This article is based on a brilliant talk by Jon Yuregir, Group FP&A Director at International Workplace Group at our FP&A Summit. Jon was the Head of FP&A at easyJet at the time of this session.
My name is Jon Yuregir, and I’m the Head of Financial Planning & Analysis at easyJet. easyJet is the second largest airline in Europe, behind Ryanair, and a member of the FTSE 100, which is the UK’s leading stock exchange index.
I’ve been in this role for about two and a half years, but my journey in FP&A and adjacent finance roles goes back much further.
In total, I’ve spent around thirteen and a half years working across FP&A, commercial finance, and operational finance within the travel and aviation sector.
Before moving into travel, I spent five years in FMCG with L’Oréal, which gave me a very different but equally valuable foundation.
What I want to share here is not a single “right way” to build a career in FP&A, but rather an honest account of what I’ve seen work, what has worked for me personally, and what I would do differently if I were starting again.
I’ve had successes, but I’ve also made mistakes and taken detours. FP&A is not always a clearly signposted career path, and for many people, myself included, it’s something you only really understand once you’re already in the world of work.
Sabrinthia Donnelly
Thinking about your destination before you board
Because I work in aviation, I couldn’t resist using a flight analogy when talking about FP&A careers. Before you board a flight, you need to know your destination. The same is true when you’re thinking about moving into FP&A or progressing within it.
One of the first things I always encourage people to think about is industry. FP&A is an outward-looking, strategic function. It’s not enough to be good at internal reporting or cost control.
You need to understand what’s happening outside the company as well, including market dynamics, competitive behavior, and broader economic trends. If you have no interest in the industry you’re working in, that outward-looking element becomes much harder.
Alongside industry, it’s important to think about what kind of FP&A function you want to be part of. Some people thrive in divisional FP&A roles, where they focus deeply on a specific part of the business.
Others prefer group-level FP&A roles in multinational organizations, where the scope is broader and the complexity higher. There isn’t a right or wrong answer, but these choices shape your experience very differently.
Seniority is another factor that deserves honest reflection. Higher seniority usually comes with higher pay, but it also comes with higher stress and a different type of pressure.
As you move up, you typically spend less time building models in Excel and more time dealing with the consequences of forecasts, whether you beat them or miss them.
You also start to feel the weight of investor reactions and market expectations. That mental toll is real, and it’s something people don’t always factor in early enough.
Sabrinthia Donnelly
Understanding your skills, personality, and strengths
Alongside thinking about where you want to go, you also need to understand what you bring to the table.
People often ask whether FP&A suits introverts or extroverts better, and my honest answer is that both can succeed. I’ve worked with highly effective FP&A professionals across the full spectrum of personality types.
What really matters is building a complementary team around you, especially if you lean strongly in one direction.
Another common misconception is that finance, and FP&A in particular, is purely technical. Many people outside finance still see finance professionals as bookkeepers or cost controllers. While technical skills are important, the real trend in FP&A is toward storytelling.
The ability to translate complex analysis into a clear, compelling narrative is increasingly what separates good FP&A professionals from great ones.
Passion also plays a role, whether that’s passion for a specific industry or curiosity about macroeconomic trends. Sometimes it’s not the industry itself that excites you, but the strategic lens you can apply to external developments and how they impact a business.
That curiosity can be just as powerful in shaping a successful FP&A career.
Finding your way into FP&A
One of the realities of FP&A, particularly in the UK, is that it’s rarely presented as a clear career path early on.
When you’re a school leaver or university student, FP&A isn’t usually something that’s advertised or explained in detail. Many people only discover it once they’ve already started working.
Some are fortunate enough to join FP&A straight away through graduate rotations or entry-level analyst roles. But in my experience, most people begin their careers in controlling roles or business partnering roles and then move into FP&A later.
I’ve always believed that moving into FP&A is easier when there’s minimal separation between your current role and FP&A. Investor relations is a good example, particularly in listed companies.
There’s a strong overlap between understanding future business performance, investor expectations, and financial forecasting. Moving from investor relations into FP&A can be very seamless.
Business finance roles, including commercial finance, operational finance, and business partnering, also provide strong foundations.
These roles usually involve ownership of specific parts of the P&L rather than the full picture, but they build critical commercial understanding. Showing curiosity beyond your immediate remit is often what enables that move into FP&A.
Corporate development, including M&A, also aligns closely with FP&A in many organizations.
Financial control and reporting might seem less obvious because it’s backward-looking, but in practice there’s significant interaction between financial control and FP&A during month-end processes and forecast updates. That collaboration often opens doors.
There are other paths, such as treasury or strategy, particularly in larger organizations, but these tend to be slightly more difficult transitions.
Strategy roles, for example, often attract people from consultancy backgrounds. While more consultants are moving toward CFO career paths via FP&A, it’s still less common than the other routes I’ve mentioned.
For roles further away from FP&A, such as audit, transactional services, or non-finance operational roles, the journey usually involves one intermediate step.
