How to get hired
FP&A (financial planning and analysis) means the annual budget, the monthly forecast, variance reports and the analysis behind every "why are we below plan" question. Corporate finance is the money side: funding, bank limits, working capital, capital expenditure approvals and, in bigger groups, acquisitions. In Indian companies the two often sit in one team under a CFO, and titles stay vague ("Manager – Finance", "Finance Executive"), so read the job description, not the title.
The three doors people actually walk through
- From audit or controllership. The most common route. A CA who has spent two or three years in statutory audit or month-end close moves into a business finance role because they already know the ledger. Ask for interviews where your audit clients' industry matches: a CA who audited hotels has a real edge for a hotel chain's finance team.
- MBA Finance campus. Large manufacturers, FMCG companies and conglomerates take MBA Finance graduates into finance management trainee programmes that rotate through FP&A, treasury and plant finance. Placement cells run this; off-campus entry is harder.
- CMA from costing to planning. CMAs who start in plant costing (standard costs, product profitability, scrap and yield) move naturally into budgeting because they already build cost models. The CMA guide covers the qualification itself.
CA Inter and B.Com candidates do get in, usually as "Finance Executive" or "MIS Executive" in mid-size companies, preparing monthly MIS packs. That is a fair start if you then add a qualification. If you'd rather start as an analyst in a global centre, the financial analyst guide covers that narrower route, and the MBA Finance guide covers campus entry.
What the interview tests
Expect a case, not a viva. Typical asks: build a simple three-statement link in Excel, explain why EBITDA fell when revenue rose, walk through a price-volume-mix variance, or prepare a one-slide summary of a month's results for a business head. Global capability centres doing FP&A for overseas parents add questions on accruals, forecast accuracy and the ERP or planning tool they use (SAP, Oracle Hyperion, Anaplan, Power BI). Advanced Excel is assumed: INDEX-MATCH or XLOOKUP, pivot tables, scenario sheets, clean formatting.
Certifications
Nothing is mandatory. CA or CMA is what Indian employers name most; CFA levels help for corporate finance and investor relations roles in listed groups; a US CPA or ACCA helps in GCCs reporting under US GAAP or IFRS. A short course in a planning tool is worth more than a generic "financial modelling" certificate nobody checks.
How people move up
Typical ladder: Finance Executive or Analyst, Senior Analyst, Assistant Manager, Manager – FP&A or Business Finance, Senior Manager, Head of FP&A, then Finance Controller or CFO in a smaller company. The jump that pays most is from a pure reporting role into business partnering, where you sit with a sales or plant head and own their numbers. Ask for that move at your appraisal rather than waiting for a title change, and if you switch companies for it, check the salary data for your city before you name a number.
What the work is like
The year has a shape. Indian companies build the annual operating plan (AOP) between January and March for the April year. Listed companies close each quarter and publish results within the time SEBI allows, so the first weeks after quarter-end are long days. In between, the monthly cycle is close, forecast refresh, review meetings with business heads, and endless "what if" requests.
Pressure comes from people more than numbers: a sales head who doesn't like the forecast, a CFO who wants the deck by 9 am. The upside is visibility. Good FP&A people are known by name to the leadership, which is why so many later become CFOs.