Straight answers to real questions about CFO careers and executive finance recruitment
Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I’m a qualified CPA CA with almost three years of experience in industry since leaving public practice. I didn’t take the traditional route to getting my CA designation – I left public accounting when I had fulfilled all of my hours commitments to do some traveling and then wrote [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I’m CFO of a very large, diversified Canadian company and I’m trying to fill a newly created position of vice president, acquisitions. We have a lot of financial bench strength in our organization and I’ve had quite a few senior people express interest in the position. None of these [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I was recruiting for a Controller a couple of years ago and ended up hiring someone who responded to my job board posting. Long story short: that person didn’t work out and I had to replace her after 14 months. The next time out I went the placement agency [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: My brothers and I run a successful $35mm furniture manufacturing company in Mississauga. Our VP Finance has been with us for over twenty years and has recently announced that she’d like to retire at the end of the year. When should we start looking for someone to replace her? [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I’m the CFO of an owner-managed cosmetics manufacturer here in Mississauga. I’ve been here for over nine years and I’m wondering if I should start looking at the market. It’s not that I’m unhappy; I like my boss, the work’s interesting and everything’s humming along pretty smoothly. My concern is [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I’m the CFO of a $100mm automotive services company and I recently had to go to the market to find a contractor to fill in for my Director of Finance who’s going on maternity leave. Our company has been growing very rapidly so I really needed someone who could get [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I’m the Controller for a Canadian, TSX listed, software company up in Markham. I’ve been recruiting for a Manager of Financial Reporting and we’re at the offer stage with one of the candidates that we’ve been interviewing. When we started interviewing this person (let’s call him Steve), we told [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I’m the CFO of a $50mm Tier 2 auto parts manufacturer. I’ve recently had to go to the market to recruit a Controller. I’ve looked at a number of candidates and there’s been one person in the process that I’m especially keen on because she would be an excellent fit [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I’m the Director of Finance of a specialty foods distributor in Mississauga and I’ve recently concluded that I need to get my resume together and start putting some feelers out on the market. It’s not urgent, but I’m getting the sense that my company’s owners are starting to think [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I’m the VP Finance of a mid-sized CPG manufacturing concern in Mississauga. I just learned that the company’s owner-managers have decided to look for a strategic buyer so I think it’s about time to start looking at the job market again. I haven’t done any active job hunting in about [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Answer: Every now and again you’re going to run into someone who zig-zags through their career, especially if you’re not that rigorous in your initial triaging of candidates. You may interview someone who’s spent a few years as someone’s Controller and then took a year off to learn Spanish in Venezuela. [...]
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Straight Answers to Real Questions Question: I’m the CFO of a $300mm software developer and I’ve recently been in the market for a Manager Financial Planning & Analysis. We’ve zeroed in on what I think is a very good candidate (she’s currently in FP&A with another software firm) but she’s close to the top of what [...]
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