In those cases, moving into a business partnering or financial control role first tends to make the transition more realistic.
Progressing through the ranks without stagnating
Once you’re in FP&A, the question becomes how to progress. One idea I often talk about is what I call the “Goldilocks tenure,” typically around two to three years in a role.
If you move too quickly, it can be hard to demonstrate that you’ve experienced enough planning cycles to add real value. If you stay too long, there’s a risk that your development plateaus.
That doesn’t mean every move has to be a promotion. I’ve moved sideways multiple times in my career, often to broaden my experience rather than chase a title. Role enlargements, secondments, and project work can be just as valuable as formal promotions.
In fact, the most effective FP&A professionals I’ve worked with are rarely people who have spent their entire careers in FP&A.
They’ve usually spent time in business partnering or financial control, which gives them a more rounded perspective when they return to FP&A roles.
How FP&A looks from the outside
From a stakeholder’s perspective, great FP&A can look deceptively calm. I often use the analogy of a swan gliding across water.
Above the surface, everything looks smooth and serene. Stakeholders see polished presentations, well-run budget processes, clear explanations of variances, and no surprises.
What they don’t see is the frantic activity beneath the surface. FP&A teams are constantly in dialogue with the business, planning timelines, building buffers into forecasting cycles, preparing CFO and CEO presentations, and tracking forecast accuracy across business units.
All of that work is invisible when it’s done well. That ability to present consistency and calm, even when things are turbulent behind the scenes, is a defining skill in FP&A.
Knowing when and how to move
Career progression also involves knowing when to move and how to do it intelligently. Internal progression is often one of the strongest signals on a résumé. When I see evidence of internal promotions, it gives me confidence that someone is valued within their organization.
By contrast, seeing repeated lateral moves into the same role across different companies can raise questions. It may suggest that someone has reached a ceiling and is unable to progress internally.
That doesn’t mean lateral moves are always wrong, but they should be made thoughtfully and for clear developmental reasons.
When considering moves, I also think in terms of “soft landings.” These include the level you’re operating at, the discipline you’re in, the company, and the country.
The more of these that change at once, the harder the transition becomes. Recruiters and hiring managers are often looking at how likely a move is to set someone up for success.
Job titles, in my view, are far less important than people think. Titles vary widely across companies and geographies. What matters more is how many layers you are from the CFO and the scale and complexity of the organization you’re operating in.
Operating at senior levels
As you move into more senior FP&A roles, the skill set changes significantly. At this level, you’re judged on outcomes rather than outputs. You need to distinguish between noise and signal, both internally and externally.
People will constantly bring you opinions, concerns, and ideas, but not all of them will materially impact the business.
Communication becomes even more critical. When you’re presenting to board members and non-executive directors, anticipating what they need and engaging them ahead of time can make a huge difference.
One of the golden rules is never to surprise your CFO in a meeting. Difficult messages should be shared early and handled with care.
Over time, you also need to shape a consistent narrative. As the guardian of the forecast, credibility is everything. Wild swings in forecasts undermine trust, even if they’re technically accurate.
Managing risk and opportunity offline allows you to present a calm, consistent picture, even in volatile environments.
Building and retaining a strong team is essential at this stage. No senior FP&A leader can operate effectively without a trusted number two. Delegation isn’t optional; it’s a necessity.
Teresa Garanhel
Making your own luck
Fast-tracking a career always involves a mix of skill and luck, but there are ways to influence the odds.
Being clear about your intended destination and communicating that ambition to senior leaders matters. So does thinking two roles ahead rather than one.
Finding a champion is also critical. A champion is different from a mentor or coach. This is someone who advocates for you even when you’re not in the room.
I’ve personally benefited enormously from having a champion who believed in me, even after they left the company we worked at together. That relationship eventually led to a much broader role and an international move.
At the same time, ambition must be backed by delivery. No amount of networking or career planning can compensate for failing to deliver on the fundamentals.
Expanding your network, particularly with your manager’s manager, also plays a key role, as those individuals are often the ultimate decision-makers when it comes to promotions.
Looking back on my own career
When I reflect on my own career, I’m honest with myself about what I would change. I didn’t even start in finance. I began in sales, and I didn’t know what FP&A was for years. In that sense, I lost time early on.
Personality assessments helped me understand where I could excel, but I still moved into FP&A relatively late, around seven or eight years into my career. Once I did, however, I gained a much sharper focus. The exposure to the CFO confirmed that this was the path I wanted to pursue.
Today, operating at the C-suite level is still a learning process. It’s something I continue to develop every day. Overall, though, I’m comfortable with where I’ve reached so far, and much of that comes back to having the right champion at the right time.
FP&A is not a linear journey, and it’s not always obvious from the outside. But with reflection, curiosity, strong delivery, and the right relationships, it can be an incredibly rewarding career path.
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Teresa Garanhel
Finance alliance insider
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