Finance is one of the most lucrative fields for career progression. The industry is very dynamic, to say the least, impacted by market fluctuations it constantly continues to evolve on an exponential scale. There are various roles present for people in the financial industry ranging from analysts to stockbrokers to investment bankers, the diversity in the roles is enormous and the challenges equally intimidating.
Building a career in finance requires you to assess your soft skills in addition to your hard skills that can be acquired through a course. Being the most lucrative field given the pay scale it also invites a lot of competition and survival of the fittest is the norm here.
Best Approach
So, while starting out people always wonder what could be the best approach to building a career in finance. Well, it all depends on what stage of your career are you asking this question? If you are in school or college you still have time to build a solid foundation for your career in finance. Opting for the commerce stream with mathematics as an added subject, since the role of financial analysts involves complex data and calculations building a base in mathematics is a lot of help. People often struggle at the mathematical aspect of finance who don’t have a good base from the beginning.
Doing your majors in commerce or economics further consolidates your position when it comes to building a career in finance. Many roles have a master’s degree as a prerequisite for selection. So, if you are looking for a complex role that is more challenging and comes with huge responsibilities and fat cheques getting an MBA degree with Finance as a specialization from a reputed college is the best way to give it a shot.
If you have started out with a job and you have figured out Finance as the best bet for your career, you should be opting for a more professional course focusing only on the aspects of building your financial knowledge. Courses like the CFA program helps you do exactly that, it goes deep into the subject matter covering all aspects ranging from financial reporting and analysis to corporate finance to alternative investments it takes a holistic approach and helps you build a robust base for your financial journey. Supplementing the financial analysis aspect is the financial modelling course that helps to learn financial modelling as a subject that has gained popularity in the past couple of years.
There are other non-conventional methods to building a career in Finance which require you to know the generals and specifics of finance including the lingo and the news updates from the financial streets. It requires you to prove your financial acumen without the degree and ace the game like a pro.
Tech Assistance
With the advent of AI, machine learning and revolutionary blockchain technologies there are many new avenues in the financial services stream that requires you to have a technological edge to build your career in the domain. With the growth of Fintech firms and the digital transformation of the retail banking landscape, there are a plethora of opportunities even for people from the technology background to have a successful career in finance with some knowledge about the finance industry and the market whereabouts. The domination of technology in finance has also led to curbing out some of the traditional roles related to operations, generally repetitive in nature. Automation has a big impact on eradicating some of the less analytical roles in the financial space.
Conclusion
For building a successful career in finance an educational background in economics or commerce/ finance is an added advantage. However, with the advent of more tech-savvy Fintech firms, the financial industry has also been a major employer for people with a technical background and basic financial literacy.
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