Career Choice - FP&A
Hi, I would like to give me your opinion about career choice I have to make the next two days.
I hava bachelor in Accounting and Finance and master in Finance. My goal is to work in FP&A department of a firm. I have two offers. One is from PwC for auditing department and the other an Assistant Accountant job offer from a private company, listed in stock exchange as midsize corp.
Which offer is the best in order to achieve my goal. (Keep in mind that I do not want to stay at PwC for long time and I am considering the offer because I believe is good for my CV
PWC by 1,000 miles. Get your CPA youll be golden. That will leave more doors open too.
I would choose PwC over the assistant accountant job unless the assistant accounting role is an Assistant Controller for the company simply because of the “brand name”. However, not sure how much of the auditing role will help you break into FP&A as FP&A is more about budgeting, forecasting, and ad-hoc analysis. Also, if you have a bachelors in finance and a masters in finance already I don’t see why you don’t try to go straight into FP&A. With a masters in finance, you should easily imo be able to get a job as a Senior FP&A analyst and as long as you know how to interview & network you should be fine. I’m currently a FP&A analyst and most of the analysts do not have a masters degree (hence most analysts are young and straight out of undergrad) so you’re already a step ahead.
Feel free to dm me if you have any specific questions/day to day role in FP&A
I agree on choosing PWC.
People move from Big 4 audit to FP&A type work very frequently, so I wouldnt worry too much about that.
No corp is going to hire a fresh MSF grad with no FT experience into a senior FP&A role. Maybe with 1 yr experience prior to MSF or possible to be promoted after 1 yr.
Thank you very much for the answers. I am terrified about work-hours in big 4 generally and I do not plan to go for CPA or ACA or ACCA. So my plan is to stay up to a year because after the first year, I think that you are obligated to start for the certification. I do not know which option is the best as I do not want to be an auditor or accountant. I want a role more about budget and forecast in private company as I would fit better I think.
Thank you again for the answers!
Why not go for your CPA? It will open way more doors than without it.
I am not sure if I can cope with what it takes to get the certifcation. Especially if the hours that are reported in Big 4 is real thing. I can not understand why a person is willing to work so many hours, with respect to any of them!!I mean that they are already very qualified professionals. I would like to get ACCA or CMA but only with 9-5 job
In that case just go for the assistant accountant job since it doesn't seem like you want to put in any of the work.
You 100% don’t need a CPA to get a gig in FP&A. Get into a company you like, somewhere within the finance organization. Then you can network your way there. I did stints in corporate FP&A and Treasury at a F50 company without having a finance degree by networking within.
why do you want to work in FP&A? FP&A is a very low value-add function within a company so I would def look into other options before settling on FP&A.
i would say go with PwC because 1) the brand name will better position you for an FP&A role if you decide to stick with that and 2) it will give you options to move around the firm internally in case you realize that FP&A blows and you want to try your hand at something different (PwC and all other big4 firms for that matter, have a whole host of advisory services that are infinitely more interesting than audit and FP&A such as Transaction Services, Management Consulting and even IB)
I would say op’s opinion is ignorant but widely held (including by senior management). Budgets and analysis are taken for granted. The powerful folks have to make decisions to deliver a workable budget to the board, and they need impartial parties to cut through the bullshit of competing parties to give them the facts (as best as plausible) to make said decisions.
Fp&a is fairly stressful and thankless as you can see from OP so proceed with caution :).
Pwc......not a choice.
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