Essential Finance Skills to Land a Job

I’ve been learning about the finance industry, and despite the fallout, I’m starting to think it may be where I want to be. What are some technical skills that bschools and the CFA curriculum doesn’t teach you that one would be important for someone in the industry? For example, I hear excel is really important, so I’m going to start trying to learn more about it. What about tax programs, or programming languages? Any suggestions?

b school teaches you excel. some dont, but mine did. thats all i will say about that. NETWORKING and learning to close people. If you cant sell yourself, a 4.0 GPA or impeccable DCF is useless.

daj224 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > b school teaches you excel. some dont, but mine > did. thats all i will say about that. > > NETWORKING and learning to close people. If you > cant sell yourself, a 4.0 GPA or impeccable DCF is > useless. Totally agree with daj224. Networking, selling yourself, socializing with important people (also known as a**-licking) is the most important if you want to go up and are not a genius trader bringing millions every year (in which case you can afford being anti-social). Remember what they say, its not what you know that matters, its who you know. And its not hard work that matters either, its smart work. Sad but undisputed truths.

cpham Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > What are some technical skills that bschools and > the CFA curriculum doesn’t teach you that one > would be important for someone in the industry? EXCEL. There are so many CFA/MBA-ers that can’t do basic Excel. The knowledge is great but the day to day reality of many finance jobs is that you are a spreadsheet jockey.

purealpha Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > cpham Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > What are some technical skills that bschools > and > > the CFA curriculum doesn’t teach you that one > > would be important for someone in the industry? > > > EXCEL. There are so many CFA/MBA-ers that can’t > do basic Excel. The knowledge is great but the > day to day reality of many finance jobs is that > you are a spreadsheet jockey. Really? I’d be curious to know what % of finance guys can’t to intermediate functions (data tables, customizing charts, pivot tables, embedded match/vlookups etc), since everyone around me seems pretty adept w/ that. If it’s a good %, I may just retire and teach it - there’s ridiculous money in that, it seems (or there will be once banks begin hiring again, in the next 6-60 months).

cpham, You have plenty of technical skills. Now, forget about them. Go and get some social skills. Those will be much more helpful. Oh yeah, and get familiar with Excel, which is a must. Taking an educated guess that you most likely already know C/C++/C#, you will find Excel piece of cake.

im in wealth management and NEVER touch excel…i may be an exception though since im not on the portfolio management track

skipe99, What do you guys use? Abacus? Mop?

My name is tvPM, and I am awful at Excel. that felt good. I agree its a skill that is very important, I have just never put the focus on achieving more than amateur status with it. If I had time (read: unemployed/student) I would devote some time to it without a doubt.

L3 Buckaroo Wrote: > Really? I’d be curious to know what % of finance > guys can’t to intermediate functions See it is amazing isn’t it? We had this CFA/MBA gal join up at my last gig making the six digits and she couldn’t do anything with Excel. It really pisses off the crew who come from the “real world” when these ultra-educated people cruise in without basic knowledge of the machinery.

Trogdor Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > skipe99, > What do you guys use? Abacus? Mop? no but we do have interactive q&a sessions with our portfolio managers. they tell us the direction of their funds, the reasoning behind their allocations, their predictions on the markets, and how their performance compares to their benchmarks and other funds. what do we need excel for? we manage the money, make the invesmtent recos, and implement our recos to the clientele. pretty sweet PM meetings though. like 3 PMs to an audience of 9. i intend to try to make the often heard of, but hardly done leap to the BO. PM is the awesomest job ever. yes i said awesomest… i am awesome-o 3000

ah man that makes you mad? I hate to be one of those people, I will make it my resolution to become an intermediate excel user, thank you for the idea.

I know how to use excel (i.e. build databases, crunch numbers, and do calculations). But how well must one know excel? I have no clue how to do any of the macros stuff, never learned it. I’m doing an undergrad in business, and they expect you to know how to use excel, but since it isn’t a finance program, I’ve done anything related to the finance industry. Trogdor, I did some C++ in high school but that was ages ago, and pretty much involved making amateur calculators and text based games.

