How to build a career in finance industry

Introduction

A career in finance is most profitable in today’s time because the financial industry is becoming capable of providing various career opportunities by the day. These opportunities vary depending upon the education, experience, and skill set you carry. While the finance field is highly competitive, you can acquire a few vital skills to start a career in finance or transition into the finance industry.

In this thorough guide, we will explain what a career in finance is, what you’ll need to build a solid career in the finance industry, and the professional courses you can opt for to become a valuable asset to organizations.

What Do You Mean by a Career in the Finance Industry?

A finance career is where you’re working for a financial company or in a company’s finance and accounting department. A finance career means you’ll be handling and managing various financial aspects of a company, including taxation.

Every corporation requires various professionally qualified individuals to manage its finances. As a result, the accounting and finance sector has various job roles with impressive incomes.

What Will You Require Transition Into a Career in Finance?

It can be challenging to transition into a career in finance, especially when you come from a different educational and professional background. However, it is an intelligent decision to enter into the finance industry because the industry’s requirements are increasing rapidly, and there are multiple opportunities that you can benefit from. In addition, a career in finance can allow you to build a strong career for yourself by putting in a little effort.

To transition into a career in finance, you’ll need to be dependable, organized, detail-oriented, and analytical. In addition, an organization will want to hire you if you have problem-solving capabilities and the ability to manage the business’s finances effectively.

Having education or experience in the field will also help you start a career in finance industry. Before transitioning into a career in finance, if you wish to get an appropriate educational degree first, it would help to get a degree in business, marketing, economics, or other finance-related fields that will allow you to build a solid career in the industry.

You can also choose to pursue professional qualifications like CFA, CFP, PGCM in Investment Banking, or Financial Modeling to become a qualified professional in the industry and bag high job profiles in companies.

The Skills You’ll Need to Pursue a Financial Career

Accounting Skills

Accounting skills are known as your skills, abilities, and techniques that let you manage, track, and record financial transactions with utmost efficiency and accuracy. If you want a career in finance industry, it becomes vital to equip these skills. Most companies require you to have accounting skills when you’re going to transition into a finance industry. These skills are essential for performing financial reporting, financial modeling, financial analysis, etc.

Having a basic understanding of accounting skills will help you build a career in finance industry.

Analytical Thinking

Analytical thinking plays a significant role in various areas like data analysis, risk management, financial analysis, strategic financial planning, and risk analysis. As a result, it is one of the most important skills for professionals transitioning into a career in the finance industry.

Analytical thinking helps you understand and interpret a situation to come up with smart solutions for the same. As a professional in the finance industry, you’ll have to solve various problems, and analytical thinking skills will ensure that you come up with intelligent and practical solutions. Analytical thinking is also crucial for a career in finance because it’ll make you an asset to the company.

Financial Modeling

The process of the representation of a financial situation via abstract methods is known as financial modeling. It’s a skill where you create a mathematical model to portray an asset’s financial performance.

Financial modeling allows you to get an estimate of a business’s valuation or compare various companies. For a finance career, a company will expect you to be skilled in financial modeling if you’re trying to apply for senior job profiles. These skills are vital for the finance sector as they help figure out the budget, calculate a project’s cost, etc.

Cash Flow Management

Cash flow management is the most critical skill you need to acquire to have a growing career in finance industry. Studies show that most businesses fail because they lack cash flow management. Cash flow management is where you monitor, optimize, and analyze a company’s cash receipts after deducting cash expenses.

A corporation uses cash flow management to keep its finances in check and focus on the business’s growth. Cash flow management is vital because it tells you everything about a company’s financial transactions. Financial loss can be avoided using this skill, and cash flow management can help a company develop strategies to become profitable.

Financial Management

Financial management is termed procurement and strategic utilization of a business’s funds through controlling, planning, organizing, and directing its financial activities. Financial management focuses on using various management concepts to manage an organization’s financial resources. Having this skill will allow you to make smart investments and financial decisions.

If you want to build a strong career in finance after transitioning into the finance industry, you should inculcate financial management skills. This skill plays a significant role in several job profiles, including portfolio manager, investment banker, and financial advisor.

Data Management

Data management is a skill that helps you manage, store, maintain, and gather a company’s data. Data is essential for guiding an organization to make the right decisions, and data management is crucial to allow the company to perform data analysis.

As a professional in the finance industry, data management doesn’t need to be your forte, but having the foundational skills of data management will help you work effectively. That’s because you won’t face issues using and accessing data for performing the company’s financial analysis.

Professional Qualifications You can Choose to Pursue to Build a Solid Career in Finance

PGCM in Investment Banking

PGCM in Investment Banking is a professional finance course that inculcates the knowledge of the basics of finance and various practical skills, including analytical thinking and financial modeling. After completing this qualification, you’ll be entering the most coveted field of finance.

Financial Modeling

Financial Modeling is a professional course that makes you equip multiple skills for core finance job profiles in an organization. Financial Modeling is used for making crucial financial decisions for a company, evaluating projects, and managing various other aspects of a business.

CFP

CFP/CIP is a global certification that prepares you to manage various aspects of the financial sector. The CFP/CIP course covers various concepts of finance such as mutual funds, taxation, insurance, etc. After successfully becoming a CFP/CIP, you’ll become an integral part of the finance sector and be considered a valuable asset for companies.

CFA

CFA is considered a gold standard for the investment finance industry. After completing CFA, you’ll become a global financial professional who’ll become an integral part of a prestigious professional network. After successfully completing your CFA, you’ll be able to work in various countries across the world, and you’ll be considered an important part of a company.

Learn from Industry Experts

If you wish to pursue any of the above-mentioned professional qualifications, you should start their respective courses offered by IMS Proschool. IMS Proschool is ranked as one of the Most Trusted education brands and among the country’s most prestigious finance institutes.

Their goal is to allow you to build a strong long-term career. Their courses will help you become a qualified professional with theoretical knowledge and practical skills required by the finance industry.

The Takeaway

Choosing to build a career in finance is a wise option to make in today’s scenario. Gone are the days when commerce students had limited career opportunities. Today, every business enterprise requires multiple qualified professionals from the accounting and finance sectors. As a result, job opportunities have increased tremendously, and financial job roles offer lucrative packages.

If you’re planning to switch your career and transition into a career in the finance industry, you’ll definitely be making a smart decision. However, you’ll need specific skills & you can count on IMS Proschool to help you become a professional with various finance-related courses offered by them. You can opt for any of their professional courses to kick start a bright career in the financial industry.