本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛I am very sorry to hear the interview did not go as well as you had wished. Hope there are more opportunites lying ahead and you crop the best out of your past experience and land a job successfully soon. I wish to make the follwoing comments, if I may. Personal opinion for your consideration only.
In principal,
1. Get the message from interview questions;
2. Clearly demonstrate your knowledge and experience, with simple and basic examples.
3. Speak the truth, reason with positive thinking and provide a solution or lessons learned.
Based on what you had described, here are some comments for your consideration.
(controller): What kind of clients you have at your place? do you have any clients like us?
(Me): we have variety of different clients, mainly in transportations, restaurants, telecommunications, gas stations, and so on. We target at small to medium business. We don't have any clients exactly like yours,
Comments: With the former part of the question, the controller is making a general inquiry of your prior work experience. You can make a general statement just like you did, but follow by naming one or two big name client with dollar amount of their annula sales/revenue or audit revenue to your prior firm. This is to demonstrate that you have sound experience in complex transactions and/or high profile clients. With the latter part of the question, he was probing into your knowledge of his industry. If you have serviced similar clients, great! Even if you have not, you can honestly say so, but most importantly, go on to demonstrate your knowledge of his industry (you need to do homework in advance of course), tell him you have studied the typical challenges/accounting issue of his industry in terms of accounting and what you think the solution lie in in general. This level of depth in research and thinking demonstrate your understanding of their business, your accounting knowledge in specific areas, and above all, a problem-solving spirit that actually presents a SOLUTION thinking in his shoes.
(C): In all of these different business, what kind of business you like the best to work on?
(M): I like to work on restaurant business the best (Geez, I talked to myself in my mind, that is the most problem ones with cash issues, why I said that); actually, it really depends on how organize the company's paper work....
Comments: Do you really only like client who gave you good paper work? Think further along that idea! If your favourite past client was in a similar industry , great, substantiate why this industry attracts you. E.g. Interst in industry knowledge? Spcialty in their operation? Profitablity? What all these mean to you (including good paper work)?--sound governance? good control system? positive culture? You have establish a positive working relationship with your client? Even if your favourite past client is in a different industry, it does not matter. Speak so, but try to draw similarity, demonstrate your knowledge on difference between the two companies, naturally move onto talking about what you know about the industry this company is in.
(C): Do you use accured basis to record accounting book?
(M): yes, we do. however, we will depends on our clients requirement to design the most effective way for us to do work. GAAP requries accured basis, but tax are more cash basis. sometimes, we will directly record according to tax for some accounts in order to save our time for adjustments. (I was assuming he asking this question to see whether I know anything between accure basis and cash basis).
Comments: Yes, your assumption sound right , but you may not have demonstrated well that you know the difference between cash basis and accrual basis. More homework for you to do. The key here is to show what the key adjusting entries are to make at the end of each accounting period, in general. Stick to a basic example, walk him through (debit, credit) the entries and procedure of making accrual adjusting entries to entries previously recorded on cash basis (due to efficiency concern). Reconciliation from accounting income to taxable income is basic knowledge that you should always be able to demonstration in key details. However, this is not so relevant to address his question here. If I were you, I would ask him in return, what he feels is a typical issue in using accrual basis in accounting for his company's business, and then think along with him and see if you have a good idea to share.
(C): Our company is fairly new. our structure is not very complicated, (goes on talking about the company structure)........we accepting new ideas.........so at your current job. Was there any time that you have different opinion on way of doing things? What did you do?
(M): My bosses are very nice and they accepting recommendations for betterments (Actually they don't), My boss asked me to reconcile his invoices to cash in bank account. because there was so many partial payments, I found it was hard to reconcile. I reconmmended my boss to set up a clearing accoun and reconcile through clearing account, and my boss accepted my recommendation. (I don't have an example, and I just made it up, I think I just combined all different activities from different clients and put all together, I guess it sounds too fake)
Comments: To address a question like this, the general working practice I have seen is like this. It is always good to be proactive in making recommendations to improve the process, however, it makes huge difference how you present the idea to your boss. As well, your boss does not have to accept everything you suggest. Acceptance depends on many factors in the organization. Your role is to collect data, provide a sound business case with good observation, state ideas clearly. The decision right stays with your boss. He may have other considerations, which may be unknown to you, at your current level in the organization or in your professional capacity. Rejecting your suggestions does not necessarily make your boss a bad leader.