For SkipE99. Do u manage the client’s portfolio all by yourself?

L3 Buckaroo Wrote: > Really? I’d be curious to know what % of finance > guys can’t to intermediate functions (data tables, > customizing charts, pivot tables, embedded > match/vlookups etc), since everyone around me > seems pretty adept w/ that. If it’s a good %, I > may just retire and teach it - there’s ridiculous > money in that, it seems (or there will be once > banks begin hiring again, in the next 6-60 > months). Serious Question: I’ve been considering teaching Excel on the side, either privately or doing group sessions of some sort. I’ve been told by a lot of people that I should teach it professionally. How much $$ do you really think there is (ballpark) in this sort of thing, on a per-student basis. I’m in Boston, so the market is there and did a quick google search and saw a 6-hour session for $260 and another for 6 hours for $250. It seems you really need volume to make this work, but definitely something to consider for some extra cash.

cpham Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I’ve been learning about the finance industry, and > despite the fallout, I’m starting to think it may > be where I want to be. > > What are some technical skills that bschools and > the CFA curriculum doesn’t teach you that one > would be important for someone in the industry? > For example, I hear excel is really important, so > I’m going to start trying to learn more about it. > What about tax programs, or programming languages? > Any suggestions? I’d recommend building a financial model i.e. something that projects financial statements. That will teach you some basic Excel, but more importantly, you will learn how everything fits together. It is the latter point that will really help in finance. Also, as you suggest understanding tax is important. Many people ignore the concept or outsource it to tax experts, but a basic understanding can be seriously advantageous.

Panhandling.

cpham Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I know how to use excel (i.e. build databases, > crunch numbers, and do calculations). But how > well must one know excel? I have no clue how to > do any of the macros stuff, never learned it. I’m > doing an undergrad in business, and they expect > you to know how to use excel, but since it isn’t a > finance program, I’ve done anything related to the > finance industry. > > Trogdor, I did some C++ in high school but that > was ages ago, and pretty much involved making > amateur calculators and text based games. One of my former managers said once that all you need to know in Excel are IF and VLOOKUP formulas. While not 100% true, it’s very close. What I want to say that if you know how to build databases, crunch numbers, and do calculations, etc you already have advantage over many applicants. Macros will most likely raise you to a rank of Excel guru of you firm. No kidding. Macros are fairly straightforward, but can be confusing/intimidating if you never tried them. But they are much simpler that C, so you shouldn’t worry. If you want to know how to write them, pick up a book on Excel/VBA, which are plentiful in any book store. I found a good copy of Advanced Modelling in Finance Using Excel and VBA by Mary Jackson and Mike Staunton. It might not be the best reference books, but it has some neat solutions for finance macros, e.g. Black Scholes formula, JR trees, etc. Also, don’t be afraid to play with Excel macros. Launch macro recording, do whatever you want to do and then analyze generated code. :wink: Good luck.

Recently was on a CFAI course teaching modelling - nothing too complex Excel-wise, by any means. The guy charges ~$1500/student, times 24 students for 2 days. His expenses were likely limited to travel, booking a hotel conference room, and printing booklets. Not bad coin, I’d think, and he’s the only one doing it, from what I hear.

kach… by “manage” i mean we set expectations on what type of allocation we implement and we also recommend which allocation bet fits our clients needs. i would say we manage the account/portfolio, but not the individual funds. so i say ok, you are aggressive or conservative, i suggest this mix and that mix of funds and different investments. we also review fixed income investments and in this environment we review creative ways to maximize FDIC insurance. this recent market downturn has also been a blessing for fixed annuities right now. especially with the recent fed cut. the PMs follow guidelines and stick to conservative, international, or income focused investments depending on the specific fund. they “manage” the fund in the sense of buying and selling within the fund to try to beat their benchmarks/fellow PMs