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Attaining wealth and managing it is the new mantra. Banking and financial services are among the hottest career options today.

With global trends impacting the financial sector, there is a demand for finance professionals with a new set of skills, resulting in careers such as Financial Analysts, Financial Planners, Financial Advisors and Financial Managers.

Banking and Finance and IT are the most sought-after sectors by youths passing out of the country's leading business schools, according to a study carried out by ASSOCHAM. The study says: 29 per cent of graduates from these schools opted for Banking and Finance, while 25 per cent went in for a career in Information Technology. Marketing, especially in the (FMCG sector), also found favour with a large number of young managers with 17 per cent of fresh managers opting for it. Consultancy is another area gaining ground day by day. It accounted for 13 per cent of the industry's future leaders. Sixteen per cent of fresh graduates accepted offers for general management and other fields, including telecom, pharmaceuticals, health care and HR.

The ASSOCHAM tracked ten institutes for its study. The maximum placement in Banking and Finanace Services sector is an indication of the rise in the services sector which is growing at the rate of 9 per cent. Fifty-one per cent of the 2005 Batch of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, got placements in the Banking and Financial Services sector and 20 per cent of them went in leading consultancy firms.

According to Gopala Krishna, Faculty and Placement Officer at Surana College of Management Studies, "There is a tremendous scope for MBA (Finance) in today's market as the investment banking industry demands a management graduate rather than a CA or ICWA graduate because they can be flexible and can be adjusted with any job profile." Srihari, Assistant Manager, HR, Way 2 Wealth says, "As the management graduates have analytical skills and are good at numbers, they are more qualified to do this job. As there are more players in the financial industry, the job openings are more," he opines.

Financial markets have become complex following advancement in computational technology and telecommunication. The changes are not only fast but also taking place globally.

The need for sophisticated financial markets specialists is felt not only for intermediaries like banking, investment banking, insurance industries, but also service providers of these financial intermediaries like software and BPO industries.

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* Contributed by -
Senior Correspondent,
The Observer of Management Education,
Article Published in Vol. 2 Issue 1 January 2007.