The Big 4 Accounting Firms Interview Questions

accountancywalls.com/2018/09/the-big-4-accounting-firms-interview.html

This year, in our annual accounting survey, Vault surveyed more than 9,000
accountants. The survey, administered this past winter, asked accountants to tell us
what it's like to work for their firms. It also asked them to tell us about their hiring
process and, specifically, about the questions they were asked during their
interviews.

To that end, below you'll find more

than three dozen of the more
interesting and challenging interview
questions that, this year,
accountants at Big Four firms
(Deloitte, EY, KPMG, and PwC) told
us they received during the course
of their interviews. It's our hope that
these will help you when you're
preparing for your own Big Four
interview.

1. Why KPMG?

2. What are your strengths?

3. What’s your biggest weakness and how have you tried to overcome it?

4. Tell me more about yourself ?

5. Where do you see your yourself in 10 years?

6. What is your dream job?

7. What do your first 30 days in this job look like?

8. What can Deloitte offer you that the other Big 4 can’t?

9. How well do you work do in a team setting?

10. Do you like to travel? Why/why not?

11. Tell me about your hobbies?

12. How would you describe your leadership skills?

1/5
13. Why should I hire you?

14. What makes you stand out?

15. What’s the most difficult thing you’ve ever had to do?

16. When are you the happiest?

17. You’ve mentioned [x] on your resume. Why is that relevant to this job?

18. How would you go about firing a troublesome employee?

19. Do you have any other job offers from the other Big 4?

20. How do you handle criticism?

21. Will you be comfortable working 50 hours a week? How do you know?

22. Why didn’t you do an internship with us?

23. Do you prefer to be criticized or praised?

24. What books are you reading right now?

25. Are you into the big picture or the detail?

26. Give me an example of a time when you missed a deadline. How did you handle
it?

27. Give me an example of a time you received constructive feedback. How did you
react?

28. Give me an example of a time when you clashed with management?

29. Tell me about a time you had to deliver sensitive news and how you handled it.

30. Tell me about a time when you help resolved a conflict between two people. What
was the conflict and what strategies for resolution did you use?

31. How have you demonstrated commitment to your community?

32. Tell me about a time when you were on a team and the team's performance was
coming up short of your expectations. What were your strategies for improving the
team's performance? How did your team members respond? Were you successful?

33. Tell me about a time when you went above and beyond for a client.
2/5
34. Tell me about a time when you had to teach a skill to someone else who was
having a hard time picking it up. What initial challenges did he or she have? How did
your approach to teaching the skill adjust?

35. What are your expectations for busy season? How will you personally advocate
for your own interests?

36. Tell me about a time when you struggled with multiple deadlines and how you
effectively managed the situation.

37. Tell me about a time where you had to think outside the box.

38. Why did you pick our firm over the other Big Four accounting firms and regional
firms?

39. What's a service area where our firm could create greater capabilities than we
have now? How would you go about building those capabilities?

40. Please provide an example of when you took on a leadership role (at school or
work or in an extracurricular activity) and it didn't turn out so well.

41. Please provide an example of when you didn't think you were up for a challenge
and you were really proud of how it turned out. How did you overcome the
hurdles/obstacles?

42. How do you handle stress? Give me an example of a stressful situation and how
you resolved it.

43. What is your preferred working style: individual research or collaborative?

44. Give an example of something in your professional career where you were
instrumental to the success of the project.

45. What are some of the goals you hope to accomplish here?

46. Why do you believe you fit into our firm's culture?

47. What techniques have worked well for you in creating a high-performing team?

48. Do you find yourself trying to lead teams or following someone else's lead?

49. What experiences do you have that would benefit our firm?

50. Tell me about a time at work or school when someone asked for your input on the
best way to approach a problem.
3/5
51. Tell me about a time at work when you actively sought out an opportunity to learn
about other cultures or global issues.

52. What was the worst or hardest customer service experience you've dealt with?

53. What do you believe our firm can offer you that other firms can't?

54. Share with me a time when you realized you needed to change your
communication style to fit the audience.

55. Tell me about a time when you had to learn new technology to complete a project
for school or a job.

56. How have you been a leader on your campus?

57. How can our firm make you a better person?

58. How do you keep up to date with what's happening in the accounting world? Can
you give an example of something that's happening/changing right now?

59. What's your favorite accounting topic?

60. Tell me about a situation where you had to adjust quickly to a significant change
at school or work. How did the change affect you? What did you do?

61. Tell me about a time when you were faced with an impossible deadline. What did
you do? What was the outcome?

62. Tell me about a time when you had to conduct research or learn a new skill in
order to perform a task. How did you go about it? How did you perform?

63. What's something you struggled with in school?

64. What do you think is the most difficult part on a rotation program to a foreign
country: language, culture difference, or something else?

65. What type of news/TV/media do you follow? What do you try to get from it?

66. How do you handle criticism?

Note: These Questions are asked in UK/US based BigFour Accounting firms, It Can
be different in Different Location Depends on Country.

4/5
5/5