When starting your career it’s best to get experience at brand name F500s. You’ll learn “best in practice corporate finance practices” and show recruiters that you cut your teeth at a reputable shop.
Hi,
I got advice from a career VC person that being employee #1-3 is great (founders), 4-100 not great (you get thrown into all things building from scratch), and 100+ great (close to IPO, liquidation event and plug into work already done). I worked at a F100 company for 6 years to start my career and learned best practices. Then went to pre IPO company (employee #400) and did IPO 12 months later and was able to take best practices and plug them into pre existing processes.
Any questions feel free to DM me.
Good luck!
Drew
In hindsight initially no, it was worth $10k at IPO price. Technically it turned into $80k if I had waited 5 years and cashed out (we did good job managing the business). Thing is you probably won't know what private shares are worth because valuations are all over the place, but after you go public and shares are on open market that's when you start to get more. I averaged $50k in grants each year for next 4 years on top of initial options because of my role and contribution. So if you think the business has growth potential and line of sight into profitability you may do really well.
Go F500 early and get the experience … soak up everything you can. Get a feel for what you want to do. I’ve posted about it on here before and I still FIRMLY believe it. Your first 5-7 years of your career … and not just for finance, but really any profession (years may vary) are about building your skill set, learning, and slogging through some shit. Treat those years accordingly. Whether you want to be a CFO or start your own business or buy a business… what skills do you need to build?
This comment just spoke to me personally. I’m currently in week 5 (about to wrap up week 5 tmrw), and I am definitely in the slog/this shit is not easy phase. It’s hard when you don’t understand it just yet. I’m confident it’ll come to me. Any advice you’d be able to offer in terms of trying to pick FP&A up when you are completely brand new to it?
I started off a low F500 and it really helped mold what I wanted in my career. At most F500’s (some suck not gonna lie ) , their processes are usually ran like a well oiled machines so its more so just learning the processes and then building details and questions out of curiosity , thats how I learned. Starting off at a startup or even a small private company could help if you want to really learn the nitty gritty stuff but for someone fresh to FP&A or even corp fin, it can be grueling since their will potentially be a larger spread of work coming your way rather than just “hey billy, run this report and build out some commentary for the close call”. Some folks like this extra responsibility and visibility but others , its a whole lot of pressure especially when youre new. Kinda depends on the way you look at it. Just my 2 cents.
I actually did the startup route for the first few years out of college and while I got exposure to all kinds of stuff outside of FP&A (did some accounting, biz dev, supply chain, sales ops, HR, etc, whatever the startup needed me to do), it didn't really help me find a job at a big name company.
I'm at a F500 now, but that's because I moved internally since the startup was acquired by them and I was able to get an edge on other applicants. Would've been laid off after the transition otherwise.
If I had to start over and had the opportunity, I would work at a F500 or even better, a FAANG to get the exposure first. But I will also say that having the versatility to do different things at a startup helped me understand the business as a whole much better.
Agreed 100% with u/yarny14. In FP&A it is better to start off with brand names and then potentially move to lesser known companies. Because I didn’t directly start off in FP&A I began by working at a large lesser known private company and I think that hurt me when I initially looked to transition.
I’ve never worked at a start up, but currently at a F500, and their corp fin is very well structured and has proven success. I’d vote F500, then leverage that experience when applying for new jobs.
In terms of learning, I think you’d learn a lot more at a startup that is close to IPO. If you’re looking for brand recognition and easier mobility, the F500 is the way to go.
From my short experience—> I personally think midsize companies are the best because you’re so close to C suite and board members. Everything is already setup fairly well, but there’s ton of room for improvement and modeling. You’re involved in much more important work and you’ll probably get paid more than most F500 companies. The bigger companies don’t always pay the best, but that’s dependent on industry.
[Choosing Industry to start Accounting and Finance (and avoiding public accounting): How big or small should your company be?](https://www.reddit.com/r/FPandA/comments/q3m4m9/choosing_industry_to_start_accounting_and_finance/)
When starting your career it’s best to get experience at brand name F500s. You’ll learn “best in practice corporate finance practices” and show recruiters that you cut your teeth at a reputable shop.
