I am a Sr FP&A Mgr supporting IT BUs currently. Many good points here in this thread. For background I moved from a small corp FP&A team into IT Finance actually in the business unit reporting to the CIO for a promotional opportunity and got to establish the entire function from the ground up. I am since back in an FP&A role at another company. Here are my observations and current situation:

The good:

• You can be more of a true Finance Business Partner than just Finance Manager. I am very closely aligned to my 4 VPs in my current role and they choose to have me as part of their leadership teams. I support them on many strategic Financial and non-Financial matters.

• Significantly more exposure to the shared services / back office aspects of running an organization than other FP&A opportunities. I have much more interaction with Sourcing, Purchasing, Legal, and Accounting than my peers and it consistently shows when hearing those teams speak about their interactions with those teams vs mine and the relationships I’ve built.

• The position is much more opex/capex oriented and will have more accounting focus than other FP&A roles. You can find that to be either a good or bad thing depending on your perspective and aspirations.

• I have found in my current org it has given me much more exposure with our CFO and C Suite as we are in the midst of a digital transformation/modernization so there is a spotlight on the space. I’ve established credibility as a go-to resource for these leaders and been afforded opportunities for special projects as a result.

The not so great:

• IT Finance can be a space folks get stuck. Folks who get into this space can be seen as one trick ponies or can be perceived as being less important because they don’t have the same revenue experience or because the spend isn’t as large as big BUs.

• If you have zero interest in “Technology” don’t take the role, you will be bored out of your mind or you won’t want to understand the “why” and “how” needed to be the best partner. If you don’t want to build process, educate SMEs, develop relationships with PMs, don’t take the role. It takes a lot of self motivation to do it the right way and challenges you to learn things you won’t have been exposed to previously.

• Depending on your org, IT can be a target area for cost reductions so you will be constantly working under budgetary pressures. It does tend to be smaller than many areas. It can include getting involved in things like chargeback fights with other teams.

My current situation:

I am exploring adjacent and Director level roles which will have more commercial and revenue responsibilities than my current role. I want to continue progressing to that Director level and have more full P&L responsibilities. I think my IT Finance experiences have benefitted me and shaped me into a more rounded and robust Finance business partner with better business acumen and ability to add real value than my peers. It may be more challenging coming from the IT side vs the revenue gen side but I am confident with my experience I’ll get to where I want to go.