Six tips if you are studying finance
TRENDS FOR 2018: CAREERS EVOLVING QUICKLY, WORK PERCEPTIONS OUTDATED
As tech infiltrates financial profession, the need for specialised skills is growing.
As tech infiltrates finance, entirely new roles are being created. The need for technical and quantitative skills is growing.
Ajob in finance has always been attractive to graduates. In SA, the field’s highly competitive and evolving quickly. There’s increasing demand for scarce skills.
This means undergraduate students must buckle up: a Master’s degree is typically required as a minimum to work in the industry. Speaking at UCT’s African Institute of Financial Markets and Risk Management (AIFMRM), representatives from the industry advised aspiring quants and risk managers what to prepare for.
1. Instability in the economy isn’t the end
Asked whether instability in SA is a career death sentence, Greg Mollentz of OMSFIN said: “I have never seen such a professional drive for quants.”
Absa’s Nico le Roux pointed out the need for some direction in order to sell. “From that perspective, volatility is not a bad thing.”
Industry developments post-2008 meant a growing demand for risk managers, said AIFMRM’s Obeid Mohamed. Since then, management’s been playing catchup. “Quantitative skills are more important than ever in risk management.”
2. New skills in demand – and evolving
There’s an opportunity to thrive in a rapidly changing industry, said AIFMRM’s Co-Pierre Georg. He cited industry buzzwords: fintech, machine learning, big data, blockchain… “The financial service industry is changing. This will result in a fundamental change in how the economy works.”
“The demand will soon be inordinate for people with scarce skills that combine finance with modern technology. This will be the case in every environment where there is risk….”
3. Stay the distance
It’s not easy to study and work and funding may be scarce. Lennox Masangane of Rand Merchant Bank emphasised the importance of staying the distance with their studies for as long as possible.
David Taylor of AIFMRM, concurred. “In the last ten years, a Masters is the standard qualification you need to get into financial careers.”
4. Postgraduate is competitive
Although numbers decrease sharply from undergraduate to postgraduate level, applications at this level are still fiercely competitive.
5. Employers want you work-ready
Taylor said firms are essentially looking for maturity of mind and attitude in new recruits. “The technical sophistication of modern financial services roles, the speed at which the environment can change, and the breadth of knowledge and abilities required, means employers want recruits who do not need a year or more of post-employment immersion to begin to contribute in a meaningful way….”
6. Graduates can shape their own career
There’s a need for those who dream big, said Georg. “You must have an interest in trying and failing. We want people who want to experiment and change things. My dream is that at the end of next year, we will have students who start up their own companies. We must go from the mindset of trying to get jobs to trying to create jobs.”