When it gets down to brass tacks, only three job sectors are truly impervious to anything from mild change to catastrophe: food, healthcare and maintenance. We will always need nourishment, someone to rid us of illness and people to repair our infrastructure and machines. However, all of those services and the products they dispense cost money. Therefore, it's safe to conclude that the fourth vital industry is finance.
Money and the many ways it's handled is a purely human construct. In fact, writing was invented primarily as a way to record debts. The 'units of account' concept traces all the way back to antiquity. Today, we call those units bobs, quid, tenners and so on. What we do with our money, how we exchange it, use it to store value and grow wealth, has given rise to an entire industry - and a curious phenomenon.
Money has gone from a functional utility - a way to assign value, to an indispensable tool of modern life. What's more, as people strive to ensure their future comfort and stability, money has become a much sought-after commodity. The quest for individual economic security and power has given rise to one of the hottest, most lucrative industries. To the legions of finance professionals who staff it, money is one reason they chose their field. What kind of money can they earn?
| Job Title | Average Annual Salary | Entry-Level Pay per year | Advanced Salary per annum |
|---|---|---|---|
| Budget Analyst | £36,750 | £22,000 | £97,500 |
| Broker | £36,814 | £21,500 | £75,000 |
| Credit Analyst | £41,393 | £21,000 | £87,500 |
| Risk Specialist | £50,055 | £23,716 | £104,000 |
| Financial Planner | £56,694 | £29,000 | £77,000 |
The finance industry is quite broad, encompassing many different specialities. Jobs in finance come with different levels of responsibility and various scopes of influence. Some are public-facing - they require good customer service skills, while others work behind the scenes. Some positions demand extensive education while others are open to school leavers. What follows is an overview of some of these jobs; the hottest in the industry today.
Credit Analyst
We start with credit analyst jobs because, per the website Check-a-Salary, it offers the lowest entry-level salary of all the jobs featured in this article. It also boasts the least requirements for hire. Most finance sector jobs require at least some higher education but even if you chose not to enrol in a university course of study, you can still work in finance as a credit analyst. Provided you earned decent marks on your GCSEs, of course.
The credit analyst's main responsibility is to make sure borrowers are creditworthy before approving recommending any loan for approval. These analysts work at banks and other lending institutions. A corporate credit analyst works with a company's finance and accounting departments. Their job is to make sure that the company doesn't overextend itself by taking on more debt or funding growth projects that would put the rest of the company's operations in jeopardy.
Credit card companies are staffed with large numbers of credit analysts. Their work consists of monitoring credit card usage. If a card shows unusual spending patterns, the analyst will flag the account for further monitoring. They may even call the cardholder to make sure their card wasn't stolen. These analysts must have an array of skills to be successful but the job does not require any advanced knowledge of finance or previous experience.
Broker
This is the work that most people think of when the topic of finance surfaces. Specifically, in conjunction with Gordon Gekko (greed it good!) and Lamborghinis. The broker's reality is vastly different. Savile Row suits are not the standard; neither are hot cars. Indeed, a finance broker is one of the lowest-paid in the industry and, like the credit analyst, does not require higher education. It's also one of the most stressful and most demanding positions in finance.
Brokers are, essentially, middlemen. They have to know a lot about stock markets so they can predict market activity. When they have a solid lead on a promising stock, they contact their clients to suggest buying a few shares. Conversely, if a stock looks poised for a fall, it's their duty to notify their clients and suggest they move their money elsewhere. For this, they receive a base salary plus a commission on any sale they make. That bonus might be a percentage of the sale or a flat fee set by the brokerage firm.
The future doesn't look bright for brokers. Online trading platforms have made deep inroads into their job security; nowadays, casual market players (day traders) make their market moves without the benefit of advice from a professional. This situation makes it difficult for brokers to build up a client base. Many have gone so far as to rebrand themselves are personal financial advisors specialising in stock market investments. Particularly ambitious brokers with strong selling skills can still earn a decent living as a broker, though.
Budget Analyst
For all that they hold companies' and even governments' financial health in their hands, budget analysts earn the lowest average salary in the UK. And then, as though to add insult to injury, this job demands extensive education and experience, even at the entry level. Budget analysts usually work behind the scenes, assessing an entity's spending and finding the money to fund additional projects.
A government budget analyst allocates funding to various departments, ministries and programs; they also monitor spending to make sure no office spends more than they should. As an example, after the Foreign Office's budget was reduced in 2021, budget analysts had to figure out which programs were the least likely to suffer come time to cut their funding. This led to a great public outcry.
Deciding what to fund and by how much is not in the budget analyst's job description. Their task is to keep track of what comes in and what goes out, and make sure one side of the ledger always has a bit more than the other. That's true if the analyst works in the government budget office, a corporation's finance department or in a financial services office. In the private sector, their scope of work extends to advising clients on their individual budget decisions.
Risk Specialist
Budget analysts and risk specialists often work together. The first one looks at what comes in and goes out; the second looks for areas their employer could afford to take a chance in. Returning to the Foreign Office to illustrate the point: their overseas budget was cut from 0.7% to 0.5%. At the same time, their Global Innovation Fund launched two new investments. In practical terms, the budget analyst found where the budget could be shaved down a bit and the risk specialist found investment-worthy projects to allocate those liberated funds to.
Risk specialists fulfil the same functions at the corporate level. Business demands growth but such growth must be targeted and effective. Risk analysts review growth initiatives to determine the extent of their negative impact on the company's bottom line, and by how much. Every venture entails risk, which signals that corporate risk specialists have their hands full with analysing and recommending projects. And if the leadership wants to push through despite the risk, it's the risk specialist's job to find ways to hedge the risk.
Prospective risk specialists must have at least a four-year degree in some finance or maths-related field. Also, they should pursue personal development and continuing education. For instance, earning a Chartered Accountant certification will demonstrate the depth of your knowledge and interest in finance. Risk specialists rank among the highest earners in the finance industry.
Financial Planner
Of all the jobs in finance, the financial planner may be the most familiar. These professionals visit their clients on evenings and weekends to help them sort out their finances and formulate plans to meet their long-term financial goals. Let's say a family of four want a roadmap to future financial stability. Stops along the way include buying a house, funding private education for the kids and, later, their university education. They might go so far as to plan for their retirement and the last stop in one's financial life, their estate.
Financial planners have to be highly educated and have excellent communication skills. Often, clients have only a vague idea about what they want for their money and future but know little about financial systems or financial instruments. One part of the job entails listening closely to the ideas their clients put forward and converting them into financial milestones. The second step is to explain what can and can't be achieved, and the ways to do so. The third, and perhaps the most important part of the job is cultivating relationships with their clients.
Financial planning is not transactional like credit analysis is. Financial planners monitor clients' portfolios for years, keeping an eye on the markets, analysing stocks' performance and recommending new investments. Often, they work on-call. If one of their clients has a major life event that requires a lot of liquidity, financial planners will 'move some things around' to make the needed cash available. They are not the highest paid in the industry but financial planners find their work rewarding in many other ways.
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