What do economic industry leaders go through to get to where they are currently? Read this post for additional insights
One of the most fundamental finance skills that almost every single finance enthusiast needs to develop would revolve around their accounting and financial knowledge. Many people tend to think that accounting and finance skills are only needed if you are actually thinking about an occupation in accountancy. Nonetheless, as William Jackson of Bridgepoint Capital would likely understand, the financial services world is interrelated, and each position within financial services needs you to recognize the 3 primary economic reports to a minimum of an intermediate degree. Firms rely on these financial statements to oversee budgeting, efficiency assessment, and plan for the cost of doing business with the choice of one of the most suitable financial investments that may comprise bonds, equities and property. This is why you see numerous bankers, insurance analysts, and even wealth managers coming from a formal accountancy background, and that is primarily due to the foundational understanding accounting and finance can offer you prior to you specialise in your financial occupation.
Nowadays, among the most obvious hard skills in finance will definitely involve your numerical abilities. Numbers and quantitative data overall are the core of any financial services occupation. As Ferdi van Heerden of Momentum Global Investment Managers would know, numerous financial institutions often tend to employ their graduates, trainees, or apprentices from numerical fields, such as mathematics, finance, chemical engineering fields, and information technology. This is because, as a financial expert, you are required to go through detailed data sets that are filled with quantitative information that you will require to evaluate, and being comfortable with numbers is absolutely an essential skill to have in this situation. One could suggest that even back-office roles that do not always involve data sets still require candidates to have some sort of numerical or data-focused experience, and this once again reinforces the point around quantitative data being the foundation of every process within an economic services sector organisation nowadays
One can easily suggest that soft skills in finance are as crucial as technical knowledge. As Toby Raincock of Shard Capital would certainly know, being customer facing in a financial context is possibly the most challenging roles you can ever before find yourself in. This is because customers are entrusting you with their personal money and investments, and therefore, you require to have the capacity to form lasting working connections with these clients, serving as their partners, and making their problems your very own. The stronger your connection is with the customer, the easier your role will be. Such relationship-building abilities suggests that communication abilities are also crucial in the field of finance, particularly when it involves delivering strategic insights and recommendations to customers. Furthermore, you must likewise have the ability to diversify your approach when communicating with different stakeholders, switching among internal and client-facing stakeholders, depending on their level of economic literacy and familiarity.