Back office (Ops) vs F500 Corporate Finance

Hypothetically would you accept a 9-5 F500 Corp Finance career dealing with P&L’s all day or a back office career within ops???

These are my 2 intern offers, one of which I will have to accept. Obviously would love to lateral from back - middle - front but assuming back office for a career vs f500 corporate finance, which would you pick.

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I used to have a cushy job WFH in Corporate Finance at a F500 company. It took me a few years for me to perfect the role, but after I learned the projects' financials really well, it was a breeze. 

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

yea from everyone I talked to in corporate, the work is so much lighter than what you will be taught in school. most say you don't even need a degree for it..

 
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mr. average

yea from everyone I talked to in corporate, the work is so much lighter than what you will be taught in school. most say you don't even need a degree for it..

Yeah honestly for the corporate finance role, I could have gone straight from HS with maybe a 2 day course on Excel, that's it.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

I have seen a couple of MOish roles where people move to FO quite frequently - mainly Credit Risk and Finance. I’m sure there are other areas but those are the ones I am aware of.

I know one particular case of someone moving BO > MO > FO. They did back office research > finance > coverage corporate banking. I do not know the exact timelines.

Disclaimer: Intern at a BB

 

I would implore you not to do back office. I did a banking internship that was largely MO with a part of my day that can be defined as a BO function, so I think I am fit to answer this.
If you enjoy doing the exact same thing every day, back office is for you. Some people genuinely like that and can get through their career with that. It’s not a particularly savory role if you’re ambitious to climb.
CorpFi will give you some solid exposure and while MO, you have a shot at potentially landing a group that works with FO, and can introduce you to better options.
I would highly recommend you choose the CorpFi role. I was in a similar position with corporate finance for AM vs operations at a top BB and I do not regret doing CorpFi instead.

 

BO is a very broad term.  I was at a big firm once where "Donnie from Risk" got a PM job on our quant team.  I also think I throw very intense questions at the performance team when I need the FactSet info I don't have.  Don't knock what you have, although the other option may be a better forever job.

The only difference between Asset Management and Investment Research is assets. I generally see somebody I know on TV on Bloomberg/CNBC etc. once or twice a week. This sounds cool, until I remind myself that I see somebody I know on ESPN five days a week.
 

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