Calling all financial analysts!

by Shelby Mickler

 

Have you ever played a tycoon game where you build a zoo or rollercoaster and end up making millions of dollars (and then you release the dinosaurs in your zoo or delete a piece of track on your rollercoaster and watch the sheeple wreak havoc on themselves)? Then you might be interested in being a financial analyst.

 

Junior financial analysts are one of the most popular entry-level jobs for business and finance students. Why? Because, duh, you get to play with money! You know that rush of joy you got as a kid when your neighbor handed you a fiver for mowing their yard? Financial analysts (the good ones, anyway) feel that every day. Financial analysts decide how clients should handle their money; your research and conclusions will sway the minds of CEOs across the country. If financial analysts deal with the nitty-gritty of the investment and budgeting world, then imagine a junior financial analyst as their happy little minions.

 

As a junior financial analyst, you will be trotting along behind senior financial analysts doing their every bidding. Generally, junior analysts produce information and statistics, while senior analysts lead and pitch this research to clients. Don’t get discouraged, though; there’s plenty of room in the industry for promotion.

 

Junior financial analysts enjoy a salary averaging out at around $59,000 with bonuses, according to Glassdoor. With such a high salary for an entry-level job, you can imagine a lot of kids want in, so entry-level financial analyst positions are pretty hard to snag, according to The Princeton Review. Thankfully, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’s research says this job will enjoy much faster growth than average, with 32,200 new jobs between 2016-2026. That’s a 1 in 32,200 chance that the next big financial analyst telling Disney’s head honcho what to do could be you!