What educational preparation would you recommend for a Finance student in order to advance in the field?

Hi Andalusia!

Good question! I was an accounting major so slightly different but the paths often overlap. I would suggest first getting an understanding of what is available to you in the field. A lot of times large finance/accounting/etc firms will have programs that you can apply for where they will bring you in the office, introduce you to the field and help you network with professionals who work there. If you could find one of these programs that is definitely a good thing to apply to. Further, I would look for internships in the field you are interested in. The key is to network and to start working yourself into the field.

Going off this idea of networking, this is extremely important. You should look for networking events where you can meet people in the field. When you go there, look for people in the positions you are interested in and get to know them and ask questions.

While on campus, I would recommend getting involved in campus activities to build a resume and get experience working with others. It would also be beneficial to take a class in Microsoft Excel as many companies use this in their everyday work.

Hope this helps!

Finance has multiple fields in it such as Plain Finance and Quantitative Finance. Plain Finance deals with the general concepts of Finance, investments, portfolio management, etc., whereas Quantitative Finance involves a combination of Finance, Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science applied to the fields of trading primarily, where you would develop algorithms for high-frequency trading.

Having such clarity of what career path you like can help you developing a story for your resume right from your college days. If you like Plain Finance, you can take more advanced courses at school, join an investment club, and search for plain finance internships, which can be found at most companies (finance or non-finance firms). If you like Quantitative Finance, again you can take more advanced courses, also develop your programming skills (especially C++), and expand your math skills. If you happen to like your internship experiences, hopefully they can lead to a full-time job at those firms, which is an ideal way to transition to a full-time career path. On the contrary, if you are not sure which part of finance you are interested, no harm in trying out both type of internships and see for yourself which one you like more and can see yourself doing it for the next 10 years.

Also to advance in your Finance career, companies respect certain certifications like the CFA and FRM. CFA stands for Chartered Financial Analyst and FRM stands for Financial Risk Management.