Experienced Hire Interview Questions
Looking for a new job after you have gained some experience is completely different than finding your first job out of college. You won't be as desperate for money, fixated on a recruiting time table, and you will actually have some meaningful professional experience on your resume which will make you more competitive for other full-time roles. Having gone through the process myself, I can personally tell you that the questions you get asked when you are looking to change jobs as an experienced hire are completely different from those related to entry-level positions. Today, I'm going to walk through the three most important questions you need to know how to answer when you're looking to switch jobs as a financial professional.
Why are You Leaving Your Current Role?
This is a question that gets asked on every single recruiting call and most interviews as well. People want to know why you are dissatisfied with your current role fairly early on in the process, and your response will set the stage for the rest of the conversation. I like to think of this question as both the required exploratory question and a test of whether or not you can professionally communicate your grievances and desires. Here are some examples:
Good example: Due to some staffing issues, my current rule does not offer the proper opportunities for advancement and work-life balance that I need to succeed.
Bad example: There's too much work to do in my current role and my manager sucks.
It is critical to understand that unlike many entry level interviews, you are going to be asked for the specific details behind your response. You will need to come prepared with the context behind your answer and be prepared to talk about it for at least 10 minutes. Here are some of the follow-up questions you could see based on the above example:
Could you tell me more about the staffing issues?
How many staff are there at your level?
How many staff do you oversee?
Why do you believe you cannot advance your career?
What does work-life balance mean to you?
No matter what your response is, you need to be ready to tell your story!
What are You Looking for in Your Next Role?
After answering why you want to leave your current role, it's very likely that the next question will revolve around what you're looking for in your next role. For this question, you should tailor your response depending on the person you're talking to. If you're talking to a recruiter who might have multiple roles for you, you need to be open and honest about your needs, your "nice to haves", and most importantly, your limits and boundaries. Here are the top questions I think you should consider:
What is your desired compensation? Depending on where you are in your search, you may be more or less flexible on this number, but I encourage you to have a number in mind so you can have an effective conversation.
What if your desired commute and time commitment? Different jobs have different requirements in terms of explicit time commitment (the amount of time spent working) as well as implicit time commitment (commuting to work). You need to know your goals and limits for the amount of time and type of time you would like to spend committed to your job. Personally, I wouldn’t take a job that did not offer some type of remote working option and every time I’m presented with an option that doesn’t allow it, I know to quickly decline and move on.
What type of work are you looking for? For financial professionals and CPAs, there are so many options to choose from in industry: GL Accounting, Specialized industry accounting, Financial Reporting, Tax, Financial Planning and Analysis, and Tax, to name a few. Each of these specializations offers something new to your resume and will have a different impact on your future career prospects.
If you are at the interview stage, you need to do your research and match the specific wording of your response with what the position is offering. This helps align you with the position you are applying for and makes you look better in the interview process because it shows you did some reviewing before the interview.
What Type of Experience Do You Have?
This is another question you'll get asked at multiple stages during the interview process as an experienced hire candidate. In an entry level interview, work experience is extra icing on the cake because typically a college degree and internship experience will cover most of the requirements. The same is not true for experienced hire positions, where companies might be looking for things like specific industry experience, management experience, or in-depth knowledge of certain software, among other things. To prepare for this question, you will need to be able to tell a story that demonstrates the key components of your work experience that make you a great fit for the new job. This is also your opportunity to share areas that weren't previously discovered in the conversation. Some of your highlights might include:
The number of active engagements you participate in or manage in a given week
Number of direct reports you oversee in a given week
Client industries that you work with and the typical size of the clients you work with (if you are client facing)
What software you typically use and your self-assessed level of proficiency
Nature of day to day tasks and a brief overview of how you stay organized
Of the three questions mentioned today, this is definitely the most important because the answer directly conveys your competencies that can be brought into a new role. I strongly recommend having an answer ready for this question, regardless of whether or not you're looking for a new job.
If you are preparing to apply for a new job, focus on these three questions to get yourself through the interview process. Well you might need to answer some other less common questions depending on the job, I've seen these three come up for almost every job application early in the process. Most of the time, the initial phone screening with a recruiter will cover all three of these questions. So be sure to have your answers ready the next time you pick up the phone!