25 Auditor Interview Questions & Answers
1. Have you ever had a documentation error occur during the auditing process? How did you handle it?
How to Answer
This is important because you'll run into documentation errors. Early in your career or even late, you'll miss something. It's human nature to overlook something, which is why most audits have several layers of auditors or reviewers to find these things. When you miss something or have a documentation error slip through that's found by another layer, it's humbling and sometimes discouraging. Use it as an important learning opportunity.
When you make a documentation error, you need to bounce back. Maybe you provided too much documentation and the external auditors are now digging deeper into a direction that you can't answer. You need to adjust and learn from the mistake.
Entry Level
"I've never worked professionally as an auditor, but I learned in school while writing papers that if your asked for certain bullet points and you stray from that, it will affect your grade. Say you have to write a paper on King Tut but you stray to his wife and family and most of your paper is focused on them, your grade will reflect your distracted focus and not the "A" you were expecting."
Answer Example
"Yes. When I was in my first year of auditing, I provided one document that should have been excluded. The external auditors ripped that apart and requested more documentation to follow up. My manager came to me and explained the error and used it as a learning moment for me. I realized that I had provide too much, which was the reason for all the last minute scrambling that we then had to endure."
Experienced
"Yes, that's something that happens from time to time to everyone. If you miss a documentation error, it's embarrassing and can open the door to more questions. I was a second round reviewer and missed that some of the documentation provided was from the previous year. I never looked at the year of the date, only the beginning of the date. It was embarrassing, and when my boss reviewed it, we quickly found out that it was missed by two lines of review. We had to go to the client and find the correct documentation. It didn't take long to correct it, but I missed it and should have found it myself."
2. As a CPA, have you ever signed off on an audit and if so, what does that mean to you?
How to Answer
This is one of the most important jobs an auditor can do. Signing off on an audit is you staking your reputation that this company passed the audit and is in good standing. You have to provide a letter from the auditor providing your opinion of the company's standing. This isn't a matter to be taken lightly. If you're wrong and provide incorrect data, you could be sued and prosecuted.
If you're not a CPA, this doesn't apply, so explain that to them.
Entry Level
"I'm not a CPA yet but I intend to become one. When you sign off, that's a big responsibility, one that I'm not ready for at this stage of my career."
Answer Example
"Yes, I've signed off on an audit and it's a huge responsibility. I'm putting my name, reputation, and career on the line when I do that. I don't sign off until I'm certain that the company is in good standing or I've outlined the position in the auditor's letter released with the financial statements. I take this matter very seriously because my livelihood's on the line."
Experienced
"Yes, I have. Several times. It takes a lot to get me to provide a good report on a company so it had better have everything in line. I'll have several different audit teams reviewing all their documentation and process controls to ensure nothing is missed. If I'm staking my career and name on a sign off, then I'll do everything possible to ensure everything's correct."
3. Have you ever discovered fraud in an audit?
How to Answer
This is a yes or no question. You shouldn't dig too deep into it because you've likely signed a NDA and providing details would be inappropriate. If they do ask for details, give broad answers that don't disclose major details.
If you've never discovered any fraud, that's something to celebrate.
Entry Level
"I've never encountered this issue and I hope that the company I work for will never have that issue. I'd hope that everyone has strong enough ethics and loyalty not to steal from the company."
Answer Example
"I've discovered discrepancies that were later revealed to be attempts at fraud. I escalated it and upper management resolved it. Unfortunately, I signed an NDA so that's all I can say on the matter."
Experienced
"I've encountered that in the past and it was a rare moment in my career. I took it to the CFO, who dealt with it directly after we traced it to the source. It was handled legally and our company was better for it."
4. Give me an example of a time you pushed back when asked for additional documentation and why.
How to Answer
This is important. If you've been an auditor long enough, you've pushed back on a request for additional documentation. How you push back is also important. No one wants to work with an auditor who's a jerk and just says 'No' with no explanation.
You have to be willing to explain why you don't want to provide further documentation. Sometimes, it will feel like you're falling down a rabbit hole, so take care with this.
