Business Report on Career Programs - Research Paper Example

Final Business Report TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2 INTRODUCTION 3 Statement of purpose 3 Statement of problem 4 FINDINGS 5 CONCLUSION 10 Recommendations 10 REFERENCES 11 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The paper deals with a detailed study on future career opportunities of the current students of finance specialization of John Molson School of Business. The objective of this study is to make a business report based on this study which will benefit the finance students of this business school by providing them detailed information regarding their future career opportunities in local as well as international market. This study has focused on the job opportunities in financial institutions. Therefore, information about required industry related skills and knowledge are very important and included in this paper. The students need this information to start preparing from now for getting edge into financial institutions of their choices. This report also includes special requirements of skills and knowledge to get into leading organizations in financial service industry. The target audiences of this report are the first year students with specialization in finance and also the post schools students who are aspiring finance students of this college. They would be helped by this report in terms of a complete package of information about the course they have enrolled or willing to enroll. Therefore, students can be aware about implication of theoretical knowledge of finance studies. INTRODUCTION Finance is an important field of study which offers vast knowledge about financial activates. It is essential study for future investors to make investment decision by their own for short run as well as long run investments. Investors can be any individual with any professions as well institutions which also consists of employees with relevant knowledge for investment decision making. Therefore, studying in finance has many benefits in terms of after study work opportunities as well as managing personal finance. It is one important field of general studies which helps the students to get more general studies than students of any other field of studies. There are very less fields of studies that help students to start career as self employment with high earning like chattered accountant, financial consultants etc. Knowledge of finance is essential for any individual of any field for efficient management of personal earning. There are several important areas in Finance field like accounting, risk management and entrepreneurship. Among these three, accounting is the most important as it provides basic knowledge of finance which is very essential for higher studies in finance and also there are numbers of job opportunities in accounting. The students can easily get an accounts executive job in any financial as well as non financial organization. Therefore, this specific area of study provides job opportunities in any industry and market. Statement of purpose Key purpose of this study or this report is to inform the students of finance major areas with accounting about the feasibility of their opted field of study. This study will focus mainly on the future job opportunities of the current students as well as aspiring students of finance. Therefore, primary purpose is to collect relevant information about different related areas of finance study and job opportunity. This paper aims to help the students to get information about requirement of special knowledge or skills for getting job opportunities in leading organizations or in good job profiles. There are many student magazines that provide career development information but those are limited information and many common quarries of students are still not resolved. Therefore, this paper has will fill the gap by providing complete package of information regarding finance studies and future job opportunities. Statement of problem There are several problems that finance students generally face regarding clear idea about their opted field of study. Though the students of finance field are academically well prepared or have substantial theoretical knowledge of many areas accounting, entrepreneurship, risk management etc, but they face problems in finding or getting desired job after completion of their study. Many leading organization in financial or non financial organizations wants industry oriented skills and knowledge from the fresh graduates of finance. By this the organizations require less training to the fresher having these practical skills and knowledge. Therefore, student should familiar with community of finance professionals to get knowledge about their special skills which are generally not included in general course curriculum of college. It is very difficult to find reliable information related to their career path from any external resources. They do get detailed information about different work profiles, entry level compensations, requirements of additional certificates and also specific technical skills required for specific job profiles. This report would resolve almost all basic queries of finance students. FINDINGS Background Studying in finance has high opportunities in terms of job profile, designation and also compensation. Accounting and finance is a composite functional area which is very much popular as high paid job profiles. The students of finance field of John Molson School of Business have also good background in terms of market economy. This business school is located in Montreal, the largest and most developed city of Canadian province of Quebec. There are many leading domestic as well as international organizations in this city. Among all these financial organizations contribute major role in economic development of this city. Leading financial institutions are multinational investment banks, financial research institutions. Many non banking financial institutions also operate in this city in full extent. These wide categories of financial institutions hire fresh graduates from the local business schools. Non financial organizations also hire accounting students for marinating accounts of daily business activities. Therefore, the finance students have huge job opportunities after successful completion of their curse curriculum. Students with strength and preference of accounting have relatively much opportunity as both financial as well as non financial organizations need accounting candidates mainly in financial accounting and cost accounting profiles. Other profiles of core finance are risk management, project finance, security analysis, wealth management etc. The city Montreal is known for knowledge centre where many fresh graduates comes from finance field and get multiple job opportunities in domestic as well multinational organizations operating in this city. Important information for the finance students especially those who are interested in accounting related job is that half of more than 35000 accountants of Quebec work in Montreal as employee of leading organizations as well as self employed. Though, the city has highest number of qualified expertise in the world but also workforce retention rate is very low. This indicates that the organizations have increasing requirements of workforce and employees have high job satisfaction level. Low retention rate also implies good work environment and work culture of the existing organizations in this city. These are valuable information for the finance students as there are numbers of financial firms operate in this city. Many multinational firms also coming to this city due to business potentiality of this market and this drives many new businesses to be established every year. Government and many financial institutions encourage new entrepreneurs by ensuring subsidized finance for new business development. Canada is the leading member of G8 nations and is known for low cost business startup with less legal obligations. This is also a major opportunity of the finance students as entrepreneurship is one important area of their course and they initially start partnership business with their classmates. Financial service industry contributes high percentage to the country’s GDP and most of the leading organizations are financial institutions. Montreal has maximum financial research jobs of Canada. Therefore, all these factors lead to major strengths of finance students for their future career prospect. Limitations This paper represents an in depth study about career opportunities