My Career Transition Journey In Investment Banking

My Career Transition Journey In Investment Banking

While many students have a clear objective of becoming an investment banker from the very start and hence, they proceed to the standard IB recruitment process, other students take a different approach to building a career in investment banking. 

I’m from the latter category of people, who decided to take a roundabout approach to become an investment banker. In this article, I’ll share some of the major tips that will help you transition into investment banking. 

Is Investment Banking a Good Career to Get Into?

Yes, definitely! 

Investment banking is a great career option if you are interested in the finance sector and wish to pursue an exciting, fruitful, and highly rewarding job. An investment banking career can be very demanding as it requires many skills, abilities, and research. It not only offers enough challenges for the individuals to kick start their career in the most interesting way but also rewards them with attractive salary benefits.

Additionally, there is a massive growth in investment banking careers because of the boom in the finance sector of the country. So, one can stay assured that investment banking is going to stay in demand in the upcoming years. 

Pro Tips to Transition Career into Investment Banking 

I am a computer engineer turned investment banker and below are some tips that helped me make a smooth career shift to the field of investment banking. 

Take Personality and Skill Assessment Test 

A career in investment banking requires multiple professional and personal skills, such as proficiency in computer and software like Excel, working knowledge of accounting and finance, valuation and research skills, and so on. In addition, the people who successfully transition into the finance sector also have some non-finance skills, like interpersonal skills, communication skills, problem-solving abilities, and so on. 

So, the first step I took is testing my abilities and investment banking skills in order to see my fitness for the finance sector. I did this by giving an online career assessment test. You can do the same or even contact a professional career consultant for guidance. This step has greatly helped me to determine how well my skills, knowledge, and abilities match the career requirement in the IB field. 

Research and Conduct Informational Interviews

The next best thing I’ve done towards my transition into the IB career is learning about the sector from its very core. I’ve talked to my friends and colleagues who are already working in this field and it greatly helped me in setting my career path. And if you don’t know anyone in this field, then don’t worry. Another good idea is to join various social networking platforms like LinkedIn to connect with professionals in this field and then take their informational interviews. 

And before conducting an interview, do as much research as you can. Trust me, you can get plenty of knowledge on the internet, but don’t blindly follow anything you read on the internet. Instead, rely on trusted and official sources. 

This step will make sure you have a career road map and thus know what skills and steps you need to become a professional in the field of finance. 

Take a Professional Investment Banking Course 

Finally, the most important step I’ve taken to transition my career into the IB field is enrolling in an investment banking course. Although there are many IB courses available out there, not each one of them is worth considering. Therefore, enroll in a high-quality investment banking course with job interview guarantee, by trusted and reputed institutes. By earning a good certificate in investment banking, you can easily get placed after the completion of your course. 

Once you’ve completed your course, the next thing will be to apply for the jobs and prepare for the interviews. This is perhaps the most important but also the hardest part of transitioning into the IB sector. But if you’ve prepared well, you will sail through this step very smoothly. Since most banks and financial corps hire in January and February, I started my preparation in November itself. During this time, I sent my resumes and took practice tests for the interview round. This gave me an edge over my competitors.  

In general, most IB job interviews consist of three rounds, including a written test, a psychometric test, and a personal interview. For the written round, I prepared really well for quantitative aptitude. Note that this is the most important test as it evaluates your quant skills. Interviewers also ask other questions to test your problem-solving skills under pressure. 

So, this was my transition journey in investment banking. I hope it helps you in achieving your goals. Transitioning into this career is an exciting opportunity and if you prepare well with full dedication, you can land the job of your dreams very soon. Good luck! 

Become A Chief Financial Officer With IIM – Step by step Approach

Become a chief financial officer with IIM – step-by-step approach

A Chief Financial Officer in an organisation has multi-discipline functions, much different and complex than the regular activities of a finance officer or an accountant. They are – 

  •  Planning Business Strategies with the Chief Executive of the organisation.
  •  Keeping a tab on systems & processes in an organisation to improve efficiency.
  • Ensure regulatory compliance timely.
  • Commercial negotiations with clients, vendors and investors.
  • Spearheads the budgeting and cash-flow planning exercises.
  • Presents financial Reports along with data-based analysis to support future decisions.

