OT: Career advice Part II

SnowblindNYR

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Nov 16, 2011
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If you want, you can always reach out to me and we can have a video call to go over some things. Maybe I can give you some pointers that could help?

Thanks. I'd take you up on that offer but I'm so tired from the interviews that I might just relax and hope for the best. I had to explain Index Match today. It was so hard without being able to show it on the computer, haha.
 

LokiDog

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Sep 13, 2018
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Exactly. Wineries galore, right off the columbia. Sounds like you're familiar with it all. If you didn't get the chance while you were last in Spokane though, definitely find a way to spend a weekend at Coeur d'Alene, just on the other side of the Idaho border.

I've been in Chicago the last three years, and it's a nice city, big with good opportunities, but I can't tell you how much I miss that mild, sunny climate, the quiet, friendly vibes, and starlit skies! I'm truly jealous. (you might even consider checking out a Flames game if Seattle doesn't float your boat)

My office is actually in Coeur d’Alene. We’re living on the Washington side of the border because housing around Coeur d’Alene is more pricey, but I imagine we’ll actually be spending a significant amount of our downtime there. Or on various trails and lakes in Washington. I’m sure we’ll head down to Walla Walla as well, and between Kraken and Flames, also catch some Spokane Chiefs games. I’m excited. It’s truly beautiful out there.
 

Amazing Kreiderman

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Thanks. I'd take you up on that offer but I'm so tired from the interviews that I might just relax and hope for the best. I had to explain Index Match today. It was so hard without being able to show it on the computer, haha.

Well, reach out to me on FB Messenger if you want to have that session.

I'm usually on the other side of the table during interviews so maybe that insight could help you fix some small deficiencies in the way you address questions etc.
 

LokiDog

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Also, I really appreciated that they included this last line in my offer letter. I told them that it would help convincing my fiancé it was part of the terms of my employment

4E635977-FA20-4D11-8451-F7A6AA71E795.jpeg
 
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SnowblindNYR

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Looks like I have two final rounds on Friday. I'm not 100% sure if one of them is a final round on Friday or if there are more interviews. It was supposed to be a panel interview with a few people but is not only one person. Not sure if that will be the end or if I'll still have more interviews with the people who were originally supposed to interview me. But there's light at the end of the tunnel.
 

SnowblindNYR

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I'm done with the gauntlet of interviews. I might have mentioned this, I have had 15 in 2.5 weeks. I have at least one more next week. The good news is one company for final round I thought I did really well in. The bad news is the other one I thought might be final round wasn't. But if I get the offer for one and decide I'd rather get the other one, maybe I could get the process shortened. But anyway, other than a couple of things, I thought the 4 interviews were good. I really hate though that I have a weekend to wait and see if I get an offer.
 

SnowblindNYR

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So, I've been kind of kicking myself today. I won't go into too much detail but one of the interviews was with a CFO. He asked me how big my company was I told him but also foolishly told him it was much bigger before the pandemic. He asked me why it has downsized so much. I told him I'm not sure and gave him a few metrics but the general theme was I'm not sure. Now, I don't remember if it came off as "I'm not sure why we downsized" which is fair I'm not a decision maker. Or I'm not sure why the company is doing poorly. If it's the latter is that a bad look if I say I'm not sure as a financial analyst who looks at the company's financials? This was kind of an off the cuff question that wasn't part of the interview agenda. Do you guys think he might think "this guy looks at the financials but doesn't understand the big picture of why the company is underperforming"? Am I overthinking this?
 
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sbjnyc

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So, I've been kind of kicking myself today. I won't go into too much detail but one of the interviews was with a CFO. He asked me how big my company was I told him but also foolishly told him it was much bigger before the pandemic. He asked me why it has downsized so much. I told him I'm not sure and gave him a few metrics but the general theme was I'm not sure. Now, I don't remember if it came off as "I'm not sure why we downsized" which is fair I'm not a decision maker. Or I'm not sure why the company is doing poorly. If it's the latter is that a bad look if I say I'm not sure as a financial analyst who looks at the company's financials? This was kind of an off the cuff question that wasn't part of the interview agenda. Do you guys think he might think "this guy looks at the financials but doesn't understand the big picture of why the company is underperforming"? Am I overthinking this?
I read this as the metric of size you gave the CFO was people, not revenues or assets, which is an interesting choice, unless that's specifically what he asked for. And I don't know how he'll interpret you saying you're "not sure" but he may interpret it as a polite way of saying "I really shouldn't tell you" depending on the context. Metrics may be public info but the reasons for decisions generally aren't.
 

SnowblindNYR

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I read this as the metric of size you gave the CFO was people, not revenues or assets, which is an interesting choice, unless that's specifically what he asked for. And I don't know how he'll interpret you saying you're "not sure" but he may interpret it as a polite way of saying "I really shouldn't tell you" depending on the context. Metrics may be public info but the reasons for decisions generally aren't.

