FOR THE LOVE OF MONEY

    With a large youth population waiting to be skilled to enter globally competitive industries, there is an increasing demand for quality and affordable postgraduate management education in India. 
    Of the various fields available at the PG level, finance is considered a much sought-after area of study by those possessing knowledge and understanding of finance functions, control systems and finance markets. 
    A postgraduation or an MBA in finance is perhaps the best way forward. “An MBA in finance will allow you to participate in rebuilding post-recession global finance compassionately by taking it away from the heartless greed that led to the recession,” says Sumit Mitra, associate professor, Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Kozhikode. 
    “While an MBA is meant to be a broad general degree, specialising in finance requires that 
    students take specific courses in that field. They acquire financespecific skills, which give them an edge in the job market. The advantage would lie in valuating companies, understanding capital markets, banking, among others,” adds Amit Bubna, assistant professor of finance, ISB,Hyderabad. 
    According to industry experts, during the last 20 years, the most sought-after finance jobs have been in financial markets, financial services, banking and insurance sectors. “Career options have been bright in investment banking, fund management, treasury management, private equity, analytics, credit rating, risk and wealth management. Students have also been taking up corporate finance jobs. Though the opportunities in these sectors have been less after 2009, students are still keen on them,” says G Sethu, professor of finance, IIM Trichy. 
>> FINANCE EDGE An MBA in finance is the only fullfledged Masters programme in finance which probably has wide industry acceptance, provided the course is done from a reputed school. “University degrees in finance have unfortunately failed to meet the expectations of recruiters. It is true that the finance sector was hit the most during recession in 2007-2009. Investment banks have almost stopped recruiting. Even then, finance jobs are the most coveted in any campus. The life of a graduate in MBA (finance) is much more than investment banking,” says Ashok Banerjee, professor (finance and control), IIM Calcutta. 
    “In addition, many students have begun to acquire additional proficiencies that make them a chartered and financial analyst (CFA) or an intrinsic part of financial risk management (FRM) and professional risk managers’ international association (PRMIA). These equip them to be benchmarked globally,” adds Sethu. 
JOB WISE 
• Retail banking 

• Treasury 

• Wealth management 

• Fund management 

• Investment banks 

• Brokerage houses 

• Private equity entity 

• Insurance companies 

• Credit rating agencies 

• Portfolio management 

• Venture capital entities 
>> For complete story click on ‘Management’ under ‘Careers’ onwww.educationtimes.com