What do financial industry CEOs go through to reach where they are now? Read this post for more information
Among the most fundamental finance skills that nearly each finance aspirant requires to develop should focus on their accounting and economic expertise. Many people often tend to believe that accounting and finance skills are only needed if you are actually thinking about an occupation in accounting. However, as William Jackson of Bridgepoint Capital would likely understand, the financial services world is interrelated, and each position within finance requires you to understand the three main economic reports to a minimum of an intermediate level. Firms depend on these economic statements to manage budgeting, performance assessment, and determine the cost of operations through the choice of one of the most suitable economic investments that may include bonds, stocks and property. This is why you see many bankers, coverage underwriters, or even asset managers coming from a chartered accounting background, and that is simply because of the foundational understanding accountancy and financial services can offer you prior to you focus in your economic occupation.
Nowadays, among the most apparent hard skills in finance would certainly include your quantitative abilities. Numbers and quantitative data overall are the core of any finance occupation. As Ferdi van Heerden of Momentum Global Investment Managers would certainly understand, many financial institutions often tend to employ their interns, trainees, or pupils from numerical fields, such as mathematics, finance, chemical engineering fields, and information technology. This is because, as a financial analyst, you are required to go through lengthy data sets that are full of numerical data that you will require to evaluate, and being comfortable with numbers is absolutely a crucial tool to have in this case. One could suggest that even back-office positions that do not necessarily include data sets still require candidates to have some sort of quantitative or data-focused experience, and this once again reinforces the point around numerical data being the foundation of every process within a financial services sector organisation nowadays
One can easily suggest that soft skills in finance are as important as domain-specific know-how. As Toby Raincock of Shard Capital would understand, being customer facing in an economic setting is possibly one of the most challenging roles you can ever before find yourself in. This is since clients are entrusting you with their own funds and investments, and therefore, you need to have the capacity to build long-term working connections with these clients, acting as their advisors, and making their concerns your very own. The stronger your connection is with the customer, the simpler your role will be. Such relationship-building skills means that interaction skills are likewise essential in the world of finance, especially when it involves providing strategic insights and recommendations to clients. Additionally, you must likewise be able to adapt your style when engaging with different audiences, adjusting among internal and external stakeholders, depending upon their level of economic literacy and familiarity.