Pick the role you're building toward.

Finance & Accounting

Behavioral Finance Analyst

Markets aren't perfectly rational, and the people who notice this systematically can build real edge. Behavioral finance analysts study how cognitive biases — anchoring, herding, recency — show up in investor decisions and portfolio outcomes. The work blends academic finance literature with hands-on data analysis, then translates findings into advice clients can actually use. Good work here looks like a recommendation that respects both prospect theory and the client's stomach for volatility. Students grow into this role by reading the canonical journals seriously, getting fluent on a Bloomberg Terminal, and learning to tell a story with data that doesn't oversell the certainty. If you find yourself fascinated by why smart people make predictable mistakes, this path will keep rewarding you.

Finance & Accounting

Corporate Finance Analyst

US$114,500median

The financial model that sits behind a major acquisition, a refinancing, or a capital allocation decision usually started as a blank spreadsheet built by a corporate finance analyst. The role is about turning the messy reality of a business into numbers leadership can reason with — WACC assumptions defended, comparable companies chosen carefully, a sensitivity table that shows where the thesis breaks. Good work here is more about asking the right question than producing the prettiest deck. Students grow into this role by getting fluent in Excel beyond keyboard shortcuts and reading earnings calls until financial language stops feeling foreign. Pair that with a Bloomberg Terminal and the curiosity to question your own assumptions, and you start being trusted with the real questions.

Finance & Accounting

Due Diligence Analyst

US$96,172median

Before any serious deal closes, somebody has to ask the uncomfortable questions. Due diligence analysts are the ones asking. Whether the context is an acquisition, an investment, or onboarding a new client, the work means digging into financial statements, ownership structures, sanctions lists, and adverse media to surface what the other side would rather not mention. The role suits students who enjoy investigation, careful reading, and the patience of slow research. A strong analyst can map a beneficial ownership chain through three shell companies and write a clean summary a partner can act on. You grow into it through AML and financial-crime fundamentals, accounting literacy, and tools like ChatGPT used carefully for synthesizing long documents.

Finance & Accounting

M&A Analyst

US$95,374median

The two companies that announce a merger on a Monday morning have spent months in confidential rooms, working through valuation, accretion-dilution math, and a Confidential Information Memorandum that nobody outside the deal will ever see. M&A analysts are inside those rooms. The role is a specialization within investment banking and corporate development, focused on identifying targets, modeling the transaction, and managing the data room as buyers do their diligence. Students grow into it by developing valuation chops, learning to navigate PitchBook and CapIQ quickly, and tolerating long stretches of detail-heavy work. Strong M&A analysts catch the assumption nobody else questioned. The training is intense and the alumni network is unusually strong, both of which are part of the appeal.

Finance & Accounting

Risk Analyst

US$113,029median

Risk analysts ask the questions a business would rather not. What happens to this loan book in a recession? Which control failed last quarter, and is it failing somewhere else right now? The role lives at the intersection of regulation and judgment, with frameworks like Basel and COSO ERM as scaffolding rather than gospel. Days move between credit scoring models, stress test scenarios, and the patient assembly of risk register evidence. Good analysts notice the quiet outlier in a column of numbers and write it up clearly enough that an executive can act. If you're the kind of student who reads the footnotes, who likes finance but is suspicious of optimism, this discipline rewards that instinct.

Finance & Accounting

Auditor

US$72,500median

Auditors are the people companies bring in precisely because they have no incentive to flatter the numbers. The role exists to give shareholders, regulators, and boards a defensible answer to a simple question: can we trust what this organization is reporting about itself? The work is structured curiosity — sampling transactions, tracing controls, asking questions that polite conversation would skip. Strong auditors bring professional skepticism without becoming adversarial; they assume good faith and verify anyway. Students grow into this path by enjoying the puzzle of reconciling what a process should do with what the evidence shows it actually did. Pair that instinct with comfort in tools like Alteryx, and senior partners start noticing.

Finance & Accounting

Derivatives Analyst

US$116,847median

A derivatives contract is a promise about the future, and somebody has to make sure both sides keep theirs. Derivatives analysts sit inside trading firms and banks managing the lifecycle of options, swaps, and futures from execution through clearing and settlement. The role pairs precision with speed: a missed margin call or a misbooked trade can cascade quickly under T+1 timelines. Students who enjoyed both finance and operations courses tend to do well here. A capable analyst reads ISDA documentation fluently, understands what CCPs like CME or LCH actually do, and can navigate Bloomberg Terminal without thinking about it. Growth comes from building product knowledge across asset classes and developing the calm vigilance the job requires.

Finance & Accounting

Financial Controller

US$121,530median

The financial controller owns the question of whether the numbers a company reports are true. Not strategically interesting, not directional, but accurate enough to stand in front of an auditor and a board. This is a stewardship role, and it suits students who find satisfaction in things being correct. The day-to-day blends month-end close, revenue recognition under ASC 606, lease accounting, and coordinating the Big Four audit so it doesn't derail operations. You'd grow into it by working through accounting fundamentals until they're instinct, then layering on tools like Blackline. Strong controllers are calm during close week and skeptical without being adversarial. An accounting degree plus a CPA track is the conventional path, and it still works.

Finance & Accounting

Investment Banking Analyst

US$121,250median

Two-thirty in the morning, a pitch deck due at seven, and somewhere on page eighteen the comparable companies table needs to be re-cut to reflect last quarter's earnings. This is the investment banking analyst's entry-level reality, and it teaches more about financial discipline in two years than most degrees do in four. The role exists to support deal teams advising on M&A, IPOs, and capital raises, and the work itself is mostly modeling, materials, and verification. You'd grow into it through an accelerating loop of valuation work, learning Bloomberg and CapIQ until the keystrokes disappear. Strong analysts develop accuracy under pressure and the judgement to flag what their managing director would want to know.

Finance & Accounting

Financial Analyst

US$87,162median

Behind every confident forecast a company shares with investors, someone has spent hours reconciling what was budgeted with what actually happened, and asking why the gap exists. That someone is often a financial analyst. The role lives at the seam between accounting data and business decisions, turning ledgers into stories operators can act on. As a student, you'd grow into this by getting deeply comfortable with spreadsheet modeling and by learning to ask non-finance colleagues better questions about their numbers. Tools like Anaplan and Copilot have made the mechanical work faster, but the judgement calls remain human. Curiosity about how businesses actually make money matters more here than any single credential.

Finance & Accounting

Accountant

US$76,790median

What does a company actually owe, earn, and own? An accountant answers that question with evidence rather than estimates. The work is part historian, part detective: closing the books each month, reconciling accounts that refuse to agree, and turning thousands of transactions into a story leadership can act on. Strong accountants build a feel for GAAP not as rules to memorize but as a shared language for trust. As a student, you grow into this role by getting curious about why two numbers disagree and learning to follow the trail. Pair that instinct with comfort in spreadsheets and a tool like Alteryx, and you become someone every team relies on at quarter-close.