm reminded of a time several years ago, when a new colleague from a different branch of the company was assigned to our team for two months. She insisted on doing things her way, which rubbed several of my team members the wrong way. I had to schedule a meeting with her so that we could discuss common ground solutions for working together. In the end, she recognized that the team was simply following our branch's established policies and the rest of her time with us was extremely productive.”
22. How would you break down a complex analysis to someone who had no familiarity with financial terms?
“The important thing is to avoid dragging them down any jargon-enriched rabbit holes and simply explain terms in ordinary language. For example, instead of discussing cash flow issues by talking about inflows and outflows, I would discuss how money moves into and out of the company, and why it matters in any thoughtful analysis.”
23. Imagine that we asked you to take the lead in a meeting with an important investor. What would you say to convince them that our company is healthy and worthy of their investment?
“I would focus on the fundamentals. Great investors always look to company fundamentals to help them assess an investment's prospects, so I would highlight important metrics like recent earnings reports, our key financial ratios, and future projected growth. Those vital metrics could tell a compelling story about our company's current financial stability and prospects for future success.”
24. Describe a time when your advice helped your superiors to make better business decisions
“I had been on temporary assignment to a different office during an analysis project related to a prospective merger. When I came back, I had an opportunity to review the report that our team had prepared and submitted - and immediately understood that the underlying model they used was based on two faulty assumptions. I reassessed the analysis based on the corrected model and then brought those different conclusions to my superior. That analysis ended up saving the company a billion dollars.”
25. Tell me about a time when your awareness of current events provided needed context that you used to offer better advice to your bosses
“My team and I had made some forecasts based on current inflationary indicators several years ago and correctly predicted that interest rates might be headed upward. Of course, that would have had a direct impact on the timing of several of the company's planned loans and property purchases, so we advised that those plans be expedited before any hikes could go into effect.”
26. Describe the most difficult project you've ever had to deal with
“I once worked on a complex project for a retail chain, which required us to analyze ten years of statements to identify trends, areas where costs could be reduced, and key opportunities for improvements. That was also the saddest project, since the client failed to take our advice and ended up going bankrupt six months later.”
27. Have you ever offered advice that helped to change the business culture of your employer's company?
“One project that focused on identifying cost-savings and efficiencies saw us recommend process streamlining that had a direct impact on workplace productivity and our culture. The new processes helped our staff to refocus on core productivity in a way that resulted in improved morale and employee retention.”
Prepare for Financial Analyst interview questions for greater interview success
Of course, these are just a few of the many potential Financial Analyst interview questions you might encounter during your next job interview. However, by learning how to prepare effective answers to these questions, you should be able to quickly produce stellar responses to anything an employer might ask.
Still not sure that you're ready to field complex Financial Analyst interview questions? If that's the case, then take a moment to consult with our expert interview coaches to ensure that you're up to the task!