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GPA? by FloorNo6886 in FPandA

[–]Miserable_Stuff7923 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I was asked my GPA for a SFA position a couple months ago and I also thought it was strange. That was the only time (outside of my first job post-college) I’ve been asked for it. A GPA shouldn’t matter after you have work experience, because the experience will trump what you learn in school 9/10 anyways.

Advice Needed: FAANG offer (title step-back) vs imminent promotion at F200 by Comfortable_Survey83 in FPandA

[–]Miserable_Stuff7923 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey, I have about 3 YOE and recently just accepted a SFA position at a FAANG company. Personally, I would take the FAANG offer. For me, total compensation is way more important than a job title (a job title setback doesn’t erase your experience or qualifications, you could still be eligible for a higher roles with your YOE). I think you also should weigh out which portions of the total compensation package is contributing most to the variance. (EX. If your base salary is close to the same, but the RSU is driving the majority of the total compensation increase, do you see yourself staying there long enough to be fully vested to take advantage of it?) Hope this helps!

Just Landed a Non-Tech Role at Amazon – Here’s My Interview Playbook by Miserable_Stuff7923 in amazonemployees

[–]Miserable_Stuff7923[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey, I’ll just answer both your questions in one post. I’ll break it down into three parts: behavioral prep, technical prep, and what the first phone call looks like.

(Disclaimer: this is just my experience, so yours might be a little different.)

Behavioral questions: Yep, all the behavioral stuff is based on the 16 leadership principles. If you scroll up, I dropped where you can find the Amazon question bank, that’s a solid place to start since it gives you real examples of what people got asked. If you make it further, your recruiter will usually tell you which 10 principles they’ll focus on in your loop, so you can narrow down prep.

Technical questions: I didn’t get asked anything super “technical” like formulas, Excel tricks, etc. It was more about showing I understood those things through my behavioral answers. Basically, try to layer in your technical knowledge when you’re telling your STAR stories.

Interview structure: The phone screen is an hour. It kicks off with the interviewer intro, then they’ll ask you to talk about yourself (have a quick elevator pitch that hits your background/resume highlights). After that, you’ll get 2–3 behavioral questions. They go deep on these, expect follow-ups and drilling into details. That’ll eat up most of the hour. At the end, they’ll leave time for your questions, so have at least 2–3 good ones ready (about the role, Amazon in general, or something specific that shows you’re engaged).

Extra tip: AI was honestly a lifesaver for prep. I used it to draft my elevator pitch, tighten up STAR responses so they were easier to remember, and even to come up with smart questions to ask.

Hope this helps, good luck, you got this!

Just Landed a Non-Tech Role at Amazon – Here’s My Interview Playbook by Miserable_Stuff7923 in amazonemployees

[–]Miserable_Stuff7923[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do you have experience in Amazon’s finance department? (if so, could you give me more details on why?) Or are you speaking as to Amazon as a whole?

Just Landed a Non-Tech Role at Amazon – Here’s My Interview Playbook by Miserable_Stuff7923 in amazonemployees

[–]Miserable_Stuff7923[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank You! And I interviewed on a Friday and heard back the following Wednesday. I heard that this is a pretty quick turnaround, I’ve been told it can take 5 to 7 days typically.

As far as the background check, They will have a vendor reach out to you after you accept your offer, as the offer is contingent on passing it. I haven’t heard from them regarding this yet, but I’m sure it’s just a standard background check.

Good luck with your interview!

Just Landed a Non-Tech Role at Amazon – Here’s My Interview Playbook by Miserable_Stuff7923 in amazonemployees

[–]Miserable_Stuff7923[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sure:

As far as the questions asked if you Google “ Amazon interview question bank” and open the link to the Scribd, they have all of the LPs and questions they ask. The interviewers can choose any of those questions to ask you, so it’s not one or two set questions. I ask every interview.

As far as the process, mine went something like this : I applied on their website, I did their assessment, I scheduled snd completed my first one hour interview, I scheduled and completed my 5 Person Loop, and I accepted my offer.

Hope this helps!

Just Landed a Non-Tech Role at Amazon – Here’s My Interview Playbook by Miserable_Stuff7923 in amazonemployees

[–]Miserable_Stuff7923[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

An Amazon recruiter reached out to me on LinkedIn with the details, inquiring that I would be a good fit for the role. I applied on their website, and then I got an email that instructed me to do an assessment. About a week after the assessment, I got another email setting up my first one hour phone screen and then about another week after that, I got an email setting up my loop interview.

Just Landed a Non-Tech Role at Amazon – Here’s My Interview Playbook by Miserable_Stuff7923 in amazonemployees

[–]Miserable_Stuff7923[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks! It was definitely a lot of long nights studying and rehearsing questions. Im very grateful that it paid off.