Entry Level
"I've had no professional experience with this, but in my college job working in the admissions department, we had this really nosy supervisor. She wanted to know every student's financial status even if she didn't work on their admission. I refused to let her see my admissions files one day because she had no reason to view them and she got her boss involved. When her boss talked to me, I explained my push back and the matter was dropped. She was transferred shortly after that because of her snooping."
Answer Example
"I had some external auditors requesting documentation that was ruled out of scope in the previous quarter. I pushed back and told them that due to the previous conversation, which was recorded, the documentation had no bearing on the audit and was ruled out of scope and unnecessary. They conceded the point and dropped the matter."
Experienced
"This happens all the time. One time, a manager asked for additional documentation for a process flow that they owned. He should have already had the process flow but he didn't want to put it together. I told him we just followed the process; we weren't responsible for putting together the process flow for the auditors. It was his job to put it together and submit it to us. He was upset, but eventually did his job and it all worked out."
5. Have you ever been burned out during an audit? How did you regain your focus?
How to Answer
This is a very common issue during an audit. More than once I've been burned out from working long hours of going in early and getting home late. You need something to keep you grounded and help you work through the burnout or avoid it all together.
There are several ways to avoid burnout. All of them include taking control of the situation and putting yourself in a good mindset. You can listen to music, podcasts, or joke around with a friend. Breaking the project into parts and ensuring you take a five minute break every hour will help as well.
Entry Level
"When I was in my senior year of high school, I was in all AP classes. When the year was wrapping up, I had to study for the SAT's, the ASVAB (the military test), four AP finals, as well as write three two-thousand-word papers on various topics and complete an AP Economics project. I felt so overwhelmed and burned out that I couldn't focus on anything. My mom taught me the best way to handle it was to schedule my day. I'd spend my time in class only focusing on that class for study or assignment. When I got home, I'd have certain days that I worked on certain tasks. Saturdays I broke up my day to focus on everything for a little while and completed everything in stages. This is the method I've used ever since."
Answer Example
"I felt so burned out one night I was sitting at my desk just staring at the empty screen because I knew I needed to go home but there was so much work left that I couldn't leave. I ended up working through the night. My boss came in the next morning and found me in the same clothes from the previous day and pulled me into their office. They told me I was burned out and needed a break. I was new to the team and wanted to prove myself, but they knew what I needed. She told me to go home and take the day off to sleep. I came back the next day and felt refreshed and ready to get back to work. Since then, when I feel run down, I make the effort to take a break or eat a snack to help me get back on track."
Experienced
"Burnout generally happens early in your career. Unless you know what hits the fan and the world's collapsing, it's not something you should be dealing with at my level. I take breaks when needed and I know what is and isn't important and. Knowing what you're responsible for and what you're not will definitely help when it comes to burnout."
6. If you could change anything about being an auditor, what would it be?
How to Answer
This is a subjective question. I can't tell you what to answer here, but I can tell you whatever it is, don't not make it sound like the worst aspect of the job. If you wish SOX had never happened, don't go on about how the government is overstepping into corporate affairs. No one wants to hear a rant.
If you don't know anything you'd change, admit it. It's always refreshing to find someone who knows and loves their field.
Entry Level
"I don't think I'd change anything. All the regulations in place are there to protect the people in the company and the field of auditing. It comes in waves. Sometimes you're really busy, other times you have more time to relax, so it's easy to plan vacation time and days off. I enjoy all aspects."
Answer Example
"If I had to change one thing, it would be the perception of how people see auditors. If I go to an airport and chat with a stranger and they ask what I do, they immediately recoil when they hear auditor. We have a bad reputation because people automatically think of the IRS and being in trouble."
Experienced
"I'd change the amount of agencies that have a say in creating and revising the SOX compliance regulations. Sometimes it feels like there are too many cooks in the kitchen and too many duplicated or similar regulations. We just need one governing agency. At the moment, we have the AICPA, GAAP, the FCC, and several oversight committees."
7. Are you okay working longer hours certain times of the year or if a job had a deadline?
How to Answer
This is important to know because in auditing, there are high-volume times of the year. Usually at the end of every quarter is crunch time as well as end of year. At the beginning of the quarter, you usually have a lot more time to do things and prep.
If you can't handle working late or long hours, then this may not be the career for you. This job relies heavily on other people to provide documentation for you to review. If those people take all day to get that documentation, then sometimes you have to either bring work home or stay late.
