Hey everyone, my name is Ned. I’m the founder and CEO of 365. We’ve helped more than 3 million people worldwide acquire career-enhancing skills.
Today, I want to discuss one of my favorite topics: finance careers. I’m a finance graduate, and throughout my professional development, I’ve worked as a forex dealer, financial analyst, M&A advisor, in-house M&A analyst, and financial consultant. So, I've held various roles and gained valuable experience that I'm eager to share with you.
First, it's essential to understand the diverse fields in finance careers—including corporate finance, investment banking, investment management, traditional banking, financial services, and consulting. Each area demands specialized skills and provides numerous placement opportunities. In this video, I’ll explore various finance job roles, highlight the most intriguing career paths, and share my insights.
I hope you’re excited because I certainly am! But before we continue, I want to say a few words about our platform, 365financialanalyst. com.
Given that you’re interested in a career in finance, I can confidently say that this is one of the best places where you can learn practical skills to help you land a job and excel from day one. Unfortunately, university education often fails to prepare students for real-world work challenges. Our 365 Financial Analyst Program addresses this gap by teaching practical skills that my colleagues and I possess.
Check out the link in the description—I highly recommend taking our courses. OK. First, we'll begin with corporate finance, which involves working within a typical company's finance team.
Coca-Cola, Nike, Starbucks, and thousands of other global companies require finance specialists for financial analysis, cash flow management, treasury operations, working capital management, financial planning, accounting, and more. We distinguish roles into two main types: financial accounting-related and financial analysis. In accounting roles, individuals maintain and analyze financial records—ensuring the company's financial statements are accurate and meet regulatory standards.
The typical positions in most firms include: • Accountants • Accounts receivables—responsible for payments to clients • Accounts payables—who monitor payments to suppliers and • The internal audit team The internal audit team ensures that the finance team adheres to regulations and safeguards the company from fraud, errors, and inefficiencies. These roles manage the firm’s financial accounting—primarily generating reports for external stakeholders. Of course, companies also need financial analysis expertise for their internal decision-making.
This is why they hire financial analysts who study financial performance and provide insights and reporting to management. Another noteworthy role is the financial controller, who is responsible for uncovering the cost of producing a company’s products or services. We also have the Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) team, which forecasts revenue, costs, and balance sheet items.
This team shares these insights across the organization to enable all budgeting and planning efforts. If I had to pick my favorite entry-level Corporate Finance role, it would likely be a financial analyst. As a financial analyst, I relished analyzing financial performance and engaging with key stakeholders who valued my insights.
A fundamental benefit of being a financial analyst is that, in most cases, you don’t specialize in just one or two types of activities. You must perform various analyses—enriching and preparing you for more sophisticated roles. In corporate finance, career progression typically starts at an entry-level position—such as a financial analyst—advancing through roles like finance manager, director, VP, and potentially CFO.
Ok. Great! In addition to traditional corporate finance roles, finance graduates can pursue the challenging and rewarding field of investment banking, which is frequently favored by top candidates for its dynamic career development opportunities.
Investment banks assist industrial and financial firms when they need to raise capital or financial advisory for mergers and acquisitions or restructuring. Additionally, many investment banks operate active trading desks that buy and sell shares for themselves or clients. Securing an entry-level position in investment banking could lead to roles like equity or debt capital markets analyst, M&A analyst, trader, or investment researcher, which focus on detailed research and analysis of financial markets and traded securities.
Becoming an M&A analyst is the dream of many finance graduates. The thrill of closing high-stakes deals, working on transformative transactions that hit the headlines, and deepening one’s understanding of business strategy and financial structuring is highly appealing. M&A analysts are crucial in mergers and acquisitions.
They identify potential targets and handle financial modeling and business valuation. Once a deal is in the pipeline, M&A analysts are heavily involved in due diligence—investigating and verifying the target’s financial, operational, and strategic aspects to identify risks and opportunities. An investment banker's career progression often includes roles like associate, VP, Director, and Managing Director.
But, due to the industry's rigorous demands, fewer individuals stay at each level. Many analysts and associates opt for opportunities in private equity and venture capital (VC). Private equity and VC are part of the investment management industry, which is an essential branch of finance.
Asset managers and investment funds aim to invest client funds and make more money. Depending on a client’s preferred risk-return profile, asset managers choose an optimal investment portfolio combination. Typically, clients can invest in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, real estate investment trusts, venture capital, private equity, hedge funds, and alternative investment asset classes, such as art or cryptocurrencies.
If you become a venture capital analyst, you’ll be responsible for sourcing potential deals with companies in their early development stages. VC analysts' primary objective is to scout for revenue growth potential and great entrepreneurs. They evaluate business plans, focusing extensively on deal structuring and communication.
Private equity analysts, on the other hand, work on significantly larger deals and typically look to acquire a majority stake or full ownership of the firms they invest in. A private equity analyst works on financial models, evaluates companies, and researches potential targets. This role requires significant post-deal support from portfolio companies.
All right. Let’s switch to the next finance field. Most people associate finance with traditional banking, which historically involves deposit taking and lending—familiar since ancient times.
Today, traditional banks offer digital banking, forex, corporate banking, insurance, and wealth management. Concerning job roles, traditional banks need credit analysts to assess the creditworthiness of individuals and businesses applying for loans. They analyze financial statements, credit reports, and other data to determine the risk involved in lending and whether the bank should be involved in this transaction.
Considering the large amounts of money a bank uses, they need significant investments in risk management staff. The entry-level risk management position (Risk Analyst) involves developing financial models, evaluating bank exposures, and proposing strategies to mitigate potential risks. Most banks have corporate divisions that offer tailored services to corporate clients and hire dedicated relationship managers.
These managers get to know their clients well and foster the relationship with the bank. I find this role highly stimulating because working with corporate clients offers significant insights into their business and enhances soft skills through direct interaction with top executives. All right.
Finally, let’s consider Financial Services and Consulting. Thousands of financial consulting firms worldwide assist businesses with M&A, restructuring, auditing, tax, compliance, risk management, and performance improvement issues. In the auditing world, remember the names Pwc, KPMG, EY, and Deloitte, which collectively employ over 1 million people.
An auditor collaborates with client companies to verify that their financial statements are accurate and truly reflect the business's financial status—thereby developing outstanding technical and accounting skills. Besides auditing, the Big Four and financial consultants also offer compelling career paths in transaction services, including due diligence for M&A, tax advisory, and more. The standard career progression in the consulting arm of a Big Four firm typically includes consultant, executive, assistant manager, manager, senior manager, director, associate partner, and partner.
(This illustrates the variety of position titles across consulting firms' corporate hierarchies. ) I began my career in PwC's Transaction Services unit—an enriching experience that allowed me to work on many deals, hone my technical skills in Excel, accounting, and financial analysis, and, crucially, evaluate the business strategies of numerous companies. Having the opportunity to engage with entrepreneurs and finance directors and inquire about their businesses was truly invaluable.
Thank you for watching. I hope this video has provided valuable insights into diverse finance careers and their opportunities. Please check out 365financialanalyst.
com to start building the skills you need to succeed in your finance career. Until next time, take care and keep learning!
