I am a SALT manager and realized that I want to become a CFO one day. My plan is to switch to audit and work there until I get an opportunity to become a controller and work my way up from there. Is that the quickest route? Have you seen anyone in audit at your firm take a job as a CFO at a mid to large size company?
First question is how you plan to switch to audit? I don’t see a whole lot of skills overlap between SALT and audit. You willing to start over as a staff?
I left salt to go to fed as a senior. Thank god. Salt is too pidgeonholes imo
I made the jump from tax to controller, but about 5 months in and it’s a difficult transition. The financial function was a bit of a mess and I’m working on improvements now but it was extremely difficult. While audit experience would have helped me I think a familiarity with the internal systems are reporting tools were the biggest learning curve and I don’t think audit would have helped that much. It’s a perceptions thing but if you can convince someone to take a chance on you that can be your transition over
Just 4, it was a pretty peculiar role that I was the perfect fit for on paper so they took a chance on me
I’ve seen an audit manager take on the role of director of finance for a professional sports team which is below CFO but I would imagine that the person can be promoted into the CFO role. Hope this helps.
You got a better shot if you ace your GMAT or GRE and go to really really good MBA program. Don't bother if its a mid tier.
Ehhh I think probably starting over in audit is waaay easier than getting a Harvard MBA lol Also would avoid six figures worth of debt. Audit has many exit opportunities. Now whether you end up as CFO of Microsoft is another story