FP&A role at a top video game publisher

number1monkey:

so how does that look like at any other software company?

You're tracking costs and revenue. Costs are either in development, general/misc, marketing, selling/distribution, outside contractors, or support. Revenue sources depend on the company. Blizzard relies mostly on recurring revenue from monthly subs to WoW whereas another publisher may rely more on one time sales of software (and nowadays add-ons in the form of DLCs). But mostly you deal with costs because the marketing and sales people are more concerned with revenue. With costs you'll make monthly/quarterly/yearly budgets. Then you'll compare actuals to budget. Then you'll adjust your budgets. On occasion someone higher up will ask for some numbers. Rinse and repeat. But let's just be clear about one thing: You are not important to the company. This is why FAs get paid $50k out of college and software developers get paid $100k out of college. You are there because someone has to do it. The developers, designers, and product managers are the real focus of the company. They are essentially the product. You on the other hand stare at Excel so some mid-level ops manager that you'll never meet face to face can understand why department 734 support costs are up $50k year to year. If you stay you will do this exact thing in possibly different departments for 5 years before getting promoted. That is, if your role hasn't been moved to Latin America by then. That's FP&A at a large software company.