Accounting Interview With a Finance Degree
Hi all, I recently graduated with a finance degree with fairly competitive grades. I have an upcoming interview with a large company for a position that is primarily corporate accounting. While I have taken financial and managerial accounting, and have an underlying understanding of these concepts, I do not feel fully prepared to interview for a full blown accounting position. Any suggestions on how to prepare or brand myself would be greatly appreciated.
What is the title of the role and what does the job description say.
Since you are a new grad I highly doubt that they are going to get into anything too technical.
Analyze monthly results of business and perform analytical review of key financial information Develop Franchisee-centered customized accounting solutions Lead operational analysis of debits, credits and cash restaurant transactions Reconcile multiple general ledger accounts Assist in resolving issues, accurately answer Franchisee inquiries and proactively report potential issues that may impact financial results Serve through cross functional team exposure throughout the organization
I know that it should not get too technical, but my school's finance program does not focus on accounting nearly as much as it should. Any resources you would recommend to get back on track?
Cosign this -- entry level corporate accounting will draw on concepts from Accounting 101 and 102, and not a whole lot else. If your interviewers insinuate otherwise they are full of shit. And there's a nonzero chance that, walking in with a finance degree, you will encounter some resistance from an interviewer or two. If this happens resist any urge you might have to brush aside their concerns with "any monkey can prepare/upload monthly recurring JEs", and instead go through a couple of talking points about how you excelled in your financial and managerial accounting courses, tutored other students in your classes, assumed leadership in any group projects, etc, and then get into how you feel having a deeper understanding of the finance side will permit you a broader, big picture understanding of the [mundane] transactions that you will be recording book entries for. If you can make a strong case for that last point, any perceived deficiencies that might come with not having a degree in accounting will be more than addressed, because 9 times out of 10 the #1 annoyance that accounting managers have with their staff is that they have zero big picture understanding of what they're doing.
Assuming you don't want to die a slow death preparing journal entries for someone else to post for the next 35 years, even assuming you have no practical experience in finance at this point you will be well positioned to sell yourself into pivoting toward FP&A or something similar (and more interesting), if you want. Or stick with accounting, get through the additional check-the-box accounting credits or Masters in Accounting, and go the CPA route.
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