What does a Financial Analyst do?

As a financial analyst and being in finance for almost 9 years. I feel I can write some pointers for people who aspire to become financial analysts. As a trainee when you start as a financial analyst you will start the majority of the time as a trainee. It is a nice idea to have some financial background or a degree so you will understand the Jargons and can relate to it.

As a financial analyst, you definitely will be expected to be good at numbers and a bit sharp to be able to grasp the concepts quickly. The employer will definitely not train you on the basics so make sure you know the basics well and can read basic financial statements well.

The three basic financial statements are usually cash flow, Balance sheet and Income statements. As a trainee, it is rare that you will be straight away put into drafting Income statements. That job is usually done by accountants who do the month-end accounts and Financial Analyst is meant to analyse the forecast and Actuals and understand the variances and comment on it but to be able to comment on the actuals you also need to know the accounting part where the credit or debit goes in so you can justify the accounting from a commercial point of view. Often, it is a more interesting job than an accountant as you will be analysing the future performance than actually looking at the past. Although the past performance is required to analyse the future you will be hypothetically commenting on how the future numbers should or would look based on the instinct and Financial numbers.

Having said that, a financial analyst Job is exciting but it depends on how much is too much. As you progress you will be expected to even draft the budgets and analyse and comment on them another factor is how huge is the organization you will work for that definitely impacts the stress level and work pressure.

Hope that helps aspiring analysts on what to expect when they want to enter the financial industry as a Financial analyst. Like and follow me if you like my content.

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