Your story does not sound fake at all. Yes, in an interview, it can be necessary to provide a story combing multiple past work experiences. The purpose is not just to tell a story, but to demonstrate your knowledge and experience clearly in one example. In your case ,not using and /or clearing the clearing accounts is a typical treasury management issue with most companies. Solving mess in bank reconcilation process through proper use of clearing account is a great idea and a strong topic to discuss about. Train yourself to develop positive thinking from negative facts alike. It is ok to tell the fact that you previous supervisor is not very open to suggestions, but show that you understant the reasons behind. For examples, if the company is well-established with complex org structures, heavy sunk investment in information management, in stable business, involving complex transactions, abrupt changes have to be considered very carefully and changes are not easy to materialize in the short term. Your attitude of not taking this issue personally but understanding from a broader perspective will be much appreciated.
When you say " there was one client who was in audit, the client came to us for preparing his audit documents.", I really do not get it what you are talking about. So be more clear. Foresee these questions when you prepare for the interview. What is the impact from not using/clearing a clearing account? What is the benefit of using it? How to use this control efficiently and effectively? What do you think is the reason it was accepted by your boss or rejected? Any comments from the users acknowledging the recommendation is very helpful to them?
(C): How much you get paid at your current job?
(M): I am not get paid very high, because I was fresh graduate at time I got offer. and my salary is at $XXX/hour.
(C): Actually our budget for this position is only $XXX/year, (Only about $2000 to $3000 higher), however, we provide benefit..............it is not only a job, but a lifestyle..........give out so much compliments on this company.......
(M): Yes, I agree with you that money is not the only thing to measure the value of a job. I am still very interest in this position, because it provides me more opportunities to learn something different.
Comments: Good reasoning for not getting a satisfatory salary upon graduation, but you could have landed on a stronger position to ask for what you deserve. The key here is to logically reason why you deserve your target salary. Yes, salary at entry level may have been low. However your investment into your professional experience can include, for example, XXX years of experience, working towards a professional designation if any, you know from agents or friends in similar position how much the market price ususally is, and therefore, if the budget allows, you would appreciate the controller taking all these tremendous growth in your professional capacity into consideration and see if you can get your target salary range (be specific and reasonable). If the controller takes the budget as a strong excuse and can not offer you more than what he says in base salary, take what he said, negotiate on the soft component. E.g. what will be the bonuse range upon satisfatory performance? Will his support your further professional development? (be specific, e.g. payment of annual professional dues, supporting part-time studies), what is the policy and likelihood on overtime payment, what are the strengths in the company's benefit package and profit sharing plans, etc.
Yeah yeah yeah, money is not the only consideration, but make a clear point that it is a good part of your decision to make an important change in career. If you really want the job, feel you can work with the controller, you can soften this point by saying, from this interview, you are happy you share similar view point on quality work and best practices and you look forward to a great career development opportunity under his guidance and look forward to buidling a positive working relationship with him.
(C): What is your reason for leaving your current job?
(M): I am planning to move from public accounting to private. At our company, we do lots of corporate tax returns, which is not what I plan to do for my future. I am more interest in accounting book. I hope I can grow with one company.
Comments: Good reason, but need to work on how your present them in a positive style. Indidate that this is a very necesary milestone change to move from public accounting to private industry. It is time to harvest from all your previous work experience from a very wide client basis, from your strong skills obtained from a highly competitive multitaking environemnt, and bring those into a company that needs and appeciare these skills and experience.
(C): Have you ever done budgeting and forecasting?
(M): No. I didn't have chance to do this part, but I am very excited if I can have opportunity to learn at this new position.
Comments: Frank answer, but do not stop there. Even if you have not done so, tell him what you know basically about budgeting and what is the typical issue that can go wrong in the budgeting process. Then tell him that you have great learning capcacity and you have full confidence that you can take on this task very quickly.
(C): You mentioned you are enrolled in CGA level 4, how you take the courses and how many at a time, when you will get your designation?
(M): It mostly is online courses, I am takeing one course at a time, and If I can sucessfully pass every course, I will finish all the courses by winter 2011.
Comments: Expand your discussion. The controller is concerned that your study may impact your future work load. So address his potential concern, focus on how CGA will eventually benefit your work. Tell him you make work a priority still, but in the long term, you look for professional development. Avoid talking about a very aggressive study plan. If I were you, I would directly ask him how he feels about it and if he has any concerns. Ask him to say something and you can see if he has any concerns. Address his concern on the spot, peruage him that he should have no conerns.
(C): Which part of accounting you like the best?
(M): (I was little bit confused) I like general accounting, I like to see full picture of the company . ( I was not sure how to answer, and why he asked this question)...........(after I answered this question
Comments: mmmm, you need to do some more homework. What do you mean by "general accounting"? Are you talking about GAAP conceptual framework? If you mean to get a full picture of the company, that is financial statement preparation. Be speciric. If you look at this question from the controller's perspective, ares can be AP, AR, Cash management, cash flow statement, Payroll accounting, pension accounting, trial balancing and reporting, tax reconcilliation, etc.更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net
In principal,
1. Get the message from interview questions;
2. Clearly demonstrate your knowledge and experience, with simple and basic examples.
3. Speak the truth, reason with positive thinking and provide a solution or lessons learned.
Based on what you had described, here are some comments for your consideration.
