Here is a list of potential question you could get at an interview. Be prepared to answer!
Career Questions
What other firms are you interviewing with and why?
Are you interviewing with management consulting firms too?
What career opportunities are you exploring other than risk?
What are the most important qualities for a career in risk?
What do you understand the responsibilities of an risk analyst to be?
Describe a current event in the market?
What is your most challenging professional experience?
What would you do if you were giving a presentation to a client and suddenly noticed a mistake in some of the calculations, which you had prepared?
Education Questions
What were your grades each year at university?
Why did you choose your university?
General Questions
What are your greatest strengths?
What are your weaknesses?
Where do you see yourself in five years/ten years?
What are your proudest accomplishments?
Who or what is your greatest influence?
Competency Questions
Are you a leader or a follower? Give examples.
Describe an ethical decision you had to make?
Describe a time you failed, why did you fail, what did you learn?
Finance Questions
Why would two companies merge?
What major factors drive mergers and acquisitions?
What are some common anti-takeover tactics?
Why might a company choose to issue debt vs. equity?
What could a company do with excess cash on the balance sheet?
How would you calculate a firm’s WACC? What would you use it for?
How do you calculate the firm value for the following firm?
What would greater impact a firms valuation, a 10% reduction in revenues or 1% reduction in discount rate?
What major factors affect the yield on a corporate bond?
Walk me through the major line items of a Cash Flow Statement.
Say you knew a company’s net income. How would you figure out its cash flows?
What is the difference between the balance sheet and the income statement?
What is goodwill? How does it affect net income?
What is the difference between Purchase and Pooling accounting? Under what circumstances would you use one or the other?
What are deferred taxes? How do they arise?
What is working capital? How would you calculate it?
Industry Questions
What was our firm’s share price yesterday?
What is the FTSE at today?
Which way is the market going? Bond, equity and foreign exchange?
Where do you think interest rates will be in the next 12 months?
What has happened in the markets in the past three months?
What were the headlines in the Financial Times today?
What would you personally invest in?
What industry do you follow and what numbers do you look at to determine if a firm is doing well in the industry.
Risk questions
What is risk?
Tell us about Basel 3?
Which part of the SDLC includes Risk analysis?
What are the parameters to be considered for evaluating Risk analysis?
How to weightage the risk analysis, what are the tools to evaluate?