Odd place to start a career (but hope/maybe end in ER later)

Hi guys,

I posted a while back that I was unemployed. No surprise now, still unemployed lol. Thanksfully I was able to connect with a few of you guys and share some similar experiences. In my free time on top of studying for the CFA (no brainer there), and taking a few computer programming classes, I’ve been volunteering here and here.

Well, today, at Advanced Autoparts – I’m a frequent visitor there with some of the guys since I’m a car-guy myself (I own a built Mitshubishi Lancer Evolution 8 and an all-motor naturally aspirated Jetta VR6) we got to talking about jobs and it’s not much of a surprise either that we stumbled upon my unemployment.

To my surprise, Advanced Autoparts’s HQ is in Roanoke, VA and he encouraged me to check it out because he said they’re always looking for corporate finance folks over there. Roanoke, VA isn’t a big city at all…rather it’s a very small country-like area with a small population, small town, basically small living. Low costs of living as well.

So I applied for a job that really interested me which is in corp finance dealing with FP&A. So ok, now to nitty gritty. Assume I get 5 years into this role – get familiar with the in’s and out’s of the automotive world, not from the perspective of under-neith a car but from a corp finance perspective…do you think this is going to be valuable if I were to later transition into the automotive and transportation segment of equity research? Is the jump possible? I know nothing is certain but I definitely want to kinda fuse my career and my hobby together (not to mention I think employees get a discount on car parts!)

Possible? Sure. I had an offer in ER in my “speciality” industry after 7 years of corporate finance + CFA. So its possible. I didn’t take it though. Too much work for less money. Meh. Very happy with my career as it stands.

Geo – you’re not the first that I’ve heard that story from. I will take that into consideration. Thank you.

I’ll tell you with 110% certainty that FP&A is a better path to success than unemployment. Unless you have something better, go hard for this one.

^^ couldn’t agree more!