Is A Finance Career Really For You?
Finance is such a broad industry which many different niches and varying financial career opportunities. How do you decide whether a financial services career is for you? We will explore the major finance career paths and highlight the skill sets required for success in these industry niches.
Banking
Banking services for business and individuals go beyond simple deposit / payment services. Modern banks offer credit card, leasing, mortgage, international finance and trade credit services.
A finance career in banking requires you to work long hours, have the ability to deal with diverse customers, and good grasp of accounting concepts and writing skills. Recruits with good “sales” skills are highly regarding for their ability to sell financial products to all types of clients. Work ethic and sales personality is more highly regarded than fancy degrees in the banking sector.
Corporate finance
Working in corporate finance means you are working for a big company that requires you to find money, help it grow through buyouts, plan future investments in assets and manage cash in hand.
The necessary skill set for a corporate finance career are; the ability to work with diverse groups of people (often not from finance background), flexibility to adapt to changing business conditions, good grasp of numbers and planning software/IT and have a sound grasp of corporate structures. You tend to need some kind of experience in the finance industry and qualifications are looked upon highly. Diverse qualifications can be an asset for example if you have a engineering background, it will assist in getting a corporate finance career in a manufacturing firm.
Financial planning
A financial planning career means you will be advising others how to build and grow wealth. You will have good grasp of investment concepts, taxation laws, estate planning and are very good at listening to people. Financial planners often go into business for themselves so you should have an entrepreneurial streak. You will need an accredited qualification to be a financial planning and will need to have a broad minded grasp of the finance industry to make your career a success. As a financial planner, you can either be a portfolio manager (actively invest and manage investments) or a strict financial planner purely provide investment advice for a fee. Most financial planning firms do a combination of both.
Insurance
A financial career in insurance is all about helping business and individuals understand and minimise risks from events like natural disaster, criminal damage, death and accidents. An insurance career can be very broad – you can be involve in sales and marketing products, actuary (assessing risk), underwriting and in the customer service side (claims etc). Within insurance, there are specialties including property and health and personal insurance. Many large insurance companies will have departments in all these areas. Depending on the area of your choice, you need specialised skills and qualifications. Generally, you need to be able to listen and relate to people, work in a demanding and complex environment (finding ways to minimise risk for clients). You should have an excellent grasp of quantitative concepts and numbers. A majority of insurance positions will not involve direct selling so forget the traditional image of the dodgy ‘insurance salesperson’!!
Investment banking
Investments banks are geared towards helping “companies and governments issue securities, help investors purchase securities, manage financial assets, trade securities and provide financial advice” Successful investment banking careers are built around hard work, excellent maths and accounting skills, and great communication skills as wheeling and dealing ability is crucial. Investment banking is difficult to break into and often the best way is as entry level analyst and be prepared to work hard. Recruits with science (formulae and analysis skills) and law (understanding regulations and analytical skills) backgrounds do very well in the industry. You should be an addictive networker and be able to work and lead teams to be successful in investment banking. Flexibility to relocate to major financial hubs (New York, London, Singapore, Moscow etc) is a must. It doesn’t hurt to have all the essential financial and managerial qualifications eg an MBA.
A financial services career offers a diverse amount of positions for people with different skills sets. It’s important that you are realistic about what skills sets you have or are prepared to develop. Weigh this up against the work ethic you have and your personality traits. This will be a good start point for you to judge whether a finance career is for you, and if it is, what direction within the finance industry you should approach