Finance interview do's and don'ts: what actually gets you hired in 2026
Permanent hiring in the UK just hit a four-year high. For finance and payroll professionals, that's not a headline to skim past — it's more interviews, for more roles, happening right now. We flagged the market turning back in September when [the data first pointed that way](/company/blog/good-time-to-move-finance-2026), and it's held. Good news. But more interviews only help you if you're actually delivering in the room.
So here's the honest version of finance interview advice — not the generic stuff that applies to every job going.
Do: bring real examples, not job-description language
Most interviewers now ask competency-based questions — "tell me about a time you spotted an error in a set of accounts," "talk me through how you handled competing priorities at month-end." They're not testing whether the example went well. They're testing how you think. Structure your answer with the STAR method — Situation, Task, Action, Result — and spend most of your time on the Action: what you actually did, and why.
Prepare examples before you walk in. Make them specific enough that you could only have lived them — vague claims about being "organised" or a "team player" say nothing. A modest example told with genuine insight beats an impressive-sounding one you can't actually discuss in detail.
Do: know your own numbers
Ledger volumes, DSO improvements, how many invoices you processed a month, how long your close took and what you did to shorten it. Employers are asking for this more concretely than they used to. If your CV already [gets you shortlisted](/company/blog/credit-controller-cv-that-gets-shortlisted), the interview is where you prove the numbers on it are real.
Do: do your homework on the business, not just the role
What does the company actually do, who are its competitors, has anything happened recently — a takeover, a tough set of results, a new system rollout. Interviewers ask about this more than candidates expect, and it costs you nothing to know it.
Don't: treat psychometric or technical tests as a formality
If there's a numerical reasoning test, an Excel exercise, or a short technical screen attached to the process, candidates routinely underprepare for it because it doesn't feel like "the real interview." It is. Practise it properly beforehand.
Don't: skip the small stuff
Lighting, camera angle, a laptop at eye level, a quiet room — basic, and still the thing that trips people up on video interviews. Test it before, not during.
The bottom line
More roles are open, more interviews are happening, and the basics still decide most of them: real examples, real numbers, real homework. If you want the longer view on where a transactional finance career actually goes from here, [we've mapped the real path from ledger clerk to Finance Director](/company/blog/aat-to-cima-transactional-finance-career-path). And if you'd rather talk it through before your next interview than read another list of tips — that's what we're here for.