Financial Analyst as a Career
Description of the Job
Financial analysts are responsible for tracking a company's financial performance against a plan, analyzing business performance and market conditions to create forecasts, and helping senior management make tactical and strategic decisions by providing periodic reports.
Financial analysts generally work for a specific team within the Finance department at a company. Various teams may include Treasury, FP&A (Financial Planning & Analysis), internal audit, cost accounting, specific business groups within a company, etc.
Fast Facts
- Number of hours per week40-50, with spikes of 50-60 during busy season
- Average starting pay$61k nationally, $77k for the Bay Area
- Amount of travel requiredLittle to none
Roles & Responsibilities
- Provide analytical, forecasting, reporting, and project support to senior management
- Produce monthly reports which include key metrics, financial results, and variance reporting
- Spearhead the annual and quarterly budgeting and forecasting processes
- Identify opportunities for performance improvement across the organization
- Develop financial models to support valuation, planning, and forecasting
Skills Needed
- Strong communication skills: Effective communication as a financial analyst can mean being direct when sending emails, leaving phone messages, speaking to an investor about important financial information and utilizing nonverbal communication to navigate professional and working relationships.
- Strong analytical skills: The ability to forecast, plan, prioritize, rank and recognize financial problems are all qualities of an effective financial analyst.
- Technical skills: Financial analysts use sophisticated accounting and bookkeeping software, and prior knowledge of programs like Hyperion, SAP, SQL, QuickBooks and other software programs can be highly beneficial when working in this field. Excel is also a very critical tool to be able to use
- Organizational skills: This can benefit financial analysts as they will be required to keep track of financial records as well as the current processes of a business. Being able to organize records, information, numbers and financial data of an organization can be a critical skill to have.
Steps to Enter The Field
- A bachelor's degree – preferably with a major in economics, finance, statistics, accounting, or math
- Network with professionals, master needed technical skills, gain experience with spreadsheets
- An advanced financial analyst position generally requires an MBA degree with an appropriate subject focus or a master's degree in finance.
- Internships at any firms performing accounting, financial, mathematical or such work is can help one enter the field
Landscape of the Field & Companies in the Field
- Practically every corporate company has financial analysts within its Finance department. Some examples within the tech and retail industry include: Google, Amazon, PayPal, Ebay, Apple, Cisco Systems, Adidas, Nike, and much more.
- Many companies today have a finance rotational program, where new grads have rotations (generally 6 months to 1 year) within multiple teams in corporate finance (ex: treasury, FP&A, corporate strategy, etc.) lasting 2-3 years. This helps prepare new grads for corporate finance and allows them to try out multiple teams.
External Resources to Learn More & Develop Skills
- Options in Corporate Finance: Mergers & acquisitions website includes a description of what the various roles in corporate finance are (treasury, FP&A, controllership, etc.), along with how to advance in corporate finance
- Corporate Finance Institute: Provides courses and certifications to learn the skills and knowledge for a corporate finance role. These may include how to read a financial statement, Excel crash courses, accounting fundamentals, etc. It provides many free beginner courses, but the advanced courses cost money.
- Investopedia: Provides information about practically any financial topic. This tool is great when you come across a concept you don’t understand. Simply use their search engine for a financial topic and start reading financial topics from experts.
- The Complete Financial Analyst Course 2021 (Udemy): covers a multitude of topics including financial math, business analysis, financial statement analysis & valuation, capital budgeting, and accounting. Students also get acquainted with the required tools for financial analysis like Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint.
Related Careers
- Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A), Corporate Strategy, Treasury, Strategic Finance, Investment Analyst, Audit, Tax
Informational Interviews
Radhika Wakankar
Company Name: Cisco
Title: Senior Financial Analyst
Years of Experience: 4
Biography
Radhika Wakankar is a Senior Financial Analyst at Cisco. She graduated from North Carolina State University with a degree in Business Administration, with focuses in Finance, IT, and Data Analytics. Radhika joined Cisco after college as a Financial Analyst in their Leaders in Finance & Technology (LIFT) Program, then became a full Financial Analyst in Business Entity Finance - Security. She was promoted again to a Senior Financial Analyst in April 2021.
Overview
Steps to Enter Field
Challenges & Favorite Parts
Advice
Marc Gehrig
Company Name: Lucid Motors
Title: Financial Analyst
Years of Experience: 3
Biography
Marc Gehrig is a Financial Analyst at Lucid Motors. He graduated from Santa Clara University with a major in Finance and a minor in Management Information Systems. He joined Maxim Integrated right after college as a Financial Analyst and was there for almost three years before joining Lucid Motors in June of 2021.
Overview
Steps to Enter Field
Challenges & Favorite Parts
Advice
Laura Willems
Company Name: Applied Materials
Title: Financial Analyst
Years of Experience: 2
Biography
Laura Willems is a Financial Analyst at Applied Materials. She graduated from Santa Clara University in 2019 with a degree in Finance.