Questions to Ask for Accounting Interview
For candidates interviewing at a public accounting firm rather than an in-house finance team, in audit, tax or advisory, whether at graduate entry or as an experienced hire. It asks about what decides life in practice: the clients you would be staffed on, the chargeable target, what busy season costs, who reviews your work, and how people get from associate to senior. For an industry role, the lists about the close and about the department are a better fit.
The questions
Open any question for the note
What kind of clients would I be staffed on: size, sector, listed or private?
Why ask it
Portfolio decides everything about the first two years. A single large listed client means depth on one process; ten small private clients means a full set of accounts each time and far more variety. Ask which pattern this office runs on.
How many clients would I carry at once, and how much does that change year to year?
Why ask it
Continuity is worth a great deal in practice, because a client you have seen before takes a fraction of the time. Heavy reshuffling every year usually means the office is plugging gaps rather than building teams.
What is the chargeable hour target, and what counts toward it?
Why ask it
Training, internal projects, proposals and recruiting usually do not count, which is how a stated target quietly becomes a longer week. Ask for the target and then for the average the last intake actually recorded.
How is staffing decided, and can I ask for a particular client or industry?
Why ask it
A resourcing team, a partner's preference and a bidding system produce different careers. Ask who to speak to if the mix is wrong after six months, since that is the only real lever you would have.
What does busy season look like in hours per week, and how many weeks does it run?
Why ask it
The honest version comes as numbers: sixty hour weeks for six weeks, or fifty five for four months. A reassurance that things get busy sometimes is the answer to be wary of, and any senior in the room can give you the real figure.
Outside busy season, are the hours genuinely lighter, or is there a second peak?
Why ask it
Some offices have one hard season and a calm summer; others have quarterly reviews, tax deadlines and year ends stacked so that no month is slow. Ask which months people take leave in, which answers it indirectly.
Is overtime paid, banked as time off in lieu, or simply expected?
Why ask it
Practice varies from paid overtime to lieu days that nobody manages to take. Whatever the arrangement, it is better heard now than in the third week of a January that has already absorbed two weekends.
How much of my time would be at client sites, and what travel does that mean?
Why ask it
Site work changes the job: earlier starts, hotels, and less contact with your own team. Ask how many weeks a year and whether travel time is chargeable, because that detail is rarely volunteered.
Who reviews my workpapers, and how quickly do review notes come back?
Why ask it
Fast, specific review notes are how you learn in practice. Notes that arrive two weeks later, or a manager who rewrites the file without explanation, mean the same job teaches you far less.
What is the mix between audit and other work such as tax compliance or advisory?
Why ask it
Many firms sell variety and staff to whichever line is short. Ask what the last person in this seat actually did across a year, which is more reliable than what the role is designed to be.
What does the firm pay toward the CPA or the equivalent, and how much study leave comes with it?
Why ask it
Fees are commonly covered; protected study time is not, and the time is what determines whether people pass. Ask how many in the office are studying now and whether there is a repayment clause if you leave.
What happens to someone who fails an exam sitting?
Why ask it
Firms differ from a second attempt paid for without comment to a formal conversation about progression. This is one of the more revealing questions you can ask, and people usually answer it straight.
How many of an intake normally reach senior, and how long does that take?
Why ask it
Promotion in practice runs on a timetable, so a year number exists. Ask what separated the people who were promoted on time from those held back a cycle, because the answer is the standard you would be judged against.
How do you decide who runs a job for the first time?
Why ask it
Running a job is the step that turns you from staff into a senior. If the answer is that it happens when someone is short handed, expect to be thrown into it; if there is a process, ask what it looks like.
How is a job budgeted, and what happens when the hours run over?
Why ask it
Budget overruns are the standing tension in practice. Ask whether unrecovered time follows the individual into their rating, because in some firms it does and that changes what you are incentivised to record.
What happens when a client is difficult or a deadline cannot be met?
Why ask it
You want an example of a partner supporting a team rather than a statement about client service. How this is handled is the difference between a hard season and an unpleasant one.
