Developing with Dell Technologies: Nova's Experience in Dell's Finance Development Program
Nova F. | Analyst, Financial Analysis | Texas, United States
Originally Published: May 22nd, 2024
My name is Nova Fitzmaurice, and I am in the Finance Development Program here at Dell Technologies. I recently moved to Round Rock, Texas from Athens, Ohio. I was born and raised in Athens and attended college at Ohio University. I got my BBA in Finance, Management Information Systems, and Business Analytics with a certificate in Financial Programming. I am the oldest of four siblings, with one brother and two young sisters I love to spend time with. Some of my hobbies include trying new foods, cooking or baking, taking care of my house plants, reading novels, going shopping, and traveling. One fun fact about me is that I have traveled to 26 states and my goal is to visit all 50.
Please share a bit about your current role and any past roles you've had in the program.
My first role was on the Software & Peripherals Finance team, as the Global Partner Software Controller. This role was informative to me, particularly as a recent graduate, about how data is stored and accessed at Dell. It allowed me to leverage my more technical, analytical knowledge with finance to support the business. In this role, I was able to further my skills in Microsoft Excel and Power BI, which I had never used before. Other skills I learned include business partnership, controllership and data storytelling. My current rotation is on the GAT Internal Audit Team, where I was just recently assigned my first audit engagement relating to IT and cybersecurity which is an area I am excited to learn more about.
Why did you decide to join FDP?
I wanted to join the Financial Development Program so that I could get an experience like no other fresh out of college. FDP allowed me to learn about what roles are available to me within the CFO organization and throughout my time in the program I will be able to have four rotations, all in different areas of the business. At the same time, I am learning about relevant financial and accounting topics, what regulations we must follow and how Dell operates, among so many other topics. As FDPs, we take classes and tests, and complete projects, case studies and audits for the curriculum, all alongside our role rotations. This has helped me become more fluent in business and financial acumen, improved my presentation skills, and has provided some amazing networking opportunities.
What is one of the proudest moments of your FDP experience so far?
I was able to restructure the PowerBI for one of my roles so that it would refresh more efficiently. When I first started in that role, I had a lot of issues with refreshing the dashboard. It often failed to refresh, and I would have to continue trying each time it failed. It often took almost the whole day to finally run. I watched videos on YouTube and took some SABA training courses on Power Query and PowerBI so that I could learn how to fix the query to make it shorter. I was able to fix it so that it would refresh on the first try and in under 10 minutes! This accomplishment saved me so much time on days I had to send out reports and allowed me to spend more time on the data analysis and deriving insights from the data instead.
How has the program fostered a sense of community and collaboration between participants, and how might this benefit new members?
The FDP program has many opportunities to collaborate and join different communities in the program. There are many pillars that new members can join, and other extra-curricular activities. Often, there are fun and more informal events as well to get to know your peers outside of work such as happy hours, run clubs and even going on boat cruises! Many of the program participants are about the same age and all looking to make new friends, and I have personally met several good friends from the program. Getting involved and networking is important to your development and experience in FDP, so I highly recommend it!
What kind of support does the program offer to employees who are fresh out of college?
Joining this program fresh out of college is a great way to acclimate to the workforce while also cultivating the skills necessary to succeed in corporate finance roles. It is also helpful to learn about the structure of the CFO organization and learn how different departments and teams interact with each other. I knew that I wanted to work in finance, but I lacked the knowledge of what kinds of roles were available to me so by experiencing different rotations I have been able to pinpoint what roles I want or don’t want to pursue post-program. The program also offers mentorship to provide support for FDPs in their first and second semesters so that they have resources to ask questions.
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