FP&A sucks
Sometimes I think I’d rather drive the wrong way ok incoming traffic then show up to work and do FP&A all day. Man the line is thin.
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Grass is always greener.
That being said, Sir this is a Wendy's.
Hobbies are always fun.
What’s so bad about FP&A? I was considering it as a possible exit post IB analyst stint
Folks can correct me if I'm mistaken but I'd think the biggest issue is how the role would essentially be glorified financial reporting. You'd have scheduled dates that you'd need to provide senior management with forecast updates, and so the work would be mostly repeating the same stuff and collecting data that goes into the forecast.
Not a lot of detailed analysis and the work would be very process oriented (collecting data from divisions, and aggregating).
Correct, very boring and intellectually un stimulating. The pay is decent and can go higher and higher with various roles. The benefit is work life balance but these forecasts are very boring. It depends what you’re looking for. FP&A is a good exit but just know what you’re getting into
I also considered FP&A as exit after working investment banking, but I just don't know whether it is possible as I saw most FP&A job ads on Linkedin they require relevant experiencing, CPA and knowledge in FP&A software.
IB modeling does laps around FP&A modeling. The reason FP&A roles often ask for CPAs is because they know its an attractive transition for burnt out, low paid auditors.
Come on over to banking :)
Misery loves company
Banking > FP&A, highly paid misery > middle-class misery
I mean the trade off in time away from work is massive generally speaking, is it not?
Haha you are so wrong, I am in management level FP&A and earn north of $200K base working 50 hours a week. how the f*ck is that middle class? Also add a 25% bonus. I live in Austin, TX. Talking non-sense this kid
The issue with 'FP&A' is that the type of work that people do in these roles across companies varies widely. It's not nearly as structured as what someone would do in banking. So, what happens is that expectations don't always align with reality, and unfortunately, you find yourself in a role that feels more like accounting or financial reporting when you were expecting a more analytical or strategic role. This is why it's really important to read in between the lines on the job description, ask a lot of questions during the interview process, and take note of the types of backgrounds that people have in the group. Don't be afraid to walk away from a job offer if you get a sense that it's not aligned with the type of work that you're interested in, even if it has the title you want.
This.
I did two years IB, three years corp dev, and am now in an FP&A role at a PE-backed, <$20M EBITDA company now and love it. My group is small (just me and my analyst), we're involved in everything from traditional FP&A to treasury to M&A, and best of all....I leave the office at 5 PM every day while making just a hair under IB associate pay. Traditional FP&A at a publicly-traded company, though? Hell no! There is no variability in that, and if you get stuck doing FP&A for a product or division, good luck getting out of that pigeonhole.
Hey Sil! Nice to see you again on here man. I remember you all gave us hope when lateraling. I forgot if you answered this already but why did you decide to leave corp dev? Was it too much of a similar style?
This is so relatable, I got swayed by an FP&A profile mentioning capital Budgeting, NPV and IRR, whereas in reality ended up as a controller doing reporting, Budgeting and Forecasting
Bump
Bump
Bump
key for me is finding where you do less of the 'fp' which is boring but fundamental kind of blocking and tackling that cfo probably spends their most time on vs. the more fun 'a' where you're partnering with various biz units -- sales, biz dev, procurement, ops, customer success, marketing etc. to run ad hoc analyses to support decisions in driving revenue growth and cost optimization. also, try to avoid corporate and opex fp&a roles where you're just consolidating various BU inputs or working on headcount, you want to get close to the action in a n operating BU (owning full p&l) or revenue focused role. definitely does depend a lot on size and stage of growth of company.
Completely agree. In a similar role where it's 99% "FP" and 1% "A" and it's killing me. Granted that I've been fast-tracked with promotions and all of that, but it's just not worth it. That being said, I've worked in FP&A roles where it's way more strategic and analytical but I feel like they're much harder to find and obviously highly competitive.
IMO, reporting-heavy FP&A is one of those opportunities you break into if you want a "retire-in-place" path. I find myself putting together the same models every month for forecasts and just updating with historical actuals, while trying to delude myself into thinking I'm doing something value-add by making small incremental changes because there's no real substance to the work to begin with. While it's a lot easier to break into, especially for high finance candidates, it's painfully hard to break out of. For those thinking about it: definitely do your homework on each role / team, ask good questions during the interview process even if they're very direct, and make sure your profile is one that will allow you to break out of it before you go down too far into the rabbit hole.
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