1 answer
Asia
Student
Downingtown, Pennsylvania
1
Question
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What advice would you give to someone with a non-finance background trying to break into finance?
In my internship with the Office of Children and Families, I developed strong project management and research skills, especially through engaging with community stakeholders and working on policy development. I’m interested in applying my analytical skills to the finance sector and would appreciate any guidance on making this transition.
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1 answer
Simona Zaffaroni-Lucas
Financial Analyst
3
Answers
Madrid, Community of Madrid, Spain
Updated
Simona’s Answer
Hi Asia - thank you for your question. It is very close to me, I have been working in finance covering various roles and taking care of various responsibilities across different organisation but my study background is in linguistics. It's not that I did not have the desire to study finance or economics - simply did not have the time because I started to work in young age when I was still studying languages at the university. But I learned. And everybody can learn - of course it's not easy, concepts appear abstract but if you apply, if you have common sense, if you practice and shadow people and if you have the passion to succeed, in my view, unless the job role description demands it, you don't need a degree in finance.
You are mentioning already key skills: strong project management, research skills, engaging with people and analytical skills. These are already the right ''ingredients''. You need to be organised, because it's not just what you do (project management, deliverables, rules). You depend on other people (the engagement that you mention) and people will depend on what you do. You need to develop a strong sense to not just look at the first answer, detailed analysis is needed (does it make sense? do the numbers reflect such and such trend in the business, why is that? The research skills you have). Engaging with people - communicating for impact, extremely important: there are many stakeholders. What happens if I do xxx, will that impact someone and why is that.. how do I make sure that my team knows that such and such revenue or cost trend is xxx and because of yyy. Clear communication is essential. Analytical skills, these wrap all up.
If you join a company in a finance role of course you will have to observe, learn and start to apply specific principles.. but you will find a colleague who will hand over that job competencies to you, there will be a team leader or a manager who will explain what the actual job is about. The learning process, the curiosity, the approach - all depends on your attitude and if you like what you are doing. But if you have already developed those analytics skills and you are organised, you are already starting with a strong background.
I wish you all the best in your search for the job you'd like to do. And always important - a good dose of humour, deep breath and keep carrying on!
You are mentioning already key skills: strong project management, research skills, engaging with people and analytical skills. These are already the right ''ingredients''. You need to be organised, because it's not just what you do (project management, deliverables, rules). You depend on other people (the engagement that you mention) and people will depend on what you do. You need to develop a strong sense to not just look at the first answer, detailed analysis is needed (does it make sense? do the numbers reflect such and such trend in the business, why is that? The research skills you have). Engaging with people - communicating for impact, extremely important: there are many stakeholders. What happens if I do xxx, will that impact someone and why is that.. how do I make sure that my team knows that such and such revenue or cost trend is xxx and because of yyy. Clear communication is essential. Analytical skills, these wrap all up.
If you join a company in a finance role of course you will have to observe, learn and start to apply specific principles.. but you will find a colleague who will hand over that job competencies to you, there will be a team leader or a manager who will explain what the actual job is about. The learning process, the curiosity, the approach - all depends on your attitude and if you like what you are doing. But if you have already developed those analytics skills and you are organised, you are already starting with a strong background.
I wish you all the best in your search for the job you'd like to do. And always important - a good dose of humour, deep breath and keep carrying on!