You’ve prepared for the interview. You know the company, you’ve reviewed the job description and you’re ready to talk through your finance experience.
Then comes the question:
“Tell me about a time you had to deal with a difficult stakeholder.”
Or perhaps:
“Give me an example of a mistake you made and how you handled it.”
Behavioural interview questions can feel less straightforward than technical finance questions because there isn’t always an obvious “correct” answer. But that is precisely why employers use them.
Your interviewer isn’t simply interested in the story. They’re trying to understand how you think, communicate and behave when faced with situations you’re likely to encounter in the role.
For finance professionals, knowing what sits behind these questions can make interview preparation considerably easier.
What is a behavioural interview question?
Behavioural, or competency-based, questions ask you to describe a real situation from your previous experience.
They usually begin with phrases such as:
- “Tell me about a time when…”
- “Give me an example of…”
- “Describe a situation where…”
- “How have you handled…”
The idea is simple. Instead of asking whether you’re good at managing deadlines, the interviewer asks you to prove it with an example.
Research published in the Journal of Applied Psychology has found that structured interviews, where candidates are assessed using consistent job-related questions and criteria, can provide strong predictive value when assessing future job performance.
That is why behavioural questions appear so frequently in professional interviews.
What is the interviewer actually looking for?
Imagine you’re interviewing for a Financial Manager position and you’re asked:
“Tell me about a time you had conflicting deadlines.”
It sounds like a time-management question, but the interviewer could actually be assessing several competencies at once.
They may want to understand:
- How you prioritise under pressure.
- Whether you communicate when deadlines are at risk.
- How independently you make decisions.
- Whether you understand which tasks carry the greatest business risk.
- How you manage stakeholders when expectations conflict.
For finance professionals, these questions are particularly relevant. Month-end deadlines, audits, regulatory submissions, board reporting and budgeting cycles frequently overlap.
Saying you’re “good under pressure” tells an interviewer very little.
Showing them how you managed three competing deadlines does.
The STAR method works, if you don’t make it sound scripted
Most candidates have heard of the STAR method:
Situation: What was happening?
Task: What were you responsible for?
Action: What did you do?
Result: What happened?
It’s a useful framework because it stops answers from becoming long, unfocused stories.
The problem comes when candidates prepare STAR answers word for word. The response can quickly sound rehearsed.
Rather than memorising complete answers, prepare a handful of genuine career examples that demonstrate different skills.
Think about situations involving:
- A difficult deadline
- A disagreement with a stakeholder
- A process you improved
- A mistake you corrected
- A difficult team situation
- A decision you made with incomplete information
- A time you influenced someone outside finance
One strong example can often be adapted to several behavioural questions.
Finance interviews are increasingly testing commercial thinking
Technical finance skills remain essential, but employers increasingly want finance professionals who can work beyond the numbers.
Employers want to see how a candidate reasons through ambiguity and influences an outcome, not just whether they know the numbers. Judgement, stakeholder influence, resilience and adaptability are increasingly weighed alongside technical ability.
That shift is particularly relevant to modern finance roles.
A Management Accountant may be expected to challenge operational managers. A Financial Controller may need to explain complex information to non-finance colleagues. A CFO needs to influence strategy, not simply report financial performance.
Behavioural questions help interviewers uncover those capabilities.
“Tell me about a mistake you’ve made”
Candidates often dislike this question because they worry that admitting a mistake will damage their chances.
Trying to avoid the question usually does more harm.
Interviewers aren’t expecting finance professionals to have perfect careers. They’re looking for accountability.
A strong answer explains:
- What happened.
- How you identified the problem.
- What you did to correct it.
- Who you communicated with.
- What changed afterwards.
Choose a genuine mistake, but ideally not one involving serious misconduct or a fundamental inability to perform the role you’re applying for.
Most importantly, don’t disguise a strength as a weakness.
“I care too much about getting things perfect” is unlikely to tell an experienced interviewer anything useful.
“Tell me about a difficult stakeholder”
This is another common question in finance interviews.
Your interviewer isn’t necessarily interested in whether the other person was genuinely difficult. They’re assessing how you behaved.
Avoid spending most of your answer describing how unreasonable your colleague, manager or client was.
Instead, explain the disagreement briefly and focus on how you handled it.
Perhaps you had to challenge unrealistic budget assumptions from a department head. Maybe an operational manager repeatedly missed reporting deadlines. Perhaps you disagreed with a senior stakeholder about a financial decision.
A strong answer demonstrates diplomacy without suggesting that you avoid difficult conversations.
Put numbers into your answers
Finance professionals have an advantage when answering competency-based questions: many achievements can be quantified.
Use it.
Instead of saying:
“I improved our month-end reporting process.”
Explain that you reduced month-end reporting from eight working days to five.
Instead of:
“I helped reduce costs.”
Explain what you identified and approximately how much the business saved.
Specific results make an answer more credible and memorable.
Prepare examples, not scripts
Before your next finance interview, spend an hour reviewing your career.
Write down six to eight examples of situations where you:
- Solved a meaningful problem.
- Improved a process.
- Managed pressure.
- Influenced a decision.
- Worked through conflict.
- Made and corrected a mistake.
- Led or supported a team.
- Delivered a measurable result.
You don’t need to memorise exactly what you’ll say.
Know the situation, remember the important details and understand what the example demonstrates.
Your answer will sound considerably more natural.
Remember that you’re interviewing them too
An interview shouldn’t be a one-way assessment.
CA Financial Appointments’ Western Cape Finance Talent Insights 2026 found that 34% of finance professionals identify a poor interview experience as a reason to drop out of a recruitment process.
Pay attention to the questions you’re being asked and how the interview is conducted.
Are expectations clear? Can the interviewer explain what success looks like? Are they transparent about the role, salary and working arrangements?
The interview should give both sides enough information to make a good decision.
Turn your experience into evidence
We also support international organisations hiring South African finance professionals through our Employer of Record (EOR) offering, creating further opportunities for candidates to gain exposure to global businesses while remaining based in South Africa.
Wherever your next interview takes you, remember what a behavioural question is really asking.
Your interviewer doesn’t need the perfect story. They need evidence of how you operate when the situation isn’t perfect.
Prepare real examples, explain your thinking and be specific about your contribution. That will tell an interviewer far more about the finance professional they’re considering hiring than a polished list of strengths ever could.
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