| Topic Name: |
project controllers |
| Message Name: |
financials |
| Date Posted: |
01/24/2006 |
| In Reply To: |
good at selling this job. For myself and several others, it was sold as a financial analyst job where you do budgeting, variance analysis, reporting, etc. It takes a little while to figure out that it wasnt sold to you as it is, and then people end up quiting (hence the 41% turnover).
One PC came in thinking this job would focus a lot on contracts (he had a law degree).
Some PC's have MBA's. Others have high school degrees (but they worked for a while as admins)
The brand name of Deloitte and the competitive salary appeals to many people. I wont go into details, but if you want salary info then check out salary.com and search for "Financial Analyst"
Its not easy to transfer internally. One girl I know did it, but she had a CPA, CFE, and was a lead on a forensic acct project. I also know a PC who was on a S&O project and he was able to transfer to an entry level position in S&O for that same project.
They dont clarify enough just how much of the job involves sorting through piles and piles of airfare, hotel receipts, and time cards. You will be collecting signed time cards from people that are unorganized and unresponsive to your requests. Then you have to get them to correct their timecards and expense reports. There is no advanced budgeting or financial analysis. If you are coming from industry, then you will have a different idea of what a financial analyst does. When Deloitte says "financials", they are not refering to the kind of finance and accounting you learned in college. There are only 3 major aspects of a project's finances: time, expense, and invoices.
Having said that, I do know PC's who are very happy (or seem to be) with the job. So if you are well organized and like to be in a role where you are doing more administrative work, then this may be the right job for you.
It would make sense for Deloitte to hire administrative assistants to do the time card and receipt collection/review and process subcontractor invoices, and then have PC's focus on project profitablity, contract amount burned, unbilled/aging invoice reports, etc. |
| Message: |
there may be only 3 major aspects of project finance to controllers but there's quite a bit more that goes on as far as budgeting, forecasting, scenarios and all the things you've mentioned.
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