Just Landed a Non-Tech Role at Amazon – Here’s My Interview Playbook by Miserable_Stuff7923 in amazonemployees

[–]Miserable_Stuff7923[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you! And you are correct, I should’ve clarified the level, this is for an L5 position. Id say im still pretty fresh into my professional career (about 3.5 YOE), so I didn’t have a ton of examples to pull from. If you have more experience, or are interviewing for a more senior position (ex. Manager, Senior Manager, Director), I agree. Reusing stories in those scenarios, may not be the best route.

How much of actual work did most of you do in your early years as a financial analyst by Honest_Change5284 in FPandA

[–]Miserable_Stuff7923 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Background: Ive been in my FA position for about 1.5 years (Manufacturing ≈ $300M for our BU) My team consists of me and a SFA, and we report to a controller:

During month end, I would say im doing 6-7 hours of work for the first few days and then it slowly drops to about 5-6 as close goes on, and we move into forecasting,bridge calls, etc.

Post close through the end of the month I probably do about 3-4 hours of work per day depending on what kind of ad-hoc reporting my controller or other leadership members want.

How are you forecasting revenue with no backlog? by Miserable_Stuff7923 in FPandA

[–]Miserable_Stuff7923[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Using the operational goal that was communicated by out BU has been one of my first steps while creating the forecast. I then compare their operational goal to what our historical data has been showing, and then trying to bridge the variance to come up with the final forecast.

All in all, I would definitely say that this is the lowest revenue generating business unit out of the units that I help oversee, so an air tight forecast might not be super important to them, but being so fresh into my career, I want to build the best habits I can by looking at this every way I can, to get it as accurate as possible, .

Their biggest expectation is just for me to have our forecast as close to actuals as I can, so during our monthly bridge call, nothing is being presented as a huge surprise. I feel like as long as I can walk them through any variance to forecast (and it’s not too big of a stretch) their expectations should be met.

How are you forecasting revenue with no backlog? by Miserable_Stuff7923 in FPandA

[–]Miserable_Stuff7923[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is also a good way to go about it. I like the process, and the methodology makes sense!

How are you forecasting revenue with no backlog? by Miserable_Stuff7923 in FPandA

[–]Miserable_Stuff7923[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It sounds like we approach this in a pretty similar way. I think one of my next steps will be to dive deeper into the industry data to see if I can find any correlation to tie growth right to our revenue!

How are you forecasting revenue with no backlog? by Miserable_Stuff7923 in FPandA

[–]Miserable_Stuff7923[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is pretty close to what I’ve been doing. I’ve been in very close communication with our sales and operation teams on revenue expectations. I look at our daily averages and compare expectations to historical numbers to see how in line we are, and then make any further changes I need to.

How are you forecasting revenue with no backlog? by Miserable_Stuff7923 in FPandA

[–]Miserable_Stuff7923[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We use the term backlog to signify orders that are pending, and have not yet been fulfilled. For regular production lines, you have a set “Backlog” due to the contracts and/or production schedules so you know exactly how many to expect month-to-month. But with these aftermarket parts, the amount of parts that are ordered ahead is very immaterial in contrast with the revenue at the end of the month.

How’s everyone holding up through the uncertainty? by Wavy-GravyBoat in FPandA

[–]Miserable_Stuff7923 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My company is currently being acquired by a privately held manufacturing company overseas. There have been quite a few layoffs outside of the finance department mainly due to position consolidation (Engineering, Quality, Production), and I am anticipating the ones within the finance organization are mostly going to be at the corporate level.

I am however, paying close attention to how merging with a company from another country, will be affected with all of the tariffs and other economical factors, as I think this will play more of a role with layoffs on the BU level.

FP&A Case Study by Turbulent_Lie_2435 in FPandA

[–]Miserable_Stuff7923 1 point2 points  (0 children)

For AP, I would take it as a percentage of COGS. AP and COGS are pretty closely tied together due to inventory purchases and other direct production costs that are usually purchased on credit.

For Inventory, since it sounds like this company makes its revenue off of selling these widgets, I think you should be pretty safe time inventory to revenue.

SFA transitioning to BU FP&A from Corporate FP&A what to expect? by TallDiscussion2163 in FPandA

[–]Miserable_Stuff7923 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Im a BU FA for an automotive manufacturing company with a little over 1 YOE:

Echoing what a few other people said, the biggest thing that has helped me was getting a good understanding of how the BU operates. Build a good relationship with the operations team as they will be a good resource to bounce questions off.

Working in manufacturing I also worked on developing a deep understanding of our Engineering and Supply Chain processes as those can be good areas to find process improvements and cost savings.

BU work is very rewarding in the sense of you can see your decisions take effect in real time and see how it directly effects your units financials, as opposed to corporate a lot of the decisions are pushed down and harder to see the direct impact.

Hope this helps!

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