Entry Level
"I don't mind at all! I love the opportunity to work late, as that's when co-workers come together to get things done. I don't mind having tight deadlines, and getting the job done is something I specialize in."
Answer Example
"Yes, I'm fine with working long hours as long as it's understood that if it becomes habitual because another employee doesn't see the significance of the audit, we can train them on the importance. While I'm fine working long hours at certain times of the year, if it's because someone doesn't value my time, I'll say something. I have a family too, and they enjoy seeing me on a regular basis."
Experienced
"Of course it comes with this field of work. If you become an auditor thinking you'll be home everyday by four, you're mistaken. There's a lot of hurry up and wait in this field, so you have to be patient and quick with your work."
8. If you were given documentation that didn't make sense mathematically, what would your next steps be?
How to Answer
This is important. When handling a financial audit, you'll have to redo calculations and formulas to ensure the numbers provided are accurate. You'll have to know the local applicable tax rates and all other variables.
If you find something that doesn't add up you, you'll have to go back to the person who submitted it and let them know so it can be corrected. As the auditor, it's not your responsibility to fix the error, it's your job to report it.
Entry Level
"If I encountered an error, I'd confer with a co-worker or my boss to determine exactly where they went wrong. Then I'd take it back to the company, client, or person who submitted it and have them correct it. Once it was corrected, I'd continue the audit."
Answer Example
"If I find a math error on some documentation, my first step would be to verify with a colleague that I'm not incorrect. Math can be wrong on either side of the equation. Maybe I have the wrong tax rate. If they concur with me, then I'd take it to the person or point of contact to rerun and correct the numbers. People are human. Errors occur all the time, which is why they have auditors and checks and balances to catch these things."
Experienced
"This happens all the time in companies that don't have a strong check and balance system. You would return the document to the submitter and explain the error. They'd work their way back to fix the error and adjust all documentation affected before resubmitting it to the audit team to continue the audit."
9. Tell me about a time when you sought guidance, from another coworker who was the same level as you?
How to Answer
This is important because during an Audit you need to be able to rely on people around you for knowledge. If you cannot use the people around you then that would be a problem in itself. Auditing is a team sport so sometimes you will learn something from the same level, a lower level or a higher level. You cannot be prideful and think that you are smarter than everyone in the room or you will fail.
If you do not have auditing experience draw on an opportunity to learn from another part of your life.
Entry Level
"I have no Auditing experience with this but when I got my first job as a waitress I was trained by my peers. They taught me how to memorize the menu quickly and how to multitask the tables like a pro. I leaned on them for their experience and knowledge and soon people began to lean on me the same way."
Answer Example
"I am constantly learning from my peers. If you cannot use the people around you to learn than your wasting talent and knowledge. When I first started auditing I was on a team of ten people. I did not have very much excel knowledge but these two guys in class knew everything or so it seemed at the time. They taught me so much and still today if I have a question I will reach out to them because they are always there to help."
Experienced
"This is something you should do at every level. It is not just peers that can teach us I had a new hire teach me a few new things on the updated computer systems we got. He had just taken courses on the new platforms we were introducing and he taught most of the company the ins and outs of it. So only being open to learn from your level or above is a rookie mistake you should never make. Any knowledge from any level is worth learning from my experience."
10. How many times have you run an auditing team?
How to Answer
This is a direct question that requires a direct answer. Remember, this will probably be verified through references from your previous companies. Don't fabricate or embellish because that can cost you the job.
If you've never run an auditing team, be honest. You can't lead a team when you're fresh out of college or have only participated in one audit on which you were the first line. Experience matters.
Entry Level
"I've never managed an auditing team, but with my level of experience I don't think that would be appropriate as I wouldn't want to miss anything and put the company at risk due to my level of knowledge."
Answer Example
"I successfully ran two audit teams and assisted in over 60 total audits. You have to start from the bottom in this field, and I worked my way up."
Experienced
"I've managed several different auditing teams at the same time. I reached a level in my previous company where I managed four different audit clients at one time, so I had four different audits going on with with teams on each. Most audits have various levels of reviewers and different tiers of teams so it could get very complicated, but with the right organizational system, you can keep track of everything."
