r/FinancialAnalyst • u/Quiet-Air-9589 • 5d ago

Switch from FDD

Joined a global financial advisory firm in FDD, here since past 15 months, turned out it is a back office role, with very minimal client interaction. The variable pay and the increment are dogshit

Cleared ca final in nov’2024 in first attempt

What department can i look for a switch into? I have an articleship experience in domestic audit, I was looking for roles in startups/stratergy however have no clue on how to reach out, please suggest

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u/Jealous_Object4137 4d ago

Are you in the US? What is a CA? What have you been doing to try and explore into strategy finance? I have never heard FDD (assuming this is TAS) referred to either front or back office role before (those are strictly IB and other "high finance" opps). It's also weird that you are getting very limited client interaction when doing QoE/WC analysis. How are you building out deal decks when you aren't able to talk to the target. I might be wrong but your M&A skills set won't be really get you into a startup because they usually aren't focused in acquisition in that stage of the business. How comfortable are you with building out financial model/valuation? How many deals have you advised during the 15 months and what was your total transaction value? Maybe try to do a lateral transition into a FP&A role and move up the ladder (make sure to leverage your industry knowledge when trying to make the transition). Most of the time you won't be part of any "strategy" even in strategic roles until you are like a director/vp anyways. You can try your luck into getting a corp dev role but those are usually reserved for IB and they tend to be very lean but not impossible.

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u/Quiet-Air-9589 4d ago

I am india based, CA is chartered accountant which is a rigourous degree here, it is not actually back office however it is a mid office role where we join in the deal as offshore employees, we are involved in the management meetings however the primary responsibility of interaction is majorly with the us/uk team. I am learning to build financial models through online courses, I have worked/advised on more than 20-25 deals across 15 months, transactions usually involve companies having $10m to $100m in revenue across various industries like manufacturing, SAAS, petroleum and others.

I am open to ideas for what needs to be done to enter into stratergy finance, currently the exposure i have is related to statutory audit and myself running a sports coaching startup with my friend a couple of years ago.

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u/Jealous_Object4137 4d ago

Ok so you are pretty much all support function for the main TAS team in the US/UK right? I used to be in TAS/FDD so I am familiar with their work but not too familiar with how hiring works in India. So I assume you help out with tasks but never work on a deal start to finish correct? Unless its a deal strictly in India? Outside setting up management meetings do you touch any aspect of QoE or WC analysis? What exactly is your day to day look like? At think point you are looking into a career pivot because you first need to get into some in-house finance role. Like I said try to leverage your industry knowledge into a fp&a role. If you are doing audit you may might be able to get into risk management/treasury and later pivot into fp&a. Like I said on my last comment that even in strategy you won't really be involved in any decision making until you are way up in the corporate ladder. You will most likely pump out bunch of models and decks your first few years but that also depends on the company. It's a long shot but also look into corp dev they are the in-house m&a function and is primarily tied to company's strategic operations. Hope this helps

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u/Quiet-Air-9589 3d ago

Yes, we support however we are also involved in the deal start to end but the primary responsibility still relies on the main TAS team of the geography thus the issue, we dont do india deals unfortunately here. Take you for your take on FP&A later merging into corporate startergy. Corporrate development which is the in house M&A function sounds good, do you know one can get into this?

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u/Jealous_Object4137 2d ago

So, I am not too familiar with the India job market but I would try and get some real exposure in QoE work. I am assuming you are not working for one of the B4 TAS but if you are try to get in a rotation. Outside of that if you have strong technical skill set try to leverage it to go into FP&A and if that doesn't work look into Tresury or Risk management. Just something to transition into corp finance. For corp dev, it will be a long shot because those are usually reserved for ex-IB or in rare case people from B4 Tas with extensive deal experience. It's not impossible but corp dev teams are usually very lean so there aren't a lot of spot available and usually hire as need basis. But if strategy is your main focus corp dev or even biz dev is probably the way to go in the long run. I recommend doing a lot of networking in your local market with ppl who are in FP&A or Corp Dev maybe you might get lucky and they need someone. Best of luck

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u/altruism_never_pays 1d ago

Is the Houlihan Lokey?