Let’s take a broad look at how the financial system is set up and why so many financial services jobs exist to support saving and spending activities.

• The financial system helps link savers, including individuals, companies, and governments who have money to invest with spenders who need money to achieve a variety of goals
• Most often, investors cannot analyze, plan, and execute all saving and spending activities on their own, so intermediaries (i.e., financial services professionals) are needed to support these activities either directly or indirectly.
• Within the financial system, the investment management industry offers a range of products and services to savers and spenders to channel funds between them. Investments can be made in a wide range of assets, including real assets (e.g., land, buildings, machinery, cattle, gold, forests, etc.) and financial instruments (e.g. shares, debt securities, mutual funds, etc.)
• Financial services intermediaries can also play an important role in the areas of corporate management and strategy, such as planning mergers and acquisitions or assisting with capital raising for startups; they can be key in minimizing risk for institutions across many organizations, from hedge funds to commercial banks; and they can be advocates for ethics and compliance with laws and regulations in their clients' industries. 

You may be familiar with the descriptors "buy side" or "sell side" to describe investment firms. Knowing the difference between these two groups may help you to narrow your financial career search to jobs that fit your interests.

The buy-side/sell-side classification does not apply to all firms in the investment industry. In addition, the buy-side/sell-side classification is somewhat arbitrary and not easily applied to many large, integrated firms. For example, many investment banks have divisions or wholly owned subsidiaries that provide investment management services, which are buy side. These functions are on the buy side, even though investment banks are sell-side firms.

Another set of terms you may encounter in financial job descriptions is "front office", "middle office" or "back office". These terms are used to roughly group the major activities that happen within sell-side firms. The terms front office, middle office, and back office are generally not used when describing buy-side firms. However, the main departments of buy-side investment management firms are similar to those of sell-side firms. These departments include sales and client relations, investment research and portfolio management, trading, compliance, accounting, and administration.

Making a career change from an unrelated field to a finance job is not impossible, but you will need to familiarize yourself with the finance industry and financial regulations to improve your chances of success when applying. Whether you aim to work in an investment bank, commercial bank, hedge fund, investment firm, or in the finance department of an organization, you'll need to understand how financial markets work.

Innovation in financial technologies (fintech) such as AI, machine learning, and blockchain development has increased the need for data experts and programmers.

The following skills are commonly transferrable across most finance roles, regardless of their buy side vs. sell side designation or where they might sit in a front, middle, or back office schematic.

• Interpersonal communication
• Attention to detail
• Teamwork and relationship building
• Analytical competency and critical thinking
• Knowledge of global current events
• Understanding of the financial system

Use the table below to see common financial, communication, and analytical skill sets that are more particular to the job divisions we outlined above: