Introduction:
Hello Pigmenteers! I’m Connor Smith (@Connor Smith in the community). I am based in San Francisco, where I have spent most of my career. I currently work at Atlan, a metadata management software company that helps organize and structure metadata. I work in a corporate lead and systems role on a lean team, and I manage the corporate overhead and maintenance of our Pigment instance.
You can see Connor’s full interview here:
Can you walk us through your career journey? How did you get to where you are today?
I started my career in investment banking at a small firm, working on sell-side M&A and private capital raises. I liked the work but wanted more exposure to see how companies internally operate and how finance teams add value. I wanted hands-on operational experience, which led me to move into the FP&A and strategic finance path.
That is what brought me to Miro, where I found the operational side of finance interesting and rewarding. Being responsible for planning and reporting allowed me to provide tangible value. Over time, I became more interested in the systems side. I saw how automation could replace repetitive manual tasks, and that drew me deeper into the cutting-edge of finance.
At this point in my career, I have found myself primarily focused on finance systems and automation.
After five or so years in a niche, it is natural to become identified with it, and while career changes are always possible, I feel that being in the finance automation space is a great place to be right now.
What advice would you give to someone starting out in their finance career?
First, make sure you understand the fundamental building blocks of accounting and technical finance. It may not be the most exciting part, but those foundations are critical. I sometimes worry that with AI, people will skip over learning the basics, which can leave gaps later in their career.
Second, if you find yourself doing a manual task more than three or four times, start thinking about how to automate it. It might take longer in the short term to build a scalable process, but the long-term payoff is worth it. Investing time in automation early frees you to focus on higher-value work later.