(controller): What kind of clients you have at your place? do you have any clients like us?
(Me): we have variety of different clients, mainly in transportations, restaurants, telecommunications, gas stations, and so on. We target at small to medium business. We don't have any clients exactly like yours,
Comments: With the former part of the question, the controller is making a general inquiry of your prior work experience. You can make a general statement just like you did, but follow by naming one or two big name client with dollar amount of their annula sales/revenue or audit revenue to your prior firm. This is to demonstrate that you have sound experience in complex transactions and/or high profile clients. With the latter part of the question, he was probing into your knowledge of his industry. If you have serviced similar clients, great! Even if you have not, you can honestly say so, but most importantly, go on to demonstrate your knowledge of his industry (you need to do homework in advance of course), tell him you have studied the typical challenges/accounting issue of his industry in terms of accounting and what you think the solution lie in in general. This level of depth in research and thinking demonstrate your understanding of their business, your accounting knowledge in specific areas, and above all, a problem-solving spirit that actually presents a SOLUTION thinking in his shoes.
(C): In all of these different business, what kind of business you like the best to work on?
(M): I like to work on restaurant business the best (Geez, I talked to myself in my mind, that is the most problem ones with cash issues, why I said that); actually, it really depends on how organize the company's paper work....
Comments: Do you really only like client who gave you good paper work? Think further along that idea! If your favourite past client was in a similar industry , great, substantiate why this industry attracts you. E.g. Interst in industry knowledge? Spcialty in their operation? Profitablity? What all these mean to you (including good paper work)?--sound governance? good control system? positive culture? You have establish a positive working relationship with your client? Even if your favourite past client is in a different industry, it does not matter. Speak so, but try to draw similarity, demonstrate your knowledge on difference between the two companies, naturally move onto talking about what you know about the industry this company is in.
(C): Do you use accured basis to record accounting book?
(M): yes, we do. however, we will depends on our clients requirement to design the most effective way for us to do work. GAAP requries accured basis, but tax are more cash basis. sometimes, we will directly record according to tax for some accounts in order to save our time for adjustments. (I was assuming he asking this question to see whether I know anything between accure basis and cash basis).
Comments: Yes, your assumption sound right , but you may not have demonstrated well that you know the difference between cash basis and accrual basis. More homework for you to do. The key here is to show what the key adjusting entries are to make at the end of each accounting period, in general. Stick to a basic example, walk him through (debit, credit) the entries and procedure of making accrual adjusting entries to entries previously recorded on cash basis (due to efficiency concern). Reconciliation from accounting income to taxable income is basic knowledge that you should always be able to demonstration in key details. However, this is not so relevant to address his question here. If I were you, I would ask him in return, what he feels is a typical issue in using accrual basis in accounting for his company's business, and then think along with him and see if you have a good idea to share.
(C): Our company is fairly new. our structure is not very complicated, (goes on talking about the company structure)........we accepting new ideas.........so at your current job. Was there any time that you have different opinion on way of doing things? What did you do?
(M): My bosses are very nice and they accepting recommendations for betterments (Actually they don't), My boss asked me to reconcile his invoices to cash in bank account. because there was so many partial payments, I found it was hard to reconcile. I reconmmended my boss to set up a clearing accoun and reconcile through clearing account, and my boss accepted my recommendation. (I don't have an example, and I just made it up, I think I just combined all different activities from different clients and put all together, I guess it sounds too fake)
Comments: To address a question like this, the general working practice I have seen is like this. It is always good to be proactive in making recommendations to improve the process, however, it makes huge difference how you present the idea to your boss. As well, your boss does not have to accept everything you suggest. Acceptance depends on many factors in the organization. Your role is to collect data, provide a sound business case with good observation, state ideas clearly. The decision right stays with your boss. He may have other considerations, which may be unknown to you, at your current level in the organization or in your professional capacity. Rejecting your suggestions does not necessarily make your boss a bad leader.