How To Become a Chief Financial Officer with IIM?

Quite a few IIMs have crafted a ten monthly course on this subject. The key objective of the course is to change the traditional mindset of the existing CFO’s role from a Financial Regulator to a holistic Business Partner. In simple words, a CFO should not only be the highest-level auditor of the organisation but also its most important guide to achieving desired business and profitability goals. The course also develops young company-sponsored CFO aspirants in a way that they may take the bull by its horns.  This course has two segments – CFO Essentials and the Future CFO.  In the first portion of the course, the basic finance roles of a CFO are covered. The second segment covers those cross-functional knowledge domains that the CFO needs to be familiar with. Understanding operation, business, design and digital monitoring systems are some of the subjects that a Chief Financial Officer needs to learn these days. A student in this course must pass both segments to qualify for the course.

Readiness for a Chief Financial Officer Course

As mentioned above, a CFO’s role may be broadly divided into two portions – 1) Operational Role and 2) Strategic Role. The operational role includes overseeing Finance & Accounts & Reporting, Tax, Audit, Controls and Compliance. The strategic role includes activities in Risk Management, Fund Raising (Debt & Equity), Investments, Mergers and Acquisitions and Corporate Strategy.

The Chief Financial Officer’s role is pure no-nonsense activity (a custodian’s role) where there is little room for making mistakes. A qualified chartered accountant is an ultimate choice for a CFO in the majority of cases. However, a techie with an MBA in finance and reasonable market experience may also be chosen as a CFO, provided the candidate has the will and the ability to learn and master core skills like Financial Modeling, etc. within a short time. Nowadays, digital transformation is in demand even in the Finance sector and hence a Techie shall have a clear-cut upper hand in this.

The basic traits of an ideal or aspiring CFO are:

  1. Statistical Numbers should be at their fingertips 
  2. Should have more than basic knowledge for a cocktail of professions and
  3. Following a sequence of processes diligently and rigorously. 

However, these traits do not develop overnight. They take years of hard work, smart understanding, applying and predicting capabilities with excellent insights on cross-functional domains. So, getting to learn the business, its operation and transactional aspects at the ground level is of utmost importance irrespective of the fact whether the candidate has completed CA or not. A candidate is ready to take up the challenge of a Chief Financial Officer role only when the above conditions are met to the fullest of his / her and the organisation’s satisfaction. Then only should a candidate be recommended for Chief Financial Officer Executive Training in IIMs or any other reputed institutes? 

Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer

All the above-mentioned three portfolios fall under the C-Suite of an organisation. The Chief Operating Officer and the Chief Financial Officer report to the Chief Executive Officer, who in turn reports to the Board of Directors of the organisation. Though the roles of these three positions are very different and unique on their own, they share overlapping functional responsibilities too.

The CEO’s role is to devise company policies, strategic goals, growth functioning of different departments and the performance of other C-suite executives of the organisation. The CEO represents the organisation, both internally and externally. The COO’s role is in monitoring day-to-day activities in operations, marketing, sales, strategy, culture, research & planning.

Chief financial officer is the highest position for financial matters and is assigned the following responsibilities like financial management, cost curtailment, revenue growth, monitoring company cash flow, and maintaining investor and partner relations. Nowadays, Chief Financial Officers are also expected to master the understanding of cross-functional aspects so that they transform themselves from the role of a regulator/auditor to that of a full-fledged business partner. 

Three top officials in an organisation are said to be its three foundation pillars. Careful analysis of their roles and responsibilities exhibits they have many aspects in common. In fact, almost all key decisions of the organisation are taken by the Chief Executive after having several rounds of joint and one-to-one meetings with the Chief Operating Officer and the Chief Financial Officer. 

Conclusion

A Chief Financial Officer is one of the most prestigious jobs that you will ever come across. The CFO Programme at Imarticus is an online as well as an offline course that will guide you to achieve your goal. The duration of the course is 12 months. Classes are taken on Saturday and Sunday. This course will prepare you for the corporate world out there. 

Things to consider when looking for the best financial technology course

Things to consider when looking for the best financial technology course

Financial Technology (Fintech) is all about the working of new technology resulting in enhancement and automation of delivery and use of financial services. In today’s world, technology is integrated into our day-to-day lives. Financial service companies now use this to provide their services to customers.

