Interview Copilot guides
How do I prepare for a finance interview?
Finance interviews ask about accounting and finance basics, valuation, your view of markets and industries, and why this firm and this role. Technical questions often need precise answers, so practice explaining the basics in one sentence, and prepare one recent market topic with your own view.
Common technical questions
- Accounting: how do the three financial statements connect? If depreciation goes up, what changes on each?
- Valuation: walk me through a DCF. What do you watch out for with trading comparables?
- Ratios: what do operating margin, ROE and the debt ratio tell you?
- Markets: how would rising interest rates affect this company or industry?
What each area adds
- Retail and commercial banking, brokerage, insurance: client service and sales, product knowledge, a sense of regulation and controls
- Investment banking and private equity: deal experience or modeling, and walking through one deal you follow
- Corporate finance and accounting: closing and budgeting, cost analysis, persuading other teams with numbers
How to prepare
- Explain the basics with examples rather than reciting definitions.
- Pick three numbers from the company's latest annual report or earnings release and be able to say what they mean.
- Choose one stock or industry and practice giving a view and its reasons in under a minute.
- Answer why this firm by connecting its business to your experience.
Practicing with SpeechShield
Add your resume and the job posting to an interview context, with the company's annual report or earnings material as reference material. Facts about the company come only from that material, so it doesn't make up financial figures. In mock interviews, use the Concise style to see only the conclusion and key reasons, and answer in your own words.
Related questions
Can I apply without much finance knowledge?
Yes, but learn to read financial statements and the basic ratios first. When you don't know an answer, say what you do know and how you'd find out.
Is there a right answer to market questions?
Mostly they look at your reasoning. Take a view and back it with numbers and two or three reasons; that's a good answer even if the interviewer disagrees.
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