11. Do you enjoy traveling?
How to Answer
If you're auditing for a corporation, there's a really good chance that you'll be traveling a lot. I know most internal auditors travel at least 30% of the time. External auditors or contracting companies like PWC and Deloitte travel upward of 90% of the time. Yes, you can do less traveling, bu you're likely to do some, so being open to it is important.
If you don't like travel, be honest as your answer will be applied to for your position. If you hate travel, they could put you on travel limited to 10% or less. Don't lie about your objective. I'll use what I said in my interview below. Be very clear on your priorities and where you stand. If you're fresh out of college with no obligations, that's the time for travel, so embrace it.
Entry Level
"I'm just out of college with no family to rush home to, so I'm free to travel as much as necessary. I'd love to travel oversees to help clients and sightsee in my spare time."
Answer Example
"I have a small child at home and as this is my first job after giving birth to her I do not feel comfortable leaving her alone for long or very often. I am open to it if necessary but I would prefer to be home every night so that she has that consistency. My first priority is my family."
Experienced
"I've been traveling for 15 years in this profession. I've been all over the world including Saudi Arabia, England, and various East Asian countries. I'm open to travel, but my wife is pregnant so I'd like to be home more than I'm away."
12. Have you ever been offered a bribe? How did you react?
How to Answer
Auditing is a profession that affects the stock market. If you audit a company and they fail, their stock prices will most likely fall. A failure indicates that the company isn't complying with SOX regulation for documentation or financial procedures. It marks the company as untrustworthy or disorganized. So for an auditor, it's important to have strong ethics.
If someone has ever offered you a bribe or tried to pump you for information regarding a client, you'll know it. You don't talk specifics with people in this line of work. You'd never say to a stranger in a bar that the company you're auditing is going to fail and if you do, you could cause a sudden stock short. Ethics is important and being consistent with your ethics is particularly important.
Entry Level
"I've never been offered a bribe for auditing, but in high school, I had a classmate that tried to pay me to do his homework. I ended up tutoring him because I told him the homework was only ten percent of the grade and if he didn't learn it, he'd fail the tests. He passed the class with a B and we spent three nights a week learning Geometry together."
Answer Example
"I've never been outright offered a bribe, but I did use to go out for after work drinks at a local bar and some finance guys try and press me for information. They bought me a beer and asked a bunch of questions and got really annoyed when I smiled and changed the subject to football. I told them I signed a NDA and didn't come there to talk business. If they were curious about the company, the financials where posted on the FCC website like all publicly trade companies."
Experienced
"Yes, I have. When I worked for Google, I was offered a bribe to reveal their yearly earnings before they were released. I reported this to my bosses and they contacted the police because corporate espionage is a dangerous thing. I was commended for my honesty and ethics and I proved to myself, my company, and outside interests that I couldn't be bought to break my ethics."
13. What do you enjoy most about being an auditor?
How to Answer
This is a subjective answer. I can't tell you why you enjoy being an auditor. This is personal to you and no one else. I can tell you why I love being an auditor and what I love about being an accountant, but that's not you.
Don't embellish this if you don't know. If you're simply testing the water, admit it. No one can blame you for not having the perfect answer to this question.
Entry Level
"I don't know if I'll enjoy it. I loved the auditing classes I took because they were like piecing together a puzzle and I've always loved puzzles."
Answer Example
"I love auditing because I'm great at attention to detail. I love finding small details that can make a difference to a company."
Experienced
"I've always loved auditing. It's a giant puzzle and detective work all in one. You get to dig deep and find the inner workings of a company. Financial audits show you exactly what the company spends money on. If it's a user access review, you have to dig down and find all the required documentation for the access necessity and approvals. You're a private investigator and a puzzle master, and if you can embrace it, you'll love it."
14. Why do you want a career as an auditor?
How to Answer
This is a subjective question. This is basically asking why you want this position. If you don't know why you want to be an auditor, then probably won't enjoy it. Auditing is reviewing the work of others and checking for errors, and finding where the documentation came from and determining if the information provided can be supported by proof for outside auditors to review and accept. It entails many caveats and details that are easily overlooked but must be understood.
This is a field for people who enjoy details and like puzzles. The more difficult the puzzle, the more you'll be paid.
