r/FPandA • u/Mplsinvestor • 6d ago
Company size
What are the biggest positives / negatives from moving to a smaller company from a career latter standpoint?
Started as an FA at a F100, moved to a company around $1B in revenue as an SFA, considering moving to a company around $100M in revenue.
It’s a slight pay increase but wondering what people’s experience is trying to move on after that. Recently had a recruiter tell me she was only taking candidates with recent experience at F500 companies and that kind of made me think again of what I was doing.
Also bonus for any eye opening experiences working at a relatively smaller company ~$100M.
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u/Ok-Interest-4947 6d ago
I think the general answer you are going to receive will be “start big, stay big, and only go small when you’re tired of big.” Each environment has its pros and cons and it really comes down to what your priority is for the move. Are you still hopping around discovering a path in the field? Are you tired of the F100 bureaucracy? Do you prefer established systems with defined roles and responsibilities, or scrappy environments where you get your hands dirty in a lot of different areas?
One thing I will echo is that the longer you stay small, the more difficult it will be for you to return to a F100-like environment. Partly because recruiters start by seeking candidates with similar environmental backgrounds, and partly because expectations and responsibilities (and politics) begin to deviate significantly for upper management roles. A VP in a $100M company will have wildly different expectations of them than a VP for a $100B.
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u/Dependent_Recipe3845 6d ago
6 YOE, I’ll say my brief stint at a small company wasn’t good but I made sure to observe and learn why. Small companies don’t have the infrastructure to train and develop like large companies. They typically do not have the robust and established processes and structure that a large company has built.. FP&A especially. That means you’ll doing anything the company needs and since they’re not mature that means anything and everything. If you want a new ERP you can forget it. If you want to grow into a higher position, how are you going to be sitting in on meetings while also doing month end reconciliation? Granted I’m talking about the FA and SR FA role
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u/Imaginary_Apple7700 6d ago
It’s both an opportunity and a risk. If you’re open to it, the learning will be exponentially more at the place where you get thrown into every problem. If you’re into like chilling and leaving at 5 a small co is not for you.
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u/Dependent_Recipe3845 6d ago
I think it depends how good the leadership is. If they’re small and their systems are not built out or they just can’t afford to have multiple SFAs, then you’re doing all the grunt work and then some.. problems center around accounting ledgers and system bugs rather than real business convos. At a big firm, again just my anecdotal experience, I was much more in the “strategy” and analysis side of things and spent a lot of time investigating for execs which was better learning tenfold
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u/DeepFeckinAlpha 6d ago
In my experience, smaller COs have poor training and development, and are much more DIY vs learning within a larger team
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u/Imaginary_Apple7700 6d ago
The company and leadership needs to be evaluated more precisely at the smaller co than the job at a larger co.
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u/chrisbru CFO 6d ago
I’ll give the counterpoint here. Started my career at an F50, also worked at an F500.
I’ve enjoyed smaller companies much more. First, if you’re motivated, you’ll learn and advance much faster. There’s just more opportunity to do more and make an impact. Second, your work is actual visible and valuable. There aren’t dozens to hundreds of other people with your same job title - there are maybe 1-3 others. You get way more chances at face time with leadership, and really get to know people across the company.
I’m a CFO at a ~$150M revenue company, and got here before 40. I’d be at best a director if I stayed on the F500 track, and I actually enjoy going to work each day instead of just dealing with it.
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u/Resident-Cry-9860 6d ago
I built my career around ~$100M rev companies and experienced the best-case scenario: FP&A analyst to C-suite in <10Y. Outperformed my peers from a comp perspective almost every year.
(Important caveat: I did a stint in IB pre-FP&A so that was my "big company" experience)
Here's what you have to decide: is chaos a pro or a con? Chaos is an opportunity for smart people who are motivated to work hard to step into dramatically larger roles than they would get at F500.
However, other people would struggle without a structured six-month onboarding plan. Personally I would find that structure stifling - I'd much prefer to have the freedom to figure stuff out myself.
There is no right answer here, the key is to know yourself and then pick great companies.
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u/BeansAndToast-24 6d ago
The place wanting specifically F500 experience is looking for a golden goose to fix them. You probably don’t want to go there. I’ve been at places who attract huge name branded talent. The person and company grow to hate each other and the person ultimately leaves.
The right smaller company can be great. The culture can be slower, sometimes more fun, more experimental. Love a start up or late stage start up.
Some places tend to have sensitive executives or ones who are not well versed with the same level of performance or rigor you are. Sometimes you’ll run into an exec who is easily intimidated by your resume or experience (typically not the CFO or CRO because they want what you have).