there is an article by cfo.com that looks at the number of sitting CFOs with an engineering background and they found it to be 1,466 CFOs with an engineering background and by looking at the profiles of CFOs they listed here in article the first one is a CFO of a big public company visa and
his uh background is from the Indian Institute of Technology with an undergrad degree in engineering the second one um also a chief and his background is in engineering here you can see bachelor’s engineering the third same way a Chief Financial Officer uh with a degree in electrical
engineering so what does these numbers and career profiles here tell us about the conventional story that we all heard since we graduated University which is to reach the top of the hierarchy as a text-decoration: none;">Finance professional you need to have started out in Investment Banking Equity research or Accounting or some other text-decoration: none;">Finance related uh career this here tells us a slightly different story which is that you could have started in engineering data Science Education or some other career which will add some Dimensions to your experience because as an engineer you need to learn how to
conceptualize uh problems and find solutions for them right so adds Dimension to your background and then slowly segue into a Finance related career if that’s what you
like and so in this CashNews.co we’ll talk about the three Horsemen or the three things that I’ve seen who work for my colleagues who transitioned from non-none;">Finance into a Finance career so that’s what we’re discussing here today let’s go all right so the three Horsemen of your strategy for
transitioning from non-Finance into a Finance
career are going to be one work experience two resume and three your post-graduate education or certification and I ask that throughout the CashNews.co if you like the content to go ahead and hit the like button because that’s how you’re going to help me out in return for me helping you
out with these tips here so let’s talk about the first one which is your work experience all right so with work experience what I’m suggesting here is that you’re going to be slowly overtime transitioning from what you’re doing in your core job into a href="https://cashnews.co/finance" style="font-weight: bold; color: #1a73e8; text-decoration: none;">Finance
an example here just to drive this home a little bit more let’s say you’re an engineer working on a project like building a bridge right so typically what that would entail is uh creating the initial drawings for the bridge um making a plan for uh buying the material and hiring the
labor necessary for for it and then generally just project managing the building process of that bridge right uh what I’m suggesting here is that you’re going to find Finance
related activity within the project like creating a budget for example so the two areas that are going to be Finance related in that project uh could be Budgeting or
procurement right so we’re Budgeting you going to get closer to the Financial Statements of building the project um whether there’s going to be uh some sort of Income uh from collecting tolls from writers who go into that bridge and
then the expense or the cost which is the morti cost of building that bridge over time right so you’re going to get get into the the process of creating the budget for building the bridge which is going to include the cost of labor cost of material and how that’s going to uh be recouped
over time either through Revenue or either through some kind of federal or government grants over time so the Budgeting process is is going to be very helpful for you in this case the second uh option is going to be procurement um or the process of buying things
necessary for that bridge and that’s going to entailed negotiating contracts finding the best pricing and working in general with the team on um optimizing the cost for the things that you’re buying for that bridge so now you’re an engineer working on that bridge but at the same
time you’re working on a Finance related activity that’s going to help you segue yourself into working in style="font-weight: bold; color: #1a73e8; text-decoration: none;">Finance
which is your work experience and before jumping into your second Horseman which is your resume I wanted to announce that I’m starting an Accounting community on school.com uh a community of accountants and controllers Financial analysts who get together and ask questions and
it’s going to be moderated by me so you can ask me questions uh your questions can be either answered by me or by someone else in the community so I’m really excited about it it’s a free community so you can join at no cost I’m going to leave a link down below to joining my
community and I hope to see you in there all right so with your resume or your second horseman in this case what we’re talking about here is that with the first point we talked about is work experience is that you transition slowly to work on budget or procurement on the project and that
applies not only to Engineers but it could be applied to education computer science anything or any career generally includes projects that need to be managed and includes budget and buying things right so that’s uh your work experience now with the resume there are two things here to that we
can work on to make sure that we can transition successfully into Finance the first one is that you need to do enough of Budgeting or procurement uh to be able to put it in
your resume and generally be able to talk about it in a job interview right that’s the first thing and the second is that slowly over time uh these things that relate to Budgeting or Forecasting procurement are going to make up 50% or more of what you do so
slowly when you look at your work experience on your resume in that particular job 50% or half of what you do there is going to be Finance related right the more the better right so we can
show your knack for Finance and your ability to tackle Finance
related projects all right gang so we covered work experience we covered resume and now we’re going to talk about your third Horseman of this strategy which is going to be your post graduate education so most likely now that you’re working in your domain engineering Computer Science
Education you have an undergrad degree in that domain uh what I’m suggesting here is that you invest two years of your life I know it’s not a small invest investment two years of your life um getting a an MBA degree and MBA is Masters in Business Administration uh which could be done
online there are programs that are online uh combined maybe with going on campus for a few times for projects testing and things like that um these MBA programs come in various concentrations uh so they could be in marketing leadership business management Accounting href="https://cashnews.co/finance" style="font-weight: bold; color: #1a73e8; text-decoration: none;">Finance
investment in your career and ultimately it’s going to make a huge difference if you want to transition into Finance as a second option if you don’t want to invest two years of
your life doing this right there is a CMA designation so you can uh apply and sit for an examination for CMA or Certified Management accountant um which is going to be nice it’s going to be uh you learn through it it’s going to go next to your name and your LinkedIn profile and
it’s going to add value to your career as you transition into Finance so these are the to recap the three Horsemen of your strategy are going to be work experience to transition slowly
overtime taking over Finance related stuff in the project within your work uh second is resume build up what you do slowly over time to maybe get to 50% of what you do in your job
that’s going to be Finance sounding at least or Finance related and then the
third Horseman is going to be post-graduate education um taking an MBA program as an option one or if if not maybe a CMA designation so that’s been the topic of this CashNews.co today I hope that you liked it it added value to you if it did Smash that like button subscribe to the channel and
I don’t know if you know somebody who is interested and maybe wanted to make a move send this CashNews.co along at way and I’ll see you in the next one
CashNews, your go-to portal for financial news and insights.
As a non-finance / non business major undergrad who is a financial analyst now, I’m having trouble making the next leap forward past senior analyst.
I’m wondering why you’re recommending CMA over CFA, any insights?
Do you have a video aimed at someone starting their accounting career in their 40s?
As a finance major in LA, it’s damn near impossible to find a job. Applied to many internships no call ups. Asking family members got no help. Walked into firm asking for positions no opportunities. Like damn how we suppose to survive I’m lost for words.
please start a finanacial analyst course on youtube
Thank you for the great video. I am currently in my senior year for a BS Accounting with a 3.98 GPA and have 13 years in the military. I’ve been looking for ways to help make the transition.
I don’t see the link for your community. Highly interested in joining. Did I miss the link?
Great video! Found your channel couple of months ago, thanks for the help!
I think engineers have the intelligence to quickly learn the basics of finance and progress faster than a lot of business majors.
Great video 🎉
I'm from an Engineering background and currently working as a data scientist. I would like switch over to strategic finance. Would a CPA (Canada) with a finance specialization rather than public accounting help me?
Thank you for this. Great info. Signing up for your new community.
I'm favoured $130k every 4 weeks! I now have a good house and can afford anything and also support my family
Likes from Qatar
Great video!
Thanks great vídeo and great advice