Which F500 Entry Level Job to Take?
I am currently trying to decide between two different fortune 500 offers currently, and I am struggling to come to a decision. Here are the two offers:
JCPenney: this one is an FLDP. the first 14 weeks are general finance training and then I will spend two years rotating through the different areas of the Finance department. This company is currently on the ropes in terms of financial viability as the brick and mortar retail industry is fighting to stay viable but still has hope of surviving. However, I really enjoyed the interview process at this company and the senior leadership seems like a great group of people to work under and learn from. Because it is an FLDP, I will get more exposure to senior finance executives and have a potential faster track towards senior/management roles.
Lockheed-Martin: this one is not an FLDP, just a regular financial analyst position. The policy at this company is that you can internally apply for their FLDP after one year of working there. However, this program is apparently very competitive to get in to and is definitely not a sure fire thing. With that said, it's a great company with a solid reputation as far as I know. I liked the management team during the interview and I have a manager who will for sure have my back. This position will have more of an accounting focus than the retail FLDP. Every other Friday is off which is pretty tight.
I do plan on getting my CPA and MBA at some point in the future. The big thing for me is I am of course looking for the position that would provide me with the most potential opportunity for my professional career. Both positions pay around the same. The manager I know at Lockheed said I would have the opportunity to move around to different areas if I desired. All in All, JCP I think guarantees me more exposure, but it doesn't have the same kind of reputation and "safety" that the defense contractor does. What do ya'll think?
EDIT: included the company names
I'm currently in a defense FLDP. Right now it is a really great industry to be- Contracts are getting awarded faster than companies and staff up and execute on the contracts. Lots of openings mean potential for speedy promotions.
Here is my word or warning: The defense industry is very different than all the other industries. There is a whole lot more compliance that goes into government contracting, so finance has unique reporting responsibilities. Sales and earnings are recorded in ways very different than most companies. Furthermore, if you are in an area with a lot of classified contracts, you might not get cleared on those contracts and you'd be kind of blind to what is going on in your area and you wouldn't actually learn much about the business. I personally chose defense because I thought I would more enjoy going to work in the morning if I worked for a company that does cool futuristic stuff. Now that I'm in it though, all the really cool stuff is classified and all the unique government contractor responsibilities start to make me fear that this work experience wont be transferrable to different industries.
Here is another thought: In which industry would you like to be a Vice President? That's a good way to think of it. During the day-to-day grind, having to drive to make it to the top will keep you going and keep you thinking strategically about the industry and your job. If you asked me 2 years ago what industry I would like to lead a company in, I would have said defense.. But now I know that being a director or VP means talking to various generals and admirals and finding what products they need. It means trying to milk the defense budget for contracts. It means getting contracts awarded and then protested for months while the government tries to determine if the selection process was fair. No thank you.
The last point is that at a defense company, to really rise to the top, it would help a lot to have an engineering background to really understand the products and capabilities. At a company like JCP you don't need to understand how clothes are made or know about textiles- you just need to know business and marketing strategies.
If you like defense, great. Go to Lockheed, kill it, and get into their FLDP. If you don't like defense then it's a tougher decision. Although JCP is a sinking ship, you might get really solid experience going through a consolidation and getting to do cost-cutting projects. A third avenue is to go to Lockheed and keep your experience generic (and not defense-focused). Do FP&A roles and then jump ship to a different company later on. Avoid the jobs that have you neck-deep in defense-exclusive stuff, like proposals, estimating & pricing, and rates & budgets.
Let me know if you have more questions!
I previously worked at a defense company, non-Lockheed for a little more than a year after college in a non-FLDP role. I would say that the non-FLDP role can provide the same, if not, better opportunities than FLDP. The reason being, that if you do very well in your role, you are open to promotion and other opportunities that are not available for FLDPs, usually they have a very structured program and is rare to break away from the standard rotations. In my role, I was able to basically do 2-3 roles in 18 months or so with the company, albeit at a smaller business unit. I was given similar networking opportunities with senior management and I think viewed in a somewhat separate light because I was a high performer that was not in the program.
EDIT: Would also look at location, as being in corp fin, you'll have some time on your hands, so I would say better location = better opportunity in that sense.