Coding in finance?

Hi all,

I’m a first-year student studying Economics.
I’ve been coming across articles on the internet saying how coding is going to be one of the most important skills to have in the future. With a bit of time on my hands, I’ve enrolled in an online course on the programming language Python. Would just like to get some insight from you guys, how important is coding to a career in finance? Does knowing python give me an advantage in securing an internship at a bank?

Thanks in advance!

 
Best Response

Why only think about your internship? You should be thinking beyond that and into the job you want. I think you're on the right track with wanting to add coding to your background. Python is an excellent choice, so is R and maybe even some SAS. You should also know how to write SQL for databases. If you know SQL for big data systems (like Hive) then that's even better.

Get yourself working with Python and some free datasets out there (pick any one) and start doing some data manipulation with it, something you can talk about in an interview and you will distinguish yourself from other applicants.

 

Get real brah, you are in a better position than most. I've hired kids with the technical skills I need even though they topped out at community college. You can't lose by learning programming, there is no downside. I can't speak with authority re: developer vs MBB difficulty, but I would imagine it would be much more of an uphill battle with the latter.

"That dude is so haole, he don't even have any breath left."
 

Depends on what kind of finance you're talking about. What exactly do you love about the industry?

Nothing is impossible, but you'll have a much harder time breaking into high finance jobs than something like commercial banking or even Finance as an institution's or bank's support function. Regardless of the area of interest, you'll still have to have a good story and preparation to show genuine interest in the area.

CFA won't get you a job, and there's a view that the hundreds of hours spent studying for the CFA could be better spent networking. If you do feel you have time to do both effectively though, passing one or two levels of CFA can demonstrate to interviewers or potential employers that you're serious about finance and can get you some credibility.

 

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