IR vs. FP&A - Reformed Banker

Hi All,

A little bit of background on my situation before I jump into my current dilemma:

**Spring/Summer 2017: **

After spending the first 6 years of my career after undergrad in Corporate Banking, I began to get a bit a frustrated with my inability to lateral into an IB role and this made me concerned that my exit opps would dwindle (Investment Banking shows up infinitely times more as a preferred qualification, and most people hear Corporate Banking as Commercial Banking).

So after going from Analyst to Associate (~3 years each), I was being put forward for promotions committee to VP which triggered commitment anxiety - how would I ever be able to exit into "something more interesting" if I became a career Corporate Banker? The compensation vs. hours would have made it virtually impossible to leave on my own will.

Given my failure thus far to move into an IB role in my City (second or maybe even third tier in terms of Finance opportunities, but first tier in terms of quality of life and work/life balance), I began to look beyond IB to Corporate Development and Corporate Finance.

That summer, I received offers for a pension fund's direct investment PE group (but really the only Finance game in town, think state capital) and what was billed as a Corporate Finance/Corporate Development role (in a sunny state but really no other games in town). I ended up taking the latter, being swayed by the aggressive career development opportunities they were promising and the effort they put into trying to recruit me... They swindled me good.

**Current Dilemma: ** Now 2 years into this role. It is not at all what was promised. It is slowwww. I think I experienced zero career development since landing here. The VP that hired me lasted 10 months into my tenure, and it took a year for the Company to find a new VP, who has been here for about 6 months and seems keen on bending this role into a more traditional FP&A role while stripping away some of the more interesting Corporate Finance & Strategy projects that my Director and I looked at in the past.

I view this as a dead end job, but in a very desirable part of the country. There's just next to no Finance opportunities here (as far as IB, CB, or anything capital markets related goes).

**Here are the two immediate options I am faced with: ** 1) I am about to receive an FP&A offer back home for a tech company worth nearly $1bn. It operates independently of a $20bn company. Reasons to go: learn something about tech companies and how they run, maybe pivot to a start-up down the road with some equity. Comp is comparable to what I am doing now (except I don't know how I feel about walking the same streets I used to for substantially less money I would have made as a CB'ing VP, and the same hours and vacation time).

2) There is very likely to be an IR opening at my current company in the next couple weeks. I should be a natural fit for the role (nobody else internally as worked on a Capital Markets platform, I'm also a CFA). The benefits I see with this is it gives me an opportunity to be involved with the capital markets again and build & maintain external relationships (like I used to do as an Associate in CB), while also steering clear of pure FP&A. My current role has just an "Analyst" title and this would put "Senior" in front of that, although I don't expect much of a raise.

With either 1 or 2, I might just be waiting it out for a CB'ing role to open up again back home (however there is at best 6 VP roles in the whole of the City). Obviously there is more networking opportunities if I am back home full-time, but I do go every couple months as it is. Would FP&A or IR be the death of my chances of returning to Banking?

**TL;DR: left CB'ing on the verge of becoming VP; moved to a "Corporate Development" role in a desirable climate 2 years ago that was way oversold; regret it; can move back home for what is a pure FP&A reporting role for a Tech Company or stay in my company and do IR; would do banking again back home if an opportunity opened up. ** Thanks for reading!