Financial Technology: All You Need To Know About Stepping Into This Fast-Rising, Innovative Industry

The landscape of financial services is changing and new amazing innovations from cryptocurrencies to payment platforms are beginning to disrupt the industry.

And that means the need for talent is growing! Fintech is the combination of finance with technology, allowing for greater innovations across banking and financial institutions globally.

If you are looking to be at the forefront of exciting change and become a market disruptor yourself, then joining this fast-rising industry might just be your calling!

Your career can span across big global banks and hedge funds to exciting and nimble startups as you gain limitless opportunities to revolutionise financial services forever.

In this article, you will learn what it takes to enter the industry and what to expect if you set foot in fintech.

5 Things You Need To Know About Pursuing A Career In Financial Technology

1. Your Starting Job Titles & Positions

Depending on the role you choose to enter in the industry you could start as a software engineer, programmer, trading analyst or cyber security specialist.

If you are a software engineer or programmer, you are mainly on the technical side and you will be at the frontline of coding and developing new exciting fintech applications. These can be new seamless payment gateways or even cryptocurrency exchanges to help facilitate transactions in this new field.

However, if you are more on the financial side, you will be harnessing these technologies to make better financial or trading decisions.

This can be as an analyst who analyses data and derives insights from them to a security analyst who uses technology to check for security breaches in the bank’s infrastructure.

2. Your Responsibilities & Day To Day Tasks

Every day is a dynamic day in fintech, no matter the role that you choose. As a programmer or developer, you will be entrusted with pushing ahead the progress of fintech applications.

This will mean working with data, consulting with customers and users as well as leading decision making when it comes to improving the platforms.

You will be analysing how to enhance existing financial models using your quantitative skills or even programming new solutions yourself!

Another core skill that you will be displaying daily is your problem-solving ability. There are numerous challenges to solve every day and many of which require you to collaborate with others while being creative enough to bring new solutions to the table.

Whether you are tasked to create a new banking app or to improve on that investment software to help gain better returns, there’s never a dull day in the industry.

3. Your Career Progression

In fintech, your career progression will depend on your role as well as the institution you are in.

If you are in a fintech role in a traditional institution such as a bank, you can rise up the ranks to be a specialist in your field and ascend the usual, vice-president to director route.

However, if you choose the more dynamic startup route, you will be wearing many hats which could see you be both a specialist as well as a manager or even head an entire department within a few years.

4. Your Expected Salary

If you are a software development engineer in the industry, you can expect to earn around $97,000 annually.

If you are a business or IT analyst, you can expect to make around $77,000 annually. Do note that these are entry-level positions and they could vary depending on the institution.

A bank would generally pay more upfront while a startup will generally pay less cash, however, you might get other perks such as stock options.

5. University Courses To Launch A Career In Fintech

The first step you can take is to pursue either a finance major or a technology-related degree in university to stand a good chance of entering the industry.

While there are certifications and additional qualifications in fintech directly, they are usually add-ons or a postgraduate course in addition to your existing degree.

On the finance side, you can pursue a degree in economics, finance and even mathematics. These will give you a good quantitative base and background that you can build on.

If you are more interested in the technology side of fintech, a Degree in data analytics, computer science and systems engineering is a great way to develop the technical skills necessary to build the fintech solutions of tomorrow!

Pursue Your Financial Technology Degree With IDP

Keen on taking the next step and start pursuing a career in the exciting and lucrative field of financial technology?

Our experienced team of education counsellors are here to answer all your questions and assist you!

Besides that, they will be able to give you advice when it comes to selecting the right university that will suit your needs and career aspirations.

At IDP, we ensure that you get the best quality education possible by navigating different universities and guiding you through the course application process.

Kickstart your overseas study journey by booking a counselling session today.