Working toward a college degree in business? If so, you are probably weighing the probability of pursuing a career in corporate finance once you get your diploma in the next year or so.
There are as many disadvantages as there are good points to headin down this road, but for every critic, there are those that enthusiastically extoll the benefits of building a career at a trading firm or a bank.
Larry Polhill has worked in corporate finance for decades, and while he knows how much of a challenge it can be at times, he also knows that the reward for hard work and a job well done can be substantial in this field.
Below, we’ll go over some of the hottest career tracks to investigate in this economic sector.
1) Private equity analyst
While many investors have traditionally focused on buying and selling companies listed in the stock market, there is often much more money to be made investing and purchasing private firms.
The difference between the two is information: it is much harder to find data on companies that are private versus those who are public, as the latter is bound by law to reveal various aspects of their performance, whereas private firms can keep much of their books hidden from public view.
While a private equity analyst can’t compel the owner of a privately-held company to divulge details of their financial health, there are many other signs that a well-trained private equity analyst can investigate in order to determine whether a specific company is worth funding.
If you are an intuitive problem solver that can think on their feet, this might just be the job for you.
2) Investment banker
Of all the careers on this list, investment banking is perhaps the best known, and the most notorious of the lot.
Famous for the impossibly long hours that junior bankers shoulder on a week-to-week basis, this position involves raising funds for a company or a bank.
As such, those who are interested in this career need to be comfortable talking to people all day long and persuading them to invest in the I-banker’s firm: in short, this is not the best career choice for introverts.
However, those who enjoy treating their work like a game will have the potential to line their pockets with bonuses, as many firms offer incentives to encourage their employees to hit aggressive sales targets.
3) Quantitative risk analyst
Are you one of those introverts whose I-banking dream we shot down in the previous paragraph? If so, don’t despair, as there are is just as big of a demand for quantitative risk analysts in the world of finance.
Earning a healthy salary that can exceed $100,000 a year after just a few years of experience, it is the job of a risk analyst to use mathematical and statistical analysis to determine the lowest risk, highest profit path for an investment firm to take.
Those that execute their duties effectively keep their employers and fellow co-workers from making mistakes that can cost a company hundred of millions, or even billions of dollars in losses.
