Accounting & Finance Soft Skills to Upgrade – A Guide

Posted on 21 July 202221 July 2022 by Martina Quinn

Communication, Collaboration, Time Management and Critical Commercial Thinking are four key soft skills that accounting, and finance professionals can upskill according to Journal of Accountancy. This will help with their existing role or if they are looking for a move to another organisation.

These softer skills are in high demand when it comes to hiring accounting and finance personnel. Here at Martina Quinn Finance Recruitment where our teams have extensive experience (67 years combined) recruiting in the Irish Market’, have seen a shift in what employers look for in new accounting and finance employees.

In the last 30 years we have lived through a digital revolution. It was a privilege and not a right to have a PC and access to the internet which used to be through dial up. An accountant’s trusty weapon of choice was a calculator.

In today’s world accounting and finance professionals need access to a solid laptop with excellent processors and plenty of RAM. This is because today’s accountant needs to be technologically clued into the many accounting and finance software platforms they need to use.

As the industry gets more digitalized and automated soft skills can often be overlooked when an accountant or finance professional was a student looking to climb the corporate ladder. However, its these soft skills that can help accountants and finance personnel to reach where they want to be.

A recent survey by the Society for Human Resource Management published in May 2020 titled “Leaders and Employees Need Soft Skills Now More than Ever”. In their survey 97% of employers stated soft skills were either as important or more important than hard skills.

Hiring managers naturally look through candidate’s experience, necessary education, and qualifications. However, this is when they are trying to get to know their candidates from CV or LinkedIn profile. Hiring managers will want accounting and finance personnel with great knowledge combined well rounded interpersonal skills too.

In making a decision for hiring accountants and finance professionals you will want personnel that possess the above-mentioned soft skills combined with experience and industry know how. In this article we provide detailed information about the four key soft skills hiring managers are looking for.

Communication

Accounting and finance professionals are what keep businesses moving they are the foundation of every organisation. At some stage every department and business function must interact with the finance or accountancy team. This could be invoices, credit control to company audit summaries.

For this reason, it’s important that companies have accounting and finance professionals with excellent communication skills. The ability to present and communicate corporate financial strategies and report findings to company board members is important and having adequate communication skills is the foundation.

Accounting and finance teams will need to persuade and articulate valid points behind financial decisions and will need senior directors to back their decisions from time to time. Having communications skills to do this will help jobseekers progress within the organisation.

Written communication skills are just as important as verbal. Getting the tone right in your emails to team members, management and clients is vital. Making sure your emails are clear and concise and friendly.

Top Tip: Try and avoid using accountancy jargon when communicating with clients and colleagues who don’t come from an accountancy and finance background. Write your piece in such a way that anyone could understand it, not just those on your finance team.

For written communication, read over it and doublecheck for errors. For presenting reports, we would recommend reading over your presentation slides and practising presenting it in advance.

Collaboration

Accounting and finance teams no longer work independently reporting on finance related items. Business and businesses have become more complex and the need to work and communicate with other departments is necessary.

Companies today want more involvement from the accountant and finance professional in the business process and decision making. Accountants and finance teams are required to analyse raw data and provide their advice on businesses decisions.

As an accountant collaboration skills such as empathy, teamwork and problem-solving skills are all necessary to get ahead in your career. The ability to collaborate with colleagues, clients and external suppliers is a key skill to develop and grow in the accounting and finance profession.

To enhance your collaboration skills, we advise to get involved in networking at company events, chamber of commerce events and industry relevant events. Get involved with social committees within your organisation and try to get to know everyone. You never know how ye can help each other in your current and future roles.

Time management

This is an essential skill for the accounting and finance professional. Its in the majority of job specs that go out on the job’s boards. This is because many accountancy firms are deadline focused and billing hours for clients need to be accurate.

Finance can be seen as more task orientated, so managing your time so you won’t be snowed in with work is essential. This particularly true when it comes to certain times of the year such as filing tax returns etc.

