Interview tips
Most interview advice applies to people from all kinds of finance backgrounds. If you are in credit control, though, a more specific approach needs to be taken in order to raise your game above other credit controllers going for that dream job.
Professional studies
If you have already embarked on the Institute of Credit Management (ICM) studies, think about answers to these questions:
- What motivated you to go for the ICM qualification?
- How do you feel this enhances your suitability as a candidate for this job?
- How do you manage to balance study and work commitments?
- How do you see your career developing upon qualification?
If you haven't started studying, it's still crucial to think about these issues, as it may be important to your future employer that you show an interest in developing professionally:
- You haven't started ICM studies – how committed to a career in credit control are you?
- Would you be prepared to undertake studies for a professional qualification?
- What do you know about the ICM syllabus – how might that have relevance in your working day?
- How do you feel about starting studying again – especially if you haven't studied for many years?
Your current employer
You need to be able to demonstrate an interest in the wider picture – how your role fits into the company you work for:
- What kind of business does your employer carry out?
- What is the annual turnover? What volume of sales are you processing or chasing?
- How does your role slot into the accounts team?
- How do you check trade references?
- How are new accounts set up on your system – and how are you involved?
- Whose responsibility is it to notify relevant colleagues (such as your sales team) that new accounts have been set up? What is your responsibility for setting/arranging credit limits?
Your client base
You'll need to be ready to answer technical questions about your work – some or all of these issues may come into play during the interview:
- How is the ledger split, eg alpha, location, etc?
- What types of clients do you deal with, eg blue chips, partnerships, sole traders?
- What is the percentage split between UK and export trade?
- How many live accounts do you deal with in an average month? What's the value of those accounts?
- Are the accounts high-value-low-volume or vice-versa?
- What is the average debtor days? What aged debtor work are you involved in and to what extent?
- How much time do you spend chasing debts via the telephone?
- How do you issue standard letters, eg templates on a system, customised, etc?
- What responsibility do you have for LBA?
- How involved are you in managing queries and raising credit notes?
- How many invoices are raised on the sales ledger in an average month?
- How is your performance assessed, eg monthly/quarterly targets?
- How often do you hit your targets? How does that compare to your peers? What reports are you involved with?
Management questions
If you're in a supervisory position, your potential employer will also want to know about your experience of managing people:
- How many people are you responsible for?
- What are your supervisory responsibilities?
- Appraisals
- Target-setting
- Coaching
- Recruitment
- What experience of controls and procedures do you have? What individual and team targets do you oversee
- How do you motivate your team?
- How could your management skills be improved?
