There are two career paths in finance employment - managerial finance or financial services. The financial services sector is the fastest-growing domain in finance and offers career opportunities in:
- Banking
- Securities
- Real estate
- Insurance
To be successful in financial services, an individual must:
- Understand the key aspects of financial products and services
- Have the ability to sell financial services to a wide range of customers
Finance Employment: Real Estate
The real estate field offers a range of finance employment opportunities to a finance and real estate graduate. However, the real estate market is highly cyclical and opportunities vary based on your geographical location.
Mortgage Banker: As a mortgage banker, you will be:
- Arranging finances for real estate projects to bring together the property owner/developer and financing sources. Lenders include major credit companies, insurance companies, pension funds and banks.
- Working closely with the borrower to structure the financing terms and acting as the borrower’s agent for negotiating financing terms.
- Maintaining relationships with a large group of financial institutions so that each project can be matched with an appropriate lender.
Real Estate Agents / Brokers: Properties are usually bought, sold and leased through real estate agents employed by brokers. Agents and brokers generally specialize in residential or commercial properties. Commercial brokers work with:
- Corporations aiming to buy or lease a facility
- Individuals wishing to buy investment properties
Commercial agents analyze the value of a property, its income-producing capabilities and other market conditions. The analysis is then used to structure lease or purchase terms acceptable to the seller and buyer.
Some of the duties of residential agents and brokers include:
- Finding potential buyers and renters for listed properties
- Showing property
- Negotiating sale or lease terms with both the parties
Finance Employment: Insurance
Insurance companies are offering more sophisticated financial products. Many companies consider their agents to be financial planners, providing advice on a broad range of products.
Insurance Agent / Broker: In this position, you may need to:
- Develop programs to fit customers’ needs
- Interview insurance prospects
- Help with claims and settlements
- Collect premiums
While an insurance agent is generally an employee by an insurance company, a broker is independent and is not a representative of any specific company. Thus, he can sell policies from many insurance companies.
Underwriter: As an underwriter, you may be appraising and selecting the risks insured by the company. For this, you would need to assess the risks of an individual through insurance applications, reports from loss-control consultants, medical reports and actuarial studies. If you become a commercial underwriter, you would be insuring a firm’s major fixed assets, such as heavy equipments.
Risk Manager: A risk manager identifies the risks that his company is facing and makes recommendations for dealing with these risks. The recommendations may include:
- Purchase of insurance
- Adoption of precautionary measures
- Presentations to the top management
Risk managers also manage employee benefit plans. To be successful as a risk manager, you should have skills such as:
- Knowledge of the insurance industry and of business practice
- Making presentations to the top management