FP&A vs. Sales Ops

I've been in FP&A for 3 years, and found it quite unfulfilling for many reasons. The pay in FP&A is decent when considering the work life balance, but I feel like it's a glorified reporting and planning job with minimal analysis. Really more of a process and repetition driven work that doesn't require much of analytical acumen. 

I know a few folks who recently transitioned from FP&A to Sales Ops, and was curious to know how fellow monkeys thought of working for Sales Ops. I realized that plenty of my skills acquired from FP&A can be translated into Sales Ops, but am rather concerned whether Sales Ops would pose similar frustrations I am currently having in FP&A. 


What are your thoughts on FP&A vs. Sales Ops in terms of MBA application prospect, exit opportunity, and glamor (neither of them are probably glamorous, but which beats the other)? I'd appreciate to hear your thoughts. 

 
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I cannot speak to MBA applications, but in terms of moving around FP&A, I think you are limiting yourself. Every company seems to categorize finance roles differently, but from I have seen and what exists at my firm, sales FP&A is very focused on supporting projections for the sales org from top-line growth to commissions, etc. I think you are pigeonholing yourself in a sense by moving to sales FP&A as you go from a fairly broad role in corporate FP&A (good) to a very narrow role in sales FP&A (bad). Obviously every company is different, so what I am saying might not apply to you.

 

I appreciate the comments Sil. 

For additional context, over the course of my 3 years I've worked in Corp FP&A, Sales FP&A, and now Business Unit FP&A. I no longer find FP&A interesting not because I think I know everything, but because I don't find my manager's or skip level's roles any much more exciting than mine. Thus when I saw some of the FP&A folks around me transition to Sales Operations (or business/revenue operations) I came to wonder how the Corp Finance folks view the operations side of the roles in terms of career prospect. Seems like Ops isn't necessarily more promising than FP&A. 

 

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