What does a financial analyst do?
A financial analyst turns numbers into decisions. They build the models, forecasts and reports that tell a business, a bank or an investor what is happening with money, what is likely to happen next, and what to do about it.
Right now there are 3,508 open financial analyst jobs in the US on this site, straight from employers' own career sites. Half of the salaries employers posted for these roles in the last year fall in the range $92.5k–$159k a year.
A typical week
The work changes with the employer, but most analyst weeks include some of this:
- Building and updating models. Usually in Excel, sometimes in a planning tool such as Anaplan, Adaptive or Oracle EPM. A model might forecast next year's revenue, test what a price change does to profit, or value a company.
- Closing the month. Comparing what actually happened with the budget and explaining the gaps ("variance analysis"), so managers know why costs ran over or sales came in light.
- Forecasting. Re-running the outlook for the quarter or the year as new numbers arrive.
- Answering questions. A manager asks what it would cost to open a new office or hire ten people; the analyst works it out.
- Presenting. Turning the results into a short deck or dashboard that a non-finance reader can act on.
The main types of financial analyst
"Financial analyst" covers several different jobs. The biggest groups on this site:
| Type | What they focus on | Where they work |
|---|---|---|
| FP&A analyst | Budgets, forecasts and variance analysis for one company | Almost every mid-size and large company |
| Credit analyst | Whether a borrower can repay | Banks, lenders, credit funds |
| Investment analyst | Which stocks, bonds or funds to own | Asset managers, insurers, pension funds |
| Treasury analyst | Cash, debt, currency and bank relationships | Corporate treasury teams |
| Investment banking analyst | Mergers, acquisitions and capital raising | Investment banks and advisory firms |
| Budget analyst | Public budgets and spending | Federal, state and local government |
FP&A (financial planning and analysis) is the largest single group: right now there are 306 open FP&A analyst jobs in the US.
Skills employers ask for
Reading thousands of postings, the same requirements come up again and again:
- Excel, at a level where you build models from scratch. This is close to universal.
- Accounting basics: how the income statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement fit together.
- A bachelor's degree in finance, accounting, economics or a related subject is the usual baseline.
- SQL, Power BI or Tableau appear more and more, especially in FP&A and finance data roles.
- Communication. Almost every posting asks for someone who can explain numbers to people who aren't in finance.
Certifications help in some areas: the CFA in investment roles, the CPA where the job leans toward accounting. Neither is required for most entry-level jobs.
Career path
A common path runs analyst → senior analyst → finance manager → director, often within five to eight years. Many people move between types along the way, for example from credit or audit into FP&A, or from FP&A into corporate development.
