What Do Investment Bankers do All Day?

Conventionally, investment bankers are responsible for interacting with clients, creating offers, handling financial forecasts, and managing sales books or pitch books created by the organization to aid reach new clientele.

The intensifying need for exceptional communication skills is what makes investment bankers different from financial analysts and accountants. Myriads of business students can receive investment banking certification and perform the technical responsibilities of investment banking associates, yet some possess the skill of assisting senior staff and clientele.

Morning Hours

The morning time is the most stable and is usually burdened with office meetings and administrative emails. Replying to loads of messages further adds to the stability of investment bankers’ day.

Thankfully, a majority of working days begin rather late for investment bankers, partially because the US capital markets open after 7 in the morning, and also because a majority of bankers work late at night. As such, investment bankers have enough time to get ready and have a healthy breakfast before heading to the workplace. As most of the investment-banking jobs are situated in densely populated cosmopolitan cities, investment bankers need to make ample time for the commute.

Work during morning hours is often relatively sluggish and more organized versus that during the evening. From the beginning until lunchtime, analysts and associates handle firms’ assessments and make changes as per the senior staff.

During off days, the junior bankers might take time for leisure and break and even browse further investment banking certification courses but they cannot use social media platforms as most investment banks create firewalls for such distracting websites.

Afternoon Hours

If the day is not much demanding, lunchtime can typically stretch to 45 minutes or an hour at a nearby eatery or building’s cafeteria. Breaks normally occur somewhere between 12 pm – 2 pm and are generally spent with colleagues with similar designation level.

There should be updated presentations and models from respective analysts by the time investment bankers get back to their desks. Now, they have to go through these documents and suggest corrections before handing them back to the analysts.

Work during afternoon hours highly focused on active deals. Investment banking teams are provided one deal at a time, which is the live deal, and senior staff is critical about crossing and dotting every appropriate letter. Merger and acquisition (M&A) and initial public offerings (IPO) deals consist of transacting millions or billions of currencies, thus, firms cannot think of committing small errors.

Evening Hours

The latter half of the working day is split into two categories: before and after dinner. Investment bankers mostly have their dinner at the workplace around 7-8 pm. Work before is more organized and anticipated; analysts expect that associates accomplish their tasks by early evening so that they can review them again.

On a usual day, the initial after-dinner job is to review the morning’s work. Senior bankers and analysts dedicate the past few hours checking material stuff and creating remarks, which, at times, involve significant revamps to the sales book.

Investment bankers collaborate with many different professionals including, sales staff or equity research. Nevertheless, the evening hours are majorly spent with desktop publishing (DTP) division.
The revision-comment-correction process can recur twice or thrice before the night ends. Investment bankers have to contemplate thoroughly and work at a rapid pace to make sure the documents are edited accurately and on time.

Most of the banks offer car services for their employees to take them to their homes in the early morning hours. While senior investment bankers can leave the office at 10 pm, their junior counterparts usually go home around 1 am-3 am.

What Are the Six Business Analysis Knowledge Areas

In today’s world of rapidly changing business dynamics, business analysis is quickly becoming a crucial aspect that determines the success of any establishment. While with the advent of technology, understanding and analysing business problems have become much simpler, even today it is necessary that a business analyst knows the six knowledge areas that were originally outlined in the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge also known as BABOK.

BABOK, created and published by the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) can be described in the most simplest terms as being a framework that describes the various aspects that encompasses a business, the tasks that are undertaken on a regular basis, and the competencies as well as techniques that are necessary to execute the same. In layman terms, BABOK can be compared to the Bible for aspiring as well as established business analysts in today’s global business environment.

What is Business Analysis

According to the second version of BABOK, business analysis can be described as being, “the set of tasks and techniques used to work as a liaison among stakeholders in order to understand the structure, policies, and operations of an organization, and recommend solutions that enable the organization to achieve its goals.”

In simple terms, this definition states that business analysis is a tool that helps organizations and businesses understand and analyze their problems as well as opportunities. Along with this, when a potential solution presents itself, business analysis helps them establish if the solution is valid and most importantly measure the implementation success of the solution in the longer run.

Mentioned below are some of the key areas in which business analysis serves organizations:

1. Establishing and understanding key parameters as well as strategic objectives.
2. Listing out the projects that can be pursued along with analyzing the feasibility of pursuing them.
3. Understand and analyze the opportunities presented by the market as well as decide if skills should be acquired in order to fulfil the demand.
4. It helps establish that all the stakeholders share the same vision for the future as well as are aware of the steps that will be undertaken to reach the same. In a way, it helps keep the company on track by envisioning its future and subsequent goals.

