Are finance careers useless?

[resy]

I feel myself attracted to this field but I have received a few warnings here and there about it getting you no where, kind of an equivalent to a history degree (not that theres anything wrong with history degrees). The warnings have been vague though so was wondering if theres finance people that could shed some light?

[eudaimonia]

Really? What type of degree and what school are you looking at specifically? I guarantee that a Business degree from a top school is still worth very good money in a variety of fields: accounting, business, banking, etc.

[Gone Fishing]

No, but many of them can turn into sales jobs of financial products.  Do you like to sell?  Those that do purely analytical work are viewed as overhead, which comes with it's own issues.  There is no free lunch but finance can still pay the bills and put you on the ER track.

[Beric01]

I had a ton of classmates that majored in finance and got into good finance jobs in tech companies. They were not "selling" anything. Financial analyst is very common.

I got a business administration degree with a marketing concentration. I added in some technical classes just to show I'm comfortable with technology (a couple CS classes), and got myself a job at a high-tech company working in marketing (I chose between multiple offers).

The point with these business career choices is you need to differentiate yourself. Not just anyone can get an engineering degree, so the degree is often enough to get a job. For business and other "non-skilled" degrees, you need to go the extra mile (get internships in related companies, etc.) I had many marketing classmates who did NOT go the extra mile to differentiate themselves and graduated with minimum wage jobs or jobs in sales support roles (and my school was pretty good).

But once you get you first "real" job, you're set. You have the resume/experience to count on. If I were fired today, I would have little fear of getting a replacement job due to my experience and my company's name.

[AH013]

Consider majoring in Finance and minoring in Accounting.  As long as you show up to work and retain 1/4 of what they teach you in your degree, you will always be gainfully employed at a healthy middle-class income.

Many of the people I graduated with who have no ambition, no work ethic, and little aptitude to learn still are pulling $50-60k ten years into their careers.  The ones with work ethic, ambition and intelligence who subsequently got MBAs, CFAs, CPAs, etc are rounding 6 figures.  Terminal salary in this field can be $125-$250k depending on how much responsibility you wish to take (upwards of $125 for 20+ years of experience and solid credentials for a senior analyst aka do the work assigned to you and manage nobody.  $250k for a mid/upper-level manager directing directors & VPs with 20+ years) although the sky is the limit -- CFOs can pull $5-$10M in salary alone plus twice or thrice that in stock options.

I know of no starving finance people / accountants except for those who had mental breakdowns and ran off to Tibet to farm alpacas.  You can easily retire in 15-20 years off the money offered in the field and there is no shortage of jobs in any region of the country/world.

Whoever told you don't get anywhere with it must mean finance won't take you on a magic ride of self-realization and wonder like Chaucer or Rembrandt will.  Or else they are bitter about their own shortcomings in life.

[resy]

Really? Interesting stuff! I am attending a community college but am at the point where I need to choose a transfer/program since I have most major prereques done. Finance is interesting to me but so are other fields which i will start exploring next term. Im glad I asked this question here as I had been discouraged enough before to not really consider finance seriously... another story now though :)
Hoe about the work/life balance stuff. Is this one of does careers that sucks the soul out of you?

[Beric01]

Hoe about the work/life balance stuff. Is this one of does careers that sucks the soul out of you?

It really, really depends on the company. I have one finance friend who pulls 80-hour weeks. I have another who does 40-50. This is where you need to use sites like glassdoor to read reviews, and Linkedin to contact people not in the same team and ask them what the company culture is really like. You won't get this information in an interview.

At the same time, as a Mustachian you may be able to do longer hours if you plan to get out at a definite point in time. I do about 50 hours right now, but if I could increase my income I'd do 80 hours, as I want to FIRE as quickly as possible. At the same time, you need to count hours required as wage per hour, not total salary, unless you want to have no life.

[chasesfish]

I have a finance degree from a mid to low tier state school and went into commercial banking.  I think I do really well relative to the amount I work and am pretty employable.  We also have a lot of analytical jobs that are $80k - $100k with no sales requirements.

You have to start at the bottom and grind your way up for 5-7 years, but the upside is very good.  PM me if you want more details.

By the way, if I had it to do again I'd do the same job but get an accounting degree


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[EarlyQuit]

I have a finance degree from a mid tier state school. Worked as a fin analyst and later manager in a fortune 500 company doing fin analysis of different projects, departmental performance analysis, quarterly earnings reporting, etc. The pay and benefits were great and work was interesting and challenging for the most part. Finance is not all about selling fin products. Virtually any company in any industry needs finance professionals, and after a few years you can move to different departments in the company because you will learn how they operate thru finance (that's what I did).

