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Let’s explore a concept fundamental to working in a non-practice environment: organisational structure. Where you sit in the organisational structure of your next employer will have a key impact on the structures you can access in the future. To make this simple, we have broken down the market into four key structures: 3 of which tend to operate in Multinationals (MNCs), and the other in Small/ Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
Multi Nationals
While you may think a role in a pharmaceutical or tech MNC is simply a role in a pharmaceutical or tech MNC, where your role sits within the structure of the organisation will have a huge bearing on your day-to-day and month-to-month, as well as the experience you gain from the role and how that may be perceived by future employers. Where you sit in the organisational structure of your next employer will have a key impact on the structures you can access in the future
- Group Functions: consolidation environments (HQ) where the Global/EMEA Group CFO and CEO sit. This is where decisions are made, but the finance function can often be at arm’s length from actual business activity. Any experience you have of group audits where you worked on consolidations is highly relevant to roles in Group Functions and should be highlighted in your CV. The job title you may see for these roles is Group Financial Accountant; it can come in many guises, but the key is to look for the term “group” in the title and consol in the job spec.
- Finance Hubs/ Shared Services: these have lots of different names but are fundamentally where accounting functions are centralised for a particular geography (EMEA/ APAC). All financial and statutory accounting for different jurisdictions is done here, and information is then pushed to HQ for consolidation. You may be tasked with looking after a specific account balance, such as Fixed Assets or Intangibles, for a specific entity. Alternatively, you could be tasked with owning the PL for an entire entity, such as several pharmaceutical plants somewhere in Europe. Job titles you typically see for these roles include General Ledger accountant.
- Strategic business units: this can be a trading entity for a multinational that serves Europe or focuses on the Irish (domestic) market. It can look like an SME from the outside but has the structures, systems and politics of a larger organisation. For roles in a SBU you may see the job title of Cost Accountant, where you are analysing costs in relation to variances and efficiencies. But it is important to remember that job titles don’t mean everything.
Small and Medium Enterprises (SME’s)
The most common type of company, ranging from the small local store to very large, privately-owned companies that are not part of a bigger multinational. Over 80% of people in Ireland are employed in SMEs and they come in every shape and form imaginable; You may see a broad range of job titles of roles on these, A role in an SME can often include a blend of financial accounting through month end, year-end, accounts prep, financial analysis through involvement in the budget and exposure to other areas such as tax through CT, VAT and PAYE returns.
It is worth noting that it is easier to move from a larger to a smaller company as your career progresses than to move from an SME to an MNC. This is because larger companies face increased reporting requirements and tend to operate in higher-control environments due to their scale.
Final Thoughts
These structures (or a hybrid thereof) can be used to describe 95% of companies out there. And guess what? If you work in a Group function, do you know where you’ll be most likely to get a job in the future? In a Group function… the ‘like with like’ concept strikes again! Also, keep in mind that some structures are further away from each other than others. For example, small SMEs are very far away from Group functions – move to an SME and you reduce your chances of working in a Group structure in the future.
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