By Hannah Marafioti, Senior Associate, Accounting & Finance
Why Does Interview Preparation Matter?
As a junior professional, interview preparation can feel overwhelming—especially when you’re still early in your career and unsure how technical the conversation will get. For candidates with two to three years of experience, interviews typically focus on two things: your ability to clearly explain what you’ve done in past roles and your openness and excitement to learn what you haven’t yet encountered.
Employers want to see that you’ve mastered your own experience, can connect it to the role you’re pursuing, and have the adaptability to grow once you join the team.
That’s why preparing beyond the basics is essential. It’s not just about memorizing technical terms—it’s about knowing your resume inside and out, aligning your experience with the job description, and confidently communicating both what you bring and how you’re eager to develop.
[Hannah Marafioti, Senior Associate at Landing Point, sharing practical interview preparation tips for junior candidates, including resume review, job description alignment, and showing personality in interviews.]
Key Takeaways
Know your resume inside and out — Be ready to explain every bullet point clearly and thoughtfully.
Compare your resume to the job description — Look at both your resume and the job description side by side. Spot the overlaps and identify areas where you’ll need to learn.
Do targeted research — If the job description includes terms you don’t know, research them.
Acknowledge gaps but show enthusiasm to learn — Employers expect some gaps at the junior level, but they want to know you’re interested in excited to learn.
Showcase your personality — Matching the interviewer’s energy shows cultural alignment and highlights how you’ll contribute beyond technical skills.
Why This Matters for Junior Candidates
For junior candidates, the interview process is less about having all the answers and more about showing you know how to approach challenges. Employers expect there to be a learning curve when you only have two or three years of experience. What sets successful candidates apart is their ability to:
- Demonstrate self-awareness: If you can clearly articulate your strengths and acknowledge where you need to grow, you signal maturity and coachability—two qualities employers prize.
- Show preparation: Walking through your resume and aligning it with the job description demonstrates that you’ve done your homework and care about the opportunity. Hiring managers notice when a candidate takes the extra step to connect their experience to the role.
- Handle gaps with confidence: Instead of panicking when you don’t know a term or technical skill, position it as something you’re ready to learn. A statement like, “I haven’t used this system yet, but I researched it and here’s what I understand so far,” can be more powerful than trying to fake knowledge.
- Bring personality: Interviews aren’t only about technicals. Employers want to know how you’ll fit with the team. Matching the interviewer’s energy and showing enthusiasm can leave a lasting impression.
At Landing Point, we regularly coach candidates through this process. Across all industries, we’ve seen that the candidates who balance technical preparation with personality-driven confidence tend to secure offers.
Related reading: Tips for Tackling 4 Tough Interview Questions.
Ready for Your Next Step?
Interviews aren’t about perfection—they’re about preparation, self-awareness, and showing you’re ready to grow. As a junior candidate, demonstrating that you understand your own experience, have done the work to connect it to the role, and are eager to learn what you don’t yet know can set you apart. By combining technical readiness with authenticity and enthusiasm, you not only show that you can do the job—you show that you’ll thrive in it.
Transcript
Hannah Marafioti:
A lot of junior candidates ask me, how technical do these interviews get? How should I prepare?
I have a couple tips for you in that regard.
The first thing you can do is to look at your résumé, walk yourself through each of your bullet points and make sure that you can accurately explain and articulate every single piece that is on there.
The second thing you can do is put your résumé and the job description side by side. Where is the overlap?
If you’re more junior and you have two to three years under your belt, there is going to be a learning curve and your future employer does expect there to be some areas where there’s not as much overlap.
What you can do if you see any jargon or wording on the job description that’s not as familiar to your day to day now is start looking up some of those terms. Start researching some areas on the job description that you can at least say, no, I don’t have experience in X, Y and Z. However, based on my research, this is what I know about it. I’m excited to learn more.
Number three, when preparing for an interview, the technicals are great. But also having that personality and showing a little bit more about yourself and how you contribute to the culture and the team values is also really important. So matching the energy of the interviewer can help you be super successful in landing that role.
About Hannah Marafioti
Hannah Marafioti is a Senior Associate at Landing Point, specializing in Accounting & Finance executive search. Based in New York, she partners with investment firms nationwide to hire fund accounting and financial analysis professionals for asset management, private equity, venture capital, and hedge fund clients.
With a foundation as an auditor at a mid-size public accounting firm, Hannah applies technical rigor and an empathetic approach to align talent with long-term organizational goals. She regularly advises junior finance professionals on interview preparation and career transitions into the buy-side, helping them translate accounting skills into long-term finance leadership paths.
Hannah earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in accounting from SUNY Geneseo, where she was also a student-athlete. Outside of work, she enjoys live music, cheering on the Buffalo Bills, and spending time with friends and family.