need expert advice on short and long term goals

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Dear all,

It is my first post here, although I am an avid reader of the questions and answers posted on this forum, which are all highly valuable during an intense MBA application journey...

As a long term goal, I would like to make my way up to a senior management position in a major actor of the energy industry, through the corporate finance path (my background is in finance, with a few years in a big 4 in audit and then manager of a large accounting team).

To reach this goal,I wish to join a top management consulting firm and develop my expertise on the energy industry (I don't have any so far) by focusing on related assignments, while gaining insight on top management problematics.

Some friends think that breaking into IB (focused on energy) would be a much more faster and efficient way to become CFO in the energy industry than management consulting.

Given my background, I don't think that I can secure a spot in IB, whichever MBA I attend to.

Would you mind to share your point of view? Does management consulting open some doors to CFO positions? If yes, does it happen often? Is it more logical to follow an IB way?

Thank you very much for your help

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by ivyctor2010 » Sat Jan 19, 2013 6:01 am
IB roles in corporate-house context generally are treasury roles such a position-holder may not be offered a CFO role in future.

A management consulting role on the other hand is a generalist role which prepares you to be a CMO or a COO. Infact CFO may be only CXO role which a management consulting guy may rarely be offered.

Corporate Finance role in an energy company would be the best path for you as it directly leads to a future CFO position.
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by Jon@Admissionado » Wed Jan 23, 2013 6:42 am
CFOs usually tend to be brilliant numbers people very experienced in finance. Not your usual management consulting type... so that is the path you should seek. In terms of your application, you need to think about how to present what will appear as most plausible and logical to the AdCom
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by ben4321 » Wed Jan 23, 2013 9:31 pm
Dear both,

Thank you very much for your answers!

Could you please give me your opinion about the following two options:

- I need to think about a more suitable short term goal, which would better allow me to take high finance related responsibilities in an energy firm later on

or

- Since my long term goal is to reach a senior management position in order to make a real impact (and not necessarily CFO), I am open to other paths than corporate finance: in that case, maybe management consulting would still be a good propeller, since it would offer me a generalist perspective complementing my finance background?


Thank you again for sharing your insights

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by JamesValente » Wed Sep 20, 2017 8:34 pm
Short-term goals are goals that focus on the immediate future. They focus on today, this week, or this month.Short-term goals work better for our mental process. They help us to make the best of every day, and eventually, a long string of happy days will connect to a happy life.

1.Use short-term goals to improve your quality of life and increase your happiness.

2.Use short-term goals to define better long-term goals.

3.Let your short-term goals be the autopilot to your long-term goals.

4.Let your short-term goals guide you to your passion.

5.Use your short-term goals to free yourself from unrealistic expectations.

6.Use Short-term goals to deal with the chaos of daily life.

7. Beat temporal discounting with short-term goals.