Corporate Finance Analyst: Product Planning and Product Development

Hello WSO,

I am getting an offer from a F200 company in finance. I have an engineering degree and am going to business school in a couple of years. Current plans are to go into consulting after b school and eventually get back into the corporate world as an exec. Knowing this, they have offered me a position in product planning and another in product development as a financial analyst. I have a meeting with a director soon, but I am impatient..

What will I actually be doing on a day to day basis? Is this something that would benefit me, an engineer, before going to b-school? Any insights are appreciated!

I am also wondering how much Financial Analysts get paid vs engineers? Right now my offer is exactly equal to an entering engineer. Do analysts usually get paid around 60-70k/yr out of ugrad?

Thanks,

Analyze

5 Comments
 

PM me the details of what you know (company, job description, etc..) I'll try to help you out.

Will this be your first role out of school?

twitter: @CorpFin_Guy
 

What does the company do/what's the name of the firm? Where will you be located? And what's the general job description?

If you can provide those, I think I could give some pretty good insight.

 
Best Response

I think corporate finance professionals can expect to make around $60k out of undergrad. Hard to tailor that to the auto industry--although I assume you're working for a bigger firm, so higher than $60k wouldn't be surprising.

A shot-in-the-dark coupled with my (limited) knowledge of corporate finance: With the title of "analyst", day-to-day responsibilities could mean pretty much anything. Be prepared to have significant reporting/ad hoc responsibilities. It's likely you'll spend a large part of your time on various implementation projects. The downside of corporate finance is limited exposure and repetition.

With an engineering background, I think corporate finance will give you familiarity with fundamental financial concepts and tools. As to whether or not it would be helpful for b-school, I can't really hazard a guess. Too many variables involved with getting into a good school--but if you excel as an analyst, it will only help you.

 

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