Behaviour questions" What steps do you follow to study a problem before making a decision? Why?

Know the purpose of the decision.

Know all the relevant facts including options

Have an analysis of the interest of SH, and any resources we have

Come up with several options

Asses the risk

Choose one and use the second as plan B

Behaviour questions: obstacles or difficulties have you ever faced in communicating your ideas to a manager?

I think the root of obstacles, if any, would be the interest from different position. M’s interest would be to minimize risks but our interest would be to do less procedures with a reasonable assurance.

And this affects our clients too because sometimes the higher quality of audit evidence or assurance level might be more troublesome for client to provide. For example, usually M concerns the collectability of AR above 2 years, and would ask client to provide appropriate supporting documents other than LOR. This might sometimes be troublesome to client because they don’t have either. And obviously the client would reject the request of impair all those balances. So sometimes we have to “guide” our client to either negotiate with their customers to provide a financial letter in which contains a detailed repayment plan or categorize them into similar groups and discuss their collectability.

Behaviour question: communicate with another person

    Have you ever had to “sell” an idea to your co-workers? How did you do it?

    Give me an example of a time when you were able to successfully communicate with another person even when that individual may not have personally liked you (or vice versa).

I found that people tend to refrain from expressing their true feelings these days so it’s hard to tell whether someone really likes you or not. Everyone seems to be nice.

And I’m introvert so more often than not the content of my communication would be working-focused. So in that sense, I won’t let the personal preference to cloud my decision or way of communication.

For example, before the communication, I would like to put myself into others’ shoes so that I could know what he/she cares most and which way he prefers. And then I would think what the purpose of this communication is and keep focus. Also if it is an important communication, I would like to write an outline as a guide when communicating. And during the communication, I would check if what the counterpart understands is what I intended to express to ensure effectiveness, for instance I would like to give the counterpart a clear outline of what is about to be communicated, and after expressing each point, I would like to have a pause and ask if there is any question.

Behaviour question Give me an example of a time you discovered an error that been overlooked by a colleague. What did you do? What was the outcome?

When I was preparing the CF, it requires the AP fluctuation figures between 2 years of the non-operating balance, and I asked the one who is responsible for AP to fill in those data for me. But when checking the source data, I found that the number was wrong, because the row of fluctuation is paste value not function. So part of it was last year’s number.

I pointed this out to him and not blamed him because I think everyone could make mistake and system errors like this is hard to avoid, and we were facing a tight deadline so as long as he didn’t make it on purpose, I would encourage him to pay more attention.

Closing Interview questions

1. What characteristic would you define a great employee in this role?

2. How will success be measured in this role?

3. How would I report to you in this role, what is your management style?

4. What are some of the objectives you would like to see completed in the next 3 to 6 months?

5, What are some of the longer term objectives you would like to see completed?

6. How would you describe the culture of the organization?

7. What are some of the more difficult challenges I could expect to deal with in this role?

8. Are there any advancement opportunities available for me in this role, and with what time frame?

9. How is training provided, is it typically internal or external?

10. What are the goals of the organisation during the next 3 years?

11. What new technologies or systems are you looking to adopt in the near future?