In this article, you will come across a range of different economists that have successfully built their skillset throughout the years
One of the most fundamental finance skills that virtually each financial services aspirant requires to develop would revolve around their accounting and economic expertise. A lot of people tend to think that accounting and finance skills are only required if you are seriously thinking about a career in accountancy. However, as William Jackson of Bridgepoint Capital would likely know, the financial services environment is interrelated, and every role within finance needs you to recognize the three primary economic reports to a minimum of an intermediate level. Companies depend on these economic statements to manage budgeting, efficiency assessment, and plan for the cost of operations through the selection of one of the most suitable financial investments that might comprise bonds, stocks and property. This is why you see many finance professionals, coverage underwriters, and even asset advisors coming from a chartered accountancy background, and that is primarily due to the essential understanding accounting and finance can give you prior to you specialise in your economic career.
Nowadays, one of one of the most obvious hard skills in finance will certainly involve your quantitative skills. Numbers and data-driven data in general are the core of any financial services career. As Ferdi van Heerden of Momentum Global Investment Managers would understand, many financial institutions often tend to hire their graduates, trainees, or apprentices from numerical fields, such as mathematics, financial services, chemical engineering fields, and computer science. This is because, as a financial expert, you are expected to analyze detailed data sets that are full of quantitative information that you will require to evaluate, and having comfort with numbers is definitely a crucial tool to have in this situation. One might argue that also back-office roles that do not always involve data sets still call for candidates to have some sort of quantitative or data-focused experience, and this once again reinforces the fact around quantitative information being the cornerstone of each operation within an economic services organisation nowadays
One can easily argue that soft skills in finance are as crucial as technical knowledge. As Toby Raincock of Shard Capital would certainly know, being client focused in a financial context is probably one of the most demanding roles you can ever before find yourself in. This is because customers are relying on you with their own funds and assets, and as a result, you require to have the ability to build lasting working connections with these customers, acting as their advisors, and making their problems your own. The better your relationship is with the client, the simpler your job will be. Such relationship-building abilities means that interaction abilities are also essential in the field of finance, particularly when it comes to delivering strategic insights and recommendations to clients. Furthermore, you must also have the ability to adapt your style when interacting with various audiences, switching among internal-facing and external stakeholders, depending upon their degree of economic literacy and familiarity.