Hi, I’m a recently qualified Chartered Accountant.
Once I qualified as a Chartered Accountant I gave interviews in two of the Big 4s that is PWC and Deloitte USI. And thankfully was able to convert them into offer letters!
I wish to help people from my fraternity in every possible way I can. And this is my small attempt towards the same.
Before I give you a list of questions and areas around which my interview revolved I would like to give you some general tips on how to perceive and approach an interview.
- Firstly, be confident! Don’t view the interview as some mammoth difficult task! Just think of it as a conversation between you and your interview panelist.
- Isn’t it great interacting with people who are already where we wish to see ourselves down the line? This small shift in mindset can indeed be a great game changer!
- Secondly, prepare! Infact, confidence stems from our preparation! Well, what to prepare, how to prepare, and from where to prepare are some important questions that need to be addressed.
- Prepare on the basis of the job description. Try reaching out to people on various platforms like LinkedIn, various groups on telegrams etc who have already given interviews!
- They might give you some valuable inputs. Youtube is an amazing source for preparation as lot of people, now a days share their experiences there.
- Besides, always focus on the fundamentals and basics. Most of the interviews are conducted to gauge how fundamentally strong you are; atleast for a fresher!
Deloitte USI Interview Experience:
Profile: Statutory Audit
Role: Audit Senior Assistant
Number of Rounds: Four
First Round: Technical round (lasted for around 30 minutes):
Questions Asked:
- Tell me about yourself and your experience during articleship, particularly with reference to Statutory Audit
- Different types of audit risk
- What is the inherent risk?
- What is materiality?
- What are the different benchmarks that can be used while determining materiality?
- Suppose there is a company which is into trading and another an investment company then what benchmark will you use?
- What is deferred revenue? Can you give its journal entry?
- What are the different types of assertions?
- How will you ensure completeness for trade receivables?
- How will you verify fixed assets?
- When would you start charging depreciation on a fixed asset?
- What are the different types of confirmation letters?
- What are the test of controls and the test of details?
- Difference between IND AS 116 and IND AS 17?
- How would you show purchase and sale of shares in a cash flow statement?
Steps in IND AS 115
I have typed all the questions that I could recall. The interview was like a rapid-fire round. Questions kept on coming one after the other with barely any time to think. Hence, preparation is truly the key to acing any interview! The questions posed to you will also depend on the answers given by you. They pick up a word from your answer and frame a question around that.
I answered all the questions. However, I had answered a very basic question wrong and realised it soon and I thought that would bring down my chances of selection into the next round as the interviewer might think she doesn’t even know answer to such a basic question. But thankfully nothing like that happened as I had answered the rest of the questions pretty much correct and confidently.
Yes; interviewers definitely do look for technical knowledge as they are hiring you for a technical role but confidence, body language, and your soft skills are equally important.
Round 2: HR Round: This round hardly lasted for 10 minutes.
Questions asked:
- Tell me about yourself.
- How has articleship helped you groom up personally and professionally?
- The number of attempts in the CA Final?
- A few questions about my hobbies and interests.
Round 3: Versant Test: This is an online proctored test testing your communication skills. It consists of various sections like reading the sentences displayed on the screen, repeating the sentences, then unscrambling words in a sentence to make the sentence logical, repeating a story that is narrated to you in your own words, and speaking for 20 seconds or so on a topic given to you.
I had all these three rounds on the same day.
Round 4: Director Round
This round was held almost after 10 days after the first three rounds. This round lasted for about 10 minutes
Questions asked:
- Tell me about yourself and your articleship exposure
- How would you vouch for expenses?
- What would you do if you find a huge error while vouching for expenses?
- Why Audit?
- In all the rounds you will mostly be asked any questions for us. Please use this opportunity to ask relevant questions. Do not say that you do not have any questions.
- You could ask questions like your journey with the organization.
- If I get placed in your organisation what according to you are the most critical areas that I should focus upon during my initial years as it would lay the foundation for my career ahead?
These are just illustrative. You could frame questions on the basis of introduction given by the concerned person as well.
The interview process here was time taking. It took them almost a month to revert back to me after the Director Round. And then all the documentation stuff takes some time. All in all I got my joining date almost after 3 months from applying for the job!
Thank You Geeks For Geek for this wonderful initiative and for providing a platform to all the interviewees to share their experiences and help their fellow mates for their upcoming interviews.