Entry Level
"I want to be an auditor because in school, that was my favorite course. I had a lot of classmates that said auditing was boring and redundant and I went into the class with the same attitude. I quickly discovered that it was like a puzzle. I love puzzles! It's like be an investigator for a company to ensure they're protected when it comes to compliance."
Answer Example
"I want to be an auditor because I love puzzles and mysteries. I love to find out the root cause of an issue or a document and know that I found the origin. It makes me happy to help a company be compliant with their financials and information."
Experienced
"I've been an auditor for ten years. I'm an auditor certified by the AICPA. I knew I wanted to be an auditor because while I was still in school, I took a temp job as a first line auditor for information security and fell in love with the field. I love discovering issues with a process and fixing it. I helped a company that was regularly failing their audit to pass within a year after I started. It has been a very rewarding career and I intend to continue with it until retirement."
15. Have you ever faced a documentation overload during an audit? How did you handle it?
How to Answer
There will be times during an audit when you'll see so much documentation that it will seem overwhelming. There's a fine line between too much information and not enough. You don't want to give external auditors too much information that will prompt them to ask more questions, but you want to have enough documentation to avoid them asking for more.
The fine line that auditors walk is tough to determine sometimes, so when you think you have too much documentation, you should ask one question about every piece of paper you get. 'How do I know this is correct according to company policy?' If you're not sure about the document you're reviewing, then you need one more layer.
Entry Level
"I've never worked an audit professionally, but in college I had an auditing class where my teacher did something similar. She told us for our final we'd be performing an audit for one quarter of the year. She gave us two years of documentation in no particular order to show that sometimes companies just dump stuff on you without organizing it. We had to sift through everything and find every single document that pertained to the Q3 of the year we were looking for. It took some time, but being highly organized, I was able to handle it and got an A on the project."
Answer Example
"I was working for a client that gave us every piece of documentation they had. The issue with that was that they gave us forms from prior years. It was bogging us down because they were only being audited for the current year. It took forever to wade through and pull out what was actually useful."
Experienced
"Yes, several times. I think the worst was when a company had just gone public and I was brought in to help them organize and prepare for their first audit. I saw that they did everything on paper documentation and hadn't saved anything electronically. I sat in a conference room with boxes and boxes of paperwork with a scanner and computer. I organized all the documentation in date order, scanned everything, and then organized it into the proper areas. I created a documentation process for them and helped them set up the controls necessary to keep the documentation on hand and electronically available to pass the audit."
16. Everyone has to bend or break rules sometimes. Give me an example when you had to that in auditing or accounting.
How to Answer
This is a double-edged sword question. You don't want them to think you're a rule breaker, but if if you need to be flexible, at times it could be necessary. The best way to answer this question is to fall back on your ethics and find a compromise rather than bend or break the rules. It's a violation of SOX compliance to break the rules regarding auditing. This is how CPA's lose their licenses and even go to prison. Be careful how you answer this question.
If you have no auditing experience, this is a much safer question to answer but I'd still be very careful about anything you decide to share. No one wants to hire a criminal but they do want you to play ball.
Entry Level
"I have no real world auditing experience, but I do know that ethically you can't break the rules of SOX compliance. There are ways to bend the rules slightly by finding middle ground or exemptions to disallow for failures on certain aspects. I'm unsure of the exact process, but I can and will find out how that's done. Ethics is what makes or breaks an accountant or auditor so you should never want someone to break the rules while working with your company because they can be criminally charged."
Answer Example
"I've never broken the auditing or SOX compliance rules knowingly because that would threaten my license. When struggling with an audit, I've made safe compromises with a client. I had one client who was in trouble with the audit and I helped them process some exemption forms before handing the documentation to the external auditors. This allowed them time to get their documentation in line but didn't break any rules."
Experienced
"Bending and breaking rules is nothing that should ever happen. If you've heard of ENRON or WorldCom, then you know that when auditors break rules it's a legal matter than can get not only the auditor arrested and de-certificated but the company management as well. Now, if you're looking for a compromise where we can avoid failing an audit, there are options by scoping or documenting processes to give the auditors. Or there are exemption reports we can submit to disallow external auditors from looking for that documentation for a certain period of time. This just delays when they'll look for the documentation."
