Careers in finance are best suited for people who have a technical or commercial background. The finance industry rewards its professionals with a good salary and growth path. Some of the major benefits of taking up a career in finance are:
- Sharpens analytical skills.
- Financial knowledge.
- Higher monetary returns than most other jobs.
- High status in society.
Career in Finance: Types
Some of the careers in finance are:
- Commercial Banking: Commercial banks provide banking services to individuals, small businesses and large organizations. This sector offers the maximum jobs in the financial services industry. Careers in the commercial banking sector can be exciting and offer opportunities to interact with people, learn business and build a client base.
- Corporate Finance: In this field, you would be involved in helping your company find funds to run and expand its business, formulate financial strategies, close acquisitions and manage cash in hand.
- Financial Planning: As a financial planner and wealth manager, you would be helping individuals plan their financial future. You could be helping them find ways to meet their retirement needs and fund their children’s education. This career requires excellent interpersonal skills and could be personally and financially rewarding.
- Hedge Fund: As a hedge fund manager, you would be analyzing the market and taking calls on financial assets, such as corporate bonds, stocks and currencies. The compensation in this career can be unusually high. A person in his late 20s or early 30s may draw an annual salary of $5 million or more, based on his skills, timing and even luck.
- Insurance: Insurance is a trillion dollar business employing more than three million people in the US. With growing wealth and the baby boomers reaching retirement age the demand for insurance professionals is poised to rise immensely. The work of an insurance professional involves helping individuals and businesses anticipate problems and manage risks. Work in this area is personally and financially rewarding.
- Investment Banking: Investment banks help companies and governments issue securities, manage financial assets and trade securities, apart from providing financial advice. In this field, you would also be helping investors purchase securities.
- Money Management: Money managers manage stock, securities and bond portfolios of their institutional clients. In this career, you would need to use sophisticated quantitative techniques as well as your intuition to properly manage the portfolio.