Well, I took "how big is the company" as employees but you're right I guess he might have meant revenue. I don't know why I figured he meant people. But he could have asked what's the revenue when I told him headcount. I didn't even think of it as revenue. I think outside of a finance interview setting when someone asks how big a company is they mean people. I don't remember the question exactly though, maybe it was how many people work there. But I think it was how big the company was. That can be interpreted in a couple of different ways but if he wanted revenue he could have followed up by asking for the revenue. Is it really unreasonable to give headcount?
 

sbjnyc

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Well, I took "how big is the company" as employees but you're right I guess he might have meant revenue. I don't know why I figured he meant people. But he could have asked what's the revenue when I told him headcount. I didn't even think of it as revenue. I think outside of a finance interview setting when someone asks how big a company is they mean people. I don't remember the question exactly though, maybe it was how many people work there. But I think it was how big the company was. That can be interpreted in a couple of different ways but if he wanted revenue he could have followed up by asking for the revenue. Is it really unreasonable to give headcount?
I don't think it's unreasonable at all. I only mentioned it as a counterpoint to your concern that you're only concerned with financials. If asked by a CFO about the size of a company without context I think most would answer in terms of some financial metric like assets or revenue but CFOs are top level execs and they focus as much on people as finance. Fortune 500 ranks companies by revenue. You can get a sense of a company's scale based on that (or assets for a financial company) but it can be hard using people. UPS and Intel have roughly the same annual revenue but UPS has over 4x the employees because of the nature of their business.
 

SnowblindNYR

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I don't think it's unreasonable at all. I only mentioned it as a counterpoint to your concern that you're only concerned with financials. If asked by a CFO about the size of a company without context I think most would answer in terms of some financial metric like assets or revenue but CFOs are top level execs and they focus as much on people as finance. Fortune 500 ranks companies by revenue. You can get a sense of a company's scale based on that (or assets for a financial company) but it can be hard using people. UPS and Intel have roughly the same annual revenue but UPS has over 4x the employees because of the nature of their business.

Thanks, I was wondering if he was looking for revenue and I didn't answer in financial terms.
 

SnowblindNYR

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I got an offer! There's still another company that's in later stages that's in play but I wonder if it makes sense to see if they could expediate the decision. But in the end, this one is good enough and the role sounds really interesting and they seem to work on interesting value added projects.
 

NYSPORTS

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I got an offer! There's still another company that's in later stages that's in play but I wonder if it makes sense to see if they could expediate the decision. But in the end, this one is good enough and the role sounds really interesting and they seem to work on interesting value added projects.

3A6D28C6-016D-4501-870E-AB901F375FB0.jpeg
 
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sbjnyc

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I got an offer! There's still another company that's in later stages that's in play but I wonder if it makes sense to see if they could expediate the decision. But in the end, this one is good enough and the role sounds really interesting and they seem to work on interesting value added projects.
Congratz! I'm not sure if this is good advice but if you would prefer to work at the other company, you could contact them and tell them you have another offer but you would prefer to work with them and need to make a decision. There's probably a better way to put it.
 

SnowblindNYR

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Congratz! I'm not sure if this is good advice but if you would prefer to work at the other company, you could contact them and tell them you have another offer but you would prefer to work with them and need to make a decision. There's probably a better way to put it.

Thank you! I'm not sure if that other company is one that I'm more interested in. I was at one point but the interview process and also just the timing of interviews has shifted my thinking a bit.

Pros for the other company:

The company is more interesting and I think has more room for growth

The work is more transferrable to other companies because it's traditional FP&A

I heard nothing about equity but if they do offer it that would be a game changer

Cons:

I'd still have to interview unless they expedite it because they like me

The hiring manager kind of talked down the role as junior for an MBA, while at the company I got an offer at they talked up the role. But I don't know if it's more junior but it just left a bad taste in my mouth.

Related to the above the other company made their projects sound very interesting, this one did too but it's more traditional FP&A so it'll be closer to what I'm doing now so might be less learning and not as interesting

Barring there being equity I think they'll pay less

It's remote and honestly remote work saves money and time but I think I'd rather work at an office, I find life more interesting that way. This other company has an office that we may go back to, but it won't be required till next year, so still not exactly office work for a while there either.

I do think this latest company has really grown on me lately and it would be a strong mental shift not to accept, especially since they have an offer and the other company doesn't.
 

SnowblindNYR

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I told another company I was a finalist for that I got this offer and they tried to move the final interview to tomorrow. I gave them the total comp from this offer. But honestly I can't see them going through with it because the original range for this role was about 20k less on the higher end.
 

LokiDog

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Anyone have any ideas on how to earn some quick cash?

My fiancé and I just moved from Dallas to Idaho for my new job, which starts July 12th. We spent $2300 to break our lease early, $2100 first months rent, $2000 deposit and $5000 and change on moving services, driving our car to Idaho, hotels, etc.

My benefits don’t kick in for 30 days after my start date and we’re not married yet, so she won’t be covered unless we do a shot gun wedding. She started feeling under the weather about a week ago and two days ago after running some tests they want to do a bone marrow biopsy. We’re tapped out. When I was younger, stupider (and had a horrific ex-wife) I wrecked my credit while in the military. Got denied for a loan.

I’m donating plasma, trying to sell all my jerseys, Apple Watch, MacBook, leather jacket, second TV, etc. It’s embarrassing to be in this type of financial bind, but I’m out of ideas.
 

SnowblindNYR

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Anyone have any ideas on how to earn some quick cash?

My fiancé and I just moved from Dallas to Idaho for my new job, which starts July 12th. We spent $2300 to break our lease early, $2100 first months rent, $2000 deposit and $5000 and change on moving services, driving our car to Idaho, hotels, etc.

My benefits don’t kick in for 30 days after my start date and we’re not married yet, so she won’t be covered unless we do a shot gun wedding. She started feeling under the weather about a week ago and two days ago after running some tests they want to do a bone marrow biopsy. We’re tapped out. When I was younger, stupider (and had a horrific ex-wife) I wrecked my credit while in the military. Got denied for a loan.

I’m donating plasma, trying to sell all my jerseys, Apple Watch, MacBook, leather jacket, second TV, etc. It’s embarrassing to be in this type of financial bind, but I’m out of ideas.

Wow, that's terrible. Is there any chance you can work with your employer to expedite your benefits?
 

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