Candidates of a Financial Manager have to justify a big budgeting choice that they had to make in uncertain circumstance and take them through the ways in which they could have struck the balance between short-term liquidity and long-term returns. This question will filter out candidates who are knowledgeable of the facts of actual strategy versus those who memorize answers off the textbook in my practice. Good applicants refer to certain metrics such as debt-service-coverage ratios or working-capital levels and explain how they developed models that test the worst-case situations when data was unavailable. Weak answers be based on imprecise words used in balancing priorities without constituting any assailable injunctions or a decision constraint. Red-flag responses are those where candidates are guided by pure instinct, do not do any variance analysis at all or do not even mention sensitivity testing. These are habits of reactive management and the lack of forecasting disciplines. I observe whether they have established tolerance levels in numerical form and how they reported the process to the stakeholders in financial ranking, since such the news reflects maturity and perception of transparency by the leadership to risk issues.
I'm a co-founder and recruiter with five years of experience in building financial management teams that support the growth of our company. The most important interview question I always ask Financial Manager candidates is: "Describe a time you made a budget decision that wasn't popular but proved to be fundamental to the company's finances, what was your process, and what was the outcome?" This question will show you, as a recruiter, how much more than just technical expertise someone has. "How do you prioritize the conflicting financial goals from different departments/teams/people?" This question helps identify the negotiation/evaluation skills, including their knowledge of how the short-term needs need to be balanced with the long-term strategy of the company. But for me, by far the best question to evaluate the financial strategy or forecasting skills is: "How do you implement macroeconomic changes or unexpected market shifts into your forecasting models?" as well as "Tell me about a time when your financial forecast was off, how did you adjust?" From my experience, the biggest red flags in interviews include answers that avoid accountability, for example, blaming another person for the outcomes. What concerns me are financial managers who cannot clearly explain or know how they match the financial strategy with more general business goals or who show a narrow, number-focused mindset without considering organizational impacts. ----- - Calin Oancea, HR-leader and co-founder, oanceamedia.com | LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/calinoancea If this is helpful, I'm happy to share more details or answer any further questions you may have. Thank you.