What are the Top 3 Skills For Financial Analyst
The high-flying well-paying career in financial analysis is a combination of many attributes and goes well beyond good academic grades. The economic and accounting analyst of today needs to have a wide bouquet of characteristics. To stand out from the crowd, your resume, certification of skills and portfolio can help get an interview. From there, it is all about your ability to convince the interviewer that you are the right fit for the job.
The Financial analyst will require non-transferable and non-technical skills like
• The quantitative skills of a seasoned professional
• Razor-sharp analytical and problem-solving skills
• Fantastic grasp on the use of inferential logic and an innovative approach
• Excellent presentation skills in Excel, Word and PowerPoint
• Above-average data and reporting skills
• Excellent interpersonal skills and communicative ability
• Communicative and collaborative team skills
• Ability to withstand stress, long working hours, pressure, work demands and ambiguity in work-schedules
• Financial discipline and integrity
• A quick absorptive learner who is capable of clear decision making and financial interpretations where no SOPs exist.
The top three essential differentiators for all FAs are
1. An accounting graduate qualification: The financial sector has many standards of evaluation, processes to be adhered to, and best practices to follow that need a deep understanding of accounting practice. The degree in accounting, doing a Financial analyst course, certification in accounting practice, sparkling talent and job experience is an ideal combination for FAs and a successful career in finance. Again, some experience and training in management will go a long way. Digitisation and technological automation have brought substantial data volumes to the finance field and its analysis. One must have practice in the latest tools to leverage new IT and the whole organisation’s financial systems. Use of SAP, Oracle, Excel and such software familiarity is in high-demand. Exposure to management and organisational processes gained even during internships help shape the future of your career.
2. Personality attributes: Today’s analysts are not desk-bound and have to interact with teams, management and intra-team clients regularly as part of their jobs. Thus interpersonal and communicative skills are very positive differentiators that can tilt the balance in your favour. Your reporting skills and being a team player need to be showcased. Financial reporting is an arduous task that needs excellent presentation skills, teamwork and presentations of outcomes and foresight based on large volumes of data in lay-man language and used for management’s decision-making.
3. Software and technological skills: Technology is here to stay in all verticals and knowledge of software, and accounting suites do make a massive difference to both small and large clients. Analytical and quantitative skills with keen problem-solving abilities will help. An FA who can be clear and logical in his analysis, able to present KPI analysis in layman's language, and who can solve issues as they rise laterally and even without standard procedures being in place is a huge management asset. Commercial acumen helps in gauging the market demands and fiscal financial behaviour, while the use of innovative methods can find value even in the standard practices field. This is mainly because accuracy, records, and streamlining of data collection are all essential steps for predictive analytics.
Job scope and opportunities:
The financial analysis field offers many career roles, titles and routes. The main categories are in
• Investment firms on buy and sell-side.
• Large Investment banks
• The real-estate sector
• Insurance-based firms and companies
• Firms in brokerage
• Financial data-driven companies.
It is a foregone conclusion that changes in technology handling of larger volumes of data mean better analysis of financial data. This drives the need for analysts higher, and the FAs role becomes very lucrative. However, it does suffer from long working hours, a lot of stress and a lack of social life.
Average Salary:
FAs draw a median salary of 65k -110k$ in the US according to Indeed.
Concluding notes:
The Financial analyst in order to be successful in this demanding career has to hone a wide variety of skills that are technical, and also non-transferable skills not taught in regular college courses.
Doing the Financial analyst course from Imarticus Learning is an excellent move to get ahead in the FA career. Besides the basics of a comprehensive global classroom course curriculum taught to ensure the development of practical and technical skills, the course has other invaluable advantages like the mentored specialisation in the financial industry, measurable skills with certification, soft skill training, personality development, resume writing modules and assured placements. Hurry!
Also Read: Future Of Financial Analyst In India
