Jobs for the Major
How this major affects a job search
Rule number one for finance majors: Be good with numbers. This usually means that these number-savvy graduates end up in the world of investment banking, business, or—you guessed it—finance. We'll be the first to admit that there aren't many other options with a degree in finance.
Hey, that's okay. If you know you love to crunch the numbers, and you can't get enough of analyzing stocks and investments, then this is the area of study for you. Most available jobs as a financer will tap right into the skills that you've been honing in college. You'll definitely be one of the gang that gets to use his/her major every single day.
The downside? If you're not all that excited about calculations and math to begin with, we hate to break it to you, but finance might not be the major you're looking for. Majoring in finance might as well proclaim to the world in skywriting "I love math" because that's what you'll be asked to do in any career you do.
Common Career Fields
Chief Financial Officer. Cha-ching. Interested in the big bucks with an accounting degree? This is the career path for you. CFOs are responsible for coming up with the budgets and goals for a company. Think along the lines of "double profit margins" and stuff like that. It's true that an MBA never hurts when applying for CFO positions, especially because the competition is tough the higher you get up the corporate ladder. Still, you can't get there unless you climb.
Comptroller. We know what you're thinking. Aside from reminding you of trolling, comptroller sounds an awful lot like controller. There's a reason for that. Comptrollers are in charge of controlling the incoming and outgoing finances. Most comptrollers become CPAs (Certified Public Accountants) first. They act as the company's guardian angel, watching over every financial move the company makes. Comptrollers are responsible for pointing out when money is missing or used inappropriately, too. Remember, never spend money faster than your guardian angel can fly. Or something like that.
Financial Analyst. So you've got a finance degree, but you're not all that interested in the corporate world, which is perfectly okay. Why not try out becoming a financial analyst? They use their mad number-crunching skills to help out the little guy. Not all of us know which types of bonds or investments to buy without some serious research. Even then, the investment game can be a tricky one. A financial analyst looks at an individual's money and comes up with the best investment options for him/her.
Mergers and Acquisitions. This is just a fancy pants term for buying and selling companies. When a big company wants to buy out the little guy, a team of M&A specialists become involved. Among them is someone with a finance degree, who figures out the dollar signs behind it all. Since there are different ways of figuring out how much a company is actually worth (based on stocks, cash flow, debt), finance specialists have to do the work before the sale of a company to make sure it's legit.
Real Estate. With a finance degree in hand, many test out the real estate waters. Since realtors need to be up-to-date regarding the latest laws and procedures when it comes to buying and selling property, fresh finance graduates are a good fit. Plus, there are lots of numbers and percentages involved. Finance graduates are well-equipped to handle the mounds of money changing hands involved in closing a real estate deal from their time working the numbers in college.
Sales. Don't let the bad rep of the used car salesmen throw you. Sales is a growing business that attracts a lot finance grads. Working with spreadsheets, calculating interest, showing someone the upside of buying something are all in a day's work for salespeople. Finance grads tend to be comfortable with calculating the numbers and figuring out the best selling technique for customers. Besides, sales jobs run the gambit. They can be in retail, telemarketing, or door-to-door.
Stockbroker. Usually, stockbrokers have not only a BA in accounting or finance, but also an MA in finance and a license in hand. They've got to be hard workers and quick thinkers to make it as stockbrokers. You might not think buying and selling stocks all day is tough (after all, who doesn't like shopping?), but if Wolf of Wall Street taught us anything, it's that making money is a fast-paced, stressful business.
Current unemployment of the major
6%Percentage of majors who get a higher degree after college
26%Stats obtained from this source.