Jumping from a F500 to a private company?

D M:

It all depends on how much smaller this private company is, what their track record is, what the industry is doing, etc. If it's a 30-employee company, this is a lot different of a discussion than if it were a 2,000-employee company.

I've mostly had discussions with ops/supply chain guys, bankers, and engineers on this, but I'm guessing a lot of their advice applies. I'll assume it's closer to the 2,000-employee company (and as you know, I'm not in-industry):

Risks:
-Don't fit in, get forced out
-Company goes under
-Not as great of upward mobility as a larger company

Rewards:
-Higher pay
-Company grows and you jump higher, faster
-Greater access to senior leaders

Transition back:
-Banker: was too old
-Engineers: yes
-ops/supply chain guys: yes

In fact, from the guys I've talked to it might even be beneficial and help move your career forward if you wanted to jump back in at a large company. They appreciate diverse experiences. Just don't burn those bridges on the way out, make sure everyone's sad to see you go and wants you back. heh

Thanks DM. The company I'm at now does $20B+ in annual sales with 100,000+ employees and the private company does around $150M in sales with 350 employees, so it would be a major change.

From your discussions with the engineer/supply chain guys, it almost seems like a win win move. Either things go well and I enjoy the new role at the private company, or I just add that new experience to my résumé and use it to transition back into a F500 at the same level or higher than where I'm at now. When you wrote yes for those 2 guys, are you saying they went to a private company then moved back to public? How come they decided to switch back?

AllDay_028:

So I did the same move, though at a much lower level than you right after my FLDP ended. I'm not sure how much this will help you as you are going into a CFO role. All in all, it has been a huge upgrade for me. This is what i've seen:

1) it's more meritocratic - at my old company there were essentially certain amounts of time you had to be in certain positions. Certain positions led to other positions. There was bands of pay that were very well defined. Here there are much better discretionary bonuses. I'm in line for a promotion that will put me at 6 figures in in roughly half the time it would have taken me to get to six figures at my F500. (roughly 3 years of experience vs 5-6)

- For you the major point here is that, probably, if you do well, you could maneuver yourself into hire discretionary bonuses and/or equity. I've seen this done by private company CFOs.

2) I have more exposure - and this also helps out the above. I regularly chat with and get work from the CFO, VP of revenue, etc. They are going to propel my career much quicker than otherwise.

- This won't matter as much to you since you would be in the CFO role.

3) Less politics, though still same. What you'll find in your new company that it changes from one type of politics to another. Now it'll be about impressing and politicking with the owner(s). Good news is that if you do, you are golden, and it's far less complicated than the politicking that goes on in the F500. Bad news is that if you don't, you are fucked because you can't just move to another position and not deal with them. My company is, like 80%, owned by one family. And the younger generation of this family that works in the business can be hard to deal with because they tend to get put in high positions with power before they really have any clue what they are doing. This reason is actually why I don't see myself here beyond my next promotion.

- Basically, for you, your career is more determined by a person or small group of people. That can be worrisome and can, IME, result in less job stability. But, again, more rewards.

4) Job roles aren't as well defined which leads to getting work all over and learning much more about the business. This has been a major plus to me as I have learned more about the start to finish of my current industry in 6 months of this one job than I did in 2 years of 4 different jobs at my F500. Major blessing in disguise.

- For you this means that, probably, you'll be more involved with the operations side than you would originally think. The CFO at my company does WAY more than just the head finance things and is in all operational strategy meetings. You may or may not like that idea, but to me that's great because I get bored so easily.

Things to consider:

A) What's the size difference? I went from a company that was doing roughly 8 billion in US sales and double that worldwide to a company that does 2-3 billion in sales. It's somewhat of a culture shock but we still employ a few thousand people and there are 70ish total in the finance, accounting, AP, etc teams. I wouldn't want to go much smaller than this without equity, though.

B) What's the culture like and who owns the company? Does it seem like people you can get along with? Because they decide your future and they tend to have a quicker trigger than public companies.

C) Do you have a desire to be a CFO? Once you are a CFO, it tends to give you latitude to continue being a CFO. This could parlay you into bigger company CFO positions if you perform or even if you don't. It's a good thing to be on the resume and a big step up from controller.

D) Is the company a well respected in its' industry? Maybe it's a smaller industry and most of the companies are private. But is this company known for good things within it's targeted market or is it a complete unknown. That's a major sticking point to me as my company has a very good reputation in our industry it just happens to be a niche part of healthcare.

E) Do you really care about branding/name recognition at this point in your career? Listen, money is money and power is power. If you are making a lot more than you could be at this point in your career at a unknown place doesn't that feel better than doing it at a well known F500? That's how I feel anyways. But you may feel differently. And saying "I'm CFO Bitch" at a 2 billion dollar company certainly appeals more to me than being one of many controllers at a F500.

I hope this helps and gives you something to think about. Personally, I'll probably never go back to the F500. The politicking and lack of meritocracy was too degrading IMO. But it's a personal decision and you have to decide what's best for you.

Appreciate all the information. Based on everything you said, I feel like a private company would be a better fit for me.

If things didn't work out and I decided to transition back to a F500, do you think I'd still be marketable to a big company and what level do you think I'd get back in at? I'm just wondering how it would look to a large company to see someone with this background: F500 FLDP > F500 SFA > F500 Manager > F500 Plant Controller > Small, Private Company CFO.

Upward mobility is also a concern for me, as I plan to work for another 30+ years and obviously wouldn't want to stay in the same CFO role with the same company that long. Is it common for small private company CFO's to progress from say CFO of a $150M company to CFO of a $500M company, to CFO of a $1B company, etc? Do you know of people who have taken this path?