The popular belief around BABOK is the fact that it is purely technological information, but this is not entirely true. One of the most significant benefits of business analysis is the fact it can be used in any aspect of the business and be applied regularly on objectives the company wishes to fulfil. This can be anything ranging from undertaking the development of a new software, acquiring a competitor as well as opening a new branch.

One of the most important sections of BABOK is “Requirements” as it helps businesses analyse capabilities as well as conditions that it needs to acquire or analyse in order to meet current business demands. BABOK mainly focuses on the process of identifying requirements, categorizing them, communicating it to the stakeholders, assess the risks as well as benefits, along with managing all the requirements simultaneously.

Six Knowledge Areas

The six knowledge areas outlined in BABOK are the following:

1. Planning and Monitoring
2. Elicitation
3. Requirements Communication and Management
4. Requirements Analysis
5. Enterprise Analysis
6. Validation and assessment of solutions

Conclusion

The six areas of knowledge outlined in BABOK along with all the other sections are crucial parts of any business analysts knowledge and thus if you are aspiring to become a business analyst, you should not understand and analyze them, but also implement them in real life establishments on a regular basis, along with undertaking a formal business analysis training.

What Are Fintech Jobs?

These days one of the most popular names that we hear in the technology industry is fintech. But what exactly is fintech and what are the responsibilities of a fintech job?

In this short article, we will explain to you what exactly fintech means and the responsibilities of a job in fintech bears. Let’s get started.

What Is Fintech?

As the name suggests FinTech stands for Financial Technology and simply broken down it translates to the use of technology in financial applications. Advanced technology such as AI and machine learning, among many more, are used in order to better optimize and automate the use as well as delivery of financial services. A quick example of this can be startups like PayPal which has come up with a payment portal for businesses as well as consumers in order to make online payments more seamless and reduce the consumer’s dependence on hard cash.

A Brief History

Fintech as an industry came into the spotlight in the early 21st century but was mainly used for optimising and developing back end financial systems. Slowly but steadily the popularity and capability of the industry spread and today fintech is used in almost all aspects of financial transactions. These days fintech uses a more consumer-oriented perspective and includes multiple industries such as education, hospitality, media, entertainment, fundraising, retail banking and many more.

What Are Fintech Jobs?

In order to better understand the implications of a fintech job, we first need to understand the fact that all fintech companies have one common objective in mind and that is to threaten, challenge and finally disrupt the traditional financial challenges by incorporating technology and encompassing a more consumer-friendly objective.

Now that you have an idea on what a fintech company does, let us explore the various job roles that are available in the industry.

Software

One of the most in-demand sectors within the fintech industry is for software developers. The reason behind this being, in order to disrupt traditional systems, new software and hardware need to be created. Under the software category, one can choose multiple job roles such as,

1. Technology Architects
2. Product Managers
3. Risk Analysis
4. Relations Manager (Analyst)
5. Engineers both Front End as well as Backend
6. Business Analyst
7. Legal Counsel

Almost all fintech companies these days have continuous openings for such roles as the demand for this industry is continuously growing.

Skills to acquire

If you want to secure a job in the fintech industry, mentioned below are the most in demand skills that you need to acquire.

1. Programming languages such as Java, Python and C.
2. Java integrations such as JSON, .js, Node.js.
3. In-depth knowledge of NoSQL as well as SQL.
4. Rust, Go, Solidity and other such enterprise languages.
5. HyperLedger Fabric.

Along with these there are specialised skills such as expertise in blockchain development and ledgers. Under this, you need to be skilled in the programming languages mentioned above as well as have in depth knowledge on how blockchain development takes place.

If you want to increase your chances of securing a job you can also undertake fintech courses in other areas of skill development such as machine learning, artificial intelligence and many more. Along with this, it is always advisable to undergo formal training in fintech courses as it will help you understand the intimacies of the business better.

Conclusion

The job market in the fintech space is at an all-time high. Along with this, experts predict that the demand for highly skilled professionals will continue to grow in the near future as well.

Now that you know what fintech is and the responsibilities a job role in fintech comes with, get started on developing the skills you need to acquire. All the best.

How Learning & Development Help in Scaling Up?

There is no end to learning. In this era of competition and advancement, if you have to keep moving ahead, you have to learn new skill sets as and when required. Of course, one can skip these processes, but then again how will you step out of your well?

The learning and development process (L&D) is a rich practice to ensure new skill sets and respective opportunities for the employees. In the corporate world, the L&D process falls under HR responsibilities, but one can also learn from his/her colleagues, through brainstorming sessions, etc. There are L&D departments in many colleges too. Let us see how learning and development help in scaling up.

