You're facing burnout in your corporate finance career. How will it impact your professional success?

The pressure of deadlines, increased financial complexity and the imperative for high quality and error-free work, combines with an overall sense that expectations are not being met. These difficulties affect finance professionals of all ages but are more acute among those who are new in the industry. Younger professionals are often lumbered with much of the uninspiring, repetitive, spreadsheet-based work despite being the first, truly digital native generations. Organisations must address these problems with solutions that remove intensive manual work, to place younger talent in a position where they can truly have an impact in the organisation.

Stress symptoms can affect your body, your thoughts and feelings, and your behavior. Knowing common stress symptoms can help you manage them. Stress that's not dealt with can lead to many health problems, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, obesity and diabetes. Long hours of work, non healthy lifestyle, will further lead to lot of complications, we have to ensure we have proper work life balance and bring in a self discipline to manage our own health and stress levels. There is no hard & fast rule, but we have to give our body and mind the time to tone it well to sustain the growing challenging situations at all times. To have better health is always good.

With such advanced technology now in play, ongoing learning and flexibility are the new currency for a long-lasting career. Now that the days of labor-intensive work are over, a significant amount of mental agility is required for F&A talent to succeed. The learning worker must instead be nimble, think quickly on their feet, quickly access information, leverage analytics to problem-solve, and predict the future. For management, leaders need to assess if they have the right staff with the necessary mix of skills to push their organization’s digital journey forward. A healthy mix of skills includes financial, analytical, technical, and business acumen, along with the aforementioned desire to learn and grow.

Leaders need to assess if they have the right staff with the necessary mix of skills to push their organization’s digital journey forward. A healthy mix of skills includes financial, analytical, technical, and business acumen, along with the aforementioned desire to learn and grow. These skills aren’t exactly a dime a dozen and can vary based off where a professional is in his or her career. For example, a younger accountant with technical skills may lack the business acumen only honed through a long career. Conversely, those with experience in business may lack the technical expertise. As employees express a willingness to learn new skills and adopt cutting-edge technology, finance leaders must take a hard look at how they equip them.

Here are the corporate finance jobs that report directly to the CFO: The FP&A Manager: Heads the management accounting department. The Controller: Heads the financial accounting department. The Treasurer: Heads the treasury department. If you work in FP&A, your job is to give the CFO a good idea of what will happen to the different line items of the P&L during the quarter, year, and next five years.

Beyond the spreadsheets and presentations, there's the question of personal fulfillment. Burnout can make you question the value of your work and sap the satisfaction you once found in your career. In corporate finance, where long hours and high pressure are common, finding joy in your job is crucial for long-term success. If burnout is left unchecked, it can lead to disillusionment and a desire to leave the profession altogether, which would be a loss of not just a job but a part of your identity. Prioritize your well-being, seek balance, and rediscover the passion that brought you to this field. Your career should enhance your life, not diminish it. 🌟💼