I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Toptal in Mar 2019
Interview
Very arduous interview process, including four rounds.
The final round is why I am writing this scathing review.
I interviewed with an individual on the final round who lacked fair and reasonable judgement in his assessment of my project.
After spending 15-20 hours on the final project, I presented my well-prepared, powerpoint slide presentation (21 slides). During the mock presentation, the interviewer did not ask deep or curious questions, I heard children playing in the background, and he couldn't even remember the name of the company that I was presenting, even though I had the company's name on the front of the presentation.
I made one calculation error on one of my slides, which I pointed out before he did. It was a simple fix, which took less than a minute to fix.
He failed my application because of this one error.
He fed me some BS line that I could work on QA (quality assurance) next time I apply in two months.
Before this final round, I found the other interviewers very engaging and interesting.
Maybe I just had a poor interviewer? I don't know.
I have asked for a process to challenge his decision and have received no reply by him. The main website does not have an option to challenge a decision.
I am feeling very frustrated with the whole process and probably won't reapply after the two-month cooling off period. There must be easier, fairer places to apply to. There must be.
My advice: stay away. Find other fractional CFO companies that don't have rogue, disengaged interviewers that strike down 15-20 hours of work with no respect or fairness in mind.
I applied online. The process took 6 weeks. I interviewed at Toptal (London, England) in Sept 2020
Interview
1st stage was CV screening, where you needed to answer a few open questions and record a video to introduce yourself
2nd stage - 10 mins phone conversation with communication specialist. Very easy and two-way conversation
3rd stage - online test. This one was quite difficult in my opinion, mainly due to the time constraint & it also covered all areas in finance but not just the area you may specialise in
4th stage - mock client meeting with
5th stage - final project presentation
I applied through an employee referral. I interviewed at Toptal
Interview
Toptal is a total waste of time. Recruiter reached out to me about joining their platform. I did some quick research and decided to invest the time. The process consists of: 1) Standard job application 2) Short chat to see if you are a real person 3) Simple timed online finance multiple choice test 4) Modeling interview. Steps #1-3 were very simple. Number #4 consists of building a three-statement model (P&L, Cash Flow, B/S, etc.). I made a formula mistake (negative instead of positive) and they ended the interview on the spot, less than 5 minutes in. This was exceptionally disrespectful. If they did something like that that at a university, they wouldn't be allowed to recruit at the school.
I got the sense they are trying to find applicants to reject so they can boast about only accepting 3% of applications. Yes, I did make a mistake but it was minor and we didn't even get into any meaningful content. Any other firm would finish the interview in a professional manner. No professional organization I can think of would run an interview like this. It doesn’t make sense why their recruiters are targeting top 10 MBA grads with banking and consulting experience and then disrespecting them during the interview process. This is going to damage their reputation.
If you have options, look elsewhere. If you need the work for some reason, I suggest treating the interview like you would an undergrad accounting or finance course midterm. It’s straightforward number crunching.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Calculate and build: P&L, Balance Sheet and Cash Flow (direct and indirect) statements; key financial ratios and formulas; valuation models.
