Q&A: FP&A Manager
I recently made the move from public accounting as a senior business valuation / audit associate to an FP&A Manager role at a public FinTech Company.
Bit of background:
- BA in Acct from non-target school
- MA in Acct same school
- 2.5 years in audit non-big 4 (associate/senior)
- 1.5 years in an audit /Business Valuation hybrid senior role non-big 4
- FP&A Manager public fin-tech company
I recently started my new role so won’t have a lot of insight into that yet, but feel free to ask me anything on my transition or background to this point.
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That's an impressive title with 4 years of experience outside of a big 4. Good work! I don't mean this to sound prickly.
But, does the organization have big titles or are you really managing a group with people who may be a decade older than you?
What type of comp are you getting?
I am an individual contributor, and was surprised and happy when they offered me the manager title since I interviewed for a Sr. Financial analyst role. Think it was partly a ploy to get me to make the switch since I was up for manager at my firm, so that worked.
But TBH, on a resume, titles are the first thing you see so I don't really care.
Does 105k include base + bonus, or is all your bonus in RSU? What city is this for?
I'm a SFA in high COL city - 100-110 base + 20% bonus with 3 years experience... Small/startup tech company. Pay's good but I don't get equity.
what's next?
Work into either corp strategy or corp dev. Lot's of opportunity to change groups at my company.
What's your w/l balance like? Are you located in a major city? What industry do you work in? Is your role actual FP&A or more accounting?
Work life balance is great. Ebbs and flows like anything. San Francisco/Fintech. Role is all FP&A no accounting.
Thanks for doing this. I'm working in FDD and want to transition to FP&A soon. Got a few questions:
What's the biggest challenge of coming from the client services side to an industry role? Any regrets so far?
I want to learn more advanced coding languages to automate my work or get deeper into data. I'm currently learning SQL and how to be a Tableau ninja. Am I on the right track or are there better things to learn?
I'm assuming you're not willing to disclose your compensation, but generally speaking, what's a good percentage raise I should aim for to jump from professional services to FP&A?
Thanks!
Biggest difference is changing your mindset from a client driven workplace to a goal driven workplace. For example we are actively reducing spend across the board for my business partners, everyone has the same end goal but convincing each business partner that their department is part of the problem and getting them on board to cut costs is challenging and requires some politicking that I haven't seen in client services.
I would recommend getting proficient with VBA. Think Tableau is also helpful. We use 3rd party software to pull all our data so i haven't ran into any need for SQL (although I have seen plenty of JD's with that requirement)
Base salary increase was ~25%, also got equity and the opportunity for a 12% performance based bonus
Thanks for doing this. How far away from the B4 was your firm? Was it like GT/RSM or far away?
It was a top 100 firm, regional, great reputation in the valley. In short, pretty far away from B4.
Not sure if you’re still responding to this, but was curious about the transition from senior level to Manager. Any particular issues you’ve struggled with in the jump? Any nuggets of advice?
The switch from pub accting/BV to corp finance was more of a change then senior to manager, in my opinion. I think if you are performing well at the senior level you'll be ready for a manager role. Just like the change from staff to senior is unnoticeable.
Only advice is to start doing review work of your first and second years when you're a 3rd and 4th year. Talk to your manager and let them know you'll take a look through the other sections before it goes to them. They'll appreciate it and you can use it as a learning opportunity. That being said, depending on the job you may only be able to review one section so don't over promise. It'll help in your review process as well.
How applicable was your BV experience?
I would say it is very applicable for certain things, but not for others. BV let me develop fundamental finance skills that auditing wouldn't have, using DCF's, market approaches, backsolves, RFR's, cost approaches etc. I've been using DCF's for strategic projects which has been invaluable. I learned how to talk like someone in finance rather than an accountant, understanding IRR, NPV, WACC etc. and apply those ideas to project based finance. On the other hand, I am not performing technical valuations so it was kind of a waste in learning that skill set.
I don't think getting BV experience was at all necessary for FP&A, but it gave me a chance to learn, and develop some skills at a place I was already comfortable and stable and not have as much ramp up time when starting in corp finance. Also helped getting a foot in the door, big talking point of why do you think you can transition to FP&A from public acct etc.
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