What does it take to get a high paying job in Finance?

Scenario 1:

Interviewer: What is your career objective?
Candidate: I want to be in a job which is paying me at least Rs. 50k per month.

Scenario 2:

Professor: Why have you decided to enroll for this programme?
Student: I have enrolled for this programme because I want to have a job of a high salary.

Aren’t these the typical answers that we hear? Now you may ask, what is wrong if a commerce student expects High Paying Finance Jobs? Absolutely there is nothing wrong.  However, remember that money is the outcome of what you do. Hence if life is a train, money should be the last compartment and the engine of the train should be what you actually do, what kind of work you handle, what kind of responsibilities you shoulder and what kind of value addition you bring to the table. If these are good, money will follow. If engine is strong, train does not derail and the last compartment has no choice but to follow the engine. Imagine if the compartment is in the front and engine at the end! In no time the train will derail.

So what should you do to ensure that your career does not derail?

1. You need to make sure that you have truly acquired knowledge as part of the education that you went through.

2. Don’t study just for getting the certificate. If you study to acquire knowledge, you are bound to get good marks followed by the certificate.

3. Immediately at the start it is unlikely that you will get a senior or highly skilled job as it requires experience and real world knowledge. But as you continue handling junior roles, never lose sight of what is the ultimate work that you want to handle in your career.

4. And last but not the least, always keep upgrading yourself in terms of keeping your knowledge up to date.

Let me give you some noteworthy examples in India of the corporate professionals who started their career at a very junior role and based on the experience they gained and the qualities they demonstrated, they reached the top positions. Arundhati Bhattacharya started her career as probationary officer at SBI and became Chairperson of SBI eventually! K.V.Kamath started his career at ICICI in Project Finance division in 1971 and became Managing Director in ICICI in 1996! Kalpana Morparia joined ICICI’s legal department in 1975 and eventually became Joint Managing Director in the same bank!

Success never has a shortcut and whatever success is achieved through shortcut is never long lasting.

You must understand where your interest is and join the right path of education to build your skills. If you like dealing with customers, like subjects such as economics, have analytical skills or selling skills, or have a high financial acumen, making a career in BFSI may be the right choice for you. Investment Banking, Risk Management, Wealth Management, Equity Analyst are some of the potential high paying career opportunities in this sector.

Even if you start your career with simple product selling job, you may earn good amount of incentives on top of your fixed income provided you bring new customers for your bank.

There is no dearth of high paying jobs provided you have a substance to deliver to your employer. You just need to remember that the journey of thousand miles begins with a single step. So keep walking.