17. What platforms have you audited in the past?
How to Answer
This is a basic question. Auditing is not like regular accounting. There will be programs that most people have not heard of. Basically, anything that affects the company can be audited, i.e., financials, health insurance, IT compliance, etc. You'll run into so many different systems that those you use at one company may not be the same at any other company you work with.
If you don't have any experience with any platforms, admit it. Honesty is always the best policy.
Entry Level
"I've never worked with a platform related to auditing. I'm just out of college but I'm a fast learner and am told I'm easily trainable."
Answer Example
"I've worked with Peoplesoft, Blackline, HR Passport, Service Now, Xactly, and various others."
Experienced
"I've worked with several platforms to audit them ranging from Peoplesoft financials to HR Passport to Informatica. There are so many I couldn't tell you all of them in one sitting. What platforms does your company utilize?"
18. If you find a process that's time consuming and frustrating, what would you do?
How to Answer
This is a way of asking if you'd consider improving a process or suggesting an improvement without being asked. It's important as an auditor to help client companies grow and become independent. To accomplish this, auditors are often frequently required to review and improve the processes.
If you haven't done this, admit it rather than fabricate something. This isn't something you generally learn in school so being honest is the best policy. This could be a good place to show problem solving in different way from personal experience.
Entry Level
"I've never had the opportunity in the professional world to do, that but when I was a kid both my parents were laid off within days of each other so I came up with the idea for my brother and I to start a lawn care company. At first my dad laughed when we took the mower and went door to door, but when we came home with two hundred dollars covered in grass and dirt and gave him the money, it showed him that we cared about our family's financial situation."
Answer Example
"When I worked with a client for about three months, I realized they were doing all their calculations manually. I created an Excel spreadsheet to show them how valuable the formulas were and how much time could be saved. They took my suggestion and implemented it, transforming a five-day process to a one-day process by removing all the menial manual work."
Experienced
"One of the companies I use to work for was still in the Dark Ages. They could hardly use Excel and had no idea what kind of platforms were available that could help them with their process. They had just recently gone public and only had about a hundred employees, so I went in and helped them improve their systems through training and getting them to use Quickbooks as well as other programs. They quickly caught on and have been thriving ever since."
19. Have you ever been overloaded with work, i.e., multiple auditing contracts or clients at once, or just a large amount of auditing work all at once?
How to Answer
This is important, and if you've been an auditor for a while, then you've definitely been overloaded at some point. This is a good time explain the situation and how you resolved it. Knowing that even if you stepped back and had to ask for help is the right answer.
You should never fabricate something, so if you don't have experience being overloaded with work in the professional world, turn to the academic world. Most people have been overloaded at some point in their lives.
Entry Level
"When I was in college, I was on my own. I went to school and lived in an apartment off campus. I worked three jobs to maintain my apartment and my courses without going into debt and I played basketball for the school. I was so busy that I had a reminder set on my phone every time I needed to leave one place to get to another. I once left a game and went straight to work at a restaurant where I was a waiter before I went to the nightclub where I was a bouncer. I would generally get up at 4 am to get to the coffee shop where I worked in the mornings before classes. I was able to get through school debt free and pass all my classes to get to were I am today. Yes, I was overloaded, but I can handle it."
Answer Example
"When I was an analyst working on a User Access Audit, I was so overloaded with work I was reviewing 11 systems that all came in at the same time. I was working from five in the morning until eight at night and I just muscled through it. I was able to get everything done quickly and accurately, but I was stressed out for a few days. I felt so accomplished when it was done that I knew this was the career for me."
Experienced
"I once was managing four different teams, and each team had at least five projects they were handling at a time. I had various team meetings to discuss the projects and get updates while I handled the finishing touches and was the control owner for many of the controls being tested. My teams were so overloaded we could hardly keep up, but thanks to the help of my dedicated employees, we were able to maintain the pace until I could get a bigger budget and hire more people to help."
20. If you're working for multiple clients at one time, how do you monitor the amount of hours you spend on one compared to the other?
How to Answer
This is a time management question. Most auditors will have multiple clients at once. This is especially true if you're working for an audit firm like PwC or Deloitte. You have to be able to show when you're working for one client and not the other for billing as well as for explanations why something has been paused. Clients don't like to hear or know about your other clients, but most are understanding.