How many people left at the end of last busy season, and where did they go?
Why ask it
Departures cluster right after the peak. Moves to industry are ordinary; moves to other firms suggest pay or workload. The size of the number matters more than the destinations.
Are secondments, office transfers or client placements available, and who has taken one recently?
Why ask it
These are the main reasons people stay in practice past the third year. A named recent example turns a listed benefit into evidence, and the absence of one usually means the programme is dormant.
How is performance rated, and does the rating drive pay or only the conversation?
Why ask it
Forced distributions, partner discretion and a simple meets or exceeds scale have different consequences. Ask what a mid rating means for a pay review, since that is the practical effect.
What has changed here in the last two years that you would not have predicted?
Why ask it
Practice moves with the market, headcount and technology all at once. An interviewer who can name a real change is close to the work, and whatever they name is worth asking a second person about.
Preparing for an Accounting Interview
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Do This Before the Interview
Read the filings if there are any
For a public company, the annual report is free and tells you more than any interview will: the auditor's opinion, any reported material weakness, the critical accounting estimates, segment detail and the notes on revenue and leases. Twenty minutes in the notes gives you two questions nobody else in the process will ask. For a private company, look at industry filings, funding announcements and any regulatory registers instead.
Work out which accounting job this actually is
Titles in accounting are unreliable. Staff accountant can mean posting invoices or owning a full close. Financial analyst can mean forecasting or reconciling. Read the posting for verbs, prepare, review, reconcile, approve, and ask in the interview which of them are actually yours. Interviewing for the wrong level is the most common way an accounting candidate wastes a process.
Have your technical answers in plain language
You will likely get accrual versus deferral, how the three statements connect, what you would do with an unexplained variance, or how a specific reconciliation works. Practice saying each in two sentences without jargon, then have one story about an error you found and what you changed so it could not happen again.
Know your own numbers
Be ready to say how many entities you closed, how many days the close took, the transaction volumes you handled, the systems by name and version, and the size of the balances you were responsible for. Accounting interviews reward specificity, and candidates who describe their work only in duties rather than scale sound junior even when they are not.
How to Read the Answers You Get
- A close longer than ten days, with no explanation, usually means reconciliations are chased after reporting rather than before.
- Reconciliations described as mostly current is a soft no. Ask for the oldest open item.
- No answer on manual journal volume often means nobody is tracking it.
- Heavy reliance on one person's spreadsheet is both a risk you inherit and an opportunity to be useful.
- A prior material weakness is not disqualifying, but the remediation plan should already exist and someone should be able to describe it.
- Busy season answered in adjectives rather than hours is worth asking again, ideally of a potential peer rather than the manager.
- No named reviewer for your work means your first audit will be uncomfortable.
- A planned system implementation with no dedicated project resource means the accounting team is the project resource.
Adjust for Public Practice, Industry or Government
Public accounting firm
Ask about client count and mix, chargeable hour targets, how staff are assigned to engagements, realistic hours in the January to March window, travel expectations, and the pass rate and study support for exams. Ask which engagements you would be on by name of industry, since audit of a manufacturer and audit of a fund are different skills.
Industry
Ask how much of the role is close and how much is business partnering, who your internal customers are, and whether the finance team is respected or treated as a scorekeeper. Ask about the FP and A boundary as well, since the line between accounting and forecasting is drawn differently in every company.
Government and nonprofit
Ask which framework applies, what grant or fund accounting is involved, how restricted funds are tracked, when the single audit or equivalent happens, and how budget cycles constrain hiring and spending. Also ask what happens to the role if a specific grant is not renewed.
Hold These Until an Offer Is Close
- The detail of hybrid and remote arrangements, beyond confirming the basic pattern.
- Exam study leave scheduling and repayment clauses, which belong with the written offer.
- Vacation timing, especially any request that overlaps close or busy season.
- Bonus mechanics in detail, once you know a bonus exists.
- Whether the company will pay for a professional membership or license renewal.