Yeah, so have you seen, heard and felt yourself from the perspective of an interviewer? Well, introspection could be deep. But this one is not introspection and its certainly isn’t deep! Because even the interviewer has no idea why this question is thrown at the candidates. And for auditors it sounds nothing but pure stupid!
Not just because auditors are not used to this line of questioning, but also because auditors ask so many questions from their clients that they know the difference between an organic and an inorganic response and a response that gives out something as against a question that’s simply a question for the sake of it.
Mind you, it’s not that auditors are not open to being asked questions; it’s a given that auditors are required to be trained in answering questions thrown at them by their clients for instance, when selling a finding or an RCA or an action recommendation. The most typical of these is what’s the risk in auditor’s findings and what’s the cost of resolving it?
And these are the most value adding questions clients and auditors find themselves in because they’re thought provoking. They’re also aimed at achieving the common goal; internal audit efforts aligned to adding value. But what about these standard interview questions? What are they aimed at? What do they solicit? What do they offer? What’s their worth?
First, let’s have a look at these standard questions. I call them questions that shouldn’t be asked from auditors, at least!
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Questions |
How are these stupid? |
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Tell us something about yourself / Introduce yourself |
A CV / Resume is not enough introduction? Does the interviewer believe the CV / Resume information is incorrect / fake? Is the CV/ Resume not about oneself? Is reading from the CV / Resume required because the interviewer can’t read it? Does the interviewer require insights into the candidate that are so unique that they aren’t captured by the CV / Resume? |
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Tell us about your family |
Are you going to hire the whole family? Will the family profile determine if the candidate’s gets the job? If the candidate’s family has a criminal on record, would that undermine his / her prospects? Will the candidate reveal a crime committed by a family member? How does the interviewer ensure the candidate won’t boast about his / her family? |
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What about your academic and professional background? |
If the CV / Resume doesn’t have it, how was it shortlisted and what is it about actually? Is the interviewer unable to obtain this information by reading from the CV/ Resume? Is there anything missing from the CV / Resume that interviewer knows and the candidate doesn’t? |
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How about your experience till date? |
Seriously? It’s not listed on the CV / Resume, or the interviewer can’t find it or is the candidate required to read it out aloud? |
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What are your strengths and weaknesses? |
The interviewer’s team / systems shortlisted the candidate for strengths or weaknesses or nothing? What are those strengths that the candidate needs to recollect and divulge at the interview and not record these on the CV / Resume? Was the interviewer also dead honest about his / her weaknesses when he / she was interviewed for the position he / she is holding? |
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What is your 360 degree appraisal? |
Should this also come from the candidate? Would the interviewer believe everything the candidate says? Is the interviewer sure if the candidate had his / her 360 degree appraisal done and also got hold of the findings? |
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What are you known for? |
Definitely not someone represented by the CV / Resume! But this one is actually cool, because I have come across many ‘auditors’ who are known to fall for anything or everything and stand for nothing! The interviewer will be in sheer luck if the candidate is dead honest! |
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Where would you like to see yourself in ‘n’ years? |
The interviewer would like to see the candidate out of this entity in those years! The interviewer is going somewhere else and likes the candidate so much that he / she would like to have the candidate follow him/her there! |
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Why do you want to leave your current employer? |
Of course, it’s not about professional or personal growth! Because it’s just what we want…. Right? |
Aren’t we all experienced in these questions? Yeah, we’re all guilty! However, neither are these questions aimed at anything, nor do they solicit anything meaningful from the candidate. And they’re worth nothing for the recruitment and selection process! But they certainly indicate the following:
- The interviewer never had the time to go through the candidate’s profile.
- The interviewer has no idea what the requirements for the position are.
- The interviewer is uninterested.
- The interviewer has no idea what to ask and is a confused soul.
- The interviewer is simply assessing how the candidate speaks and manages a discussion.
- The interviewer is sure the interview process is a hoax or has got no value whatsoever.
- The interviewer is so dumb that he / she shouldn’t be an interviewer!
Approach to answer these, you would like to know? Best is not to answer these…. tell them to go for someone else and leave! If you can, that is! If you don’t want to leave and have this interview done too as part of the process, nail them, in the best way you could think of! Questions are standard, answers aren’t meant to be! That way at least there would be some value delivered from such a session.
Instead, there are these following questions that should be asked from candidates for internal audit positions:
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Questions? |
Utility? |
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Past accomplishments you’re most passionate about? |
Allows the interviewer the opportunity to assess the skill and competence which the candidate deployed through past experiences. Also enables the interviewer to make an assessment about the quality of candidate’s experience. Allows candidate to prove to the interviewer how professional accomplishments were relevant to the client and the candidate’s assessment of a significant accomplishment. |
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Past interventions where you added the most value acknowledged by the audit client? |
Client acknowledged value based intervention shows the interviewer, a candidate’s ability to be useful to the client and the audit intervention’s being aligned with the objectives of the client. The candidate is challenged to ascertain what meaningful value addition the audit interventions brought. |
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Works where your interventions helped client achieve economy / efficiency of operations? |
Tells the interviewer how and in what ways the audit client benefited from audit interventions. Tells the candidate the yardsticks clients use to gauge utility of audit interventions. |
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Controls improvement advisory? |
The interviewer gets an idea of the multiverse of controls; the candidate is well versed with together with balancing their costs with benefits. The candidate gets the opportunity to reflect back on the core internal audit objectives. |
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Helped managed any significant risks? |
Both the interviewer and the candidate get an opportunity to understand how audit universe is aligned with the risk universe! |
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Any governance related interventions? |
The interviewer understands how strategic the audit interventions made by the candidate were for the entity and if the auditor was able to intervene at that level at all! Allows the candidate the ability to discuss the length and breadth of past experience. |
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Any innovations? |
The interviewer explores how the candidate could step up from what’s expected. Candidate knows the desired is just desirable, beyond which lies the extraordinary. |
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Any fraud detections and closures? |
Interviewer assesses candidate’s skill and ability in being conscious about and detect frauds. Candidate understands how fraud risk factors could be important to the interviewer’s entity. |
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How can you add value if selected? |
Dependent on the available knowledge about the client and the existing audit function, both the interviewer and the candidate will be able to assess requirements and map skills being offered to these. |
Of course, the list isn’t conclusive. And of course, I have my answers to these. But they’re mine. Which means these aren’t standard questions so there are no standard answers. So, introspect and arrive at your own answers.
But dear audit clients, please stop asking run of the mill questions from your next auditor, if you don’t want run of the mill audit interventions and solutions, void of any value.
Stop trying to determine if we are gifted through questions that are scripted!