Common Interview Questions for Financial Analysts

How has your degree prepared you for a career in Financial Analysis?

Tell me about a financial analysis you completed on a case in one of your classes?

Describe a previous situation where you have demonstrated your analytical skills.

What interests you most about a financial analyst position?

What quantitative courses have you completed?  What were your grades in each of them?

How will you be able to handle working long hours and studying for the CPA exams at the same time?

How can the United States improve its competitiveness?

What stocks do you follow? Why?

What is a cash flow?

What is a present value analysis?

Describe at least three methods of valuing a company.

If you had a $1,000 investment that went down 40 percent and then up 20 percent, what would your investment be worth?

What is your opinion of derivative statements?

Describe EVA and how it can be used to determine the attractiveness of potential projects.

Describe the advantages and disadvantages of using EVA, NPV, discounted cash flows, and payback period as methods of determining the attractiveness of potential projects.

Explain activity-based costing.  What are its pros and cons?

Explain marginal costing and standard costing.

Explain ratio analysis.

How does A/R and inventory fluctuations affect the income statement?

Walk me through a DCF analysis.

How do you get to EBITDA from revenues?

When you are given a large financial analysis project to do, what are the first things you do?

Describe a decision you had to make on your own regarding the credit risk of a new client.  What was the outcome?

Tell me about a financial analysis decision you got wrong.  What was the outcome?  What did you learn from the experience?

Describe your level of experience with the software used in your position as a financial a