New grad looking to break into FP&A, need advice/tips
Just graduated from a non-target with a 3.65 GPA and a short-term accounting internship lined up for this summer, but no full-time FP&A offer locked in yet. My goal is a Fortune 500 Financial Analyst role, so I'm planning to spend my summer mastering advanced Excel, PowerPoint, Tableau, and Power BI while building out financial models and dashboards to put on my resume. Is it actually worth grinding out the CFI (FMVA) cert to stand out to HR, or is it a waste of time compared to just networking on LinkedIn? Also, honestly, what would you guys do in my shoes? Every time I see an analyst role get posted, it already has 100+ applicants within an hour and it’s super discouraging. Looking for any brutal honesty or advice on how to actually stand out and break in right out of undergrad without a standard FLDP track.