Finance Director or Commercial Banking RM
I am looking at two opportunities, one is a Finance Director role at a small but successful company that is growing, and the other is in Commercial Banking starting in their credit training and then graduating into an RM or portfolio manager role. I'm curious to find out if anyone has done both roles and what they thought of them. Which has a better career track? Which will have more opportunities in the future? I originally wanted to get to the CFO level, but after much research saw many want a CPA designation, which I have no desire in getting. I already have an MBA from a top 40 school. Both roles will let me be analytical, but I think the RM role will be more lucrative long-term because of the incentive structure. However there are many Finance Director opportunities out there and only so many banks.
It sounds like the commercial banking role starts out as a credit analysts / underwriter role, which is an entry level position. A Finance Director is a typically above a Finance Manager, which in itself is a mid-level career position. So if I'm understanding your post correctly, these two roles are not equivalent.
Nevertheless, commercial banking RM's typically are a lot more outgoing (imo) because their entire job is managing relationships with clients. Mid-level corporate finance typically positions don't involve that much external-facing time.
A little more info on the two positions (i.e. what bank, do you have experience in this field, how small is the "small" company) would be helpful.
Yes, I will have to put my time into the commercial banking opportunity before seeing incentive pay. (training about a year) The Finance Director role actually pays less than the offer I got for the training program. However I know if I put 2 years in that position, I could look for bigger companies afterwards for more pay. So my decision is either work in a company or help a company with managing their finances. It's interesting that after the credit training program I may be able to look for a Finance Director role at a bigger company or just stay in Commercial Banking all together.
Although CPA may be a common route, it is not the only way. I have worked at a few small tech companies (and interviewed at others), and most of their cfo's came from banking and strategic finance backgrounds. You can work your way up to cfo at smaller companies and then after experience, go to larger ones potentially.
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