Career in Finance

Investment Analyst: Investment analysts conduct research, create financial models, and produce analytical reports and recommendations concerning specific types of stocks, bonds or other investment securities. Investment analysts work for many types of firms in the securities industry, including brokerages, banks, money management firms, hedge funds and pension funds. Professionals in this field are also known as securities analysts or financial analysts.

Investment analysts produce research and buy-sell recommendations for two distinct uses, depending on the employer. In a bank or brokerage, investment analysts generally produce recommendations for company agents who use the information to sell investments to individual clients and the public at large. These firms operate on the sell side of the market. On the buy side of the market, which includes hedge funds, pension funds and wealth management firms, analysts usually produce research and recommendations for the company's own investment managers who use the information to buy and sell securities directly.

Credit Manager: As the professional in an institution who is responsible for overseeing all of the credit policies procedures within a specific department, it is only practical to assume that you must have a working knowledge of business management and finance.

Determining When and When Not to Extend Credit to Customers

You must understand how a company extends credit to customers to gain a full understanding of the roles of a credit manager. When a company wants give their customers the option to buy products with cash or on credit, they can increase their sales by attracting the customer base who cannot afford to pay for large ticket items all at once. Organizations that cannot afford to extend credit to clients because they will not be paid immediately will lose a large client base to competitors who can, but organizations who can afford to still must monitor applicants to choose the right clients to approve.

One of your biggest responsibilities as a credit manager will be determining whether or not a customer should be extended credit. Choosing the wrong customers with a reputation for delinquency will lead to high delinquency rates, which means that the company is being too lenient in its underwriting process. As you are assessing a customer’s credit profile, you will determine if the customer has the ability to pay, job stability, stability at their residence and willingness to pay. By running a credit report and reviewing a credit application thoroughly, credit managers will make the smartest decisions for the organization concerning credit. 

Financial Analyst: Being a financial analyst is one of the most popular career paths in finance. This is largely because analysts can work in a range of industries and also because the field has some great benefits, including a high earning potential. If you’re a business or finance major, a financial analyst role is definitely worth considering. Even if you’re not currently majoring in a related discipline, you might be interested in finding out more about this role and deciding whether it could be a good fit for you.

Here are some of the key things you need to know about being a financial analyst.

A financial analyst is someone who makes business recommendations for an organization based on analyses they carry out on factors like market trends, the financial status of a company (or companies) and the predicted outcomes of a certain type of deal. Analysts typically have academic backgrounds as business, finance or accounting majors and are numbers-driven individuals who are comfortable interpreting data and making recommendations based on that data.

Financial analysts are primarily responsible for creating financial models that can predict the outcome of certain business decisions. In order to do this properly, they need to aggregate a large amount of financial data while also taking in account factors like financial market trends and past transactions of a similar nature. Because the role can be quite different depending on where an analyst works — for example an analyst at an investment bank will be much more focused on assisting with deals and mergers that one working for an insurance company — the industry an analyst chooses to go into defines their day-to-day responsibilities. Overall however, analysts play a significant part in providing decision-makers with the information they need to increase revenue and manage assets successfully. 

Treasurer: A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The adjective for a treasurer is normally "tresorial." The adjective "treasurial" normally means pertaining to a treasury, rather than the treasurer. The significant core functions of a corporate treasurer include cash and liquidity management, risk management, and corporate finance. 

Fund Manager: A fund manager is responsible for implementing a fund's investing strategy and managing its portfolio trading activities. A fund can be managed by one person, by two people as co-managers, or by a team of three or more people. Fund managers are paid a fee for their work, which is a percentage of the fund's average assets under management (AUM).

To qualify for a position in fund management (mutual funds, pension funds, trust funds or hedge funds), individuals must have a high level of educational and professional credentials and appropriate investment managerial experience. Investors should look for long-term, consistent fund performance with a fund manager whose tenure with the fund matches its performance time period.

The main benefit of investing in a fund is trusting the investment management decisions to the professionals. The quality of the fund manager is one of the key factors to consider when analyzing the investment quality of any fund.

Financial Planner: A financial planner is a qualified investment professional who helps individuals and corporations meet their long-term financial objectives by analyzing the client's status and setting up a program to help the client meet those goals. Financial planners specialize in tax planning, asset allocation, risk management, retirement and/or estate planning.

A financial planner can be designated a Registered Financial Planner by the Registered Financial Planner Institute (RFPI). A financial planner can also carry the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation if he or she is compliant with the Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards’ initial and ongoing requirements, which include examinations in financial topics like tax and estate planning.

CFPs explicitly providing financial planning services to clients are fiduciaries. This means they are legally obligated to act in the client’s best interests and they can’t personally benefit from the management of client assets. They are expected to manage these assets for the client’s benefit rather than their own.

Even though the Department of Labor (DOL)’s Conflict of Interest Final Rule is expected to meet its final compliance deadline by January 1, 2019, the rule still imposes a fiduciary standard on financial planners making recommendations for retirement plans including 401(k)s and individual retirement accounts (IRAs).

Fiduciary specifics can vary. For example, registered investment advisors (RIA)s are fiduciaries under the Investment Advisors Act of 1940. They are regulated by the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) or state securities regulators.

Investment Broker or remiser: Investment brokers are individuals who bring together buyers and sellers of investments.[1] They usually are required to be licensed to act on behalf of buyers and sellers of stock. They charge a commission on trades that they execute on such instructions from buyers and sellers.

Types of investment brokers

Discount broker

Prime brokerage

Online broker

OTC broker

Exchange broker 

Investment Banker: An investment banker is an individual who often works as part of a financial institution and is primarily concerned with raising capital for corporations, governments or other entities.

Risk Manager: Risk managers work with companies to assess and identify the potential risks that may hinder the reputation, safety, security and financial prosperity of their organisation.

Once these risks have been identified, assessed and evaluated, risk managers are then tasked with implementing processes and procedures to ensure that their client is fully prepared to deal with any potential threats.

A risk manager’s job is inspired by the mantra, “prevention is better than cure.” It’s all about avoiding threats and mitigating the effects of those which are essentially unavoidable.

Risk management careers are highly analytical and a large part of your time will be focused on conducting detailed risk assessments. This process involves analysing documents, statistics, reports and market trends. You’ll also be required to assess the organisation’s previous risk management policies and protocols. 

Financial Trader: A trader can work for a financial institution, in which case he trades with the company's money and credit, and is paid a combination of salary and bonus. Alternatively, a trader can work for himself, which means he is trading with his own money and credit but keeps all of the profit for himself. Among the disadvantages of short-term trading are commission costs and paying away the bid/offer spread. Because traders frequently engage in short-term trading strategies to chase after profit, they can rack up large commission fees. However, an increasing number of highly competitive discount brokerages has made this cost less of an issue, while electronic trading platforms have tightened spreads in the foreign exchange market. There is also disadvantageous tax treatment of short-term capital gains in the United States.