KPMG Corporate Finance Interview Question

Hello All,

After having looked through the forums and used the search function, I am hoping one of you can potentially shed some light on my inquiry.

I was recently advised that I was selected for a first round interview at KPMG for an Associate position as part of their corporate finance team. As part of the interview, they stated that there would be a technical multiple choice assessment.

Has anyone previous interviewed with KPMG corporate finance, particularly in Canada? Is anyone familiar with the technical multiple choice assessment as part of the interview and what it entails?

Any feedback or insight is much appreciated.

Thank you!

CP

 

Hi CP,

How did your interview go? Can you shed some light on the type of questions that were asked. I have an interview with them next week in the US and have been advised about the qualitative and quantitative assessment which will last some 30 minutes. My guess is the qualitative part will be behavioral and general IQ related stuff. But don't have a clue what quantitative stuff could be asked in 15 mins (assuming each part is equal weight in time).

 
Best Response

Hey, sorry I didn't get a notification that someone had responded. Hope your interview went well too!

In terms of the actual interview, half of it was the basic, behavioural questions that you would typically expect. That said, a number of them were geared towards situations that were more banking in nature, such as report writing, financial modelling, etc. The second part of the interview was the technical assessment. I believe it was 15 questions in about 25 minutes or so. There was no general logic to the questions - they ranged from calculations of enterprise/ equity value, WACC, economics, bond valuations, preferred share valuations to brain teasers. At the end of the day, I received an offer from a BB so I didn't proceed any further in the process.

 

Hi Canadian Primate, I just did the same first round interview with KPMG CF group today and was told about the 15 question assessment test. They will send it out at a specific time, and want me to email back the solutions within 25-30 mins tops. It would be great if you could shed some light on the questions and share your experience with me. Feel free to inbox if you prefer. Thanks.

 

My first post on this site; figured I'd make it a contribution and not a request. I'm interviewing for a Sr. Associate role with Deal Advisory, corporate finance job with KPMG's Chicago office and will share my process with the group.

About me: I've been in the oil & gas industry about 14 years and have an MBA from a top European school. I put "other" on my heading because I've done a lot of different stuff and am in between things. I worked for an oilfield services PE fund after my MBA for about 2 years, then worked for a small E&P company, doing a variety of roles, financial and otherwise. I was laid off in 2015, and tried to start my own [non-oil & gas] transportation company for the following 1.25 years. I'm back job searching (since end of last year) and am speaking to PE firms, boutique banks, operating companies, and now, KPMG, deal advisory. I'm in my mid-30s, and with oil & gas having had such a bad few years, it's been hard knocks. Hopefully this year will prove better. I'm already off to a good start...

This role: I wrote the head of HR and head of the group(s) all paper letters back in December for this position open in Chicago (this is a highly effective method that I very much recommend -- the online systems gets you lost in space. You will often at least get a reply from someone for an informational call / connection.). I received an email a week ago saying that I was being invited for a 30 minute interview. My first one this year -- killer.

I was asked by the recruiter to give 3 times that I had available over the new few days. The timeslots were 7:00am EST to 3:00pm. So it's obvious that their recruiting person was in Europe (or somewhere on that time zone). I gave my three times, which were all the next day, and received a call from the initial recruiter saying that that day wouldn't work, so how about earlier the next day. I agreed. I was set up for a call at 7:30am (CST) with "Sara". Sara called me (five minutes late) and we had a brief 15 minute conversation, which was very easy. Here's how it went:

  • Call came in from Jo-Berg, ZAF, so I was right on time zone. She was nice and we had a good conversation. Very casual. Nothing technical. She started off saying that if it went well, I'd be hearing back in 1-2 weeks for feedback/ next steps.

-Confirmed basic info: highest level of education (me MBA; level of travel willing (I said 100%); authorized to work in US (yes, I'm gringo); years total work experience (I said 12-13)

  • Asked about my recent comp. (I didn't take a salary at my start up (I'm now kind of broke...) but my last salary as Manager at the E&P company was $157K. I had bonuses on my best year of $40K, but I said that I didn't get one the last year, and she didn't ask about previous years, so all I told her was the $0.)

  • Asked about my comp expectations. I told her that I had done my research (which was driven largely by this site: thank you), and that it seemed like the range on Wall Street was $130-150K. And that I knew that the market adjustment for Chicago would be less than NY (in general, right?) and that I knew from research that KPMG was market a bit below that, so I assumed that the range would be $105-120K. She said, "wow, yes, that's about right!" I joked about being on the ball. Not sure if she was humoring me or not, or if I just low-balled myself, but I think I didn't and that that was the right range.

  • How I felt about relocating. (I said totally fine. (I'm 100% for sale right now.)) She did not that they do not offer relocation assistance, and asked if I was ok with that. (I said yes, but feel like that kind of sucks. Maybe it can be negotiated with an offer.)

  • Some "situational" types of questions:

  • What's the largest group you have managed/supervised? (For me, 25 people; like ten years ago, actually, when I worked as a supervisor for an offshore drilling contractor.)
  • What's the largest project that you have led / been in charge of in dollar terms? ($10M; drilling a well in North Dakota. But that I also had other projects ranging from $3M - $5M going on at the same time that were all 100% on my watch. This seemed like it was a decent answer.)
  • What is your competency / expertise? (I said my knowledge of the oil & gas industry as my expertise. And as my competency, finance. Which is true, but I'm actually kind of a generalist; part of why I'm seeking a role with a bigger group like this is to get my hard skills down better. I basically snuck in to PE from the backdoor with my operational knowledge and never went through a BB analyst program. So I'm kind of self taught and was coached by other folks at my firm on modeling, etc. This is my weakness.)
  • What other interviews do I have right now? (This and one other; though I'm having a lot of informational meetings and talks which should turn in to interviews soon.)
  • What kinds of places and roles are you looking at? (Mostly big companies like KPMG, I said, which isn't really true, as I'm talking almost exclusively to smaller PE funds and boutique banks. But I am starting to focus on the larger groups, as I feel like this is where I'd get the best training.)
  • Why KPMG? (Because want to nail down my technical skills, and having worked for only smaller groups in the past 7 years, I want the resources and structure of a bigger firm -- which is true.)

  • At the end of the interview, she said I would hear back in a week or two (as opposed to "if it goes well you'll hear back in a week or two", so I think I did ok). She was nice, and the feeling I get is that she is going to recommend me.

Sorry for the long email. I have some time before work since the call was early and thought I'd share. I'll keep you posted on the process.

Cheers,

JB

 

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