5 Finance Careers Explained (and what they pay) | Pt2 - YouTube

what's up everyone kenji here and in this  video i thought i'd share five career options  

in finance so this is actually a part two  video i made a part one a couple weeks back  

and a lot of you requested a  follow-up video so here it goes  

so the five jobs i've picked are quants  investment analysts financial advisors  

commercial bankers and brokers i'm mainly going  to be focusing on entry level as well as well as  

a couple years down the line and we'll be looking  at things like their work life balance the skills  

required the salary and also be providing some  examples of companies in each category so you  

can look further if you want to apply to them and  just like the part one video if this video does  

well i will consider making a part three where i  cover other jobs like private banking or portfolio  

management so make sure you hit that like and  subscribe all right let's get into the video  

so the first job we'll be looking at is quants  which is short for quantitative analysts  

so this role consists of creating algorithms and  statistical models specifically to solve problems  

in the financial markets and as you can imagine  their backgrounds are in fields like physics  

computer science or mathematics now this role is  actually relatively new and it's increasingly high  

in demand especially as the finance industry  has transitioned into more computer based  

now within the quant world there's actually  many different roles some are more focused  

on risk management so trying to control the  risk of certain trades others are more focused  

on algorithmic trading so trying to develop an  algorithm that will trade in the financial markets  

for them while there's many other roles like front  office squads library quants and so on but that's  

maybe for another video and all sorts of financial  institutions employ quants so the investments the  

asset managers and so on but the most famous  ones are probably the quantitative hedge funds  

so these are the likes of the show citadel or two  sigma and as for the skills required for this kind  

of a role it's obviously quite numerical most of  these people know how to code already and it's  

not uncommon to have advanced level degrees so the  likes of a master's or a phd although it's usually  

not required now it's for good reason that they're  called the rocket scientists of wall street  

as for the pay it's extremely high especially  because they're in high demand and at the same  

time they also complete with the big tech  firms which are also known to pay a lot  

so let's say around 120 000 in a big financial  city like new york is not unheard of when it comes  

to the hours they're actually not as short as some  people might expect i'd say it's more like a 12  

hour day so 16 hours a week now it is longer than  the average 40 hour work week but at the same time  

they are compensated quite well so this brings us  to our next role which is an investment analyst  

and ironically enough they don't actually invest  money themselves that's usually done by the trader  

instead what they do has to do with analyzing data  researching and creating presentations for the  

portfolio manager or the investment manager was  basically their boss and there's tons of different  

companies that employ investment analysts from  asset managers like blackrock to investment banks  

like goldman sachs to even insurance companies  like axa as well overall there is a big split  

between the buy side and the sell side so buy  side is looking to invest money while the sell  

side is about doing research for the broker to  sell securities to clients but because investment  

analyst is actually such a vague title they  usually specialize in a specific asset geography  

or even industry so for instance you might have an  investment analyst that's dealing with government  

bonds in the us another one that only deals with  tech stocks in the uk and so on and so forth  

as for the work hours around 50 hours a week  is normal so it's nothing outrageous say but at  

the same time you got to keep in mind that it is  quite a high pressure environment when it comes to  

dealing with money right as far as skills required  spreadsheets so excel skills are usually one of  

the big ones as well as general finance as well as  accounting at the same time you do have to present  

so presentation skills can come handy as well when  it comes to the designation the cfa is very very  

popular here some jobs as investment analysts that  you might look to apply to if it might require say  

having at least a level one or something like that  in the cfa there's actually three different levels  

before you get to the full certificate or the  full designation as far as salary i'd say around  

75 000 is a good rough guide but you got to keep  in mind that it is a very big industry and there's  

many different roles so it may vary depending  on that next up is the financial advisor role  

and in short this is all about advising clients  on what they should do with their own money  

it's also sometimes called a financial planner and  a typical example of what they might have to do is  

say you're looking to retire by the time you're  60 years old so they look through your taxes your  

insurance your billings and so all of the other  money related stuff and try to make an estimate  

of how much you should be saving how much you  should be spending and so on among the big pros  

of this kind of a role is that if you do things  well you can really have a positive impact on some  

people right on the other hand on the coin side  if your recommendations don't work out and they  

end up losing money that can obviously be very  stressful so uh you got uh you got my money huh oh  

yeah i'll pay you soon at the same time if you're  just starting off it's always very very hard to  

get your first few clients especially because you  don't actually have any experience yourself right  

so that can be a hard start i'd say when it comes  to the work hours especially as you move later on  

it does become quite flexible so it depends on  what the client's needs are but at the first  

couple years i'd say around 50 hours 50 to 60  hours is quite common the skills for this kind  

