Job Search Retro: Director of Finance

Jacob landed a Director of Finance role at a Series B fintech company.

Hedgy Member Background

• Graduated from a top undergrad finance program.
• Previously held founding or finance lead roles at early and growth stage startups.
• Was focused on roles where he would be an early hire to build the finance function. He was agnostic on industry.

Key Insights

Master Your Metrics

• Finance roles live and die by metrics. You need to know not just what the key performance indicators are, but why they matter and what drives them.
• The bare minimum: Be able to build financial models and forecasts in your sleep.
• Tip: Use AI to get up to speed fast. When Jacob encountered unfamiliar industries, he leveraged ChatGPT to understand the core metrics and business drivers.

AI Tools Isn't Just for Technical or Product Interviews

• Finance interviews are now testing your ability to leverage AI tools in real-time. One company asked Jacob to use ChatGPT to research specific regulatory laws that could impact their business.
• The goal wasn't to test his legal knowledge, but to see how quickly he could become a subject matter expert on a new topic. Specifically, whether he understood the material well enough to educate internal teams.
• Get comfortable using AI as a research and analysis tool. Companies want to see you can leverage it to become a better functional expert, faster.

Variance in Startup Interview Processes for Finance Roles

• Startups typically are hiring a single finance lead, which means you may be the first person they’re running this hiring process for.
• Sign of a good process: The company Jacob ultimately joined set themselves apart by connecting him with the founder and chief of staff early in the process. This allowed for real conversations about vision and strategy.
• While standard recruiter and hiring manager screens can be good, for this kind of role in particular getting to chat with founders or key executives right away accelerates the fit assessment for everyone involved.

This post is part of our job search retro series where Hedgy members who have recently started a new job share learnings from their search. If we can be helpful as you navigate your search, email us at founders@hedgy.works