Page 90 - James Caan - Get the Job you Really Want

probably hundreds, of finance directors, and I am yet to inter-
view one who has come in to see me carrying a copy of my
accounts. What does it cost to procure somebody’s accounts?
A fiver, and very little e≠ort – go to Companies House, tap in
the name of the company, download them.

When I am interviewing a finance director, I am trying to
evaluate whether or not he or she can do the job – and not in
some abstract, academic way. I want to know whether they

can do the job specifically for my company. If the candidate
had taken the trouble to download my accounts, they would
know what my turnover in the last reporting year was, what
my profits were. And armed with that information, if they
are good at what they do, they will have the raw material to

engage in an intellectual dialogue with me. If I am going to
assess them on their specialist subject – finance – what better
environment in which to have that conversation than the

one I know a lot about: my own numbers? And what a great
opportunity for a candidate to engage with me.
If I went for an interview as a finance director, I would read
the accounts in advance and analyse the financial state and
the business trends of the company, and as a result I would be

able to hold my own in any conversation about its finances.
Without trying too hard, I would have had a very good impact
on the interviewer.

78 get the job you really want