FLDP vs. Analyst position
Background: I am a couple of years out of school. I went to a T30 university and have worked in an operations role at a large bank up to this point during the pandemic. I have been interviewing around for a while now, and have been hoping to land in a Corp. Finance role. I have 2 offers at the moment and need help deciding.
FLDP: It's a 3 year rotational program at a F500 (not F100, or FAANG, or anything like that), but it seems like a good program. It pays about 68k all in for the first year in low COL. From LinkedIn, it seems there are a lot of managers and a few directors at the company that come out of the program. If I went this route, the goal would be to become SFA by the time I graduate. Hopefully I'd be fast tracked to manager. Then, depending on it it's needed to move up, potentially go the MBA route. I do have a 3.5+ gpa and decent ECs.
Analyst: Financial analyst job at a smaller company. About 200 - 500 mil in annual revenue with a single product line. Small finance team of about 5-6 people. FP&A role and I'd be able to get hands on with things due to the small size of the team. I am worried about the upward mobility in this role. The manage is fairly young and there isn't much to move up to beyond that. This one pays about 80k all in, however.
I'm 25 now, does the FLDP offer me enough future opportunity to turn down the extra ~10k? If I go the analyst route I would think B school is almost out of the question. I am leaning towards doing the FLDP, as this would probably be my last opportunity to do something like that. Does anyone have any detail about FLDPs that aren't Microsoft, AMZN, etc? And where grads end up? Any advice at all would be greatly appreciated!
What have you done in the years since college? Could you possibly land a SFA role now, or have you been totally out of the finance world? The smaller company might give you the opportunity to get a promo or two sooner. Bigger companies have more rules about years of experience required, how many people have to be considered when interviewing, etc, so sometimes you see earlier growth while at smaller companies. I also think getting a top MBA is still on the table- easily a top PT MBA, probably a top 7-30 FT MBA, and possibly higher than that.
On the other hand, the FLDP is likely better for the long run. Having structured rotations and big company on your resume is very helpful. It's so much easier to jump for a promo to a smaller company than to jump to a bigger company, so the advice I've heard and subscribe to is to start as big as possible.
For some background, I started my career in a f200 A&D FLDP where I was underpaid by ~10% of market. One member left early to a small company for a promo (FA2) and market pay ($70s). I stayed the course, jumped after the program to a F500 for a SFA role, making in the 90s all in. Got my top 30 PT MBA, and then just got headhunted for a manager job at another F500 making $140s all in. This recent jump seems to be heavily influenced by the fact that I have big recognizable names on my resume- the FLDP and MBA both showing a certain level of ability.Taking the small company job could theoretically catapult you to being a VP there in 5-7 years, but if I were to play the odds I'd say to take the FLDP and to keep focused on getting promotions on time (even if it means leaving). A $10k salary difference, while big in percentage right now, is negligible if the role allows you to hit a director or VP promo down the road
Thank you for the insight [dan_yo23]. How would your advice change if someone was completing their MBA and had the chance to choose between a 3 year F100 accounting and finance rotational program starting at 60k that is primarily focused on graduating seniors, and a business analyst role at a rapidly growing billion dollar company that directly reports to a VP?
That is tough, but I'd actually lean towards the business analyst role. A big part of the value that comes from an MBA is what you do directly after. If you join the FLDP, it'll almost be as if you didn't do an MBA at all- you will be grouped with 22 year old's and you will be on the same 3 year path without an option to accelerate it. If you go with the business analyst role, you can look to knock it out of the park in your first year to two years, and then shoot for that SFA promo and maybe a manager promo before the FLDPers are even graduated. If you were directly out of college I would say go for the FLDP, but since you are directly out of your MBA I'd say to take the path that gives you an option to get promoted sooner. Just my two cents
I want to give my 2 cents here because I too come operations in a large bank and relatively recently did the shift to Corporate Finance (FP&A). In your position I would take the FLDP over the analyst position and my reasoning is completely based on the fact that the FLDP is in a F500 company. In my current job most of the people come from FP&A at smaller companies so if you work as an analyst at a smaller company the exit is to come to a bigger, more established company. Therefore I would advice that you take the offer you have from the bigger company. This also has a second benefit: once you are in FP&A at a large corporation, the preferred exit (which I've seen actually happen) is to go to FP&A at a smaller company but for a significant title boost. I.e. do your FLDP, rise to SFA and then go to a smaller company but as a director instead of as an analyst.
I have actually seen this happen with someone from my same company who went to a PE backed pre-IPO startup. The CF pipeline from my perspective is as follows:
[Junior role at small company] -> [Junior role at large company] -> [Senior role at small company] -> [Senior role at big company] -> [Even more senior role at small company (hopefully by now CFO)] -> [Even more senior role at big company (hopefully because now you grew this company as the CFO)]
You have a chance to start at step 2 instead of step 1 for a 10k haircut. I personally would take it.
This seems like a very interesting and doable career path. I’m surprised I don’t hear of too many people approaching their CF careers in this manner. Most people I know just stick it out in the F500 or stay with their small/mid-size companies
I think that’s because of the kind of people you will find here. From what I have observed, there are two groups in CF that probably don’t care at all about mapping their career:
1) ‘Retirees’ from other finance roles like IB or AM. These people probably don’t care too much about mapping their career because CF was their exit from the rat race. All they want now is a stable 6 figure job and their background in IB already opens them up to any exit if they ever get bored
2) Non-ambitious people that just want an easy job. The finance function in a big corporation is so big that you really do not need your ‘rockstars’ on every issue. 95% of things that need to be done have already been turned into simple processes that can then be assigned to a single analyst and will not take more than a 9-5 to complete. So plenty of people come to CF to get an easy job that pays well and allows them to relax. These people do not appear to even care about promotions (except for the usual ones you get after a few years in the same role)
In my case I am very focused on doing CF for a few years specifically so I can learn how a company is run and then I plan to exit into startups growing their finance function and get a little equity for helping the company grow. The exact job I do right now I hopefully won’t be doing anymore in a year.
Take the FLDP offer. I assume the low COL area will help you absorb taking less money. These roles are structured in a way that you'll move around and get plenty of exposure (both to leadership and to different functions within the company), and should get you promoted to your next role on a defined, predictable timetable (usually <2 years) ASSUMING you network well internally and don't have any red flag screw-ups. The company brand will help your b-school apps as well. Going in w/ a background in ops and finance (and likely some combo of Accounting/FP&A) is pretty competitive for a non-banker/consulting/tech type.
And if the company decides to fast track you who knows? You could rise well and do an Exec MBA down the road (on their dime)
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