Questions to ask at your Risk Job Interview

Questions to ask at your Risk Job InterviewAre you really prepared for your risk management interview? You may have done the research, brushed your teeth and have stellar responses ready to fire back at the interviewer’s questions; but, what about when it’s your turn to do the asking?

Asking the right questions could be just the ticket to propel you into a career in risk, so think wisely.
 

Go in hard; ask whether the company conducts a regular assessment of their business strategy to keep up with the evolving risk landscape? You want to know that the company, from top down, is constantly reframing their approach to risk, particularly in the face of a continually changing regulatory environment.
 

Now on the other side of the EU GDPR directive, you also want to know what their response readiness looks like in the case of an extreme event. Have they made it a priority? What is their plan for buffering reputational impact? Whether it’s a financial risk role, cyber risk or technology risk, the repercussions of the latest data protection act will be a key point of discussion as businesses ensure they are complying with the regulation.
 

What of your role specifically? A good line of questioning would be to understand their expectations for your role in the coming 6 to 12 months. This will give you a better grasp of what the workload is likely to look like, the potential challenges you could expect to face and the current state of their risk function. Asking this question may also serve as an opportunity to further sell yourself, provided you like their answer, in emphasising how your skillset and experience will add value.
 

Furthermore, probe into what they deem the key challenges are that the business is currently facing. This too will present a platform for you to talk about the issues you see as potentially affecting the company and how your personal brand of expertise could be instrumental in overcoming them.
 

Ask questions that show you have thought about the company’s lines of defence, the maturity of their frameworks, their risk profiles and key risk indicators and the robustness of their models, and any other areas where you’ve identified possible challenges.
 

You need to convey that you are not only au fait with all these technical facets to your role in risk but that you recognise its function on a larger scale.
 

Essentially, your interviewer is looking for answers that reveal not only your strengths in building risk models, for instance, but also your understanding of how that relates to the business from a strategic point of view.

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