Critical Commercial Thinking

Critical thinking and problem solving skills is what will help you succeed at your chosen firm.

In your accounting and finance career you might face new challenges or unexpected errors. Critical thinking and problem solving skills is what will help you succeed at your chosen firm.

Being a critical thinker will allow you to evaluate complex situations and allow you to come up with logical and sometimes creative answers to complicated questions or scenarios. Critical thinking will allow you to make informed business decisions and devising strategic plans.

Critical commercial thinking allows the accountant to use the numbers, data and look beyond them to determine where the business should be heading for. A CFO needs to have excellent commercial awareness, look beyond the finance function and take in the bigger picture to know where value can be added to the business.

Being a critical commercial thinker is:

Knowing what global events are happening that will affect your business,
Understanding and being aware of the company’s market and its place in the macro environment
Insight into new trends and new technologies and how they will benefit your market share

To progress your career soft skills could be the last piece of the jigsaw to climb the ladder in your organisation.

Our Solutions.

Martina Quinn Finance Recruitment specialises in the placement of qualified accountants up to executive level nationwide, Our teams have extensive experience (67 years combined) recruiting in the Irish Market. Reach out to the team here in Martina Quinn Finance Recruitment for the best advice and support in building your finance teams contact us today.

The Importance of an Onboarding Plan For Your New Accounting Hires – 4 Step Process

Posted on 7 July 20227 July 2022 by Martina Quinn

Having an onboarding plan is crucial to your employer brand

So, you spent the time. you’ve went through so many applicants, you’ve done so many interviews. Maybe this took weeks, or even months, you filtered through all these people, you did all these interviews, and finally you’ve got that star player hired.

The next phase is crucial to ensure that your star accountant or financial professional fits into your organisation and team. The onboarding phase is where many companies can lose that star accounting and finance professional. The last thing you want is to start to whole process over again.

Its so easy for the hiring company to just let the new hire off to “do their thing” because usually by the time you’ve hired for this person, you needed them to start working weeks ago. With the demand for accounting and finance talent its so easy to do this because time is at a premium.

In many cases accounting and financial firms don’t have time to hire, write up job specs, filter through applications and sit through interviews and then try make a decision that best fits their organisation. Nor do senior finance and accounting personal have time to train and induct new hires to the company.

However here at Martina Quinn Finance Recruitment we would highly recommend you take the time to bed in your new star accounting and finance hire to retain your new star and current staff. In this post we show you a system that works.

We are in a phase where its currently a candidate driven market and competition for finance professionals and accountants, such as management accountants and treasury accountants are hard fought for.

According to Chantal Haynes-Curley of CPA Ireland “we witnessed a cataclysmic 49% decline in student registrations across all professional accountancy bodies, a figure attributed to the 2008 economic recession and lack of training opportunities for accountancy students.”

This is part of the reason for the skills gap in the accountancy and finance profession and why we are seeing salary inflation of skilled accounting and finance roles. A tactic rolled out by many employers to try attract and retain their staff.

To ensure your new hire feels apart of the company and the team around them getting the onboarding process right is a key strategy for improving your employer brand and recruiting the best accounting and finance talent on the market.

The onboarding process is your opportunity to make another first impression after the interview and a chance to set the foundations for the rest of your new star hire’s experience with your company. Once the onboarding phase is completed your new accounting and finance talent should have an in depth understanding of the organization’s culture and values.

If your firm is new to onboarding or if you’re looking to improve the HR process around the onboarding process, then understanding the below steps which we have provided can help your organisation.

A clear onboarding process will help you plan a clear strategy to engage candidates, improve new hire retention, and also help current employees adapt to your organizational practices.

The Onboarding Process.

Phase 1: Pre-Onboarding

The onboarding process can be broken down into four phases. The first phase is pre-on-boarding and should begin as soon as a verbal agreement of a job offer is accepted. Getting your onboarding preparation right is crucial as at this time as your candidates are most uncertain of what lies ahead.

