Your Path to Becoming a Financial Analyst: Skills, Roles and Career Growth

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Financial analysts are in demand across nearly every industry—not just on Wall Street. And while most of these roles do require a foundation in business and finance, employers increasingly value adjacent experience and transferable skills. If you’re detail-oriented, data-savvy, and have a head for business strategy, you might already be closer than you think.

Read on if you’re a professional exploring a pivot into financial analysis, whether from operations, accounting, business intelligence, or another analytical role. We’ll walk you through how to reposition your experience and build the right skills—without starting over.

How to Become a Financial Analyst with No Experience

Leverage your transferable skills
Fill knowledge gaps with essential skills (including AI tools)
Pursue certifications (even before you’re hired)
Leverage your transferable skills
Tailor your resume for financial analyst roles
Entry-level opportunities to target
Where a financial analyst role can take you

Leverage your transferable skills

You don’t need to start from scratch. You may already use tools and perform tasks that overlap with finance.

Ask yourself:

Do you work with budgets, forecasts, or reports?

Are you comfortable using Excel to analyze trends or create dashboards?

Do you understand how your company makes money and how financial decisions are made?

If you answered yes to any of these, you already have a foundation worth building on.

Fill knowledge gaps with essential skills (including AI tools)

If you're serious about how to become a financial analyst with no direct experience, this is a critical step. You don’t need to be an expert in every tool, but you should aim for a mix of foundational knowledge and the ability to learn quickly on the job.

The most important traditional tools to be familiar with include:

Excel—especially pivot tables, formulas and basic macros

Financial modeling—simple budgets, forecasts or scenario planning

Reporting tools—like Power BI or Tableau for data visualization

ERP systems—such as Oracle or NetSuite for tracking company-wide financials

Basic coding or data skills—SQL or Python can be useful, but aren’t essential for all roles

But use of traditional tools alone doesn’t cut it today. You’ll also have to know how to use generative AI to your advantage. Tools like ChatGPT are becoming everyday helpers for analysts. You might use them to speed up research, draft a summary for a presentation or double-check a complex formula.

And don’t skip the soft skills. Strong technical knowledge matters, but so does the ability to communicate clearly, ask the right questions and work well with others. Financial analysts often work with teams across the business, so they need to explain complex ideas in a way that’s easy for non-finance colleagues to understand.

Pursue certifications (even before you’re hired)

Certifications aren’t required for most entry-level financial analyst roles, but they can give you an edge, especially if you don’t have direct experience.

Here are a few certifications that are especially useful for analysts:

CFA Level I—The Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) program is well known in finance. Even passing the first level shows you’ve got a solid handle on investment basics and analytical thinking.

FMVA—The Financial Modeling & Valuation Analyst certification is a good option if you want to deepen your modeling skills and apply them in real-world finance scenarios.

Excel Expert (Microsoft Office Specialist)—This one’s often overlooked, but advanced Excel certification can be a quick way to prove you know your way around the tools analysts use every day.

Even if you haven’t earned a certification yet, it’s worth mentioning in your resume or cover letter that you’re studying for one—or plan to. Employers want to see that you’re putting in the effort to build your skills, and progress counts.

Tailor your resume for financial analyst roles

If you’ve never held the title of “financial analyst,” that doesn’t mean you haven’t done analyst-type work. Revise your resume and LinkedIn profile to reflect your financial responsibilities, analytical contributions and relevant tools. Here’s how:

Make your interest clear: If you’re switching careers, use your summary to explain why you want to move into this new role and what you’ve done to prepare.

Demonstrate your analytical mindset: You don’t need a finance title to show you can think like an analyst. Include in your resume experiences in your current or past roles—such as evaluating vendor performance, tracking sales trends, or creating budget reports—that reflect analytical thinking.

Focus on results: Instead of “Assisted with reports,” say “Built Excel dashboard for monthly spend tracking.”

Use the right keywords: Terms like budgeting, forecasting, financial modeling, Excel, Power BI and data analysis help your profile get noticed.

Highlight your skills and upskilling efforts: Showcase the financial tools and software you’ve worked with—even if it was during school projects or in adjacent roles. Be sure to mention any certifications you’re actively pursuing or have completed. These credentials aren’t always required for entry-level roles, but they demonstrate initiative and a commitment to growth.

Update your LinkedIn headline: Try “Aspiring financial analyst with strong Excel and modeling skills.” It shows intent and helps recruiters find you.

Building your foundation as a financial analyst is just the start—see how to grow further with these six professional growth strategies.

Entry-level opportunities to target

If you’re trying to break into financial analysis, the right title is helpful—but the right experience is more important. The real win is getting into a finance environment where you can learn, contribute and grow.

Here are some typical entry-level roles to target:

Entry level FP&A analyst—This role focuses on budgeting and forecasting for internal teams.

Operations analyst—This is often a steppingstone into finance, especially in banks or fintech companies.

Compliance or risk analyst—This position is a good one for you if you’re detail-oriented and interested in regulation or data review.

Finance assistant or associate—This is a less technical role, but it gets you inside the finance team and can lead to analyst roles.

These jobs build the core skills analysts need—working with data, understanding business strategies and supporting financial decisions—even if the title doesn’t say “analyst” yet. They won’t all have the same titles or responsibilities, and pay can vary depending on where you’re based. To get a sense of typical starting salaries in your region, check out the Salary Guide From Robert Half.

Where a financial analyst role can take you

Once you’ve gotten some experience under your belt, there are plenty of directions you can go. Some analysts stay on the FP&A (financial planning and analysis) track and move into senior roles or team leadership. Others branch out into more specialized areas.

If you enjoy working with clients and helping them plan their financial futures, you might consider becoming a financial advisor. Prefer structure and regulations? A role in compliance or as an anti-money laundering (AML) analyst could be the right fit. Passionate about sustainability? ESG analysts help companies measure and report on their environmental and social impact. And if you love math and data, the quantitative analyst route—often in banking or investment firms—offers high pay and intellectually challenging work.

Where you work also shapes your experience. Financial analysts are needed in almost every industry, but demand is especially high in:

Financial services—including banks, fintechs and investment firms

Healthcare—where financial analysts help manage complex budgets and growth planning

Technology—fast-paced and data-heavy, ideal for analysts who enjoy change

Manufacturing and construction—focused on cost control, project finance and forecasting

Nonprofits and education—often more mission-driven, with a focus on making budgets go further

You don’t need years of experience to become a financial analyst—you just need the right mix of curiosity, skills and determination. Start where you are, build what you can and keep moving forward. With demand high across industries and plenty of paths to explore, there’s no better time to get started.

Review Robert Half’s financial analyst job description to see typical duties and must-have qualifications.

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