If you surf the waters of the World Wide Web long enough you’ll find plenty of advice on how to handle accounting interviews. Unfortunately, most of these articles are about the person seeking an accounting position rather than the one interviewing eager candidates to fill the position. However, there are a few things you can do that will help you conduct an outstanding accounting interview as long as you put them into practice as an employer.
Understand the Assignment Requirements
It’s nearly impossible to fill a position adequately if you don’t fully understand the position you’re filling. When it comes to accounting, you need to know the specifics of the position being filled and what kind of person excels in this particular position. Not all accountants are good tax accountants. There are many different types of accountants and personalities that make some accountants great while others are only mediocre. When you’re interviewing, you want to be able to quickly spot the people who have the potential to be truly great while skipping over those who will plug through day after day without delivering standout results for your company or your clients.
Ask Appropriate Questions
Once you know the ins and outs of the position you’re working to fill, it’s time to create a list of relevant accounting questions. While questions about the job itself are vitally important, you definitely want to hire an accountant who knows his stuff, there are other questions you need to ask that will provide important insight to the nature of the person you’re interviewing. For example, someone who enjoys crafting as a hobby is generally very detail oriented – a good match for an accounting position. Questions about hobbies and interests reveal as much about accounting candidates as questions about skills and education if you know what to look for when it comes to answers.
Familiarize Yourself with Current Human Resource Laws
There are many different criteria available to help weed out the pool of potential employees. However, discriminating against a candidate due to race, religion, national origin, sexual preference or gender can land you and your business in a lot of legal hot water. Understand how these employment laws relate to your interviewing skills.
Finding the Perfect Employee
That is something that’s simply too big to look for. What you need to find is a person who has the right set of skills and personality to be a good match for your accounting needs. Perfection is a noteworthy goal. But, when you need to hire someone you can’t always afford to wait around for perfection when someone who is skilled, trainable, and motivated can still get the job done.
Giving an interview isn’t nearly as difficult as you may believe it to be. The most important thing to make an interview truly great is to be a good listener throughout the interview process. Nervous candidates often make telling reservations if you let them do enough of the talking. Look to Venteon financial staffing for your new hires.