People these days are looking to build a career in finance especially since it has become so lucrative in the current world scenario. It is an excellent career path for tech-savvy developers who want to work in a highly collaborative and innovative environment. The different kinds of job roles in fintech include- Product Manager, Data Scientist, Full-Stack Developer, Cloud Management, etc. 

The basic skills required to take up a course in finance are-

  • A background in Finance
  • Innovations and problem-solving skills
  • Basic marketing idea
  • Experience in Python, C++, Java Script
  • Adaptability, flexibility, and communication skills

Important Factors for choosing the best financial technology course-

Suiting your goals-

Fintech being a broad area can be very confusing. An individual needs to research various segments of fintech and what it demands before choosing a course on it. One should know if they are cut out for it and if the stream aligns with your interests. This can help you choose your desired program accordingly.

Practical Experience- For one’s learning to turn into a practice, the chosen course should train as per industry standards. In Fintech, where experience is very important, active learning cannot be stressed enough. Recruiters prefer candidates to work efficiently from the start and only all-around training can ensure that. 

Time Duration- The length of the course is an important determiner of whether one should choose it or not. Depending on one’s need and experience one can select the program. It can be a short-term course that ranges from 6-12 months or a full-fledged course that would take 2-5 years to finish. The former is an apt choice if someone already has a background in finance and the latter is the best choice for freshers. 

Brand Name- Some people do these kinds of courses to add value to their resumes. In such cases, pursuing it from a renowned institution with the required expertise can be helpful. Signing up for fintech courses that do not have proper accreditations is not of much use. Only a certificate course from a highly reputed institute will attract the attention of recruiters. 

Placement Rate- Another major factor to consider before enrolling yourself in an institute is checking their placement rates. One should always ask for placement data, the success rates of students, and the list of organizations hiring from that institute before opting for that course. If any of it is missing then it could be a red flag. 

Cost Structure- This is the most important factor when opting for a professional course. The cost of the program should be such that it always provides a good rate of return for the candidate. One should carefully compare the courses, fee structure, scope, placement rate, and salaries. At times, high-priced programs do not guarantee the best learning pedagogy or decent employment. One should be on the lookout for a course that fulfills all the needs. 

Best Financial Technology Program-

There are a plethora of professional courses available for one to choose from. If someone wants to work in this domain, they need to start preparing for it from the basic undergraduate level. One can go in for various programs that help them to hone their skills to excel in fintech. These kinds of courses create a foundation for a stable career in this field. People from all fields having basic knowledge of economics, finance, commerce, and management can try for these kinds of jobs. Taking the help of some of the best financial technology courses, one can get ahead in their career and prosper in this field. 

One of the best fintech courses in India is offered by Imarticus. Their Professional Certification In Fintech is an industry-partnered program under the S P Jain School of Global Management. This follows a unique fintech pedagogy with community access. This can be your dream course as it provides you with hands-on training in all the major aspects of fintech like API, Blockchain, Cloud computing, AI, Machine Learning, etc. They also provide you with knowledge of the recent industry trends analyzed by partner companies like PWC and Rise Mumbai along with an application-based examination structure. 

Conclusion-

In today’s fast-paced world which is changing instantly, industries in various emerging economies are trading at a massive scale by coming together on virtual platforms with the help of modern technologies. If you love challenges that come with a lucrative salary and amazing opportunities, look no further than fintech. In such a case, efficiency is a winner and fintech is your answer. 

Mastering network security with IIT Roorkee: Cybersecurity for the future

Mastering network security with IIT Roorkee: Cybersecurity for the future

In the age of the internet, data is everything. Businesses rely on data to make decisions, and consumers rely on data to make purchase decisions. With so much data floating around, it’s no wonder that cybersecurity has become the hottest topic in recent years. 

As more businesses move their operations online, the risk of a data breach increases. That’s where IIT Roorkee comes in.

IIT Roorkee is one of the premier institutions in India for engineering and technology. This institute offers a wide range of courses, including mastering network security. 

This course is for students interested in a cybersecurity career. The course covers risk management, cryptography, and secure coding practices. 

Why Is Cybersecurity Important?

