Just doing some due diligence in my search for a way out of Big 4 MUCH sooner than later. Started looking into industry (F500) jobs.
Looks like there are a number of entry level finance rotations and other entry level financial analyst positions.
From posts on WSO and Linkedin, among other places, it seems like these are heavily accounting related. I don't want to leave Big 4 and end up doing more accounting. Are there no pure financial analyst gigs? Maybe I'm being super naive, but are there corporate finance (M&A, financial strategy, etc) entry level positions?
Bump. I know it's Friday, but... Anyone?
As a fellow canadian, first, i must say that it's great to find another big4 colleague on WSO! second, the term financial analyst has been known to be used for IB-type roles, (see Houlihan etc) but if you are searching for corporate finance types, i would try the big 4s first (leveraging your big4 experience), also specific banks (obviously).
I am not sure about what you want to do in your career, perhaps F500 is a path you want the most, but if you are looking for corporate finance roles, in the short term, I do believe a gig at a bank allows you to make the eventual transition (to F500) much easier and efficient (timewise).
Well F500 would be a means to an end. I'm want to do Big 4 > M7 > Consulting (MBB if possible).
I'm an auditor now (close to 1 year of experience including internship).
Quick question, why do you keep saying "As a fellow Canadian..."? It doesn't bother me, but I'm not Canadian so I'm just curious.
As a canadian, i just want to raise the profile of canadians on this forum.
But going to your original point. I actually did a lot of auditing during university and i would say about 80% of my friends are in the same boat as you (I was a few months ago as well). And the big4 > M7 > $$$ is something that is all too familiar...
Given you have close to 1 year experience, my personal take is postpone M7 until you have a much stronger experience profile to basically guarantee not only M7 acceptance, but also a solid gig post-m7. I assume you are fairly young (given only 1 year exp as auditor), assuming you are mid 20s or below, there's definitely a few years of boosting your profile (i am in the midst of doing that myself actually).
Corpdev from auditor is definitely possible, but from seeing how my friends place, i would say if you are in corporate finance at big 4, it's so easy to move to corpdev that it's literally plan B or C. So if you can, I would recommend transferring into financial advisory at your current firm or another firm (I transferred to another big 4, because there's a lot of politics sometimes for internal transfers and might be easiest for us to just move to another firm). The reason I recommend moving to another big 4 is that I feel you can still leverage your experience, a lot and even your "rank"/"rating" to a lesser extent. Just to clarify, this route is: big4 audit > big4 financial advisory > possibly somethign better or not > M7 > great profile to land a MBB gig.
Or, we could go with your original plan, which i assume is: big4 > F500 corpdev > M7 > MBB, that's very doable as well, in fact i may even say better for MBB than big4 advisory, but it's that first jump that might be more challenging. Because: big4 corporate finance can make that transition easier, but big 4 audit > F500 corpdev is tougher, and that is because from auditing they will see you more of a financial reporting guy, rather than a "corporate development" guy, and when you are competing against (amongst others) CF guys from big4, chances are lower.
Breaking out of audit is very important and given you only have 1 year of exp, very doable at this stage cause 1. your hours should allow you the time to make the prep to jump ship and 2. you have just enough exp to show your understanding of accounting, without being too much of an "auditor".
I would also consider CFA/ASA type of exams to boost your profile on top of networking, if you want to try the big 4 auditor > big 4 financial advisory path.
Hope this helps.
It just depends on the particular position. Some roles will be extremely accounting heavy, while others will be almost completely finance related. If you have some role descriptions shoot them over.
The types of roles you should be looking at. (Yes there are strat, M&A, etc. jobs out there)
FP&A, Operations Finance, Corporate Development, Corporate Strategy, Treasury, etc.
Accountant vs. Financial Analyst (Originally Posted: 09/23/2010)
I've been doing corporate finance for corporation the past year or so. I've mostly been doing accounting, but also some pro-forma analysis and looking at possible acquisitions.
If I'm applying to a bank or trading firm, would you recommend I identify my role as ac accountant or financial analyst?
Thanks!
Great, great advice. Exactly the type of specific role names that I was looking for. Thank you GoIllini, SB
What positions are you applying for/interested in?
I'm mostly looking at IB analyst positions and trading.
Well.....honestly I'm just looking for a job in finance with better pay and more advancement opportunities.
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