Payments Interview Preparation

Payments Interview Preparation – A Quick Guide

Let us assume that you have a few days to prepare for an interview where payments is one of the mandatory requirements. This is a quick guide on how to prepare for the interview and how to crack it successfully.

Here, the assumption here is that you worked in the payments domain in some capacity. I will of course write a separate post for someone who has not worked on payments but want to do so. It is also to be noted that this guide will help with domain-related questions and not role-related question (BA, QA, PO).

Step1:

Take 10 minutes of your time and think about your strength. Forget your weakness, we don’t have time to work on them. If your strength is SWIFT payments, then write down what are the concepts in SWIFT that you are absolutely sure of.

Example: I am very confident in how serial and cover method works. The reason why it exists and how it is used.

I know each and every field of a SWIFT MT103 message down to the finest detail.

The topic that you choose can be anything. The only requirement is that you know the concept very well.

Step2:

If there are gaps in the topic that you choose, try to address them by reading about it. The main idea here is that you focus on what you know first. This step is very crucial.

Step3:

Ask HR for the job description well in advance. Don’t be scared by the requirement. Some JDs require the candidate to know almost all big payment systems. It is very rare to find such candidates so companies usually expect you know one or two payment systems.

Example: If the JD says knowledge of SEPA, SWIFT, TARGET2, FEDWIRE, ACH, NEFT is required. Prepare two of the six listed.

Step4:

Try to read about the latest trends in payments. Just a high-level understanding of what is happening around the world.

Example: ISO20022 migration, Growth of real-time payments, what is request to pay? So on so that we can discuss that with the interview if required.

Step5:

On the day of the interview, if the interviewer asks the question “Tell me about yourself” then use that question well 

Tell them that you are an expert in the topics from Step1. Usually, when you use that word the interviewer becomes inquisitive and tries to focus their questions in that area. Thanks to Step2, you should be able to answer most of them.

Do not worry if you are not able to answer everything. Nobody knows everything. Try to give it your best shot.

Try to sprinkle some points from step 4 here and there when you answer questions but be careful not to say something that you have not prepared.

Step 6:

Note down the questions that you are not able to answer so that you can read about them later. By the time you give your 2nd or 3rd interview, you should be able to handle most questions thrown your way.

You can visit this page for some of the most asked questions