Protecting networks, computers, servers, mobile devices, electronic systems, and data from malicious attacks is cyber security. The phrase can be broken down into a few basic categories and used in various contexts, including business and mobile computing.

Cybersecurity is important because it protects businesses and consumers from data breaches. A data breach is when sensitive information gets accessed without authorization. The number of data breaches each year is increasing as the global cyber threat develops quickly.

This can include customer data like credit card numbers or social security numbers. When this type of information gets into the wrong hands, they can use it for identity theft or fraud. 

Identity theft is when one uses your personal information to commit fraud. This can include opening new accounts in your name or making unauthorized charges on your existing accounts. Identity theft can ruin your credit score and take years to recover. 

Fraud is when someone uses your personal information to make false claims or steal money from you. This can include filing false tax returns or using your identity to get government benefits like unemployment benefits. 

Fraud can also include phishing scams, where someone pretends to be a legitimate business to get you to share sensitive information like your credit card or social security number. 

How Can Mastering Network Security Help You?

Cybersecurity skills are in high demand because they can help prevent data breaches. By taking the IIT’s cybersecurity course on mastering network security, you will gain the skills and knowledge you need to excel in this field. 

You’ll learn about risk management, cryptography, and secure coding practices. These skills will help you protect businesses and consumers from data breaches. 

Data breaches are a severe problem that can have lasting consequences for businesses and consumers. That’s why cybersecurity is so critical. This course will give you the necessary skills and knowledge to excel in this field and help protect businesses and consumers from data breaches.

Discover a career in cybersecurity with Imarticus Learning.

By teaching students the fundamentals of networking and information security, ethical hacking, cloud security, application security, and incident handling, our postgraduate program in cybersecurity will prepare students for an exciting cybersecurity career. 

Course Benefits For Learners:

  • After completing this program, students will receive an Advanced Certification Program in Cyber Security co-branded by CEC, IIT Roorkee. Their professional credentials will become significantly more valuable as a result of this advanced certification in cyber security.
  • This program, developed in collaboration with CEC, and IIT Roorkee, will give you the most in-demand security tools and abilities.
  • Students will learn cyber security, cloud security, network security, and application security through challenging lab sessions on real-world issues throughout the ethical hacking course.

Contact us through the chat support system, or visit one of our training centers in Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Gurgaon, or Ahmedabad.

7 tips to remember to make data visualisation better

Data visualization is a powerful tool for communicating complex information, but it can also be daunting. Many data visualizations are compelling because they don’t do anything too fancy or complicated. However, the more complex your data visualization is and the more subtle its impact on your audience, the better it will convey your message. You’ll learn how to become a data analyst by leveraging simple data visualizations!

So here are seven things that you should keep in mind when making your subsequent data visualization:

Keep chart and graph headers simple and to the point. 

  • Use the same font or at least something simple and recognizable. 
  • Don’t overcomplicate things by adding too many bells and whistles (like fancy charts) that aren’t necessary for communicating an important message about what makes up your data set; instead, focus on keeping things simple!

Don’t make graphic-heavy slides.

If you want your data visualized in a way that will help people understand it, then don’t make graphic-heavy slides. It is the biggest mistake we see in presentations and can easily fall into.

Use a single color to represent the same type of data

One of the vital things to remember when creating data visualizations is to use a single color to describe the same data type. This helps create a visual hierarchy and lets the audience quickly identify what is essential. If you use more than one color, ensure they are used consistently throughout your visualization.

Don’t use distracting fonts or elements

  • Don’t use too many different fonts. 
  • Don’t use too small or large fonts. 
  • Don’t use thin or thick text; it should always appear legible at its normal size on your computer screen without looking pixelated or blurry—and remember: there’s no need for fancy, glitzy effects like drop shadows here!
  • Finally, try not to crowd your layout with information.

Avoid patterns

While it is essential to be aware of the patterns in your data, you should also avoid them in the design and presentation of your visualizations.

 Make sure labels are visible.

Labels should be legible, placed close to the points they identify, and consistent with the data, formatting, and other labels. They should also be large enough that people can read them easily from a distance.

Order data intuitively

When visualizing a data set, it’s easy to get lost in the maze of numbers and figures. But ordering them can make all the difference in how your audience interprets your information. 