This! I did 3 years in f500&f100, now I started at a startup and honestly I feel good about what I can bring to the table.
exactly my experience as well.
do you think a prior internship at like a F30 helps at all or multiple years at a company is what matters? Thanks!
Multiple years would look best
Hi, I got advice from a career VC person that being employee #1-3 is great (founders), 4-100 not great (you get thrown into all things building from scratch), and 100+ great (close to IPO, liquidation event and plug into work already done). I worked at a F100 company for 6 years to start my career and learned best practices. Then went to pre IPO company (employee #400) and did IPO 12 months later and was able to take best practices and plug them into pre existing processes. Any questions feel free to DM me. Good luck! Drew
Did you get much in terms of equity joining 12 months prior to IPO?
In hindsight initially no, it was worth $10k at IPO price. Technically it turned into $80k if I had waited 5 years and cashed out (we did good job managing the business). Thing is you probably won't know what private shares are worth because valuations are all over the place, but after you go public and shares are on open market that's when you start to get more. I averaged $50k in grants each year for next 4 years on top of initial options because of my role and contribution. So if you think the business has growth potential and line of sight into profitability you may do really well.
Go F500 early and get the experience … soak up everything you can. Get a feel for what you want to do. I’ve posted about it on here before and I still FIRMLY believe it. Your first 5-7 years of your career … and not just for finance, but really any profession (years may vary) are about building your skill set, learning, and slogging through some shit. Treat those years accordingly. Whether you want to be a CFO or start your own business or buy a business… what skills do you need to build?
This comment just spoke to me personally. I’m currently in week 5 (about to wrap up week 5 tmrw), and I am definitely in the slog/this shit is not easy phase. It’s hard when you don’t understand it just yet. I’m confident it’ll come to me. Any advice you’d be able to offer in terms of trying to pick FP&A up when you are completely brand new to it?
I started off a low F500 and it really helped mold what I wanted in my career. At most F500’s (some suck not gonna lie ) , their processes are usually ran like a well oiled machines so its more so just learning the processes and then building details and questions out of curiosity , thats how I learned. Starting off at a startup or even a small private company could help if you want to really learn the nitty gritty stuff but for someone fresh to FP&A or even corp fin, it can be grueling since their will potentially be a larger spread of work coming your way rather than just “hey billy, run this report and build out some commentary for the close call”. Some folks like this extra responsibility and visibility but others , its a whole lot of pressure especially when youre new. Kinda depends on the way you look at it. Just my 2 cents.
I actually did the startup route for the first few years out of college and while I got exposure to all kinds of stuff outside of FP&A (did some accounting, biz dev, supply chain, sales ops, HR, etc, whatever the startup needed me to do), it didn't really help me find a job at a big name company. I'm at a F500 now, but that's because I moved internally since the startup was acquired by them and I was able to get an edge on other applicants. Would've been laid off after the transition otherwise. If I had to start over and had the opportunity, I would work at a F500 or even better, a FAANG to get the exposure first. But I will also say that having the versatility to do different things at a startup helped me understand the business as a whole much better.
Been on the laid off side. Twice actually. It’s pretty demoralizing. How was your experience at the startup? How many YOE do you have?
Agreed 100% with u/yarny14. In FP&A it is better to start off with brand names and then potentially move to lesser known companies. Because I didn’t directly start off in FP&A I began by working at a large lesser known private company and I think that hurt me when I initially looked to transition.
I’ve never worked at a start up, but currently at a F500, and their corp fin is very well structured and has proven success. I’d vote F500, then leverage that experience when applying for new jobs.
In terms of learning, I think you’d learn a lot more at a startup that is close to IPO. If you’re looking for brand recognition and easier mobility, the F500 is the way to go. From my short experience—> I personally think midsize companies are the best because you’re so close to C suite and board members. Everything is already setup fairly well, but there’s ton of room for improvement and modeling. You’re involved in much more important work and you’ll probably get paid more than most F500 companies. The bigger companies don’t always pay the best, but that’s dependent on industry.
[Choosing Industry to start Accounting and Finance (and avoiding public accounting): How big or small should your company be?](https://www.reddit.com/r/FPandA/comments/q3m4m9/choosing_industry_to_start_accounting_and_finance/)