Both private and public businesses need internal accounting. Despite the great recruitment demand and having excellent qualifications and professional capability, young people still cannot get this job. The reason is that the candidate cannot make an impression on the employer during the interview. If you are also in that situation, let's refer to the most helpful questions of the internal accounting job that Navigos Search shares below.
1. Frequently asked internal accounting interview questions
Could you briefly introduce yourself?
At the beginning of an interview, employers often ask candidates to briefly introduce themselves before starting specialized questions. This will help the employer get the necessary information and partly evaluate the highlights in the candidate's self-introduction.
Suggested answer:
Before beginning to introduce yourself, you should extend your sincere thank you to the employer for giving you the opportunity to participate in the interview. This makes them feel respected and gives you a positive review. In addition, extending the thank you to the employer before the interview begins shows that you are a polite, professional, and trustworthy candidate.
With this frequently asked question, let's briefly answer basic personal information, including full name, age, skills, education, experience, and aspirations for the position you are applying for.
You need to prepare knowledge, skills and interview questions
How long have you worked as an internal accountant? What are your achievements?
Through this question, the employer wants to know the candidate's experience and achievements as an internal accountant. From there, they can evaluate whether the candidate's qualifications are suitable for the position that the business needs.
Suggested answer:
It's better to answer correctly about your work experience. If you don't have any work experience in accounting, you should give some work experience in a similar position or your internship as an internal accountant. Thereby, the employer can see that you are suitable for an internal accountant job. For experienced candidates, let's specify the time to undertake that job at the old company and list the most outstanding achievements to prove you are the appropriate candidate.
View more: 5 steps to quickly search for a professional accountant
What are your strengths and weaknesses?
The employer wants to know more about you through this question. How do your strengths help the accounting position you are applying for? Does your weakness make it difficult for you to work?
Suggested answer:
The question about weaknesses and strengths is an opportunity for you to demonstrate your capabilities and prove to the employer that you are the best candidate. Let's answer this question skillfully by giving strengths that are useful for an accountant position like you're a person who is careful, fond of and good at numbers.
When it comes to weaknesses, you should list a few minor weaknesses and how to overcome them. With a convincing answer, you will win the employee's heart.
Why should we hire you?
This is an open-ended question for you to prove your marketability about yourself. If the answer is not to the point, your value is easy to be undervalued.
Suggested answer:
Think of yourself as a product and explain why customers should buy it. You must introduce the customer (interviewer) to the product (yourself) and how they will benefit from choosing the product?
Why should they listen to your offer?
Prove that you have enough knowledge, skills, and experience to do the job well and solve the troublesome problems that the business is facing in this position. Don't let the employee find your indecision through your question or give convincing answers such as "I have read the recruitment news of your company and I think I can undertake the job'' or “I am a hard worker”.
The best interview questions
What are the difficulties in working as an internal accountant? How did you overcome them?
For this type of question, the employer has two goals. The first goal is that they want to get more information about your knowledge and want to know whether you see your imperfections or if you can recognize your strengths and weaknesses.
The second one is that they want to know what type of person you are, whether you are willing to face difficulties or just avoid them.
Suggested answer:
Let's list one to two common internal accounting difficulties instead of listing them in series. Employers will not prioritize a candidate who is constantly struggling at work. When listing your difficulties, don't forget to state your way of solving the problem without affecting the work result. Besides, cleverly add the lesson you learned from that difficulty to your answer.
What accounting software have you used?
This is the base question for the employer's next ones, including what are your reviews on those software and which is best. Through these questions, they will assess whether you have experience in this field or if you have general knowledge about specialized accounting software.
Suggested answer:
Depending on the candidate's communication skills, many answers will be given. If you have ever worked with accounting software, list the exact names of those software. If you do not know about them, you should mention Microsoft Office skills such as Word and Excel to leave a lasting impression on employers during the interview process.
What skills do professional internal accountants need?
Employers are trying to test how well you understand and master the job. Thereby, they can know what skills you have prepared to meet for the position of internal accountant.
Suggested answer:
Internal accounting job requires heaps of skills. Therefore, you should not answer this question stereotypically but focus on outstanding skills. This will make your answers more natural and effective. You can mention agility, meticulousness and carefulness, communication skills, time management, logical thinking, etc.
What are your reasons for leaving your last job and why do you want to work at our company?