[merula]

At my company, people with finance degrees from the area's business schools start out at $55-60k. Decent work/life balance, depending on what you want to do and terminal salaries in the ranges AH018 mentioned.

And no, you probably won't find the answers to life, the universe and everything in 10Ks, but the money you can earn makes it easy to find in your downtime.

[resy]

Ha! Love that merula! Yeah thats what FI is for, right? Lol
I actually am a beast when it comes to working but my brakes are put on right because if my 10 year old son, hence the work balance worry. I only have thisbkid though and plan to keep it this way so I know at one point I will be willing to dive in so much more. Thanks you guys :)

[b1gm1ke11]

I have a Finance degree but only worked in the field for a couple of years as an analyst before starting my own business.

From my experience, you can do well in a Finance career with some above average Excel skills and a passion for numbers in general.  In college, I loved my finance classes, in particular finite math and statistics.  The electives, such as personal financial planning and investments, can be a lot of fun.

However, once I began working in the Finance field for a Fortune 500 company, I grew bored within a year.  Budget. Forecast.  Repeat.  Endless VLOOKUPS.  Time wasting meetings.  Money can be motivating for only so long when you're working in a cubicle.  Some people really like this type of work, but it wasn't for me.   

[amberfocus]

Apologies if I'm hijacking the thread, but I am wondering if anyone in this thread knows whether you definitely need a finance degree to go into either finance or financial planning? I'm tinkering with the idea of doing indie CFP work as a post-FIRE backup/side hustle career, but my education is in an entirely different field, and I haven't the faintest clue how the financial industry works.

[aschmidt2930]

I think you asked the wrong question, and therefore have gotten the wrong answers.  The biggest factor in business isn't the degree you have, but the interest you have in the field.  If you like finance or accounting, go into finance or accounting.  If the coursework bores you, get out ASAP.  I know a ton of people that went into such fields due to seeing some stats on job placement percentages and starting salaries, and absolutely hate their jobs now.  Liking what you do will have a far greater impact on your career earnings than your degree (Within reason, this excludes Theatre degrees). 

[Cressida]

Endless VLOOKUPS. 

lol. VLOOKUPS are so finicky and they slow things down to a crawl. I replace them with SUMIFs wherever possible.

OP, finance degrees are nothing whatever like history degrees. Who's warning you against it, and what are they saying is better?

[marty998]

Count me in as a SUMIF fan. Vlookups break if you accidentally have a double up in your source table.

Finance degrees work if you can beat off the 1000's of other applicants into a job. Then you make the most of your time before inevitably the restructure knife is wielded.

So many specialisations to choose from. Accounting (corporate, business services, audit), Banking (risk, lending, treasury, markets, dealing), Finance (broking, funds management, investment banking, FX and derivatives trading), Financial Planning, Tax Law etc etc.

I'm a corporate accountant at the moment. I say at the moment, because in 10 years time I expect that my job will either be automated by a machine, or will be different due to the pace of change in the industry. Universities are churning out grads for the jobs of today. Nobody really knows what jobs there'll be in 10 years time. Passage of time will tell as always, but those with foresight will do well indeed.

Got asked the question today whether I have gotten bored doing 60 straight month ends without a break. Replied that because of M&A activities (well, sales of large chunks of our business) I haven't had a standard month-end in over a year now. Sure there are times where I wish I was somewhere else, but you gotta be able to earn money to save for FI before you are FI.

[chasesfish]

Apologies if I'm hijacking the thread, but I am wondering if anyone in this thread knows whether you definitely need a finance degree to go into either finance or financial planning? I'm tinkering with the idea of doing indie CFP work as a post-FIRE backup/side hustle career, but my education is in an entirely different field, and I haven't the faintest clue how the financial industry works.

In short, no.  It will take some time to earn the experience necessary to get your CFP

[Kansas Beachbum]

I earned an Accounting degree in 1983 and have never had trouble finding good/high paying jobs.  I've been at my current employer 22+ years (Fortune 100 company).  I don't do anything remotely resembling accounting, more like analytics, critical thinking, but it uses the same skills.  Finance, and especially Accounting degrees are very useful things...would suggest Accounting over Finance if you can do it (and some very smart people seem to have trouble with it...it's a little abstract apparantly, kinda like Geometry for some people).  Work/life balance is something you control, not the company.  If they demand more, you move on...plenty of demand for that skillset. 

Oh yeah...I HATE VLOOKUP's...geeze!  Prefer SUMIF, and SUMIFS for tables with multiple variables in the lookup :-)