Pros Of The Learning And Development Process

  • Through the L&D process, any particular firm gets to know about its weaknesses. It also helps in discovering loopholes in the company/firm. We get to know which employee is facing trouble in any particular area & then we can teach that particular employee. Besides wasting time on every employee, we can target the weak employees and can give them more concentrated learning. The rest of the employees can be taught some new skill sets.
  • Interaction and communication among the employees and managers increase through the L&D process. This increases employee satisfaction and loyalty. Good office culture is formed where people help each other to scale up.
  • Through training, employees get to more about their job and company. This results in increased productivity and financial profits.
  • When employees are trained and equipped with proper skill sets. They come up with new and innovative ideas that help in increased innovation.
  • According to LinkedIn, the most required skill set among employees is blockchain in 2020. This trending technique can be taught to the employees so that they are able to do diverse jobs.
  • A firm can identify its future needs and can train its employees in the present. This will help in moving ahead of others and the job can be with more accuracy if we have a prerequisite.

Key Insights Into The L&D Process

According to LinkedIn surveys, 82% of L&D experts say their employees actively support and are happy about the L&D process and training conducted at the workplace. The survey also tells us that the budget for the L&D process has increased from 27% in 2017to 43% in 2019. Firms and companies have identified the importance of learning and development and are taking it pretty seriously as the stats suggest.

LinkedIn surveys tell us that 87% of team leaders are confident that their team size will either the same or will increase at the end of a financial year. This tells us that the learning and development process increases customer satisfaction.

Employees are satisfied with their jobs and team leaders in those workplaces where the L&D process is taken seriously. The learning process can be done through different substrates, like E-mail marketing and online programs. There is no such traditional rule to be followed, the managers can embed new skills in their employees through any medium in which they feel confident.

There are many processes that fall under the L&D process like reskilling and upskilling. Brushing up of skills is required every now and then. There is a little bit difference between Learning and Development, learning is the process of absorbing information through concentrated training or programs whereas the development process focuses on personality and skill set of any particular employee and tries to find out the weaknesses and strengths and the areas which need more focus. Filling skill gaps within the workplace is done through the L&D process.

Conclusion

The surveys and reports tell us that soft skills are also required as much as hard skills. The demand for these skills in employees keeps on changing as per the market behavior. The L&D process helps employees in upskilling and adapting to new advancements. This article was all about the profits of the L&D process. I hope it helps!

For more details, you can also visit – https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/4821209/admin

Posted in COE

Does SAS Base Programmer Certification Help In Building A Career In Analytics?

SAS is an acronym that stands for Statistical Analysis in AI or business intelligence models and is important analytics and artificial intelligence tool. The use of this tool has become a crucial part of businesses nowadays. The primary features or the roles that SAS has an effect on are: 

  • Data mining,
  • Predictive Analysis,
  • Reporting,
  • Econometric and time series analysis, etc. 

With that being said, anyone who wants to have a career in advanced analytics, being a SAS programmer in today’s world is the best option. 

Does getting a certification for a SAS base programmer help your career?

For anyone who is looking to get into analytics and artificial intelligence, or any other type of profession, getting certified is what helps you move forward and build a career. Certification for the chosen fields helps you to find a way to create a mark and tell your employers what you are capable of. And the same stands true for those who wish to create a career in advanced analytics

Here is why certification for a SAS based programmer helps you boost your career:

  • As the name suggests, the certification allows you to understand the basics of SAS. It helps you to get an overview of the analytics and artificial intelligence field.
     
  • Since it is an introductory certification, attempting the exam and securing a grade will help you to be eligible for the next certifications. Just in case you wish to ensure that you want to study or get a certified future or grow your career in advanced analytics, the base programmer certification will help.

  • The certification course of a base programmer is the perfect start for anyone in this field. Furthermore, the certification can be applicable globally!

Apart from the above-mentioned points, the certification of base programmer in SAS helps you build your career in advanced analytics by helping you with:

  • Improving your credibility and marketability in the field. A certification says that you know what you’re doing and that you have professional training in the given field.

  • SAS certifications are structured by keeping the role of the person or the trainee as per the job, which is to say that you can find on-job-training right from the beginning.

  • It increases your future prospects in the analytics and artificial intelligence field. The industries are growing and the need for professionals with SAS certifications in high on demand.

  • Lastly, the SAS certifications can be cross-checked, meaning your employers or potential employers will be able to check the authenticity of your certification.

The field of prospective jobs and the requirement of a programmer, or a SAS professional is increasing by the day. As more businesses join the e-commerce industry and more of them wish to connect to their consumers and customers in a better manner, the role of SAS programmers from beginners to highly-skilled professionals is getting broader. If you wish to establish a good career in advanced analytics, then this is the time to pick up SAS programming.