Lately, the finance industry has gained a lot of traction amongst students and young adults. After suffering from a severe financial crisis, the economy needs competent individuals to strengthen the economic landscape. As the demand for finance experts increases, students possessing number-crunching skills are capitalizing on this opportunity. After all, finance is one of the lucrative professions that offers a myriad of career pathways.
People with competent analytical skills can become analysts or advisors to help others with financial decisions. Similarly, the ones who prefer working with numbers can become accountants. In addition to having high demand, the finance industry has incredible salary prospects. The median wage is way beyond the industry average for some job roles, making it the perfect choice for financial stability. However, lucrative job prospects aren’t all the finance industry has to offer.
The finance industry is full of learning and growth opportunities, allowing students to climb the professional ladder. If you want to learn more about this, keep reading. Here is everything you need to know to start a career in finance.
1. Endless Growth & Learning Opportunities
The finance industry is diverse, which means, the more you learn, the more you grow and thrive in this field. Employees who have a bachelor’s degree can readily secure an entry-level position in the corporate banking or investment sector. Perhaps, they can work as a junior accountant, bookkeeper, compliance officer, or an internal auditor. Similarly, they can qualify for managerial level roles by completing a master’s degree.
However, this doesn’t imply that you have to go back to school. With eLearning programs, you can opt for a masters in accounting online to polish your skills and qualify for higher roles. The specialization in accounting will give you an edge over other candidates, further improving job prospects.
2. Diverse Career Pathways
Most people believe they can only become finance managers after getting a degree in finance. Well, that’s nothing but a myth. Today, the finance industry is more diverse than ever. Here we are listing a few careers you can pursue as a finance professional.
- Hedge Fund Manager: As a hedge fund manager, you would be helping people mitigate losses that might occur because of their trading practices.
- Financial Advisor: The core responsibility of an advisor is to help companies with the decision-making process. They evaluate financial decisions to determine whether they could be beneficial for the company or not.
- Investment Banking: People with limited knowledge of trading activities turn to investment bankers. They unfold investment options and help investors put their money in the right financial instrument.
3. Lucrative Salary Prospects
The finance industry is pretty famous for offering lucrative returns, higher than the industry average. That’s because the nature of the job is pretty challenging. Accountants have to analyze numbers, create financials, and determine metrics to understand financial performance. To compensate for the efforts, companies offer high returns. According to stats, the median salary of an accountant is $71,550, higher than what gets offered in most industries.
Once you gain experience in the professional world, the salary prospects will start increasing automatically. From a junior cost accountant, you can qualify for the role of finance manager and enjoy lucrative returns. But remember, the experience won’t be enough; you have to keep upgrading your skillset and acquire new skills to climb the stairs of success.
4. Provides Opportunities for Personal Development
Alongside being a lucrative field, the finance sector offers endless opportunities for personal development. Unlike a conventional career, the job roles in the finance department will challenge you every day. Sometimes, you would have to fix the errors made by junior accountants. If they have added wrong entries in the journal, you would be creating adjusting transactions to mitigate its effect. It would polish your problem-solving skills while encouraging you to think critically.
Moreover, you would be dealing with clients who never pay timely. Here, your effective communication and negotiation skills will come into play. You will develop smart payment terms to convince customers to pay on time to ensure it doesn’t impact business relationships. Building this diverse skillset during your work experience will go a long way, improving career prospects.
5. A Pathway to Business World
Most financial professionals look for corporate jobs after graduating to earn lucrative returns. But why not try something different? As a finance graduate, you can step into the entrepreneurial world and open your venture. Perhaps, you can open a small accounting firm and provide financial services to people. It could be a financial consultancy firm, credit repair company, or debt management agency. After all, there is a range of financial services to offer.
In the beginning, you may manage everything single-handedly but once your clientele develops, bring experts on board. For instance, if you have a consultancy firm, bring some financial advisors onboard. Similarly, think about offering more services to expand the business. You can introduce tax consultancy, accounting services, or investment banking.
Final Thoughts
Believe it or not, the finance sector has become one of the most desirable fields for pursuing a career. In addition to lucrative prospects, it offers a challenging work environment that keeps people hooked to their jobs. Likewise, the diverse career pathways allow finance professionals to make lateral career moves and explore more opportunities. Therefore, if you seek a stable and exciting career field, the finance sector could be your best choice.