actanalyst Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > This also involves a move. Between dumping my > house and my wife making considerably more at her > new job, I can absorb a pay cut. Besides, based > on the numbers the head hunters I am working with > have thrown out, it won’t be much of a cut. > > I don’t know… I think down the road, I’d rather > be a CFO or COO of a HF than in a FO position. I > just hope I can convince someone to give me a > shot. If you want to become a CFO or Controller, I think it’s probably better if you get the CPA. If you don’t have relevant experience, they’ll probably ask you behavioral questions and why you want to be in the BO area. If it’s an entry-level BO position, you should be fine if you’re willing to take a pay cut. But if it’s a senior BO position, you’d need to show deeper knowledge of the industry.
I have been working in a a BO for two years and the nature of the work is just awful. Sure it is good experience and always nice to see how the other side of things work. The job is tedious at times and a lot of the other BO contacts you have to deal with aren’t very bright (from my experience anyways) and you spend a lot of your time fixing their mistakes. At the same time the job is very easy and I could have performed well when I was in high school. Unless you are going to move up in Ops then the transition from front to back office is difficult, which is why I am pursuing a CFA Charter. I know actuaries who have moved up the ladder far quicker than anyone from BO. I can’t wait until the BO is just a distant memory for me but to each their own.
What positions are people aspiring to in the back office??? My experience in the BO was similar to Dapper425’s, I generally felt like overhead (which I basically was). Unfortunately alot of my coworkers were a computer system upgrade away from an unemployment line.