Does the fast-paced and exciting world of finance appeal to you? For those with the right training and education, this industry offers lucrative career paths boasting many higher-than-average earnings from banking and asset management to insurance and venture capital.
Starting a Career in Finance
Ottawa University can meet you where you are on your career journey, offering both a bachelor's in finance and a Master's in Business Administration (MBA) with a Finance Concentration. Our accelerated, online degree prepares students to plan, manage, and analyze the financial and monetary aspects and performance of business enterprises, banking institutions, or other organizations.
Graduates leave with a comprehensive knowledge of the principles of accounting, financial instruments, capital planning, funds acquisition, asset and debt management, budgeting, financial analysis, and investments and portfolio management. This concentration immerses students in financial models and strategies and helps them gain expertise in the management of capital and the exploration of international business. Our MBA program helps graduates open the door to specialized careers and industries in the business world.
Choosing a Career Path in Finance
If you choose to continue your education, how do you know which degree is right? It depends on the career you want—now and in the long term. Though finance, like accounting, involves a heavy dose of number-crunching and money-counting, there’s more of a personal element to it. Financial experts help professionals, wealthy individuals, and/or large corporations manage their quantifiable risks and resources. These risks and resources may be tangible assets, such as debt and money. They may also be intangible assets, such as customer loyalty, for example, that are harder to measure.
Entry Level Financial Jobs
Holders of business degrees have an abundance of opportunities for entry-level finance jobs that range from accountant to investment banker. Below are four of our top career options:
Working as a financial planner provides an opportunity to work directly with clients and businesses. Financial planners advise their clients on how to achieve their financial objectives. Some financial planners provide comprehensive planning services without offering recommendations, while others offer both planning and transactional services. They often work in a larger investment or insurance company, but some operate independently.
Financial Planner Salary:
On average, financial planners earn $87,850, and jobs are predicted to expand at a rate of 4% through 2029.
Financial analysts examine data and use their findings to help companies make business decisions. Often, their analysis is meant to inform the investing decisions of companies. Specifically, financial analysts research macroeconomic and microeconomic conditions along with company fundamentals to make predictions about businesses, sectors, and industries. They also often recommend a course of action, such as buying or selling a company's stock based on its overall performance and outlook.
Financial Analyst Salary:
On average, financial analysts earn $81,590, and jobs are predicted to grow at a faster than average rate of 5% through 2029.
Large organizations, including government agencies, nonprofits, higher education institutions, and corporations, often employ budget analysts to advise them on how best to reach financial goals, maintain profitability, and pursue long-term growth. They prepare annual and special reports and evaluate budget proposals. They analyze data to determine the costs and benefits of various programs, and they recommend funding levels based on their findings. Although government officials or top executives in a private company usually decide on an organization’s budget, they rely on the work of budget analysts to prepare the information for that decision.
Budget Analyst Salary:
On average, budget analysts make $78,970, and jobs are predicted to grow by about 3% through 2029.
An actuary, or actuarial analyst, assesses potential risks of company decisions or situations using statistics, financial theories, and mathematics. Their duties include estimating probabilities of the success of certain business decisions, projecting costs of potential natural disasters, deaths, or sicknesses of company employees, and designing insurance policies or business strategies to reduce a company’s financial risks. Actuaries manipulate software to perform calculations and represent their findings. They present their recommendations to managers at their firm and convince others of the soundness of their decisions.
Actuary Salary:
On average, actuaries earn $111,030, and jobs are predicted to grow at a much faster than average rate of 18% through 2029.
Affordable Tuition and Flexible Terms
OU is proud to offer flexible online degrees, which are the best, fastest, and most affordable options in the institution’s adult markets in Kansas City, Milwaukee, and Phoenix. Ottawa University's online and evening programs are set on eight-week terms, with six terms offered per year. This schedule allows you the flexibility to take courses at your pace, which gives you the option to take one or more courses per term. Take the first step toward starting your entry level finance job or advancing your career in finance with Ottawa University’s finance degrees.
See Also:
Why Should I Pursue a Master's Degree?
Top 7 Accounting Careers in 2021
Lucrative Jobs in Finance
To learn more about these programs, contact us today