Take me, for example. I work full time at a tech company, but when I'm home and have down time, that doesn't affect my current job of assisting with these postings. I also have a blog that I write. It's all about time management.
Entry Level
"In college, I had a planner that I used to track the amount of time I spent on each class and the associated homework. I also used that to track my schedule for work and sports activities. It helped me stay organized and I ensured I never missed one assignment or a single day of work."
Answer Example
"I track my hours using an Excel formula to track how much time each client needs before I start, then I allocate my day accordingly. If timetables need adjusting, I notify the clients when it's necessary."
Experienced
"I generally use whatever software the company provides for tracking time, but on my phone, I also use Google calendars to track my time as well as a clock App I downloaded that starts timing when I log it and tracks a full forty-eight-hour history."
21. By providing examples, convince me that you can adapt to a wide variety of people, situations, and environments.
How to Answer
This is important in an audit because you'll most likely be traveling a lot. You'll have to deal with different types of people and situations. Auditors travel all over the world to do their jobs. You could be in California today and Tokyo tomorrow. You have to be able to adapt quickly and maintain the work standards you've always provided.
When faced with a question like this, you need to think of something you had to do that wasn't only hard but out of your norm. It can be work related or personal as long as it gets the point across that you can handle a wide variety of people in a unfamiliar situation or environment.
Entry Level
"When I was in high school, my dad got transferred from our small town in California to a smaller town in Arizona. I was put into all AP classes because those were the only classes not full, so I studied my heart out and passed all my classes. I joined the cross country and track and field teams and spent the last two years of high school focusing on getting ahead. That's why I got a scholarship for my grades and extracurricular activities."
Answer Example
"I was working for an audit firm and they had an international client in Spain. I speak Spanish, but the Mexican dialect, so they assumed I'd be able to quickly pick up the Spanish dialect. They sent me out and when I spoke, people would be able to understand me for the most part but I'd sometimes say the wrong words. I quickly learned the correct dialect and verbiage while completing my assignment. From then on, I was the go-to person for all Mexico and Spain travel, and eventually got to go to Italy to learn Italian."
Experienced
"I was transferred from a small town to a big city for work and that was the biggest change of my entire life. The people were always rude and the city itself was overcrowded. I had to learn that you don't make friends at the grocery store like in small towns because they're just different people. I learned and adapted to always working as the people there have no work/life balance. I quickly adapted to the changes and thrived there."
22. Have you ever had difficulty with a supervisor?
How to Answer
Audits are stressful. There's no way around that. If you've ever worked on an audit, there was likely a time when you and everyone around you felt pressured by the deadline and outlining the data to be easily understood. Supervisors are people too, and they feel the pressure from above them, so if a supervisor is difficult, it may help to put yourself in their shoes.
Think of a supervisor you've had or a teacher who was difficult to deal with. How did you handle it? Was it an appropriate way to handle the situation? You never want to give an example of that's going to make you look bad. Hopefully, you've risen above a situation where someone has been difficult.
Entry Level
"I had a teacher who didn't like jocks. I was on the football team, the soccer team, and the track and field team, so I was covered in jock. He'd hold tests on days when we had games or meets and refused to let us make up the tests until we went to the principal. The principal helped us because we had no power in that situation, but the teacher's attitude didn't change until one day I saw him outside of school. He came to where I worked at a local pizza place and gave me attitude. I calmly told him that I held no ill will toward him because it was obvious he had an issue with jocks in his life. I asked him if he wanted to get to know me as a person to see that I was a good kid who just liked playing sports. I never bullied anyone and had always treated others with respect and dignity because I was raised right. He changed his attitude after that and started to reach out more to the students."
Answer Example
"I had a Manager who was rude to everyone. She would lay down what she thought was right and if you disagreed with her, you became the enemy and your schedule reflected it. I once suggested an improvement to scheduling to her and the general manager. While they considered it, my schedule went from day shifts to night shifts and double shifts for the next two weeks. I showed up to every shift with a smile and worked my butt off. My general manager noticed and assigned me as the restaurant's schedule maker. I still worked double shifts when necessary, but I tried to be as fair as possible."
