What Can You Do With a Finance Degree?

As a finance graduate, you’ll also possess many of the skills needed for a career in accountancy. As a chartered accountant, you’ll be employed by a multinational organization, government body or private company to undertake financial audits, give financial advice, and manage financial systems and budgets, dealing with issues such as insolvency. You’ll probably specialize in a particular area, such as auditing, management consultancy, forensic accountancy, corporate finance or taxation.

To become a chartered accountant, you’ll need to complete a professional qualification (in the UK this is the ACA, which requires you to pass exams and take part in at least three years of training on the job). In the US, you’ll need to train to become a CPA (Certified Public Accountant), which involves sitting the Uniform CPA Exam.

Expected to be one of the fastest-growing careers in finance over the next decade, financial advisors (also referred to as financial planners or wealth managers) provide specialist advice to their clients on how to manage their money, including how to choose investments, savings, pensions, mortgages or insurance products. Financial advisors may be independent or restricted, with independent financial advisers (IFA) researching and considering all financial products on the market.

You must follow strict industry rules in this role and have professional qualifications. In the UK, you can gain entry to this job through an apprenticeship, graduate training scheme or by progressing to it after working as a paraplanner (providing administrative support to a financial adviser). In the US, you need to pass the Series 7 exam, managed by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). 

Actuaries forecast, assess, manage and advise on future financial risks. They use mathematics, statistics, and financial theory to assess the risk of an event occurring, and help their employer take steps to minimize the risk’s likely cost. Actuaries mainly work in investment banks, insurance companies, pension funds and corporate finance, and apply mathematical modeling techniques, statistical modelling tools and probability theories to economic markets.

Actuaries need to have effective communication skills in order to present complex information to non-specialists. You’ll also need a strong background in mathematics, statistics, and business, and will need to qualify to become an actuary by becoming a student member of a professional actuarial body – in the UK this is the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA), while in the US you can get certified through the Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS) or the Society of Actuaries (SOA). 

Other careers you can pursue with a finance degree include roles within financial trading, which involves buying and selling financial instruments such as stocks, bonds, assets and shares for investors such as individuals or banks. You may also find the fast-paced, challenging role of a stockbroker interesting, in which you’ll manage and support clients in making informed decisions to invest in the best shares to buy or sell to get the most return on their money. You could also work within commercial banking as a teller, sales associate, trust officer, loan officer, or branch manager. Or, if you have an overlapping interest in law, a role as a licensed conveyancer may suit you, in which you’ll work as a specialist in property law to deal with legal, administrative and financial aspects of property transactions. Finance graduates could also pursue roles in the hedge fund, taxation, management consultancy and data science sectors.