Career Prospects in Finance: Personal SWOT Analysis and Progression Opportunities

This report discusses the career prospects in finance, including personal SWOT analysis and progression opportunities. It explores financial analyst and investment banking as career options, along with their required qualifications and salaries. The report also highlights the barriers and challenges faced by the investment banking sector.

Reflective Piece

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY ......................................................................................................................................3
Personal SWOT Analysis- ..........................................................................................................3
Career Prospects..........................................................................................................................4
Progression Opportunities...........................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES ....................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Money is an important part of human life for carrying out day to day activities and for the
completion individual needs. It is also an essential part of a business for operating its day to day
activities, money which is used in managing actions of a company is known as business finance.
For purchasing assets, investment, paying off liabilities or various other functions, money is prime
nee of a business(AN,and MIKHAYLOV, 2021). Finance is used by organisation for bringing new
technologies to make the functions easy and smooth, it also helps business to handle future
incidents which cannot be predicted without interrupting management. Finance is majorly classified
into four parts- personal finance for satisfying the individual needs and wants, corporate finance in
companies for funding its activities, public finance which is related to intervention of government
bodies or public. Business can obtain funds from sources like debt and equity. This report is the
discussion on career in the area of finance in corporate sector, SWOT analysis has also done for
evaluating the inner potential to follow my career in this sector. It also discusses about the
progression field in the field of finance and barrier or challenges in this path.
MAIN BODY
Many job possibilities are available in the field of finance and if any student want to get these jobs
various courses, qualifications are required in this field. Making career in finance will give better
way of earning, helps in balancing the way of life, etc., it also give me the constant opportunity to
increase my level of education or knowledge because I will able to learn new things everyday in
this region. It will improve my thinking ability and makes me more innovative and will provide me
job security(Clement, and Silvernagel, 2019). Several other multinational companies also provide
several benefits or incentives to their employees from this profession like various types of insurance
plans, retirement plans and various others perks. So, my decision of starting my career journey in
financial sector will be successful in many ways but I need to find out about my skills in which I am
good, weak and things which could be threat or opportunities. For this I did personal SWOT which
is given below-

Personal SWOT Analysis-
 Strength- As monetary value is involved in this sector then having good knowledge of
mathematics is important to start my career in this field. Skills like numeracy which will
help me in handling the data and funds in efficient manner which helps me to do proper
management of fund in the business. It helps to identify and curing the financial risks and to
improve the cash position of the company. Management of finance helps to finding the best
sources from where I can arrange the funds for the companies and deciding the best
investment aspect for the company, this leads in the maximum utilization of funds in the
organisation(Gerasimova, and Rohrer,2022).
 Weaknesses- Lack of knowledge in technical field will hold me to perform better in my
tasks which can be great disadvantage for me as I have to be aware from those individuals
who are good in modern techniques in handling finance. I easily get under pressure in any
risky condition, I might be not able to manage risk in time of need. We cannot avoid risk in
corporate sector, as it is an indivisible part of the business, taking maximum risk leads to
maximum chances of profit in the business. There are various types of risks which are
associated to the business and have to be resolved as soon as possible by performing proper
risk management.
 Opportunities- I can find good career growth scope in the field of banking because in this
sector financial knowledge is very crucial. Various banks operating all over the country are
giving employment opportunities to the student who are holding the degree of finance, this
helps them to grow and explore more in this area. Working in banking sectors will help me
to grow various other essential skills and increase my knowledge in country's economy
because bank contribute maximum in economic condition of any nation. It could also helps
me in developing the the relation with several businessmen which helps me in expanding the
connection in society.
 Threats- The level of competition in this field will be risky for me because many finance
professionals has been already settled in this sector which could be act like hurdle in my
way to follow career as they must be very good in financial skills and posses better
knowledge then me. Changes in economy will also affect my growth as it will give me some
challenging situation which I have to solve while working at this position.

Career Prospects
I will choose to become a Financial Analyst, as there is great opportunity to grow in this field,
companies demand for them is very high. As per the my SWOT analysis my numeracy skill and
maths knowledge will help me to develop in this job, I also need to grow some more required skills
position such as data and financial analysis, financial modelling, good communication, providing
attention to the details, strong thinking ability. I can help the company by telling them regarding the
needs of finance and deciding various ways from where funds can be arranged(Krantz,and
Johnson,2020). I will also work in measuring the performance of various investment tool and helps
in determining best market investment(Walton-Guillot,2019).
Financial analyst also helps in evaluating the income and expenses of the company will
suffer in its management activity and measures the consequence of the tax rates, policies implement
by the government. Auditing the financial statement like balance sheet, income statement and cash
flow statement will be the part of my duty, I have to keep the good strength in understanding and
analysing the economic trends in the market. As a financial analyst I have chance to grow my
knowledge in various other sectors as it provides diversified job roles, apart from this the rate of my
salary would be higher than my superiors. The need of financial analyst is growing because of the
various reason firstly the foundation of this profession is three business model that is business to
business, business to consumer and business to employee, secondly with the improvement
techniques these jobs can be done with the helps computer devices which allows the analyst to
expand their activities more rather than performing the financial tasks in the institutions. The
growth of the company can be evaluate with the help of three components which are liquidity
means presence of cash and assets for covering the debts and other liabilities, leverage is related to
the funds which company take outside the company for carry out its activities and last is
profitability which is related to the return company is getting on its investment. There are various
ratios which financial analyst used in order to evaluate the financial health of the company. So, I
can say that finance is an appropriate sector for me for the beginning of my career.
Required qualification and salary in Public accounting- Bachelors degree in any subject which
is related to finance or for more opportunities Master's of Business Administration in Finance. I also
need to take training from any professional institute for improving my skills. Financial Analyst will
get the handsome pay of around 45000 pounds to 60000 pounds with additional bonus and
incentives(Pronello, and Kumawat,2020).
Progression Opportunities
Investment banking is one of the fast growing profession in the field of finance which can be taken

