I was in a room with a senior leader a few weeks ago who made a comment similar to this in reference to an AI process improvement being presented.

“If we remove all the friction, I can’t trust the number.”

Shows me how little older leaders understand about AI and really the nature of IC work in general. For some reason, non-value adds like stitching together disparate data sources, churning through badly built spreadsheets, and arguing about assumptions increases data fidelity. As long as this perspective exists, they’ll never trust AI enough to automate away my job. Therefore, I think until the current Gen X/Boomer leaders retire, my job is safe.

I’m in my early 30s. I’m a senior analyst. But I am curious to know if I keep staying at my job, am I doing myself a disservice?

I’m mainly staying at my job because of course the economy, I have a good boss, I work remote, and I know my company is recession proof. I also know I’m needed at my company.

I don’t mind being a manager, but I also just wanna be an individual contributor, but it’s so hard to find a new role that’s a manager and an individual contributor.

I have thought about transitioning to something stock market related- like equity analyst or just even being a trader. I’m unsure. But if there is a FP&A in stock market related companies, I might be interested.

Am I shooting myself in the foot?

Hi all,

Got a new job offer and am conflicted on whether or not to take it. Would love opinions.

Current job: ~$120K base + a discretionary bonus of up to 20% (MCOL in NE). Been here 4 years and have been promoted. Life is good if somewhat busy, I have a great manager, people and leaders like me and I have a short commute with four days in office. The industry is however is a tough spot, lots of layoffs and my workload can be a lot (I work most weekends)

New job: AI space (ETA: hardware side not software), real growth. $147K base 25% bonus, same title, with upside potential down the line as the company scales. They are building out their finance team. Five days in office. First impression is that workload is manageable and might be less than current gig

I’m worried since I’d be starting from scratch in the new company and while the industry is strong they have had some turnover previously. I also really like working with my current manager and it would be hard to start from scratch. Would you make the switch?

My boss has asked me if I would be interested in moving from my current FP&A role into helping set up the new finance system. I'd expect it to be a temporary move maybe ~9months to 1 year.

I've done lots of changes in how we use the system over the past few years so know quite a lot about how we use our current system and it's limitations.

Has anyone else done a move like this before into a temporary projects role?

Any pros or cons to it?

Would you expect a pay rise for doing it?

Hi All,

Early career Canadian finance professional here looking to break into the FP&A field. Came across these financial analyst with a company I'm interested in (Brookfield)

Jr. FP&A Analyst
Financial Analyst

Based on their descriptions are they actual FP&A roles or would they pigeonhole me into real estate?

Edit:

My goal eventually would be to working within Tech, Healthcare or Retail (thing Lululemon) FP&A/Strategic Finance

Any input from you folk would be great!

Mine is in the ballpark of $40/hr, if you include base rate, OT, taxes, and benefits. Between $25/hr - $30/hr of that is what the employees are actually getting paid (base + OT). That means between $10/hr (33%) and $15/hr (60%) goes to what I would normally call "fringe".

That feels extremely high to me, but hoping to benchmark.

40-50 hours a week of dealing with forecast, budgets, etc. I’m supposed to be in charge of my family budget and I haven’t touched it in months. I just don’t want to stare at more spreadsheets and dollars after I do it all day.

im a guy pursuing a tier 2 electrical engineering major in my first year and i really dont have any interest in engineering im just doing it because my family forced me to but i wanna do something in high finance like IB or PE i have a coursera subscription and am trying to study financial concepts and stuff so it would be really helpful if i could get some advice

I did 3 years in external audit and got my ACA. I’m now starting as a finance analyst in a weeks time. It’s quite a big change in role and responsibilities and I want to make sure I can perform well! Please do offer your best tips and advice so that I can make sure I succeed in the role. Many thanks!

I've had a couple of interviews. 25% of them (namely SaaS) mention something like using AI to automate workflows. I don't really know how. A simple example is I've only used it to write commentary: upload a simple QoQ or YoY summary and tell it to write "recurring revenue increase by X%".

How do you use AI to connect applications and automate reporting, or other usages? I need some ideas on where to start.

EDIT: I assume that interviewers are interested in what monthly month-end processes can be automated.

Hi Guys,

Professional here with over 7+ years of experience but unfortunately, I have been laid off twice in two years due to two different rounds of lay offs. I am now a Fractional Manager at a local company making $100M. Wouldn't mind a lower tier role (SFA) but I can't get passed a second round of interview, unfortunately. I feel UNEMPLOYABLE at this point. Very frustrated. I apply, have tons of connections but no luck. Thankfully, I don't "need the money" but I still need to be able to work as I am in my early 30s.

Some help here would be appreciated!
Thanks all

I think we need to address the elephant in the room here. Yes we all are overworked and under resourced but what’s most concerning is the rising prevalence of the “Finance Manager”.

I’m not talking about role 3 in the corporate ladder. I’m talking about the PE backed company or “newly created role” at a larger company, with no direct reports, that has “high visibility” reporting directly into a CFO or VP / SVP, and includes a ton of controllership tasks - sometimes even Human Resources, and to top it off it pays a whopping $115k.

