Question

Choosing a career in business finance means that you will have an opportunity to work in just about any field you can imagine. Your compensation would vary depending on your education, certifications, specialization, and experience. Go to a job posting or career site and research jobs that require a degree or experience in business financial management. The following questions will be addressed in our discussion:

• What kind of jobs can you get with a financial degree?
• What salary would you expect to receive?
• What are other non-traditional jobs besides business finance that someone with an accounting background could do?
• What salary would you expect to receive?
• What are the pros of choosing a career in business finance?
• What are the cons of choosing a career in business finance?

Answer 1

Answer 1. One can get jobs like Financial Analyst, Finance manager, Chief Financial Officer, Collection analyst,Hedge fund manager, Payroll specialist, Financial Associate, Accountant, Financial Advisor, auditor job with a finance degree.

Answer 2. The salary vary from $36K per annum to $170K+ per annum according to experience, position, type of the job and performance of the individual. A CFO of a very successful company can earn in millions as well.

Answer 3. Non traditional jobs for someone with accounting background are: teaching, Business Analysts, Investor relation specialist, Software sales professional-Financial Services, IT specialist-Finance/accounts.

Answer 4. I would expect to receive a salary according to my company, performance, experience and knowledge. A fresher would earn around $36K-$50K per annum whereas a CFO of a big company would earn in millions per annum.

Answer 5. The pros of choosing a career in business finance are

Good salary- if someone is good at work, they are generally paid a handsome salary. As stated, a CFO can earn in millions per annum.

Diverse options- A business finance person can work in any industry including software, technology, civil and others. So if one industry is facing a recession, it is not a problem.

Less Travel Times- Most of the finance occupation do not require a lot of travelling

Answer 6. The cons of choosing a career in business finance

High Stress- Every work has a deadline and most of the times the company may suffer due to the delay, thus a employee of finance department is always under high pressure to complete the task on time.

Continuous Market research- A finance employee, specially when in higher position in a company, need to be up to date about the market condition as various things like the return from a treasury bond to the reserve requirement from the central bank need to be kept in mind during the decision making.

High risk- After the Sarbanes-Oxley act, the CFO of the company became responsible for the accuracy of the financial statements of the company, thus any willfull or unwillful mistake can cost huge for the CFO and his team.

Continuous Education- Processes for calculations and technologies always keep changing and a finance professional needs to be up to date with these changes.

High competition- Due to a good pay, a lot of people are attracted towards becoming a finance graduate thus competition for jobs is more.