How to Become a Financial Analyst

Video Transcript

"Ok, so "How to Become a Financial Analyst". First thing you want to do is if you're thinking of becoming a financial analyst is consider the education. And the education is going to consist of: a finance degree or something that's mathematics oriented, not say a liberal arts degree. So you're going to look for a Bachelor of Science at the very minimum. Some analysts go on and get the CFA designation, and also get the MBA and so forth. But for a financial analyst you're going to want to have a very strong mathematics background. So as the name would suggest, a financial analyst is a very analytical position. So you will need the strong math skills, you'll need strong quantitative skills, and you'll need to be very detail oriented - probably some good guidelines to think about. Really, in becoming an analyst the next thing to do is to go find a firm that's looking for one. And that can be in many fields. And many analysts will concentrate on just on equities or a certain type of equity; they'll concentrate on fixed income or certain types of bonds and debt instruments. So really it's looking at the field as a whole, and then once you become an analyst or you find a position that's out there you may find that there's a specialization that you have or a particular interest in. And that would be the best way to go forward. So, becoming a financial analyst: education, and then go look for a firm."