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PREPARING FOR YOUR BIG-4 INTERVIEW

A. Top 10 questions:
1. Walk me through the highlights of your resume.
2. Why investment banking? Why our bank?
3. How do you value a company?
4. Why did you choose USC?
5. What other firms are you interviewing with and why? Are you interviewing with
consulting firms also? What career opportunities are you exploring other than I-
Banking?
6. What is your overall and major GPA? What was your SAT score?
7. What qualities would you consider most important for a career in I-Banking?
What are your greatest strengths? What are your weaknesses?
8. What do you understand the responsibilities of an analyst/summer analyst to be?
9. Describe a current event in the market or a transaction youve followed?
10. What questions do you have for me?

B. Resume-and personality questions:


1. [Be ready to explain any line on your resume].
2. What made you choose your undergraduate institution? Why did you pursue a
major in _____?
3. Why did you choose USC?
4. What was your favorite class at USC so far? Why?
5. What classes are you currently taking to get ready for the summer?
6. What are your 5-10 year long term career plans?
7. What are your proudest accomplishments? What is your most challenging
professional experience?
8. Are you a leader or a follower? Give me an example where you were successful
in both roles?
9. Say you are at a meeting with a client and your MD is giving a presentation. You
suddenly notice a mistake in some of the calculations, which you have prepared.
Do you mention it? When? What do you say?
10. Why should I take you instead of someone from Wharton?
11. What is one skill that you think is most relevant to Banking?
12. You seem to like marketing, why are you interested in finance?
13. Your weaknesses? Your strengths?
14. Describe a time you failed, why did you fail, what did you learn?
15. What is one word that describes you best?
16. How would your groupmates describe you? How would you characterize yourself
in the group dynamic? If I spoke with your groupmates, what would they say you
needed to improve?
17. Highlight your quantitative accomplishments.
18. Describe an ethical decision you had to make?
19. As an analyst, what tasks would you like to spend most of your time doing? What
percent of each day do you see yourself spending on those tasks?
20. What has been your greatest challenge since beginning USC? Greatest
accomplishment?
21. What accomplishment are you most proud of?
PREPARING FOR YOUR BIG-4 INTERVIEW

22. What do you do to relax?


23. Tell me a joke.
24. Who has influenced you the most, besides family members?
25. What do you read? What's your favorite book?

Classic Behavioral Questions for Big 4 Firms


1. What accomplishment are you most proud of?

2. What types of challenges have you faced in the past two years and how did you
overcome them?

3. Give me an example of how you successfully dealt with someone who was difficult.

4. Give me an example of how one of your strengths has benefited you when working in
a team environment.

5. Why do you want to work at this firm specifically?

6. Why are you interested in this particular area of the firm?

7. Give me an example of a time you failed.

8. Give me an example of a time you succeeded.

9. Whats the most difficult thing youve ever had to do?

10. Give me examples of how well you work under pressure.

11. What are you looking to get out of a job/internship with a public accounting firm?

12. What are your thoughts on the increase demand of quality by the PCAOB [Public
Company Accounting Oversight Board] and how would you implement such demands
in your audit?

13. Tell me about yourself.

14. How would you describe your leadership skills?

15. Give me a situation in your past work or school experience where you
demonstrated problem-solving skills.

16. Where do you see yourself in five years? Ten years?


PREPARING FOR YOUR BIG-4 INTERVIEW

17. Tell me about a time when you had an idea but your team was not willing to accept
it. How did you go about presenting this idea and trying to persuade them to accept it?

18. What did you learn from your last job/internship?

19. Describe some situations where youve had to use technical writing skills.

20. Why should I hire you?

21. What makes you stand out?

Core Competency Questions: How do you fit in with KPMGs Employee Values

RESILIENCE:
Tell me about a time when you werent interested in what you were doing?
What causes that to be boring?
What did you do to be most effective?

STRIVES FOR CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT


Tell me about a time when you have had to overcome challenges before being able to
complete a task or project?
How did you evaluate the problem?
Do you look for feedback on your performance?
Learn from experiences?
Strengths and weaknesses?

SEIZES BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES


How do you keep your business knowledge up to date?
What routine to keep yourself up-to-date on business news?

Tell me about the latest news that you have followed recently?
Tell me about the companies that are performing well and reasons for improvement?
Tell me about the companies that are underperforming and reasons for low performance?

What opportunities are there for our company?


What are the ways that our group offers to improve business?

CAREER MOTIVATION
Why have you chosen to apply to KPMG instead of the other big four?
What interests you about KPMG in particular?
What are major differences?
What do you know about our clients?
PREPARING FOR YOUR BIG-4 INTERVIEW

DELIVERS QUALITY
What is your method on approaching a new project?
How do you manage multiple tasks and plan your time efficiently?

DRIVES COLLABORATION AND INCLUSION


Team work?
When you werent a leader?
What do you do if someone in your group is underperforming?

EXCERSIZES PROFESSIONAL JUDGEMENT


-Are you comfortable analyzing data and numbers?

MAKES AN IMPACT
Communicate verbally and written?

DEMONSTRATES INNOVATION AND CURIOSITY


How do you adapt to new things and situations?
Problem solving?
Thinking creatively?

Good follow-up questions to ask during your interview

1) Tell me about your career path.


2) When you were in school did you think youd be going into business?
3) How was the transition from a philosophy major to a business setting?
4) Why did you choose KPMG/ why do clients choose KPMG?
5) How have you seen the culture of the firm change over the time youve
been there?
6) Where do you see your group moving towards in the future?
7) How do you think KPMGs new Strategy practice will alter or affect KPMGs
advisory practice?
8) Can you walk me through your typical day at the job?
9) Do you see yourself staying in this group? Are there other groups/areas
that you are interested in exploring and trying out?

10) Can you tell me about some of the projects and clients that youve been
working on?

11) What is the typical career trajectory for someone applying for this position?
12) What type of training and onboarding does the program offer?
PREPARING FOR YOUR BIG-4 INTERVIEW

13) Are there opportunities to explore other areas and groups during the
internship?
14) What have been some of your personal biggest challenges working at the firm?
15) What sort of challenges do you see for your team in the year to come?
16) How are employees evaluated on a micro and macro level?
17) What are new areas of focus in the advisory business?
18) Do you ever felt lost in such a large company?
18) Does financial management work more on the distressed side or the stressed
side?
20) What does the timeline look like moving forward in the recruiting program?
21) Would you mind giving me your contact information, if I have any further
questions?

Common Technical Questions


PREPARING FOR YOUR BIG-4 INTERVIEW
PREPARING FOR YOUR BIG-4 INTERVIEW

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