Getting started in finance? These are the must-have skills

'Because data has become increasingly important in recent years, you can 't get away with just accounting skills as a finance employee . Anno 2023, you have to be able to handle data and IT systems as well. Everything is processed in digital systems nowadays. Financial organizations are therefore mainly looking for starters with an affinity for IT; in fact, they are looking for IT professionals with an affinity for finance,' says Sabine. 'The demand from our clients fort his relatively new role is growing exponentially.'

The trend of digitization and automation of the sector does not mean that you no longer need any knowledge of accounting at all. 'Numbers are and remain the core of the profession,' Sabine continues. 'Moreover, errors can still occur in systems. As a finance controller or accountant, you have to understand the figures and recognize errors. And if something doesn't go right, you have to be able to figure out where the problem is so you can prevent it from happening again. '

So an important skill you need within finance is to identify and fix errors in systems. Do you have both financial and technical knowledge? Then you are the ideal candidate for companies in finance!

💡 Tip: Check out all the finance roles within the bank.

In addition to technological developments, the 2007 credit crisis is another reason why data has taken on such an important role. This crisis brought to light the weaknesses within the regulations for financial institutions. For example, the solvency of financial institutions turned out to be worse than expected in many cases. In addition, reporting requirements were not good enough to properly assess the continuity of financial institutions. This has led to changes that have been implemented by regulators. In Europe, The European Central Bank (ECB) supervises all large banks to ensure that the financial sector is, and remains, safe and stable . Small banks in the Netherlands are supervised by De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB). The supervisor is in close contact with a bank and receives reports several times a year.

'Regulators who ask banks for their figures in the form of financial reports are nothing new,' says Sabine. 'But these days, numbers alone are not enough. A final report must also include the data behind the numbers. Data that shows how the numbers came about.' So static reports have given way to a data-driven reporting framework.

Regulators nowadays expect financial institutions to be able to provide a detailed data set. This allows the regulator to perform its own analyses and thus benchmark a financial institution against similar institutions. Supervisors also expect organizations to be able to meet ad hoc queries, such as an OnSite-Inspection. These reasons make it all the more important for a bank to always provide a complete and neat data set .

According to Sabine, because of these changes, financial departments of organizations need employees with knowledge of both data and the laws and regulations involved. "Since the 2008 financial crisis, the laws and regulations for banks have become much stricter and more dominant, making the delivery of data, in the right way, even more important.

Communicatively strong

Before, technical skills, being able to deal with IT systems and data were nice to haves. Now, according to Sabine, these are real must haves:'You have to be able to find your way around IT systems and understand well when system errors or input errors occur. '

Besides technical knowledge and skills, communication skills and other soft skills have also become more important. Sabine explains why: 'The Finance department within an organization is less segregated than before. With the advent of agile working, people even work in multidisciplinary teams, that is, with people from different departments, including finance.

The worlds of Finance, Risk, Data and IT are thus increasingly intertwined with each other and with the rest of the organization. It is therefore important that you speak each other's language.' In addition to specific financial knowledge, it is useful to acquire general knowledge in the areas of IT, Data and Risk as well as to have strong communication skills. 'That will certainly help you make a career within finance,' Sabine confirms.

Een tip voor studenten

Wat kun je nu als student doen om je goed voor te bereiden op een carrière in finance? Sabine geeft de tip om, indien mogelijk, tijdens je opleiding al technische kennis op te doen. Bijvoorbeeld met keuzevakken in Data, IT en Risk. ‘Leer programmeren of modellen bouwen, dat brengt je straks veel voordelen.’ zegt Sabine. ‘Hoe beter je die technische kant begrijpt, hoe makkelijker het straks voor je is als je bij een grote corporate werkt. Met data en technische vakken zit je eigenlijk altijd goed.’

'Keep in mind that what you learn during your training in terms of IT knowledge can be quite different from what you encounter later in practice,' she continues. 'Training is sometimes ahead of what happens in practice. Banks often don't yet use the latest systems and technology that you do during your studies. But that does mean that you can mean a lot in the development of an organization's application landscape,' Sabine says.

With our traineeship Finance, Data & IT you will start working at a bank, insurance company or pension fund from day one. During the traineeship you will be supervised by a talent manager who will think along with you and help you with your personal growth plan. You will also receive a budget of €2,000 to spend on your personal development. You can spend this on a programming language like Python or Javascript, but also to master a specific system. In short: spend it on what you need to make your job a success!