Not to sound like your parents the night before a Math exam, but numbers are important. Especially in the world of finance.
For instance, here are some numbers that highlight how lucrative a career in finance can be:
Looking at the above, you may be tempted to opt for a career in Finance, and a quick Google Search will show you professional programs like CA, CFA, ICWAI, etc.
But there are more than one roads to Rome (or a high-paying career in Finance).
First things first.
Let’s clarify that Chartered Accountancy (CA) is a prestigious career path for good reason. It sets a strong foundation in accounting principles and presents rewarding career opportunities and packages. It’s also considered a “niche” considering the frequently changing compliance requirements and the growing economy.
That said, CA is also considered to be one of the toughest exams to crack. If you think, CFA or ICWAI exams are a breeze, think again!
Thankfully, though, these exams aren’t the “be all end all” to a career in Finance.
For those who want to pursue a career in finance without going the CA route, Financial Modelling and Analysis is a promising place to start from.
Financial Modelling & Analysis translates complex financial information into clear, actionable insights. Put it simply: with these skills, a financial analyst can look at the story behind the numbers and see what lies in the future.
This puts Financial Modelling & Analyst professionals at the heart of important financial decisions, giving them a chance to shape the way businesses operate. This career path presents stimulating challenges, exciting opportunities along with competitive salaries.
Here’s the best part: you don’t have to crack extremely difficult examinations to enter this field. All you require are specialised skills.
Now that you decided to explore the field of Financial Modelling & Analysis as a viable option to CA, here are the skills that you need to pick up:
Fundamentals of Finance: Before you start constructing intricate financial models, you need to establish a strong foundation in finance. The widely used finance terms and core concepts should become your second language.
How Financial Statements Work: If your expertise has to mean anything, then you should know how to interpret cash flow statements, balance sheets, and income statements for assessing a company's financial health and performance.
Ratio Analysis: To thrive in the world of financial analysis, you need to make best friends with ratios. Ratios act like financial checkups for businesses. By calculating ratios that analyse profitability, liquidity, solvency, and efficiency, you gain insights into a company's overall financial health. Ratios turn numbers into a concise story, allowing you to easily compare your competitor's performance or measure your own performance over time.
Financial Forecasting: The foundation of financial planning is accurate forecasting. In this module, you dive into forecasting approaches, allowing you to forecast financial trends, manage risk, and find opportunities.
Valuation Techniques & Methods: While financial modelling builds a roadmap for the future, valuation techniques take this a step further. Valuation techniques are central to business planning, mergers and acquisitions, identifying undervalued assets and maximising returns.
New-age Financial Modelling Tools: Concepts and methods have their place, but an expert should also be comfortable with data representation, manipulation and visualisation tools like Excel, PowerBI and Tableau. With the development of GenAI, it is also important to understand the capabilities AI tools unlock in Financial Modelling.
