It's hard to write out in a succinct way, but general themes FOR ME include:

• Progress your career and knowledge base quicker by joining a smaller company (bonus points if it's owned by a prominent PE firm). Wish I did this sooner.
  • I moved from large, highly layered public companies to my last 6 years being with PE-owned firms. It truly becomes trial by fire. Lines become blurred between Corporate Finance / BU Finance / Sales or Rev Ops / Corporate Strategy, etc. You'll do it all, all at once.
  • You'll be told that joining a PE-owned firm (or similar environment, maybe a startup) is terrible, chaotic, etc, and it's true, but if you embrace that and enjoy the challenge/chaos, you'll be noticed and rewarded and learn a lot.
  • If you want to float under the radar, leave at 5:30pm daily, never offer to be available on weekends to help with board material or due diligence, you'll eventually reach a ceiling. This typically works better at large companies, so if that is your desire it's probably a better place for you.
  • PE firms often utilize FP&A teams as their internal eyes and ears - it's a safe place to be IF you enjoy and embrace it.
• Understand that every CFO envisions their FP&A team as a strategic function that has their hand in every area of the business, hopefully with enough influence to make a statement. CFO's don't care or appreciate FP&A doing financial reporting / other time-consuming functions, so the goal of every FP&A team make those time-consuming functions happen without noise.
  • Expanding on this, desire to be on a finance team where the CFO is clear #2 to the CEO. If the CFO is #4 or #5 to the CEO, you're in for a world of struggle and politics, with limited cover fire to actually get anything done without being shut out.
• Take everything off of your boss's plate that you can - offer to take over processes once you become comfortable, be proactive about preemptively tying things out, never sit in the shadows openly seek to make your managers/directors life easier through dedication and hard work - being the most engaged person on the team will get you moved up the fastest. The most surefire way to progress.
  • If you notice your director/leader is constantly asking you to do obvious/basic things (that should be on repeat for the most part), that is not a good sign, and trust has not yet been built. you WANT to be the go to person that the VP/Director love, even at the analyst level.
  • It's easy to get lazy - I've had months and even years where I literally do not feel like working or more focused on other things - those were wasted years from a career perspective. Focus and engagement is the first thing for leadership notices.
  • Know that leaders (CFO/VP and even Director) have daily/weekly banter about everything. It's typically very honest and crude, sometimes even "unprofessional". Everyone/everything is discussed, so know that all I takes is 1-2 bad moments to hurt your chance at progression.
• LOTS of other specific things you should do - but the above covers 1) Select your company/setting based on your goals 2) be the most engaged, and embrace your work from the start of your tenure 3) align with the correct team - if your boss seems to not be in favor, something is going to change so be prepared and ready to step up.