Finance

Financial planners help individuals develop plans that will ensure their present and future financial stability. Typically, they review a client’s financial goals and generate an appropriate plan for saving and investing that fits the client’s individual needs. The plan may focus on wealth preservation or investment growth and may even include estate and tax planning.

If you love meeting people and nurturing strong working relationships, “client-facing” positions like these are often a good fit. Agents, brokers and relationship managers are the lifeblood of the financial services industry, and their work often determines the longevity and success of the organization they work for.

Some of the most glamorous – and intense – financial careers are jobs in investment banking. Investment-banking jobs deal with facilitating the issuance of corporate securities and making these securities available for investors to purchase, all while trading securities and providing financial advice to both corporations and wealthy individual investors.

Commercial Banks from large entities to local institutions, offer a range of financial services, from checking and savings accounts to IRAs and loans. Career options available in this sector include bank tellers, loan officers, operations, and marketing and branch managers.

Corporate finance jobs involve working for a company in the capacity of finding and managing the capital necessary to run the enterprise. This is done while maximizing corporate value and reducing financial risk.

Private-equity professionals help businesses find capital for both expansion and current operations. They also provide financing for a number of corporate business transactions, such as managed buyouts and restructurings. Venture-capital professionals (VCs) spend most of their time with startups or small, fast-growth companies. Venture-capital firms evaluate pitches by founders and small-company leaders to determine if the firm will make an investment.

The investment management area includes mutual funds, ETFs, hedge funds, and other private investment companies. As the name implies, investment management involves the soliciting of funds from investors with the objective of generating good returns for the investors. Jobs range from very sales oriented, to very quantitative, to very customer service focused.

Retail bankers assist individuals with their personal financial needs, including auto and home loans, deposit and savings accounts, and insurance and investments (usually as a referral). A retail banker has extensive customer contact each day. Most of this customer contact would occur in their branch, either in person or on the phone.