FP&A Interview

There's honestly no real formula for what to expect - FP&A doesn't have as specific of an interview routine as areas like IB and S&T. It depends to a greater extent on who the interviewer is and what firm.

That said, my advice would be to be ready to nail fit questions, since they will likely be heavily weighted. I wouldn't expect things to get too technical since FP&A doesn't usually demand anything very technical, but it obviously would be good to know the basic accounting statements, as with almost any finance interview.

from my experience fp&a interviews tend to be behavioral.

"name a time that you......"

you get the point.

i hate those questions

^^ they suck especially if you're not sure how to answer them. luckily there is a solid 3-step method to answering behaviorals:

Step 1: Clearly identify the problem/situation. Step 2: Explain the course of action you took to address the issue. Step 3: Discuss the outcome of your actions and how they solved the problem or what it taught you.

seems very rudimentary but it really does help.

I've interviewed candidates for FP&A at my company. It's definitely not rocket science, but I'd want to know if you can do the job. I do that by better understanding your past experiences. Be prepared to discuss any relevant experience you have and then the behavior questions.

Are you straight out of school? What was your major?

If you're out of school and an accounting major (or even finance) I'd expect almost entirely behavior questions.

Thanks for the responses, everyone. I'm a year out of school as an economics major with no direct exposure to accounting or finance, aside from a bond trading internship during college.

Be prepared to answer why that role interests you and what skills you bring to the table.

Again, FP&A isn't rocket science - if you get the job I'm sure you can do it. That being said, someone coming out of school with an accounting degree and no experience may be better prepared for the role so you'll need to leave them knowing that you can hit the ground running.

Questions from my recent interviews:

How does an inventory write down affect the three statements?

How do you record PPE and why is this important?

Why [this company]?

Walk me through an NPV. What are sunk costs?

Tell me about a time when you were in a team that was not successful.

Tell me about a time when you were in a team that faced a big challenge. How did you succeed?

If you were our CFO, what would keep you up at night?

Name three challenges facing our company.

Know yourself, and more importantly, know the industry. I spent a large amount of time reading articles on the industry from WSJ, IBTimes, etc. Never hurts to review your accounting either. You will always get one or two questions and the worst thing you can say is, "I don't know."

Also, please let us know how it goes.