Financial Analyst Related Career Paths

Financial analytics is just one part of the larger field of finance. Pursuing a finance career can be an exciting career choice with competitive financial compensation and options for upward career mobility. Depending on your training and skill set, you can explore a range of finance careers to see which is the best match for you. Many great careers are available in finance, such as banking, accounting, and investing. This article will take a closer look at several career paths closely related to financial analytics to provide you with some options for pivoting your career.

What is a Financial Analyst?

Financial Analysts study financial data and perform various research tasks to spot investment opportunities and analyze possible outcomes for business decisions. These professionals play an integral role in helping to create more informed investment strategies for their organization or its clients. To do so, Financial Analysts routinely perform tasks for their employer like studying current events and developments in the market, examining financial statements, and creating financial models that can anticipate future performance. They also may study macroeconomic trends or hone in on particular industries or sectors. Financial Analysts rely on their background in math, accounting, research, reporting, communication, critical thinking, and data analytics to perform these tasks.

Because of how valued they are by organizations, Financial Analysts often find employment with large corporations like insurance companies, security firms, investment banks, venture capital firms, or government agencies. They play an integral role in supporting an organization’s budgeting initiatives, as well as writing financial status reports and recommendations. Their process often involves steps such as collecting data, organizing information, performing data analysis on these numbers, providing projections or forecasts, offering recommendations, creating Excel models, presenting their findings to organizational stakeholders, and writing reports or dashboards to convey suggestions. Depending on their professional focus, Financial Analysts do extensive research on their organization’s buy-side and sell-side financial data. They often focus on either credit markets or equity markets.

Read more about what a Financial Analyst does. 

Careers Related to Financial Analytics

If you’re a Financial Analyst and interested in exploring other career options in finance, the following sections will explore some of the most popular jobs currently available.

Accountant

Accountants help individuals or companies maintain their financial health. Some of these professionals work independently, whereas others join accounting firms. Within the field of accounting, there are many subsets. Corporate Accountants perform a range of financial processes to help their company operate smoothly. Private Accountants evaluate and update clients’ financial records to ensure that they’re adhering to the law and getting the most out of their investments. 

If you’re interested in becoming an Accountant, you will likely need a bachelor’s degree in a field like finance, business, or accounting. You also will need skills like business communication, decision-making, and finance management.

Financial Advisor

Financial Advisors, also known as Financial Planners or Financial Consultants, work in private, public, and corporate industries. These professionals advise their clients on the tools and services available to help them manage their wealth and optimize their returns. This advice often pertains to the decisions they should make based on their current financial situation and long-term goals. Those who work as Personal Finance Advisers typically perform small-scale tasks for clients. They help individuals manage money and guide estate planning, investing, taxes, or college funds. Registered Investment Advisers evaluate a client’s goals, as well as the current market conditions, to direct them through the investment process. These professionals must be registered with the SEC. Another type of Financial Adviser, a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, works with clients to help them prepare for retirement.

Investment Banker

Many Investment Bankers start out as Financial Analysts before progressing into more specific roles. These professionals are involved with generating capital for clients, which can mean advising them to sell their equity and issuing debt. Investment Bankers also design financial models to forecast financial performance and help with mergers and acquisitions. Investment Strategists study trends in the economy to provide clients and Portfolio Managers with valuable information about combatting possible risks by trading and allocating resources. Private Equity Associates are another subset of investment banking. These individuals draw from their in-depth experience in which they oversee deals from conception to completion. They also acquire, improve, and sell companies to raise capital.

Actuary

Actuaries rely on their background in statistics, math, and theory to study risk-associated costs. Some Actuaries are referred to as Actuarial Analysts because their analysis allows their organization to see the potential success of their decisions, as well as the effect an unforeseen disaster could have on the company’s finances. These finance professionals play an important role in the insurance industry because they enable clients to create policies designed to minimize the cost of risk factors.

Financial Software Developer

Within the financial technology, or FinTech, field is Financial Software Developers. These individuals create, develop, and update the software most commonly used in finance. Often, Financial Software Developers work with banking companies or financial institutions to design a range of products, such as credit card software or educational tools. Financial Software Developers can choose to specialize in an area, such as Blockchain. Blockchain Developers help organizations implement programs that enable secure digital transactions and safe data storage. They also create interfaces and apps designed to keep financial data safe. These professionals must know at least one programming language, such as Scala or JavaScript.

Quantitative Analyst

Quantitative Analysts are a subset of Financial Analysts. These individuals apply various statistical techniques to solve a range of problems pertaining to market regulations, trading, risk management, and valuation. They also may work to improve companies’ tools to analyze different strategies and devise financial models. Quantitative Analysts work in various professional settings, such as private equity firms, insurance companies, and investment banks, where they manage risk and search for potentially profitable investment opportunities.

How to Decide Which Career is Right for You

Deciding which career is best for you in the field of finance will depend on a number of factors. In addition to your training and the financial skills you’ve acquired, your personality also plays an important role in which career path is right for you. For example, if you’re interested in becoming an Actuary, you likely will need to be investigative, curious, and inquisitive. This profession requires that you spend a significant amount of time alone with your thoughts, which also means you likely will need to be self-motivated. On the other hand, Quantitative Analysts tend to be conscientious individuals who are methodical. They tend to plan tasks out in advance and are considered extremely reliable individuals. 

Investment Bankers often have Type A personalities. These professionals are extremely driven and ambitious. Those new to investment banking typically work long hours and experience stressful work conditions. For those who consider themself natural leaders, a position as a Financial Advisor can be a good match. These professionals are skilled at persuading and influencing others with their enterprising ideas. They generally are detail-oriented, extremely organized, and thrive working in a structured environment. 

When you embark on a career in finance, you may want to consider your personality, hard and soft skills, and the work environment you perform best in. These factors can help you choose a path where you can contribute to a company while simultaneously enjoying your career.

Learn the Skills to Become a Financial Analyst at Noble Desktop

Noble Desktop, an educational provider located in New York City, offers a range of classes devoted to financial modeling and analysis. Financial Modeling Bootcamp is a hands-on, 18-hour course that teaches students fundamental financial concepts, such as corporate valuation, accounting, and finance. Participants in this small class create their own discounted cash flow using Microsoft Excel. Over three days, expert instructors also help students develop a comprehensive financial model for an actual company. As a prerequisite to this bootcamp, students should have intermediate Excel proficiency.

Noble also has a Financial Analyst Training Program that provides expert instruction on timely corporate and financial concepts, such as making a full valuation model. Those enrolled in this intensive program receive instruction on fundamental Excel skills, such as using shortcuts and PivotTables. Advanced Excel techniques are also covered in this 30-hour program, like Goal Seek and cash flow projection tools. All learners also receive instruction on creating a three-statement financial model for a public restaurant company.

In addition to the Financial Modeling Bootcamp and Financial Analyst Training Program, Noble Desktop also has in-person and live online financial modeling training courses. The

Excel Bootcamp offers 18 hours of instruction on core business Excel skills like working with VLOOKUP, INDEX, MATCH, and What-If Analysis for Goal Seek. FinTech courses are also available, like Algorithmic Trading with Python, Python for Data Science Bootcamp, and FinTech Bootcamp. This course provides students with hands-on training from expert instructors in FinTech skills like working with Python and SQL for data analysis, creating machine learning models, and working with different data types like integers, floats, and strings. All students have the option of a free course retake for up to one year, as well as one-on-one mentoring.