This is a common interview question that requires candidates to answer skillfully. If not, your effort in previous answers will go down the drain.
Suggested answer:
Try to give a positive answer, don’t say bad things about your old company or complain about the regime and salary, work pressure, or conflict with colleagues and boss. Answers for the reason why you leave your previous job will be the basis for the employer to evaluate your attitude.
You can give some objective reasons for this question. Some of them are because you want to challenge yourself in a new working environment, you can't continue working at the previous company due to some problems and personal plans, or it's inconvenient to travel as the old company is far away.
Prepare in advance a set of frequently asked interview questions and give answers confidently
2. Some other internal accounting interview questions
In addition to the questions above, employers use many other questions to interview candidates. Let's continue to refer to some of the following questions, make an outline, and find the best answer to impress the business you are applying for.
- What is the most crucial factor for an internal accountant?
- What are your career goals for the upcoming years?
- Do you want to have a long-term job as an accountant?
- What do you know about our company?
- How do you minimize your mistakes at work?
- What do you do if the business budget is unbalanced?
- What are the prime duties of an internal accountant?
- Could you tell us the importance of internal accounting?
- What criteria do you use to assess the reliability of the financial information received?
To answer these questions well, you should find information about the business on the website, reviews on the internet, or even consult information from predecessors.
3. How to put the question back to the employer
The above are the most frequently asked questions when interviewing for internal accounting jobs. After answering all of those questions, you should prepare a few critical questions to ask back when allowed. You can refer to the following suggestions:
- Although I have studied the internal accounting work quite carefully, can I know more details to better understand this job?
- If I get this job, how should I follow the company rules?
- May I know about the company's benefits and regimes?
- Does the company provide additional external training for the internal accounting position?
- What is your company's career advancement?
- Will the interview results be emailed or published directly on the website?
- If I pass the recruitment process, when can I start my job?
In addition, you must limit mentioning money, leave, gender of personnel in the business, working overtime, business performance, and reasons former employees leave their job as they will affect your image in the employer's eyes.
Don't forget to say thank you at the end of the interview
4. Tips for internal accounting interview
Searching the information about the employer and the position you are applying for
Before participating in the interview, you should search for information about the company and the position you are applying for to be more confident and proactive. The overview information about company activities and orientation will be the foundation step to help you answer the interview smoothly.
Most of the business information is available on the official website system. Find it out to better prepare so that you can answer smoothly when the employer mentions it. Thanks to that, they also appreciate your initiative and enthusiasm at work.
Being on time
It's necessary to arrive 10-15 minutes before the interview time. It is neither too early nor too late to cause a delay. Based on your punctuality style, employers can judge whether you are serious at work or not. Therefore, you must pay attention to the time to create a professional image.
Choosing appropriate interview outfit
For an internal accounting job interview, you should choose polite outfits that suit the office environment. If you're a female candidate, do light makeup to be more confident and make an impression with a well-groomed image in the interview. The dressing style will partly show your attitude for that interview and the job later.
Having a progressive attitude
You should keep your progressive attitude, confidence, and comfort during the interview process. When introducing yourself, your introduction should be brief, you should avoid being too ostentatious and focus on your outstanding strengths to stand out from other candidates.
Ending the interview professionally
The end of the interview is not the time to stop impressing the employer. After the interview is over, you should bow and say thank you sincerely and politely. Next, send an email to thank the employer for giving you the interview opportunity and help you know the shortcomings you need to improve. This action will help the employer feel that you are a sophisticated, perfectionist, and a person who constantly improves yourself.
Internal accounting is not a challenging job, and not everyone can undertake it. Therefore, you should prepare the interview carefully to make a good impression on the employer to increase your chances of getting hired.
If you do not know where to find quality internal accounting jobs, don't hesitate to visit the Navigos Search website. Considered the leading recruitment site for middle and high-level personnel in Vietnam, Navigos Search updates accounting positions and many other attractive jobs daily. By sending your CV to us, our consultants will search for the most suitable employer based on your capacity, experience, and labor market situation.
Professional consulting team at Navigos Search
With over 20 years in personnel recruitment, Navigos Search has brought millions of quality jobs at large enterprises to job seekers nationwide. Internal accounting jobs and many other hot positions with high salaries and extensive career opportunities are waiting for you at Navigos Search. Don't hesitate to contact us to receive top-notch services and get your dream job quickly.
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