You may feel that you want to work in the financial services because it sounds like a career that will earn you a lot of money. However you will need to progress through your career just as in any other profession. The first problem may be that you do not actually know what kind of jobs this entails or what people do in them. This is perhaps truer of financial services than in any other professional sector.
Financial services jobs can encompass anything from accountancy, auditing, banking, insurance, corporate finance, or financial planning.
Good Way to Get Into the Industry
In each sector of the industry, for example, accountancy, commercial and retail banking, and insurance, there will be three or four global companies operating. It may be useful to find out something about these organisations, their training programmes and what specific opportunities they can offer to graduates. But you will need to be highly marketable and very employable as the bigger companies will be particular about who they want to work for them.
Salaries will start around the national average wage, with excellent opportunities to earn much more, gain promotion and make substantial bonuses. You will probably need a related degree and certainly mathematical skills will be a huge advantage.
Since the hours can be long and the work extremely fast-paced and tough, you will need to be enthusiastic and committed to your area and must have a capacity for detail and accuracy with figures. You need to have good self-discipline and be energetic as well as ambitious. You will need to have a first-class awareness of how businesses operate in the modern world, in particular with their operational procedures and financial and auditing processes. You will be methodical and good at critical analysis.
Gaining Experience
Before taking on full-time employment, you should organise an internship or work placement to gain valuable experience which will look good on your C.V. After your degree, you might even consider enrolling on a Master in Business Administration (M.B.A.) course, adding weight to your academic status.
Trainees would normally join a graduate scheme which will enhance your skills and knowledge and provide all of the training you require. This could include a professional qualification such as those accredited by the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT), the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) or the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA). Such qualifications will be competency based and will test your ability to work with practices and processes within the sector, as well as your awareness of the rapidly changing world of financial and accounting standards and regulation.
Of course, you could apply your skills in accounting or banking to other associated areas such as the civil service, market research, purchasing and supply or sport and the media.
To get a job in the financial services and to progress as much as you wish to, you really will need to stand out from the crowd, as your ideas, decision-making and operational work could directly mean an increase in revenue for your employer.