When I received the call on Monday it was about 9.30AM. I was asked if it is possible for me to come for an interview at 2.00PM. As I live at Blue Mountain it was not easy. We arranged interview two days after. This really helped. As I was busy with other assignments I still had one all day to prepare for interview.
When I arrived to the firm, the place looks more like an art studio than a law firm. I was surprised. The place was spacious and has a beautiful vibes!
The interview was a panel set-up with an Accountant (resigning after 3 years and whose position I applied for), a Paralegal and a Principal. Principal joined in bit late, so we revisit few of the questions. Interviewers were exceptionally friendly and nice. I prepared for many technical questions. However, there were hardly any technical question in the interview. There was one competency based question. This question was related to “ability to think outside the box”. That’s it!!
We had quite a few funny moments. On one occasion, Principal asked me; “we are friendly but sometimes we get very noisy and loudly. You seems to come from a peaceful, meditative place. How would you coup up with us?” I said: “although, I have not added on to my profile but I do have experience working with intellectual disable children..” We all had a big crack on this.
One more was: “What do you know about our firm?”
I said: “I suppose, you know more about it than I do!”
For some mysterious reason, it felt more like an informal chat after this!
Here are the main questions that I can recall:
1. Tell us about yourself.
2. Why did you move to Australia?
3. Why did you apply for this job?
4. Please explain your experience with professional firms.
5. Varieties of client that I work with.
6. What is involve in Xero Certification?
7. Do I have experience managing the Trust accounting?
8. Where do I want to be in five years in terms of my career?
9. Why I am not interested working for CA firms, anymore?
10. Most challenging project I worked on.
11. Is it not inconvenient for me to travel two hours for job?
12. What types of monthly reports you prepare?
13. BAS lodgement in Xero.
14. Is there any policy difference between NZ and Australian accounting standards? (not 100% sure what they asked, but gently directing to effectiveness of my NZ experience in Australia.)
15. One question regarding effective communication.
Big big thanks to Cindy, Jeff, Lee and the team for their support!!