In the aftermath of the global financial and economic crisis, African policy makers have been rethinking their economic strategies for the next decade. Africa’s high pre-crisis growth and a quick rebound from the crisis highlighted its vast economic potential. At the same time, poverty is still wide-spread across the continent. The key question then is how to turn Africa’s potential into strong, sustained and shared growth and achieve tangible improvements in people’s lives. Africa’s resilient economies and the continued investment by both local and international organizations establishing operations and expanding business across the region is creating a healthy domestic employment market. In particular, as international organizations establish regional operations in places like South Africa and Nigeria, finance professionals with the continent’s work experience are in high demand across all industries. Risk management and compliance professionals are particularly sought after, especially at the management level, as corporate organizations increase their focus on improving risk and compliance practices. Within an environment of positive job volumes for finance professionals, a shortage of quality talent exists. This is providing significant opportunities for talented individuals to develop skills and gain experience in a new, more senior role. For finance professionals looking to progress their career, we outline the elements to consider and the options available to help move to the next career level.

Map out a clear strategy

The first step toward furthering your career is to determine where you currently stand in your professional life and your skill set level, as this will help you work out what direction you need to take to reach your next career stage. Put a plan together and map out a strategy to provide an understanding of where you are and what you need to acquire and achieve in order to move to the next level.

It’s important to have realistic goals around when and how you can develop your skills, in particular if you are thinking about undertaking further study. Understanding the current employment market in your industry is also imperative, so research the market to ensure you are aware of the issues and trends. By looking at advertised roles, you can assess what skills and experience is required at the career level you are aspiring to reach.

Explore career options in the workplace

With attraction and retention being a key focus for employers, many organizations provide their employees with opportunities for career progression and have development programs in place to ensure a relevant training ground for individuals to move into a more senior role. For professionals seeking to build their career within their company, it’s important to actively position yourself for a promotion. Ensure your manager understands that you want to take the next step in your career and talk to them about how and where you can progress within your team or company. You can also demonstrate your initiative and commitment by asking how you can take on more responsibility within or outside your own team in order to broaden your experience. 10You can also build a strong professional relationship with a senior manager in your company who can act both as a mentor and as an advocate, and network regularly with colleagues from across the company to build your personal brand. While it’s important to reinforce strong technical competence and industry expertise, also highlight that you are reliable, professional, proactive, creative, visible, and dedicated. This will help you to be top of mind when new career opportunities arise within your team or company.

Investigate external career opportunities

If you believe your current workplace is unable to support the career progression you desire, the next option is to look at job opportunities available in other organizations. To put yourself in the best position as a strong potential candidate, work toward upgrading your existing professional skills and check if there are any other finance specific skills necessary for you to move forward in your career. Fill any skills gaps with training and update your industry knowledge by talking to industry experts, doing online research and networking with other finance colleagues. Honing transferable skills is another way to broaden your appeal to potential employers, as hiring managers hold strong transferable skills in high regard. In particular, make sure your verbal and written communication skills are up to scratch, and your analysis and research skills are strong. It’s also an opportunity to practice your influencing and decision-making skills, and if you are aiming to progress your career in a management role, assess your team and leadership skills. From this base, consider any additional professional skills you can work on developing to further build your skill set. Establishing a solid reputation as a talented finance professional within your industry is also helpful when looking for a new career opportunity in another organization. A network of contacts is one of the most useful career development tools, so make the effort to attend professional association meetings, events, and conferences. Networking not only builds your reputation as a well-connected and valued peer but can also help to keep you top of mind when career opportunities arise. Use your network of contacts to keep an eye out for opportunities that match your skills and interests, introduce you to people who can help your job search, and provide personal referrals when you apply for jobs.

Understand the core competence area of demand and requirements

Strategically, understand the core area of competence in continue demand and some of the options with basic requirements are in the following areas:

1. Personal Equity Applicants who select personal equity as a finance career are answerable for raising funds from massive stockholders. They raise the money for making an investment in a large range of enterprises. To immediately invest in companies, applicants would need to find firms which are in their initial stage and growing. Non-public share funds can also exit the investment after express time duration. These holdings in enterprises can be further sold to other stockholders.

2. Investment Banking Applicants who have got an eager interest of working in the sphere of banking and finance can also select a career as a professional banker. Investment banking can be broadly classified into 2 classes – advisory / company finance role and paper markets role. The 1st career option involves comprehending valuations, setting targets, negotiating and abiding by legal laws. On the other hand, the advisory finance role career involves helping companies in fund raising, either from speculators or the general public.

3. Fund Management. Another top career option is beginning to become a fund executive. These pros work at hedge funds. They keep a keen watch and look at the macro factors (having an impact on the markets) and micro factors (picking firms to speculate in). The fund chief functions as a call maker and invests in stock exchange, debt market, corporations and so on.

4. Equity Research & Sales. The equity research area can be split into sell-side research and buy side research. People who work in this area have the work responsibility of doing multiple categories of researches including basic research and technical analysis amongst others. The key job duty of these execs is to judge the stocks being traded on the stock market thru researches.

5. Project Finance. there are a number of structure and commercial projects that look for long-term financing. Applicants employed in project finance and debt syndication would so include understanding the necessities of the project, studying feasibility and readying a detail money model for projects.

6. Finance. risk handling corporations have a regular need for executives who are trained and focus on money risk control. These pros are accountable for making commercial price of firms they are working for and handling exposure to risks like credit risk and market risk. The banking sector employs a fair number of these execs internationally.

7. Corporate Banking. This is another top career option in the province of finance. As a corporate banker, you can work for big companies, little ventures and medium ventures. All of these firms have an obligation for company bankers to deal with a range of banking jobs like credit borrowing, money management, and credit analysis and so on.

8. Alternative Investment. With the growing sophistication of the market and need to explore further areas of financing, key knowledge of alternative investment such as hedge funds, real estate investment, structured finance and leverage buyout are in top demand now as well.

In conclusion it is very important to strategically position your career towards the need and the flow of the industry of interest, such as the finance industry in the region.