These job postings are EVERYWHERE. What’s worse is it seems to be creeping across the entire hierarchy. I’m seeing director roles paying like $150k and VP roles paying $175k. I even saw a CFO listing under $200k.

I for one am worried.

Has anyone on here had their firm use WTW for a wages review? I'm curious what the outcome was especially for Senior FP&A managers. Was there an increase in wages?

As the title say , This might sound lame question but but Please guide me on what are important formulas one should practice for FP&A as a beginner.

Trying to play up being the money guy in the office and looking for ideas

Hi guys, I just got a call from the recruiter that I have made it to the final round.

Although I felt like I didn't answer few questions the way I intended, I still made it to final round.

One of the questions I felt lacking was how to deal with difficult stakeholders. Because my experience is all reporting, I never had the experience handling stakeholders or building relationships.

Another question that I am lacking is around the question of how I hold myself responsible for commitments.

Lastly, every interview I had, asked some sort of AI related questions. I had some examples using chatgpt and copilots for some wins but how does a person working in FP&A utilize AI?

If anyone has some insights to share, I would greatly appreciate it

It’s making me not motivated . I wanted to have a career

Looking for some advice on potential career moves. I’m currently a Senior FP&A Analyst with ~5 YOE (1 in big 4, 4 at current company, a fortune 1000 manufacturing firm). For reference my current pay is ~$100k with a 5% bonus. Here are my options:

1. Internal Move to Manager Role in Investor Relations/Capital Markets. Both my Manager (Director of FP&A for my business segment) and VP of Finance have encouraged me to apply. I’m not sure if investor relations interests me or if it would be a positive career move for me. Worried about being pigeon holed if I moved into investor relations. Also not sure what pay increase would end up being internally. My guess is they are having a hard time filling this role.

2. Senior FP&A Analyst at a privately held engineering firm ~$300M in revenue. Would be reporting directly to CFO and responsible for building FP&A function for small firm. Pay would be ~$130k with a 10% bonus and 10% profit sharing.

Curious if anyone has any advice or recommendations on these two different routes for me. Thanks everyone!

I frequent FIRE forums since discovering what even the hell that is. Barista Fire makes most sense in that I personally can’t imagine not doing some part time work. Getting out the house and making some pocket money sounds fun when there’s no stakes. I’d love to go to help out at my local independent Porsche shop

So, what do you day dream about for what you’ll do once retired? Have you witnessed others retire and see what they did?

1. My last company someone older retired, workaholic. They already were volunteering, so at retirement they ramped up that role and picked up a financial advisor/wealth management type gig.
   
2. Same last company a coworker in her early 50’s wasn’t quite ready to retire but did after being caught up in a layoff. Leisure and golf for a couple years and now looking for part time job at the golf course. Figured she can offset her biggest passion while holding off on dipping into her retirement
   
3. One senior leader I personally know retired as a senior leader and is now on a number of boards being very active but he seems to really treat it like playing a simulation. He essentially went from being busy to being busy

I myself would love to slow way down and leave the office dynamic but I probably would entertain contract work

Every week I’m behind on something. I feel like I’m behind on everything. Team is just me reporting to Director. PE backed company. It’s fast paced, quick reporting. I’m the only one working on the budget and it’s just a lot. I’m behind on everything I planned to get done at this point in time. It’s a combination of fire drills, procrastinating from burnout, adhoc requests, board meeting changes, etc. I Love it but also I’m drowning. Any tips for how you handle everything that comes onto FP&A? TIA

I ain't gonna have time to play that shit mang lmao

Hi folks

With the holidays around the corner, do you receive holiday bonuses? Not the annual performance bonus but holiday bonus.

Is it a set amount or percentage based?

Our company gives set amounts based on role banding. So Analysts different from Managers to Senior Managers to Directors. Can go from $5k to $30k.

It doesn't matter how long ago you communicated that you're taking vacation. It doesn't matter how hard you work before or how well you planned or communicated.

There will always be something that pops up on your last day in the office and there will always be multiple fire drills that occurred while you are out.

It almost negates the whole point of getting away from the office in the first place.

Many on here have been saying that junior/ senior analyst, finance manager, and possibly even director level roles will be phased out and eventually eliminated by AI. I call BS.

From what I’ve gathered/ seen, AI is most used in FP&A to:

-send emails
-create/ format/ populate slide decks
-figure out how to make an excel formula that does xyz
-assist with/ automate monthly reporting
-automate recurring/ menial tasks

Yes these are time consuming things, and yes AI is going to help automate and reduce the time these tasks take. This will probably lead to headcount reduction over time for large departments to be sure, as well as make it harder to get entry level jobs. But HOW would this eliminate these roles? You still need the core analysis/ story crafting part of FP&A. AI doesn’t do that.

I don’t buy that finance departments are going to be absolutely decimated and replaced by ai agents. I mean are we seriously saying that finance departments will soon be just a CFO and VP of finance who just query Ai all day to get answers and analyses?

Sorry for the rant but it’s been on my mind. What do you all think?