Data visualization is a potent tool for presenting data, but it can be challenging to master. Data visualization is all about communicating effectively and efficiently. By following these simple tips, you can impact your audience. So go ahead, give it a try!

Explore data analyst certification course with Imarticus Learning

With the help of this data science course, you could land a career in tableau. Utilize what you’ve learned by using data science to create intricate models that produce essential business forecasts and insights.

Course Benefits for Students:

Visit our training centers in Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Gurgaon, or Ahmedabad, or get in touch via the chat support system.

My Journey to Mastery in Natural Language Processing

My Journey to Mastery in Natural Language Processing

As we already know, the field of data science is quite broad. Building a successful career in data science is a huge task in itself, which needs proper mentoring and guidance from experts.  Here, you can find numerous branches of study, each branch is concerned with a specific concept. One such branch of learning in data science is natural language processing. Ample study materials and tutorials are available to learn NLP in data science, but the learning process is not known to all. Thus, it becomes a great help if someone shares their journey or helps in navigating yours.

To start off with your journey of mastering natural language processing needs a dedicated mind and a helpful roadmap. The first requirement must be fulfilled by you and I can help you figure out the roadmap of your journey by sharing mine. Firstly, anyone who is planning a career in data science or wants to master NLP, must understand its meaning deeply. So, we also must start with understanding the meaning of NLP, and then proceed further. 

What is NLP?

The National Language Processing is an area of research study in artificial intelligence which concentrates on understanding human language as it is spoken or written. If one digs deep, they will know its history in the field of linguistics and data science, which existed for a long time now. This ability of a computer program is applied in various real-world industries. For example, it is used in medical research, search engines, as well as in business intelligence. 

One major application of NLP is in the field of data science, as it is impossible to analyse and process huge data without natural language processing. 

After you understand the basics of NLP, it is time to go in depth of the skills you must gather to go smoothly in your journey of mastering natural language processing. 

Here are some skills that  you should gain and move forward in your learning process; 

 

  • Programming

 

It is well known in the technical field that programming is one of the essential skills to acquire. Once you learn programming, it becomes easy to apply it in mathematics and statistics as you go on. Based on your application, you can go on gathering knowledge in programming. As we are discussing about NLP, the minimum requirement is to have basic knowledge of programming in any programming language. To give you some relief, I must let you know that learning a programming language is not hard if you go in with a dedicated mind. 

 

  • Mathematics

 

After you have a basic knowledge of programming, then you can apply it in mathematics, statistics and probability, quite easily. But before that, you must know the various aspects of maths. As mathematics is a vast field and a huge part of both data science and NLP, it is of utmost importance to study the prime aspects of it thoroughly. The main fields of study here are linear algebra, calculus, probability, and statistics. 

 

  • Machine learning 

 

One of the important concepts to study in data science is machine learning which is also a broad area of study. But to understand natural language processing algorithms deeply, one must be familiar with machine learning algorithms. Some of which are supervised, unsupervised, and transferred learning. You can get a good knowledge of this combined with NLP and of entire data science from a post-graduate program in data science and machine learning. This data science course with job placement will not only make you an expert but help you gather professional experience as well. 

 

  • Text Preprocessing 

 

Now, it’s time to learn the NLP basics, and the first step to it is to understand the text preprocessing. Under this, there are several procedures that are undertaken to go further in the analysis process of a text. Briefly, it comprises concepts like stemming, tokenization, stopword removal, lemmatization, and many more. All you need to do is to understand the concepts and their uses to apply it appropriately. 

 

  • Core NLP techniques

 

Lastly, after learning about different concepts and acquiring various skills, it is important to understand the core techniques of natural language processing. As text preprocessing makes the text ready for further analysis, the core techniques of NLP analyses it thoroughly. It aims to perform a set of specific tasks to extract useful information from the text. 

These techniques are building sequence models, parsing text to extract syntactic representation, classifying texts, applying language models, and many more. 

Along with learning these techniques, it is mandatory for you to keep track of recent development of the field, both technological and academic.

Conclusion

Once you master natural language processing, you also cover a huge part of data science study. This will help you build a career in data science, a field that has a bright future ahead. So, it is advisable to all the newcomers to get started with your journey of mastering NLP. There are endless possibilities waiting for you on the other side.