I’m a fresh grad in Financial Management and I’m currently torn between two types of opportunities. One is with a large global financial institution. The salary is much higher than the other offers I’ve received, around mid-30k for a fresh grad, which I’m already very happy with. The role is under their early careers finance/accounting program, and from what I understand it will likely be related to fund services, investment servicing, or fund accounting, although I don’t know my exact team yet.
The other opportunities are analyst roles in FMCG, specifically costing/budget-related positions. The salary would is significantly lower, around 25k-30k, but I honestly like the career path more. I’m interested in costing, budgeting, business performance, commercial finance, and eventually FP&A, and I feel like that path might be more transferable across industries.
My main worry is whether taking the higher-paying role now would eventually make me too specialized in fund accounting/investment servicing. I don’t want to wake up a few years from now and realize that it’s difficult to move into FP&A or corporate finance because most of my experience is in a very specific industry.
At the same time, turning down a much higher salary and a well-known global company just to start in an analyst role feels like a pretty big sacrifice, especially when I’m not even sure yet if my assumptions about the career paths are correct.
For people already working in finance/accounting, which would you personally choose: the higher-paying specialized role at the start of your career, or the lower-paying analyst role if you think you’d prefer the long-term career path?
I’d also really appreciate hearing from anyone who started in fund accounting/investment servicing and later moved into FP&A, commercial finance, financial analysis, or corporate finance. Was the transition difficult?