Tuesday, 2 July 2013

The 50 most common questions for job interview

One my friend usually tells me you need to go to a job interview to become more confident. Thus, you gain valuable experience of communications with HR specialists. It helps you to obtain the dream job in the future.



Some of the employers like to pose unusual interview job questions. They explain the reason for doing it that they need to select the creative workers to boost the company's development. Nevertheless, the most job interview questions are common and we need to be prepared well for them.

Forbes finds the 50 most common interview questions. It is a great list to practice and to prepare for your job interview.

  1. What are your strengths?
  2. What are your weaknesses?
  3. Why are you interested in working for [insert company name here]?
  4. Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years?
  5. Why do you want to leave your current company?
  6. Why was there a gap in your employment between [insert date] and [insert date]?
  7. What can you offer us that someone else can not?
  8. What are three things your former manager would like you to improve on?
  9. Are you willing to relocate?
  10. Are you willing to travel?

Friday, 28 June 2013

ACCA procedure of claiming your Practical Experience Requirements (PER)

To become an ACCA member and to call yourself a qualified accountant you need to complete practical experience. You should prove that you are able to apply in the work place the knowledge which has learned in your exams. It helps to demonstrate your potential employer that you have practical skills, not only knowledge and ethical behaviour.

You can gain your PER before, during or after completing your exams. It would be great advantage if you complete your PER at the same time with your exams as it reinforces what you learn for the exams.

What is PER?


PER is a guidance for you which includes 36 months practical experience and 13 performance objectives (POs) requirements. POs are closely linked to the exams syllabus. It would be a benefit to coordinate your study and achieving POs to gain the most from both.

What is the relevant experience?


Tuesday, 25 June 2013

How to introduce yourself - ACCA's PO # 5 Communicate effectively

ACCA's performance objective #5 states that we need to communicate clearly in order to work effectively with others.

Every new communication with people starts with the introductory speech or writing the speech introducing yourself.

First impression makes a significant impact on how others perceive you. Be careful with the words introducing yourself. The information can either uphold or harm your credibility.

There are some suggestions I have collected about good introductory speech:

Your name

State your name clearly at the beginning. Name is important for many people. They will think about your name in their mind during your speech, if you do not start with that.

Say your first and last name with any titles you usually use.

Details about your current life

Tell people where you are at your life.

Wednesday, 19 June 2013

Five myths about ACCA's Performance Objectives

Many ACCA students focus on their exams progress. In the same time, the employers are keen on their knowledge gained from exams, ethical behaviour and practical experience.

Thus, do not forget about your Ethics module and PER. It makes your value as a professional higher and your chances to get an attractive job offer increase significantly.

ACCA analysed the students' contacts via ACCA Connect and found five myths about Practical Experience Requirements (PER).

Myth #1 "All I need to achieve a PO is to tick right box"

There are three challenge questions for any PO and no any prescribed right or wrong answer. You should describe your own situation (up to 500 words), then your experience gained (up to 500 words) and possible impact if you had not behaved ethically in this situation (up to 500 words).

Myth #2 "I don't need to prove experience - once, I've passed exams, I am ACCA member"

Exams are only part of the story. You need to apply the knowledge gained from exams in the workplace. Exams, ethics and experience are all needed for ACCA membership.

Tuesday, 18 June 2013

ACCA approved employers in Ukraine

  • List of Ukrainian companies which offer unique career and development opportunities for their employees - members of ACCA:



  • Ukraine International Airlines (Kiev.Ukraine)
  • Wrigley Ukraine (Kiev.Ukraine)
  • Bank Renaissance Capital (Kiev.Ukraine)
  • Suntrade S.E. (Kiev.Ukraine)
  • Interpipe (Kiev.Ukraine)
  • Kyivstar GSM (Kiev.Ukraine)
  • BDO, LLC (Dnepropetrovsk.Ukraine)

Monday, 17 June 2013

The summary of ACCA F8 Audit and Assurance

Quick look at ACCA F8 Audit and Assurance.

Assurance

Audit is the process, assurance is the product.

Agency theory: secondary agent (auditor) delivers the aussurance to principal (shareholders) that the report (FSs) provided by primary agent (director) shows T&F view.

Objective of EA is assurance, purpose of EA is delivery confidence of FSs to shareholders.
Reasonable assurance is a high degree of confidence, but NO guarantees!

5 elements of assurance engagement:

(1) 3 parties relationships:
  • practitioner (auditor)
  • responsible party (director)
  • intended users (shareholders)
(2) subject matter
(3) criteria (standards)
(4) audit procedures to form opinion
(5) audit report

Positive assurance - high level, but not absolute, a lot of testings to form opinion, FSs show T&F view
Negative assurance - medium level, a smaller amount of testings to form opinion, we have no evidences that CF forecast does not provide T&F view.

Statutory audit is an audit of annual FSs.

Auditor & AC - matters to discuss:
  • scope & timing of audit
  • significant findings during audit
  • independence issues
  • modification of audit report (opinion)
  • man-t representation requested
  • fraud cases
Corporate governance (CG) - systems by wich the company directed and controlled.
Rules of CG:
  • global - OCDE Code
  • national - The US - SOX, The UK - The UK CG Code
  • other - Stock Echange Rules


Underlying concepts of CG:
HAIR DRIFT

Saturday, 15 June 2013

Related and correlated risks - ACCA P1 June 2013

To be honest, I missed this theme when I prepared for P1 June 2013. Reading the opentuition forum I discovered that the same question was in past paper P1 June 2011. Unfortunately, I didn't pratice all past papers. My knowledge of statistics helped me to find the right answer.

Related and correlated risks 

Question 1, part a), 10 marks (18 minutes)

Briefly explain ‘related’ and ‘correlated’ risks. Explore the correlation between legal risk and reputation risk for Hoppo if it were to cancel its contract with Red Co.


Related risks are the risk which vary because of the presence of another risk. They do not exist independently.

Correlated risks is a particular example of related risks.
Risks are positively correlated, if the one rises, then the another also rises and vice versa. That means they vary in the same direction.
Risks are negatively correlated, if the one rises, then the another falls and vice versa. That means they vary in opposite direction.