Though with competition but extremely lucrative when successful, careers in the finance industry are flying high in the past couple of decades and is one of the most promising choices for professionals. Let’s have a look at how good is a career in finance? Top skills, advantages, and cons.
Since it is a highly competitive field and jobs are diversified in several areas of the industry, the skills needed are different. This article will talk about the major skills that anyone needs to have a successful career in finance, along with that we will also tell you the major pros and cons of a career in finance.
Skills you need to excel in Finance
Analytical Thinking
The capacity to analyze is an essential quality that is needed in the finance sector. The profession demands the interpretation of data that is accessed to make authentic and effective decisions. The finance professionals play a critical role here which demands deem understanding of data and a way of analytical thinking to bring outputs.
Strategic Thinking
The ability to think strategically can be pivotal in the career of a finance professional. It is demanded to understand and conceptualize the plan to move forward for the company or the business.
Discipline
When there is no room for mistakes, you need to be well-disciplined to organize everything to the point. A strong sense of commitment and dedication is another essential aspect to improve careers in finance.
Communication
Finance is a profession that is filled with jargon and it might take a concrete effort to understand the details. But when it comes to the non-finance crowd, it can be a great hurdle and there where the finance professionals should be effective communicators
As an industry, Finance is one of the strongest one, hence working in the finance sector definitely has a high demand and has benefits. Continuing the article, we will see the major advantages of working in the industry and major disadvantages.
Major Advantages of the Finance Industry
High Salary
The equation is very simple, there is a lot of money. With the right experience and building a career, your brand name will build and it will give you more and more opportunities with bigger clients and bigger deals. After a while, most of the money-making comes through financial advising and commissions. Being part of excellent business deals and organizations increases the name in the industry as well as enriching the pockets.
Potential for Growth
Many people think finance careers are limited to accounting but that is not at all right. From banking, hedge funds, financial analysis to investing, careers in finance are diverse. But each of these sectors demands independent studies and certifications. For example, to become a qualified analyst, CFA is one of the renowned courses, and clearing the exam opens up huge opportunities
Flexibility
Another notion that careers in finance are extremely tightrope also comes out of smoke. Most careers in finance have a good work/life balance. It will be busy for accountants when time is meaning the GST deadline but otherwise, it will be quite normal and other professions like the financial analyst or consultant will also work with a few clients that give us a good balance in career and life.
Major disadvantages of Finance Industry
Stress
Huge responsibilities come with high demands. Stress could be an inevitable factor when you work with high profile clients. It might be a shock in the beginning but once you start finding your way into the industry, you will also have to learn to cope with the expectations. The finance industry is also dependent on the changes that happen in global and internal economies, small changes can impact the industry in huge ways, so the risk element is high and the stakes are always influenced by rapid changes.
Meeting Targets
Meeting deadlines is an inevitable part of a career in finance but it won’t always come easy as it sounds. The amount of pressure to complete the work can be high, along with that finding new clients and establishing work demands networking, which again comes with all the other work. So as you can imagine, most of the work starts time-bound and that adds humongous effort and working with extreme pressure.
Long Education Period
It takes years of the education process to start working in a highly professional environment. Even after completing the necessary requirement, every year it demands updating and has to do more certifications and courses to become advanced in the industry. So even while working, the profession demands constant updating, which might not be everyone’s cup of tea.