Your story does not sound fake at all. Yes, in an interview, it can be necessary to provide a story combing multiple past work experiences. The purpose is not just to tell a story, but to demonstrate your knowledge and experience clearly in one example. In your case ,not using and /or clearing the clearing accounts is a typical treasury management issue with most companies. Solving mess in bank reconcilation process through proper use of clearing account is a great idea and a strong topic to discuss about. Train yourself to develop positive thinking from negative facts alike. It is ok to tell the fact that you previous supervisor is not very open to suggestions, but show that you understant the reasons behind. For examples, if the company is well-established with complex org structures, heavy sunk investment in information management, in stable business, involving complex transactions, abrupt changes have to be considered very carefully and changes are not easy to materialize in the short term. Your attitude of not taking this issue personally but understanding from a broader perspective will be much appreciated.
When you say " there was one client who was in audit, the client came to us for preparing his audit documents.", I really do not get it what you are talking about. So be more clear. Foresee these questions when you prepare for the interview. What is the impact from not using/clearing a clearing account? What is the benefit of using it? How to use this control efficiently and effectively? What do you think is the reason it was accepted by your boss or rejected? Any comments from the users acknowledging the recommendation is very helpful to them?
(C): How much you get paid at your current job?
(M): I am not get paid very high, because I was fresh graduate at time I got offer. and my salary is at $XXX/hour.
(C): Actually our budget for this position is only $XXX/year, (Only about $2000 to $3000 higher), however, we provide benefit..............it is not only a job, but a lifestyle..........give out so much compliments on this company.......
(M): Yes, I agree with you that money is not the only thing to measure the value of a job. I am still very interest in this position, because it provides me more opportunities to learn something different.
Comments: Good reasoning for not getting a satisfatory salary upon graduation, but you could have landed on a stronger position to ask for what you deserve. The key here is to logically reason why you deserve your target salary. Yes, salary at entry level may have been low. However your investment into your professional experience can include, for example, XXX years of experience, working towards a professional designation if any, you know from agents or friends in similar position how much the market price ususally is, and therefore, if the budget allows, you would appreciate the controller taking all these tremendous growth in your professional capacity into consideration and see if you can get your target salary range (be specific and reasonable). If the controller takes the budget as a strong excuse and can not offer you more than what he says in base salary, take what he said, negotiate on the soft component. E.g. what will be the bonuse range upon satisfatory performance? Will his support your further professional development? (be specific, e.g. payment of annual professional dues, supporting part-time studies), what is the policy and likelihood on overtime payment, what are the strengths in the company's benefit package and profit sharing plans, etc.
Yeah yeah yeah, money is not the only consideration, but make a clear point that it is a good part of your decision to make an important change in career. If you really want the job, feel you can work with the controller, you can soften this point by saying, from this interview, you are happy you share similar view point on quality work and best practices and you look forward to a great career development opportunity under his guidance and look forward to buidling a positive working relationship with him.
(C): What is your reason for leaving your current job?
(M): I am planning to move from public accounting to private. At our company, we do lots of corporate tax returns, which is not what I plan to do for my future. I am more interest in accounting book. I hope I can grow with one company.
Comments: Good reason, but need to work on how your present them in a positive style. Indidate that this is a very necesary milestone change to move from public accounting to private industry. It is time to harvest from all your previous work experience from a very wide client basis, from your strong skills obtained from a highly competitive multitaking environemnt, and bring those into a company that needs and appeciare these skills and experience.
(C): Have you ever done budgeting and forecasting?
(M): No. I didn't have chance to do this part, but I am very excited if I can have opportunity to learn at this new position.
Comments: Frank answer, but do not stop there. Even if you have not done so, tell him what you know basically about budgeting and what is the typical issue that can go wrong in the budgeting process. Then tell him that you have great learning capcacity and you have full confidence that you can take on this task very quickly.
(C): You mentioned you are enrolled in CGA level 4, how you take the courses and how many at a time, when you will get your designation?
(M): It mostly is online courses, I am takeing one course at a time, and If I can sucessfully pass every course, I will finish all the courses by winter 2011.
Comments: Expand your discussion. The controller is concerned that your study may impact your future work load. So address his potential concern, focus on how CGA will eventually benefit your work. Tell him you make work a priority still, but in the long term, you look for professional development. Avoid talking about a very aggressive study plan. If I were you, I would directly ask him how he feels about it and if he has any concerns. Ask him to say something and you can see if he has any concerns. Address his concern on the spot, peruage him that he should have no conerns.
(C): Which part of accounting you like the best?
(M): (I was little bit confused) I like general accounting, I like to see full picture of the company . ( I was not sure how to answer, and why he asked this question)...........(after I answered this question
Comments: mmmm, you need to do some more homework. What do you mean by "general accounting"? Are you talking about GAAP conceptual framework? If you mean to get a full picture of the company, that is financial statement preparation. Be speciric. If you look at this question from the controller's perspective, ares can be AP, AR, Cash management, cash flow statement, Payroll accounting, pension accounting, trial balancing and reporting, tax reconcilliation, etc.更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net