Entry-Level Positions for Aspiring Financial Analysts
Entry-level positions in corporate and investment banking, like financial analyst roles, require a foundation in "finance, econ, accounting, and statistics"—the "languages" of the field—but opportunities also exist in supporting functions such as marketing, IT, and human resources, offering diverse entry points for those with varied interests within the "very large" banking industry.
Financial Analysis, Communication Skills, Data Analysis, Banking Industry, Entry-Level Positions
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Eric Frandson
Managing Director, Corporate & Investment Banking
Wells Fargo
UC Berkeley
UC Berkeley, MBA
Anthropology, Sociology
Finance (Banking, Fintech, Investing)
Sales and Client Management
Scholarship Recipient, Took Out Loans, Worked 20+ Hours in School, Transfer Student
Video Highlights
1. Entry-level positions often start as financial analysts, requiring a strong foundation in finance, economics, accounting, and statistics.
2. Success in this field depends on strong communication skills, particularly for client-facing roles, while analytical skills are crucial for behind-the-scenes analysis.
3. The banking industry offers diverse career paths beyond financial analysis, including marketing, IT, and human resources, providing various entry points for students with different interests within the finance sector.
Transcript
What entry-level positions are there in this field that an undergraduate college student might consider?
I would answer that in two ways. One is, in my particular part of the business, you start with a financial analyst type of role. That's something centered in your finance, your economics, accounting, and statistics.
Those are the building blocks. This is banking; it's finance. Those are the languages we're going to be using in our work.
Depending on which lane you choose from there, some things I talked about earlier around communication skills are super important if you're the client-facing person. But there are other parts of the team where we want somebody who wants to double down on the finance and statistics part.
They're sort of like the think tank, the engine room producing the analysis that will be articulated by somebody else on the team. So there are a lot of different lanes, but everybody has to learn how to speak the same language.
That language is those core financial components that I led with. The other way I would answer the question is that banking is a very large industry.
You can get into this industry as a marketing person, an information technology person, or a human resources person. All those functional roles allow you to be part of the industry.
This is another way to look at it if you're interested in banking and finance broadly but have a passion for other pieces of it. You can get involved through a different doorway.