and related information for the finance students of John Molson School of Business. Though this paper provides much detailed information about the feasibility and career potentiality of their opted course but also it holds some limitations. First of all, this report provides key important information about the job market of Montreal. It does not focus on the international career prospect of the finance students because the study has been conducted based on the job market of Montreal not even the hole country. Again, information about job profile and training programs offered by some leading firms are provided in this report as examples. There are many other firms in the city that offers different kind of training programs to the interns as well as fresher graduates. Therefore, students might be unsatisfied with information about limited job profiles. But, there are numbers of domestic as well as multinational firms that offer various job profiles with different entry level salaries. It is not possible to include all these information in this report. Again, some information of this report has been collected from wide sources through secondary research and some of these might not be highly reliable sources. Therefore, this report should act as a guide to the students but they should not take any career decisions only based on the information of this report. Following are the important information about three leading firms and job profiles, training programs, entry level salaries offered by those firms. Some other information like professional associations, trade journals, certifications and conferences will be given that represents limitation of this study. Firms In Montreal, there are numbers of financial firms that recruits finance graduates every year from the local business schools of Montreal. There are also many non financial firms that hires finance students for accounting profile. Financial institutions include accounting firms, banks, insurance companies, security brooking agencies, investment research companies etc. Following are the brief about three leading different categories of financial firms operates in Montreal. MNP is a leading financial consulting firm of Canada and operates in Montreal. The company offers accounting and assurance, corporate finance, risk management, insolvency, tax and forensic services to its institutional clients. It recruits finance graduates every years for summer internship programs and accounts and finance executive position. Standard Life is a leading and investment and Insurance Company operates in Canada. It has active business operation in Montreal through its branch out there. It provides different insurance products and short term and long term investment solutions through mutual fund to individual customers and family group. The company recruits finance fresher every year in different position especially in functional areas like accounting, finance and tax management (Standard Life, 2012, p.1). CIBC is a leading financial institution of Canada that offers wide portfolio of banking, investment and wealth management services to individual as well as institutional clients. It has active operation in Montreal city. It hires finance graduates from local business schools in different positions like accounts and finance executive to business development executive Job Criteria B School students need to start developing industry oriented skills and knowledge to get extra edge in job market. Numbers of technical skills are required in different financial job profiles. Therefore, finance students need to familiar with usage of software like MS excel, SAP, SAS, SPSS for getting core financial analysis and accounting job. These types of profiles are first preference of finance graduates as these are in-house as well high paid job profiles. Most of the multinational as well as domestic financial firms recruit fresh graduates with standard technical skills i.e. knowledge of analysis and accounting activates through several analytical and accounting tools. Business development profiles requires quite knowledge in market and sells though finance graduates are given preference as activities are selling of financial products and services. In-house Training Programs MNP offers two different training programs to the finance graduates who have strength and interest in accounting area. They recruit in positions of Co-up student and summer student. Co-up students get opportunity to gain practical knowledge and can implement their theoretical knowledge in work. Summer students are also trained for implementing theoretical knowledge into industry6 oriented activities (MNP, 2012, p.1). Standard life conducts training programs for recruited fresh graduates as finance executives. Its in house training programs help the students to familiar with real financial activities and they identify the way to implement their academic knowledge and skills. CIBC also offer different training programs for students and recent graduates. It offers summer employment, internship and co-ups for final year students and other programs like Commercial Banking Associate Program for students perusing finance studies (CIBC, 2012, p.1). Entry-level salaries Recently graduate students are offered remuneration of $2500 to $3000 by the multinational financial firms. Domestic organizations offered comparatively lower package ranging $1500 to $2000. Professional Journal/Trade Publications There are many professional journal and trade publications published in Montreal. One of the popular publications is Montreal Business Magazine. It is popular among the business professionals and also business school students. The chamber of commerce of Montreal metropolitan publishes this business magazine. Student Association Most popular and renowned students associations of Molson Scholl of Business are Concordia International Students Association (CISA), Commerce and Administration Students’ Association (CASA) and CISA and Finance and Investment Students' Association (FISA). Fist year students can enroll in these associations and these are run by students of John Molson Schools of Business. Certifications and Accreditations Chartered Accountant (CA) and Charter Financial Analyst (CFA) are the major certification programs for students have strength in core finance and financial accounting. These accreditations help to get high paid job in leading financial organizations. CONCLUSION This study has conducted to help the finance students of by providing important information related to future job opportunity in this market. From the detailed study in above several areas it can be conclude that finance students of Molson School of Business have multiple job opportunities in existing financial firms in Montreal. Most of the firms recruits students for summer internship and provide pre placement offer to the potential students having industry oriented skill and knowledge. Three major segments of jobs activities for finance students are financial analysis, financial accounting and business development. The financial service industry in Montreal has been growing every year and this is key opportunity for the students of finance. Apart from this city, the students also can get job in other region of Canada and also in global markets. Entrepreneurship is another career option which is encouraged by the government as well leading financial institutions in Montreal. Recommendations From the key findings of this study of job opportunity for finance students in Montreal, some recommendations can be developed. The students of finance field need to acquire industry oriented knowledge and technical skills required for conducting accounting and financial analysis activities. They need start practice of solving accounting and financial problems through popular tools that mentioned in this study. Again, the students also start reading of business newspaper and magazines, trade publications just after getting admission in finance field. This helps to build knowledge of local, national as well as global economic and business environment. Students are also evaluated by the leading firms based on their knowledge of current financial market and other industry and market updates. REFERENCES CIBC. (2012). Career Programs. Retrieved from https://www.cibc.com/ca/inside-cibc/careers/students-and-graduates/for-new-graduates.html. MNP. (2012). MNP All Access for Students. Retrieved from https://mnpcareers-students.silkroad.com/. Standard Life. (2012). Québec days. Retrieved from http://www.standardlife.ca/en/career/euro_promo.html. Read More