[san4596]

I have been considering leaving public accounting, and am looking at financial analyst positions. I would like to hear from some experienced financial analyst to get a clearer picture than the various job descriptions out there. Tell me about your experience as a financial analyst.

CPA EXAM: DONE!!!!
Ethics Course: Passed
Application Mailed: 3/16/15
Professional Conduct Exam: 97
Certification Date: 4/2/15!!!

[CPA soon]

The term financial analyst is very broad and could vary in the job duties as well as the level, as you can call anyone that analyzes variances a financial analyst and the pay can be 40-50K for an entry level analyst while you can have a division controller titled senior/or financial analyst overseeing a bunch of plant controllers and making 100K plus.

My job is basically tracking savings for the purchasing department (VS budgeted costs for the year), another piece is measuring the economic impact due to increasing/decreasing costs of raw material and we rely on indexes for that, also work on an annual budget. Constant investigation of variances, understanding the cause and resolving these issues. Create various reports to compare and report financial information and to understand performance and how we are meeting goals, as well as working continuously to improve those numbers. This is basically a brief explanation, hope it helps.

FAR - 71, 68, 74, (8/31/14) 78 ✔
REG - 67, 71, 71, (10/18/14) 78 ✔
BEC - (11/29/14) 86 ✔
AUD - 73, (4/4/15) 86 ✔

I can't believe this is over! 2 years and 3 months..

[Mayo]

“The term financial analyst is very broad and could vary in the job duties as well as the level”

So true. I've seen “analyst” positions advertised that are 100% GL accountant positions.

Mayo, BBA, Macc

[mla1169]

Couldn't agree more that Financial Analyst differs from company to company. For example I work as a financial analyst and am primarily responsible for creating the P&L by employee, P&L by customer, by week and by month,

ALSO

I walk the boss' dog (seriously he pays me a sick hourly rate and sends me out with the dog, how cute is that?)

Clean the ladies room (I'm the only lady, so theres that!)

I'm pretty much it for IT

and backup the bookkeeper when she has too much AP to do.

FAR- 77
AUD -49, 71, 84
REG -56,75!
BEC -75

Massachusetts CPA (non reporting) since 3/12.

[Partially Deaf]

The above folks talking about how a financial analyst position is very broad are correct. The company I work for (large oil and gas) uses “financial analyst” as a generic accounting/finance title.

Personally, I work as a projects accountant in the oil and gas industry. I get to do some “analysis” but a majority of that stuff is done by the planning and business development group.

MBA Candidate - UCLA Anderson School of Management

REG 89 - 4/9/2012
BEC 88 - 5/29/2012
AUD 93 - 8/20/2012
FAR 83 - 2/4/2013
-All passed on the first attempt!

CFA Level 1 - Passed on first attempt in June 2014

[san4596]

Thank you all for helping me understand. I was wondering why the descriptions were so different.

Deaf – I am looking at large oil/gas financial analyst positions, and the job description seems right up my alley. At one time, I was a credit analyst for business lending, and loved analyzing companies returns/financial statements. I left because the pay was crap, and always had stupid disagreements about what financial ratios meant. My boss would get the ratios backwards, and I would have to pull out my text book to teach him. He did not have a college degree, and did not study finance.

Other than that road block, I would present my analysis to upper management based on industry standards, and how the company was progressing.

CPA EXAM: DONE!!!!
Ethics Course: Passed
Application Mailed: 3/16/15
Professional Conduct Exam: 97
Certification Date: 4/2/15!!!

[kplummer517]

I'm a Credit Analyst at a bank. I left public accounting after 8 1/2 years. I love it, no more audit travel or busy season. I analyze companies and underwrite commercial and agricultural loans. I like digging into the numbers and seeing they companies, whom we have relationships with, grow and develop over time. There are also troubled ones that we help get out of trouble or try to. A CPA isn't needed for this position, but they wanted an accountant/CPA when they hired me so I'm glad I'm still going for it!

AUD - Passed - 82 (10/1/13), Expires 4/1/2015 (57,62,64)
BEC - Passed - 77 (7/14/14) (53,67,70,74) Half way to CPA!!!!
REG - Passed - 81 (8/23/14) (68) 3 down 1 to go!!
FAR - Passed - 75 (11/11/14) I'm DONE!!!!!

Illinois Canidate

[san4596]

Update – since posting, I applied for the position, have already had a phone interview, and got the call back for my final interview. My fingers are crossed, and I am prepping every day for the interview.

CPA EXAM: DONE!!!!
Ethics Course: Passed
Application Mailed: 3/16/15
Professional Conduct Exam: 97
Certification Date: 4/2/15!!!

[Mayo]

What are the duties/job description? Also, what's your background?

Just being nosey really 🙂

Mayo, BBA, Macc

[Anonymous]

Hope you get the job!!! Before I started my current job, I worked in Asset/Liability Mgmt for a Bankers' Bank. We were also “financial analysts.” This once again proves how widely this term is used. In this position I created dynamic forecasting models to simulate future financial activity in order to measure interest rate risk exposure under multiple interest rate environments. Made projections, budgets and did consulting as well. Clients were small banks ranging is size from 100 million to 1.5 billion. Definitely look into this if you are interested. This is huge right now and is growing pretty fast. Most banks are required to have services like we provided l. We have over 100 banks that we serviced.

[san4596]

Update: I had my interview and am waiting to hear back. They seemed really interested, and I feel the interview went really well. They informed me that there were 2 other candidates for the position, which means I have a 1/3 chance. I like those odds.

CPA EXAM: DONE!!!!
Ethics Course: Passed
Application Mailed: 3/16/15
Professional Conduct Exam: 97
Certification Date: 4/2/15!!!

[Author]

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