of a role are obviously finance but at the same  time a lot of the interpersonal communication  

as well as sales skills are very important  right at the end of the day you're trying to  

persuade them that you can handle their money  so you really need to convey some trust there  

when it comes to designations the chartered  financial planner is probably the most common  

one but it's not uncommon to also have the cfa  or the cpa as well salary wise it's usually a  

combination of a fee and a commission the fee  is basically for managing the money every year  

so they might take something like one percent  for instance and on the other hand there's a  

commission for using their products sometimes some  advisors only do fees or they only do commissions  

as well so salary wise it's actually going  to vary quite a lot depending on that so for  

instance if you have a lot of commission revenue  then that salary is obviously going to be boosted  

same goes if you have a lot of clients and there's  a lot of fees for you but overall i'd say around  

60 000 is a good estimate among the big names  when it comes to financial advisors are fidelity  

state street as well as vanguard all right moving  on to commercial banking and if you don't know  

what commercial banking is in short it's just two  main things number one has to do with offering  

deposits and number two has to do with lending  money to people like you and i say and companies  

of all sizes so small medium and large usually  if you're fresh out of college you'll start off  

as a credit analyst and in this kind of a role  you're providing clients with credit products like  

term loans lines of credit mortgages and other  products like that and the goal here is obviously  

for them to be able to pay you back right so  you're looking through their credit history their  

financial statements spending habits and so on and  based on that assessing whether they'll be able to  

pay the bank back as you can probably imagine the  skills for this kind of a role are quite numerical  

so excel math and finance knowledge can  definitely come handy a common designation  

to work towards is the credit risk certification  when it comes to hours i'd say around 50 hours a  

week is quite normal so i don't think that's  anything outrageous salary wise around 70  

000 dollars a year is a good estimate now when it  comes to the types of companies out there um it's  

basically all of the different commercial banks  that you see out on the street right so in the us  

that's probably the likes of chase bank of america  or capital one overall people do regard commercial  

banking as quite a stable career in which there's  a good work-life balance and it does have quite a  

competitive pay as well now if you want to learn  more about the differences between a commercial  

bank and an investment bank i have made another  video just on that so you can go somewhere up here  

where i'll leave it linked and the last job we  look at is a broker and in short a broker buys  

and sells securities on behalf of the client's  wishes so these securities can range from shares  

to bonds to options and much more than that now  at this point you might wonder well what's the  

difference between a broker and a trader basically  i am simplifying a bit here but a broker executes  

trades on behalf of the client's wishes once a  trader executes trades on behalf of the portfolio  

manager or the investment manager's wishes so a  broker does have a lot more of a people element  

as well because there's obviously many different  clients that he or she handles right when it comes  

to the hours it's not your average 40 hour work  week it does start very very early in the morning  

primarily because the markets open quite early  right so in the us it starts at 9 30 the market  

open time so i have to be in there quite a few  hours in advance in order to get everything ready  

have the research ready um catch up on the news  and so on and so forth overall around 55 hours i'd  

say it's a good estimate and you've got to keep  in mind that these hours where they're working are  

actually very very stressful especially when the  markets open as there's a lot of money to be made  

or loss free when it comes to the pay there is a  big myth that all stock brokers are millionaires  

that's probably because of the wolf of wall street  but realistically as an entry level broker you'll  

probably be making around 60 thousand dollars  and then there is a high upside though depending  

on how much you can earn off commission so there  is a good potential in that sense among the most  

useful skills are communication working well  under pressure especially when the market is  

open and sales because mainly they depend on them  for earning a commission right when it comes to  

licenses the series 7 as well as the series 63 are  some of the main ones primarily because they give  

you the authority to trade on behalf of clients  when it comes to companies there's actually a  

big split between what's known as a full service  broker and a discount broker a full service broker  

does provide investment advice as well so they  might do some research for you they might analyze  

things for you as well whilst they discount  broker it doesn't do any of that instead it just  

does the trade right overall obviously a full  service broker does have a higher commission  

than a discount one for those obvious reasons but  some examples of full service brokers include city  

or morgan stanley while some examples of discount  brokers could be fidelity or child schwab as well  

so those are five when it comes to salaries  do take it as a bit of a rough guide mainly  

because it depends on a city you're in and other  things like that and same goes for the work hours  

because well you might have a bad boss and  that makes you work longer than usual right  

also do let me know in the comments if you'd  like me to explain some other jobs or maybe  

even have a part three lastly go follow me on  instagram for some behind the scenes footage  

and getting to know me a bit more personally  if you want to hope you found the video useful  

if you did feel free to like and subscribe  and i'll hopefully catch you in the next one