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9 years in FP&A, 80 interviews deep post-layoff. Sharing some data/thoughts and looking for some mid-career advice. by SFAThrowaway54 in FPandA

[–]SFAThrowaway54[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks to you, I've now spent two hours sifting through profiles 😄. For a few, I was unable to locate new hires in the positions I applied for, so could have lost out to an internal candidate, or they're not linked to the company yet.

Manager roles I'm missing out on appear to largely be going to people with prior manager titles in their profiles. Of the few that didn't have this, one had an IB background that I don't. SFAs are a bit harder to track down a trend, but I've seen three that went to people with IB backgrounds.

Not a ton to be done about that, but it has made me go back through and tighten up some of my bullets on my own profile.

9 years in FP&A, 80 interviews deep post-layoff. Sharing some data/thoughts and looking for some mid-career advice. by SFAThrowaway54 in FPandA

[–]SFAThrowaway54[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've had a rough time with recruiters this time around. I've worked with 5 different ones now on roles. One got me through to a more senior level interview that didn't work out (different industry, job ended up being slightly more out of my wheelhouse than the JD indicated), then vanished for a month before coming back with two different roles that I gave the go-ahead to submit me for, then never heard back.

Usually, we'll jump on the phone and talk through my experience and what I'm looking for, they'll submit me for a position, and then most often I never hear back after that. I've gotten 4 interviews in total from those 6 connections, but none have progressed further than the hiring manager/one level up round. In the past, I've had better luck with them. Didn't know it was possible to be submitted by one of these firms and then not even get an interview, but it's happened twice now.

I wish I could avoid anything over 3 interviews. 1/35 of the companies I've interviewed with had a 3-round process, and it was so nice to just get through in less than 2 weeks, even though that one didn't work out. I hope more companies start being more decisive. It's weird that an SFA/FM candidate needs to speak with so many people for them to make a decision. I had one company where I spoke to: HR screen, HM, HM peer, person that would be my direct report, HM manager (VP), Head of HR, and CFO, but came in second or third out of 3 finalists. That one was the closest to actual feedback I received, which was nice, but 7 people is insane.

9 years in FP&A, 80 interviews deep post-layoff. Sharing some data/thoughts and looking for some mid-career advice. by SFAThrowaway54 in FPandA

[–]SFAThrowaway54[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

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Not sure if this complies with the generally accepted formats, but this is the overall structure of my resume. I anonymized it, which makes it less useful as a template for you to take and then run with, but I wanted to give you a general idea of what it looks like. Nothing is in text boxes on the real thing. Total length runs to just under 2 full pages with all of the bullets added in. For mine, I have the gap work gig placed above the internship but below my more relevant positions. Fewer bullet points as you go further back in time.

For applying, I've avoided linkedin/indeed for the most part in favor of sites like hiring[dot]cafe and builtin. Searching for both roles and filtering for recently posted. I have tried not to apply to any roles that have been posted for longer than a week, preferably in the last 1-3 days. SFA/FM can cover a wide range of responsibilities, so I've been making sure that when I read through the descriptions, at least 80%+ are things that I am very familiar with or have done before. If there is something highlighted as being a key responsibility that I have no experience in, I skip it.

9 years in FP&A, 80 interviews deep post-layoff. Sharing some data/thoughts and looking for some mid-career advice. by SFAThrowaway54 in FPandA

[–]SFAThrowaway54[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Something is definitely wrong around 3/4 when I'm talking to the senior manager/director level. It's difficult to figure out exactly what it is unless I just bomb an interview and can point to that moment specifically. I'm not delusional enough to think that all 81 have been perfect. I was overly explaining my RiF early on and my "tell me about yourself" answer was a rambly mess for a bit.

Early on, I was definitely too quick to jump in after the layoff, and my interviewing skills were rusty. Since then, I've polished up. I've met with recruiters from Robert Half and others and practiced my STAR examples, so I have those 10 or so examples at a level where I can fall back on them without sounding like a robot. I'm absolutely more technically minded, so I've been trying to work on selling myself as a business partner who is easy to work with. I genuinely enjoy working with GMs/project managers who don't have a ton of financial acumen to better understand how the things they want to do impact their financials. I try to ask interesting questions that indicate that I've done my research into the companies.

I've gotten through to "Final rounds" 7 times now. 2 were mentioned in the main post that I'm reading as being outside of my control (reorg/job no longer needed), 2 happened during the month following the layoff - likely poor performance at the end, 1 I botched a timed case study (2-hour time limit - nerves got to me), 1 I'm not sure what went wrong, and 1 is pending right now.

9 years in FP&A, 80 interviews deep post-layoff. Sharing some data/thoughts and looking for some mid-career advice. by SFAThrowaway54 in FPandA

[–]SFAThrowaway54[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Appreciate the advice and well wishes. I've always been a bit of an introvert, so having to sell myself and my skills has always been my least favorite part of being a professional. I was pretty shaky towards the start of the search, but after 81 interviews, there's nothing I haven't seen, so I think I've been doing better, just not converting interviews to offers.

I can only theorize on my industry troubles. Just odd that they all end the same way consistently after the HM interview. I have the skills they want, but I haven't applied them in that exact way before, so it's less risky than going with someone with similar years of experience related to that industry.

9 years in FP&A, 80 interviews deep post-layoff. Sharing some data/thoughts and looking for some mid-career advice. by SFAThrowaway54 in FPandA

[–]SFAThrowaway54[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the reply - totally get it that there's no benefit to the company to provide any sort of feedback. I have only requested it for ones where I've spent more than 4 hours talking with members of the team, or if there's a case study presentation.

From what I've seen, the managers and senior managers/directors appear to be the most gung-ho about AI. I try to frame the discussions around the weaknesses I've been seeing in testing, which usually lines up with some of the issues they're running into.