Financial Analyst skills

Essential skills

• Financial analysis: Employers check this through questions about how you interpret financial results and identify trends.
• Accounting fundamentals: Employers may ask you to explain how financial statements connect or how common transactions affect them.
• Excel or spreadsheet skills: Employers may use a practical exercise to see how you organise, analyse, and check data.
• Forecasting and budgeting: Employers check whether you can explain the assumptions behind a forecast and compare results with a budget.
• Attention to detail: Employers assess this through your work samples, calculations, and ability to spot inconsistencies.

Technical and specialised skills

• Financial modelling: Employers may ask you to build, update, or explain a model using a sample business scenario.
• Data analysis tools: Employers check your experience with relevant tools through practical tasks or questions about past projects.
• Financial reporting: Employers may ask you to describe how you prepare reports and communicate key performance measures.
• Industry knowledge: Employers check whether you understand the main financial drivers, risks, and measures in the sector.
• Accounting or planning software: Employers may ask which systems you have used and how you applied them to your work.

Soft skills

• Communication: Employers check whether you can explain financial findings clearly to people without a finance background.
• Problem-solving: Employers may ask you to describe how you investigated an issue and reached a recommendation.
• Organisation: Employers check how you prioritise deadlines and manage recurring reporting tasks.
• Collaboration: Employers may ask how you worked with teams such as accounting, operations, or sales.
• Adaptability: Employers check how you respond when assumptions, priorities, or deadlines change.

How to show these skills on your resume

• Built a monthly forecast using historical results and documented assumptions to support budget planning.
• Analysed spending variances, identified key drivers, and summarised findings for non-finance stakeholders.
• Created spreadsheet checks to improve the consistency and accuracy of recurring financial reports.

How to build them

• Practise reading income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements; explain how the figures relate.
• Strengthen spreadsheet skills by working with formulas, pivot tables, charts, and data validation.
• Build a simple forecast using clearly stated assumptions, then compare it with actual results.
• Look for opportunities to prepare reports, review budgets, or analyse costs in your current work or studies.
• Practise explaining a financial finding in a few clear sentences, including what it means and what action it suggests.
• Ask for feedback on your calculations, models, and written summaries, then revise your work.