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CFO 101: five prerequisites: veteran CFOs give advice to CPAs seeking the top job in finance.

Article Excerpt
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To climb the ladder in most finance organizations, CPAs hone their skills in making accounting judgments, closing the books, accurately preparing financial statements and other reports and filing them on time. But current CFOs agree that to reach the top--the CFO position--another skill set is required. Unfortunately, these additional skills may not be written into the CFO job description.

Though the requirements may be somewhat elusive, the financial benefits are clear: average CFO salaries are 30% to 60% higher than controller salaries, according to Robert Half International. But while landing your first CFO job may be difficult, keeping it may be more difficult. Twenty-four percent of CFO positions in the Fortune 1000 turned over annually in 2007 and 2008 according to a report, titled Fortune 1000 Turnover published in 2009 by executive recruiting firm Heidrick & Struggles. In smaller companies, Liberum Research found that the average CFO position turns over every two to three years. The bottom line is that CFOs must come to the job...

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