Opportunities with a career in finance

Global work opportunities

A career in finance gives you the opportunity to work globally as many organisations and banks are global entities. They can offer international career development opportunities, particularly in emerging economies where fluency in a specific language can be advantageous.

Working abroad can be rewarding, both in terms of professional and personal experience as well as pay. Having international work experience on your resume will be an advantage for years to come too, showing adaptability, motivation and determination.

The world’s leading top five financial centres are listed below, these may be some of the cities you look for roles in when considering global work:

This updates regularly and the latest leading financial centres can be found by clicking here.
You may also be interested in working in global financial centres in other countries,view the top centres per region here.

Career progression in financial services

Progression in financial services is clear, making it an attractive profession to have a career in. For example, an accountant will typically progress to a senior accountant position, a compliance executive to compliance manager and so on. In wealth, asset or investment management roles, people usually begin as an analyst which can include a supporting role in transactions, assisting a manager or a research role. People then move on to manage accounts and make decisions on behalf of clients, as you progress you often undertake more responsibility which typically is accompanied by more rewards, including higher pay.

You can advance in a finance career through internal promotions, along with applying to more senior roles at other companies.

Similarly to other jobs in other professions and industries, to progress, good, consistent performance can help you to do this, as well as:

Flexibility of moving between the various sectors

Similarly to other professions, there are different sectors in finance that different skills are important for. Some roles may involve you speaking to clients regularly, for example jobs in financial planning and others roles can be more analytical, such as jobs in risk.

You may start your career in a role that uses some skills more than others and find out you actually want a different role, using different skills. In finance there is often a good level of flexibility when transitioning across the various sectors.

This can take shape in a few ways, some people move internally which is favourable if you have built up a good track record and have good relationships at the company. You can begin by thinking about what role you would like to move to, how your skills and experience apply and then have a conversation with your line manager or HR department.

A move to a different sector can also happen externally, a strong track record helps here too as you apply to different roles at new companies. Again, it will be important to consider how your skills and experience is applicable to the role you are applying to.