Financial analysis is one of the most important stages of company development. To operate effectively and make a profit, IT companies need specialists who will competently calculate, forecast, and analyze their financial indicators.
We have prepared a selection of useful resources from the Financial Planning and Analytics (FP&A) team at EPAM that will help you master the basic topics of this area.
What is the main hard skill of any analyst? Excel ✅
The meme "the whole financial system of the world and your company are based on Excel" is actually not a meme. Knowledge of Excel is a base about which you will definitely be asked at an interview in any large company 👇
📎 Beginners in Excel can take any course in basic functionality, for example, a 10-hour course on YouTube.
📎 PivotTable is an indispensable tool for data processing. You can pump your knowledge into it for free on the course from Udemy or on the SimonSezIT YouTube channel.
📎 Power Query & Power Pivot are Excel add-ons for easy work with heavy files. You can get a basic understanding of these tools on tutorial by SimonSezIT on YouTube.
📎 Advanced Formulas. Mastery of formulas makes it easy to distinguish an Excel novice from a Junior Financial Analyst. For LinkedIn Learning users (new users get a 30-day free trial), we recommend the Advanced Formulas and Functions training as well as the course from Udemy.
📎 Advanced Charts. Charts and data visualization are the keys to successfully communicating your results to the customer. Learn Excel's capabilities in this area by taking courses from Udemy, LinkedIn Learning, and the course in Gantt Charts on YouTube.
📎 Modeling. Modeling is an X-factor, and a model is the standard result of the everyday work of a Financial Analyst. You can learn what it is in Coursera courses from Wharton, HSE (Higher School of Economics), EUT (Erasmus University Rotterdam).
Excel is good, but novice professionals also need to understand the work of finance ✅
📎 CIMA is a community of experts in the field of management accounting, whose certificate confirms the professional level. To prepare for certification, you can study finance yourself using free courses from Astrantia or from Opentuition.
📎 For LinkedIn Learning users, we recommend the 17-hour course Become a Financial Analyst, Financial Accounting Part 1 & Part 2, Finance & Accounting Tips.
📎 Coursera also provides opportunities to study finance. We have highlighted the following courses: the course from the Higher School of Economics, Essentials of Corporate Finance Specialization, Financial Management Specialization.
📎 Free courses on the edX platform: Introduction to Corporate Finance, Foundations of Finance, Corporate Finance.
📎 On YouTube you can watch Corporate Finance (Best lectures from Harvard) from legendary financier Aswat Damodaran, MIT corporate finance, and Corporate Finance from Edspira.
We hope you will find in this guide a suitable resource for your first step in finance. Go ahead!
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