Financial Analyst vs. Data Analyst: An Overview

The finest investment decisions are made by their companies and clients with the aid of financial analysts who utilize financial data to identify patterns and extrapolate into the future.

Data analysts do a similar job, with the main difference being that they examine data that may or may not be related to investment decisions. For instance, a data analyst might look at statistics pertaining to sales figures, the effectiveness of advertising, transportation expenses, or wages vs productivity.

 

What does a financial analyst do?

Financial analysts are employed by banks, pension funds, insurance firms, and other businesses. Financial analysts give businesses and individuals advice on how to use their funds to maximise profits. They assess how well bonds, stocks, and other financial items have performed.

How to become a Financial Analyst

If you want to pursue a satisfying job and have an interest in business, accounting, economics, and mathematics, think about becoming a financial analyst.

Businesses require financial analysts because they can analyse, project, and foresee a company's financial future using accounting technologies to determine its overall financial health.

The financial services industry is a competitive one. Financial analysts are more likely to thrive in their jobs if they are dedicated to their work, good team members, and quick thinkers.

Basically, there are two types of financial analysts: buy-side and sell-side.

1. Buy-side financial analysts

Financial analysts on the buy side assist their clients in choosing where to spend or invest their money. In most cases, they are employed by institutional investors including insurance firms, banks, hedge funds, endowment funds, mutual funds, and pension funds.

2. Sell-side financial analysts

Sell-side financial analysts assess and contrast the quality of a company's securities for potential future profits. To assist firms in deciding whether to purchase stocks, they publish reports with recommendations of "buy," "sell," "strong buy," "strong sell," or "hold." Financial analysts on the sell-side typically work for brokerage firms.

How to become a Financial Analyst: Skills and Qualifications

Various kinds of talents are needed to become a financial analyst. The following are the top skills a financial analyst should possess:

1. Microsoft Excel

1. Budget management 

3.Financial modelling

4. Financial Planning

5. Financial Statements.

What Does a Data Analyst Do?

Organizations gather data on all their operations costs, sales information, inventory and supply information, and much more. Once they do, though, they must turn that data into knowledge that will help them make judgments.

Data analysts transform customer, product, performance, and cost data into insightful knowledge that can help with strategic decision-making. For instance, they can support businesses in their strategic planning for product development and in identifying the target markets that will be the most profitable.

 

Data Analyst Skills:

1. Experience of programming languages such as Python and R.

2. Data tools, such as Excel, SQL, Google Sheets, etc.

3. Skills in visualizations and presentation: Data analysts must simplify complex data so that it is understandable. The role requires effective communication, and tools for visualization and presentation, such as Tableau and Jupiter Notebook, are helpful.

4. Statistics: Most of data analysts have a strong background in math and statistics, which makes it easier to spot data mistakes and interpret data correctly.