Experienced
"Yes, I had a manager who made everyone's life hard. We used to look in the parking lot for their car to know if it was going to be a good day or a bad day. I worked with well with them and was actually one of their favorite employees because I did my job and conformed to their standards to ensure I avoided conflict."
23. Describe a time when you had to work with a large team auditing team and how you handled it.
How to Answer
Auditing is a team sport. You'll never be in it alone. You'll have supervisors, subordinates, and clients everywhere. It's essential that you can adjust to the various personalities you'll be working with and maintain a professional relationship no matter how stressful the situation may become.
If you struggle with this, then the suggestion would be to work on a reserved attitude. You never want to come off as unwilling to work with a client or vendor because of personality issues. That reflects poorly on you, rather than them, most of the time.
Entry Level
"I've never worked professionally with a large group, but in high school I was in student government. I was president of our senior class and ran all the government meetings. We planned dances, prom, the graduation process, and class trips. We met with various clubs within the school to coordinate programs and fundraisers. I had to work with just about everyone in the school at one time or another, which can be difficult considering the attitudes and concerns of teenagers."
Answer Example
"I had a contract to work as a temp with nine other people. We sat in a conference room together for almost a year on this project. We shared birthdays and holidays even decorated this tiny little tree we named Tim. It was like a Charlie Brown Christmas. We grew very close and although the company only hired three of us, we stayed in contact with many of the others and made great friendships from of the experience."
Experienced
"I've worked with several teams over my career. The biggest team I worked with was a team of one hundred and twenty people. We were handling an audit for a rather large international company. There were so many moving parts. It was like we were constantly in meetings to gather the information to present to the senior management so they could see what we needed or what was complete. It was stressful and everyone felt like they didn't know the complete story, but as we presented the information, it all came together."
24. If you were an external auditor, what's the first thing you'd ask for when entering an audit?
How to Answer
This question is to test your knowledge of the proper steps to take at the very beginning of a project. There are a few different answers that all lead to the same thing. You need to know the scope of the audit. You need to see exactly what you're looking at. It's highly unlikely that you'll be auditing an entire company yourself as most publicly traded companies are far too large for one person to handle.
You'll want to have a scoping meeting to decide what everyone will be looking at or if the contract hasn't been arranged, a contract meeting.
Entry Level
"I'd be looking for the scope contract paperwork to tell me what I'd need to look at and what constitutes white noise."
Answer Example
"I'd want the scope documentation to ensure that we're only looking at what's in scope for this audit. If that isn't prepared and this is the initial client visit, I'd ask for a contract meeting to review all the areas of the company to determine what needs to be audited and what would be white noise."
Experienced
"I'd negotiate a scope contract to outline what the teams would be looking at and what would be considered non-essential. We'd review SOX compliance on various fronts from Finance to IT technology to HR. All these different areas have aspects that must be audited or at least reviewed. Then I'd take that back to my company and we'd assemble a team who knew exactly what they were looking for before beginning the audit."
25. Describe a difficult auditing project and how you overcame it.
How to Answer
This is an important question not only to demonstrate how you handled a difficult project but also because auditing is a very confidential field of work. Most auditors have to sign an NDA or non-disclosure agreement because what auditors are reviewing will generally inform investors whether or not they should invest in the company.
It's important to know how to how to be discreet while also providing the interviewer what they want to know. A good way to do this is not to mention which company you're talking about. This becomes harder when you have little work experience, but that's where you be vague about the type of audit you worked on. It's also good to mention the NDA you signed to show that you take your commitments seriously.
Entry Level
"I've never worked as an auditor on a project, but in school, we had an auditing project and for the final, our teacher had us simulate the timeline of a real time audit. This means we were given a massive amount of data with a deadline of two weeks, and some of the data was held back until three days before it was due. This simulates how the world of auditing works. It's a lot of hurry up and wait, then sprint to the finish line."
Answer Example
"When I worked for one of my previous companies, they had just gone public and had no auditing department. I had a little experience from a previous position and offered to take a look when we failed the first audit we undertook. I found that lack of internal controls and documentation was the root cause. I then had to create the entire auditing department. This lead to my promotion as Internal Audit Director. I hired a team and we got the company back on track. It was by far the most stressful and difficult project I've ever had to undertake because of my limited experience, and the company's budget for hiring was small."