Small miscommunications or a misunderstanding can make candidates doubt their decision to move into the accounting or finance role and join the company. However, get this right early on in the onboarding stage and your candidates will start to feel excited about joining your company and contributing to the team.

Regular communication about any updates that are going on in within the firm will help the new accounting and finance hire left feeling energised about starting the accounting job. During pre-onboarding the help, the new hire complete all the necessary paperwork such as contracts and payroll details.

Make sure to give the new starter time to finish up with their previous employer and finish exit tasks. If they are relocating to take up the new role check in with them to see if they need help finding accommodation.

A good idea is to send some content around the company in terms of the culture of the organisation what the building looks like inside and out and what their first day will look like.

Phase 2: Welcoming phase

The next phase is to welcome your new starter to the organisation and team. Providing an orientation will help new hires adapt to their new environment. Providing the new hire with a clear picture of the company will allow them to gain an understanding of how the company’s teams operate on an everyday basis.

The majority of new hires will be eager to prove themselves and will want to get started as soon as possible, for this reason it is recommended that the welcoming phase is kept to no longer than a week.

Their first day should be kept as simple as possible. Their orientation phase will help them gain an insight into the company’s culture and show them how work practices are aligned with the culture of the firm. Housekeeping items such as annual leave, attendance and HR policies should be discussed at this stage.

The orientation phase is an opportunity to show them eateries, parking spots, printing equipment and medical facilities etc. Introduction to their new work colleagues and other stake holders is part of the induction phase.

The welcoming phase incorporates the small mundane things that could get overlooked but it’s an important step to ensure your new hire settles in well.

Phase 3: Role Specific Training

This phase is one of the most important phases of onboarding and can be linked back to how successful your new hires will be in their accounting and finance jobs. Your new hires may not know what it takes to thrive without formal training.

Dissatisfaction and frustration can develop can be a direct result of no training or poor training which in turn can lead to high turnover rates. According to Lorman

Nearly 59% of employees claim they had no workplace training and that most of their skills were self-taught.
74% of workers are willing to learn new skills or re-train in order to remain employable.
87% of millennials believe learning and development in the workplace is important.

However, if a well drafted training plan is in place will help new starters feel welcome and shows that the company cares about their progress and development. Employees should not feel overwhelmed by the training in place.

Everybody learns differently and at different paces, provide different types of learning techniques such as blended learning and self-paced learning. All learning materials should be stored in readily available access point such as an intranet or other cloud storage solution.

Phase 4: Transition to their new role.

Your new hire is ready to leave the nest and get stuck into their new accounting and finance job. The last phase is designed to set your new hires for success by setting out clear expectations for their new team members.

Set SMART goals for new starters which will help them visualise what success looks like. After six weeks a performance review is recommended so you can recognise their efforts while also providing feedback to help improve performance.

Onboarding ensures your new accounting and finance star hire fits your team. The process helps your new team member understand the company’s values, culture, and work. It improves employee retention and also your employer brand.

Our Solutions

Martina Quinn Finance Recruitment specialises in the placement of qualified accountants up to executive level nationwide, with over 18 year’s experience building excellent finance teams. Reach out to the team here in Martina Quinn Finance Recruitment for the best advice and support in building your finance teams contact us today.

Prepare for Accounting & Finance Interviews

Posted on 3 June 202211 July 2025 by Martina Quinn

How to make a great impression

Congratulations! you have landed an interview. Your CV jumped out and caught the attention of the hiring company, you’re one step closer to landing that dream job. Now its time to prepare for that interview and make a lasting impression.

We have got you covered, below we have tips on how to make that lasting impression. We have broken it down into three steps

Before the interview
During the interview
After the interview

Part of our jobseeker service offering at Martina Quinn Finance Recruitment and STEM Recruitment Partners is interview preparation.

Before The Interview

Research The Company

Its obvious but its something that should never be
overlooked. Know everything on their website from their about us page, latest
news. product and services they provide and everything in between, know their website inside and out.

