What It Takes To Be A Finance Associate
As a finance associate, you are a junior member of the corporate finance department at the company. You are on the first rung of your finance career ladder. Work hard and learn quickly, your next progression in 3-5 years maybe that of a specialist finance manager/director. A vice president or senior finance manager role awaits in 6-8 years. Beyond that, depending on the company you work for the natural progression maybe towards Principal level with equity stakes.
To be a successful finance associate in a corporate finance capacity, you need to develop the following eight set of skills:
- 1. Number crunching
At entry level, you are analysing a lot of financial/accounting figures, budgets and plans. You should be familiar with modeling and techniques to manage risks for your corporate company. - 2. Presentation and IT literate
You will be required to prepare reports, presentations from an array of complicated financial modeling software so you should be computer savvy, IT literate and be a confident presenter in group situations. - 3. Communication skills
You will likely work in a team with other associates and specialist so you should be a good communicator to share results and listen to direction from one or several senior managers. You can communicate well with accounting types that speak strange accounting language. - 4. Switched on about finance companies
Your knowledge of financial systems and finance companies will be very good. You know how capital/debt markets work and will not feel out of place at investor meetings and due diligence projects. - 5. Disciplinarian for policies and planning
You are disciplined about enforcing financial policies through out the firm – including customer credit terms, costing work and the like. You are constantly keeping an eye on how real figures are doing against planned budgets. - 6. You are a problem solver
Problems in finance can surface rapidly due to changes in economic conditions and in legal/regulatory environment. You will be required to find money in tough times and make more money in good times through wise investment. You need to use your intuition as well as your computer software to overcome complex financial puzzles. - 7. Your related background helps
If you have a degree in engineering, it can help your career in corporate finance at a manufacturing firm. Similarly law background can very helpful if your company provides legal services. Corporate finance roles can vary dramatically according to industry therefore any specialist qualification you have can give you a big heads up in a corporate finance career. In a similar sense, if you have moved into corporate finance from a finance firm or other financial services areas, that can also benefit you in a finance associate role as the experience from the ‘other’ side helps greatly when you need to deal with finance firms. - 8. You have a sales streak
You are selling the company vision to investors and creditors. Internally, you are selling financial policies and rules to the credit and costings department. To your immediate manager, you need to be selling solutions for problems and changes to plans/strategies. Subtle selling skills will get you a deserve promotion – that is if what you are selling works!!
Like all entry level associates, you will be prepared to listen and willing to be mentored to get ahead. With these eight set of skills plus a lot of patience and hard work, you will soon be jumping out of the finance associate role and ready to take on more responsibility as a finance manager.
The finance industry is a wonderful industry to become involved in and becoming a finance associate is a great stepping stone to earning the big dollars in the more prestigious jobs with in this industry.