as progressive career option. It refers to the distinct section in the operations of banking institutions
which helps in creation of monetary resource for any individual, company or public organisation. In
this activity they perform the tasks of mediator between the person who is giving the security and
the one who is investing and assist the new institutions for representing themselves in the in the
public eye. They purchase the shares of the company according to value decided by their superiors
then sell them to people and sometimes they put the shares on sale in the name of institutions and
earn some percent of charge on each share. There are various objectives of investment banking but
the main purpose of investment banking is to connect the the investors and people, companies and
government authorities who want to raise the funds for their business operations. Apart from this
there are various tasks performed by the investment bankers such as raising capital for the firms,
mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, assisting companies regarding debt and equity services,
working in the area like hedge fund, mutual fund, etc.(Segara,Wu, and Yao,2021)
If I wants to be a successful investment banker then I need to get qualified with MBA degree in
associate position or any equivalent degree, relevant training and get enrolled for such courses
which will be helpful for me to emerge as a good investment banker. Firstly, I need to get
experience as an associate then I will get promote to the position of analyst. I should work on my
ability to work in hasty surrounding and should develop my skill to contribute more in team work
with least direction.
Barriers of Investment Banking-
 Insufficient resources for capital- Due to the pandemic situation in all around the world,
many people restrict themselves in investing their funds in purchasing any kind of securities
of any organisation. They avoid to spend their money in any kind of investment for shorter
period of time that is why the retain finance to themselves which results in unavailability of
funds in this sector.
 Necessity to decrease costs- Market is experiencing the reduction in the value of product
and services because of the heavy competition, because of this finance sector is also
affecting adversely. Margins in the earning of companies is going down which also shows
the decline the cost of capital of the organisation. For this companies need to decrease their
production cost which will help them in increasing their margins, this also helps in attracting
the investors.
 Interruptions of heavy rules and regulations- Dealings of investment banking is restricted
with the interference of regulatory agencies in their operations, the reason behind this is
2008 mortgage stress. Now, these agencies deeply inspect any new commodity which is

introduced or sale by the finance business in the market. After 2008 scandal, investment
banking reduces to offer many services and implementation of different rules give rise to the
cost of this sector(Verschuuren,and Oers, 2019).
 Disturbance of technological advancement- Development in technologies have
immensely affect the all kind of sector in the world. In investment banking, various
technologies has been introduced which is expecting to generate more investment in
comparison to old method of finance industry. Another example of technology development
in finance sector is bitcoin which is used to transfer from the remote locations money by
using internet services.
 Complexity in distribution process- In the beginning, investment banking mostly depends
on offering the extra products to there active customers. But now the department has clearly
stated to offer controlled services to the customers because of their limited budget policy.
Investment banking needs to develop different techniques and models to overcome these
situation in the industry and should work on adopting the modern technologies in their
operation to promote more carrier opportunities and growth for the job seekers.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it is concluded that financial sector could be great career path which helps in
developing the interpersonal skills or other knowledge in the field of finance. The report is related
to the various job roles in the finance field like investment banking and financial analyst which
already discussed above. Personal SWOT analysis has also showed for the identification of internal
strengths and weaknesses in this area. Barriers like technological advancement, pandemics which
are reducing the growth of investment banking has also discussed above.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
AN, J. and MIKHAYLOV, A.Y., 2021. FINANCE: THEORY AND PRACTICE. FINANCE:
THEORY AND PRACTICE Учредители: Финансовый университет при
Правительстве РФ, 25(5), pp.79-91.
Clement, T. and Silvernagel, C., 2019. A conceptual framework of entrepreneurial finance.
Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy, 2(4), pp.308-332.
Gerasimova, N. and Rohrer, M., 2022. Not by Whom but Where: Analyst Reaction to Firms’ ESG
Incidents.
Krantz, M. and Johnson, R.R., 2020. Investment Banking for dummies. John Wiley & Sons.
Pronello, C. and Kumawat, P., 2020, September. Smartphone applications developed to collect
mobility data: A review and SWOT analysis. In Proceedings of SAI Intelligent Systems
Conference (pp. 449-467). Springer, Cham.
Segara, R., Wu, B. and Yao, J., 2021. To Herd or Not to Herd: Do Intangible Assets Affect the
Behavior of Financial Analyst Recommendations?. Journal of Behavioral Finance, pp.1-14.
Verschuuren, M. and Oers, H.V., 2019. Population Health Monitoring: Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities, and Threats. In Population Health Monitoring (pp. 197-204). Springer,
Cham.
Walton-Guillot, K.M., 2019. Strategies Investment Banking Leaders Use to Retain Frontline
Employees (Doctoral dissertation, Walden University).