Don’t forget to check out their social media and take note
of key milestones, events, updates, or announcements. This will give you a
greater understanding of what the goals of the company are and will cover you for the inevitable ‘’What do you know about us’’ question.

Research The Interviewers

Often you might have information on who will be interviewing
you. Make use of LinkedIn and find out where they studied, where they were employed
previously and what groups they are members of.

This will help you build a rapport with your interviewer or
interviewers. Building a rapport early makes you stand out helps make a lasting impression.

Prepare Questions and Answers

‘’Fail to prepare. Prepare to fail’’ A famous quote from Roy
Keane, spoken in a different context but it also applies for interview
questions. Common interview questions such as

Tell me about yourself?
Why do you want to leave your current role?
What interests you about our company?

Will allow you to demonstrate who you are your experience, knowledge and value that you can bring the hiring company. Here is 21 common interview questions from Pass my interview.com

Know the job description

Read the job description multiple times and highlight what skills it emphasises. Match skills you have with the job description and have examples of how you used those experiences in past and current roles.

Use the STAR model to explain technical situations

STAR is an acronym for

Situation
Task
Action
Result

In the world of Accounting, Finance and Taxation its very easy to get bogged down by the technical details when answering a question. By using the STAR model, you can explain how your technical capabilities helped the company overcome a problem or situation.

Prepare examples of your work

It is common to be asked about specific work you have carried out in previous roles such as projects completed. Think of work you have done in the past that is relevant to the job description.

Gather a list of intelligent questions to ask the interviewer.

It’s not all one-way traffic when it comes to interviews, they provide a platform for you to understand the company better and understand the people in the company better. Interviews allow the employers to know if the candidate is serious about the position.

The interviewer will be expecting you to ask them questions, here is a list questions compiled by the Business Insider to ask the interviewer it may help you on the day.

During The Interview

Get Your Outfit Ready

Make sure you have your formal outfit ready the night before the interview. Don’t be scrambling around the house looking for your belt just before your about to leave. Have everything ready, you have enough to be thinking about.

Bring Copies of your CV and a Notebook

Take five copies of your CV to the interview with you just in case there are multiple interviewers. This shows your organised and considerate. Having a notebook allows you to take notes of key information that the interviewer is telling you. This shows you are interested and serious about the role, however, don’t use a tablet or phone to take notes as this may be seen as ignorant or rude.

Arrive Early

Be at the interview 10 – 15 minutes before the interview. Do a recon of the commute a few days before the interview so you know where the building is, how busy is the traffic, where you can park and how long of a walk you have to get there.

Make a great first impression

First impressions last, people say it for a reason. Make sure you look professional check your clothes for stains and your shoes are shined etc. Try and display confident positive body language, give a firm but not too tight handshake and remember to smile throughout the interview.

Treat Everyone As If They are The Hiring Manager

This goes without saying but nerves can interfere. Just remember to treat everyone with respect including front desk staff, security personnel cleaning personnel, security etc. Your potential employer may ask for feedback from other employees and as we said earlier first impressions last.

Respond Honestly to Questions

It may be tempting to decorate your skills and achievements in our experience interviewers find honesty respectable and refreshing. Focus on key strengths and again use the STAR model to deflect questions you may think show weaknesses.

Bring Them Back to your Skills and Achievements

When asked a question use it to your advantage by bringing to examples of how your skills and experience helped your past companies. Keep your answers focused and concise as your time is limited in an interview.

Do Not:

Speak negatively about past roles or employers as this makes you come across as adverse in an interview. If you feel your not getting what you want out of your current role, try focus on the skills and experience you have gained and what you want in the short and long term.

After The Interview

Ask About the Next Stage

Ask the interviewer about what the next stage in the process are. This shows enthusiasm for the role and will allow you to prepare for the next stage in the process.

Send a thank you email.

Send a thank you email to the interviewer, showing your appreciation for taking time out of their busy schedules. This shows that you are considerate.

We provide free jobseeker consultation to ensure you are placed in a role that fits your needs and values.

Tag: Accounting