You’ve always been intrigued with stocks, bonds, and other aspects of finance, so it makes perfect sense to major in finance in college. After all, you can create budgets like no other, enjoy the intricacy of financial forecasting and know you’re bound to climb the corporate ladder. As someone who is just thinking about getting their degree, or someone who is thinking about changing their major, you might wonder what skills you really need and which types of careers you can pursue for yourself. In this article, we’ll be going over some of the best career choices for finance majors.
Paying for Your Education
To be eligible for this career, it helps to have a BA or higher in finances, economics or another relating field. The average cost of a bachelor’s degree in this field can range from $30,000 to $80,000. In fact, it’s worth pointing out that a lot of jobs for finance majors require a BA, but there are also some that mandate at least a master’s degree. Obviously, the higher your education, the better chance you have at being hired. But the cost of your education can be difficult to afford even with a student loan. To ensure you get the education you need, your best bet is to apply for a scholarship. Scholarships allow students to attend with no cost, but some might not cover the entire degree. Some scholarships may only cover about half of the cost, so you’ll need to take your time looking for the best option when researching eligible scholarships online.
Financial Analyst
A financial analyst is a person who fills many roles. They are typically involved in business and corporate settings, like banks and insurance companies. You will have many tasks to fulfill as a financial analyst including:
- Researching the stock market
- Assessing various industries and companies
- Looking for trustworthy investors
- Construct financial models
- Perform quantitative data analyses
- Report your findings and offer the best solutions
Financial Planner
A financial planner is an individual who assists others with their financial plans. However, it’s not that simple. There are many factors involved with financial planning. It can go from something as easy as crafting a budget and guiding clients on how to improve credit scores to a complex process such as weighing the various investment options. As a financial planner, you can expect to make about $60,000 to as much as $91,000, depending on the position. Financial analysts have somewhat of an edge as all they need for their education is a BA.
Accountant
Accounting is one of the most common careers among financial majors. They’re people who make sure everyone is following the rules and regulations in regards to their financial documents, like tax forms. You can consider them to be the police of the financing world. To be more specific, accountants compile every document they need, read through them to ensure they’re legally compliant, crunch numbers and estimate how much people get back as a refund. Becoming an accountant will take a little more than simply getting your degree. You also need to show hours of experience in the field as well as obtain the proper licensing. In regards to the license, this depends on what your state guidelines are.