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Finance analyst

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Financial services

Career outlook for finance analyst

Average UK salary

£47,840

Currently employed in Scotland

17,300

"LMI for All" supplies our salary and employment status information. "Oxford Economics" supplies job forecasts and employment figures. Due to COVID-19 the jobs market is constantly changing. Some of the information may not reflect the current situation.

What's it like?

Financial analysis is ideal for anyone with a business mentality and a head for figures. As a finance analyst you’d help managers and stakeholders make big decisions about their money.

Finance analysts are responsible for examining financial information, market trends and economic conditions to come up with forecasts for a business. You’d have to thoroughly analyse data, create financial models and use them to predict financial trends.

You’d then have to report to your findings to help shape the business plan for the company.

  • What you might do:
  • Help to determine a company’s value
  • Research and identify investment opportunities 
  • Collect, monitor and study data 
  • Evaluate financial trends and create an effective investment strategy
  • Provide regular financial updates to the business
  • Grow financial performance through analysis of financial results, forecasts and trends
  • Keep up-to-date with technical knowledge, market conditions and trends

Working conditions

Hours

You’d generally work office hours from Monday to Friday but depending on your role and deadlines you might have to work longer hours or weekends.

Environment

You’re likely to be office based and working as part of a team.

UK employment status

Full-time

79%

Part-time

9%

Self employed

12%

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Here are some of the skills needed for this job. Sign in to see how your skills match up.

  • Working with technology
  • Problem solving
  • Working with numbers
  • Researching
  • Attention to detail
  • Ethical
  • Analysing

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Getting in

Entry requirements for courses can change. Always contact the college, university or training provider to check exactly what you'll need.

Foundation Apprenticeships

Choosing a Foundation Apprenticeship as one of your subjects in S5 and S6 can help you get a head start with this type of job.

You'll get an SCQF level 6 qualification (the same level as a Higher) plus valuable work placement experience and skills you can't learn in a classroom.

Interested? Find out what's on offer at your school on Apprenticeships.scot.

Qualifications

Entry requirements for courses can change. Always contact the college, university or training provider to check exactly what you’ll need.

There are different ways to get qualified for this job. You could go to college or university or through work-based qualifications, such as Apprenticeships.

This is a FinTech job requiring skills, ability and experience in both finance and technology.  Many financial analysts are graduates, with employers looking for degrees in Finance, Economics, Mathematics or Statistics based subjects.

If your degree is in an unrelated subject, a postgraduate qualification in a financial-related subject can improve your employment chances, such as an MSc in a subject such as risk or investment or an MSc in financial markets which provides the main concepts of finance and the analytical tools used within the industry.

There are also opportunities to get qualifications from and membership of relevant financial professional organisations which can make you more employable and enhance your cv and job applications.

Useful subjects

Many colleges and universities will have required subjects that you must have for entry.  They may also highlight additional subjects that they would value. See individual institutions websites for specific entry information. 

Useful subjects would be:

  • Maths focussed subjects
  • Economics
  • Accounting

Helpful to have

While not all employers list specific qualification requirements they do ask for relevant experience, usually work based, that demonstrates a range of transferable skills.