Assessment Of Career Opportunities In Australian Financial Service Sector

My Capabilities

This study is an assessment of the opportunities that I might receive after graduation as a result of meeting the industry requirements of my preferred field. As I intend to peruse finance as a discipline, I need to meet the standards of the financial service industry of Australia. The financial serviced sector in Australia contributes around AU$140 billion to the country’s GDP and employs around 150,000 people making it extremely crucial for the country’s economy and creating one of the largest employment pools for its citizens. For evaluation of my employability in this industry, this report has analysed the growth, challenges, skill requirements and job roles that the industry might offer in the following five years. It also features an assessment of my professional dashboard that contains information about my personality, my personal performance factors, work experience, academic abilities. Tallying these two sets of information the skill gaps have been identified that need to be resolved to ensure my employability within the Australian financial service sector. Based on the skill gap identified suitable solutions have been hinted for improving my employability opportunity within the industry.

 

The professional dashboard that has been presented above holds as many revelations, if not more, as the result expected. For instance, while the result of the value analysis reinforces the items that I value most result of the 16 personality test is a revelation. While I generally identify myself as a team player and often undertake the task of coordinating among the team members and attempt to reach a decision that would generate maximum possible value for everyone I never considered it to be of the personality trait of commander. On the other hand, the assessment of the scores in PPF aspects has highlighted that I have a strong preference for the external direction while no such preference is shown towards the aspects global and sterilist as this decision is generally made based on the requirement of the situation and its context. Finally, the enlistment and prioritisation of valued items also point out that items that are enlisted under the broader segment of self-actualization, esteem and belonging have been given the highest priority (Lester, 2013). This indicates that the acknowledgement of the actions and contribution would serve as a significant motivator for me (Shih et al. 2019). However, it might also be interpreted as a need for validation, which in the professional arena might be detrimental to the performance. This evaluation has also provided a detailed understanding of my strengths and weaknesses and the opportunities and threats that they generate for me. The following table might provide a detailed yet simple understanding of it:

Strengths	Weaknesses Save Time On Research and Writing Hire a Pro to Write You a 100% Plagiarism-Free Paper. Get My Paper
Strategic thinking Analytical skills Self-confidence Communication (Verbal and written) Part-time work experience Ability to work with others Ability to handle pressure	Lack of understanding of more human aspects Impatience Time management Reporting skills Critical towards mistakes of others
Opportunities	Threats
Opportunity to lead Opportunities to be responsible for financial management of an organisation Proper training and learning might help in developing analytical skills that might be effective in trend analysis and prediction	Critical nature might cause risk of dissatisfaction in teams The issues with reporting skills might hamper the quality of performance Mack of time management skills might cause loss of opportunities.

My Industry Requirements and Trends

Table 1: Personal SWOT analysis based on own professional dashboard

(Source: Created by student)

From the table above it is evident that the areas of skills and abilities that have been identified as strength are not complete. For instance, while the verbal and written communication is often effectively used there is lack of reporting ability, which might be the case because of inexperience. If this skill gap is not mended properly then it might become a limitation, which would be a hindrance in the process of perusing the career path of financial management (Cottrell, 2015). Therefore, careful consideration and practice are needed for improving communication skills. On the other hand, the leadership skills when merged with the strategic thinking and analytical skills, it might pave the path of acquiring managerial positions in short time span. However, for successful achievement of this result, constant and timely improvement and up-gradation of skills and knowledge are needed, as it would ensure that the current skills that I have remain relevant in every stage of my career, which would serve me as an advantage in the pool of available workforce.

The industry dashboard presented above avails a clear understanding of the different areas of employability that would be available in near future and the skill sets that are to be possessed to assume those responsibilities. This provides an understanding of the training that is to be taken for possessing a sound scope for employment for the upcoming five years. It is noteworthy that employment in financial insurance service industry has increased from 436.4K in 2016 to 448.1K in 2018 and is expected to reach 455.6k in 2023 (National Industry Insights Report, 2018). This marks that the insurance and financial assistance would be a preferred option in the upcoming five financial years. It has been observed in the past years that the financial sector, especially the banking sector has been highly influenced by the technological advancement and immense use of mobile devices. The ubiquitous in-branch customer interactions that were a common sight of the last decade have been largely replaced by the digital interactions through the online transaction methods, ATMs and mobile banking services (The Treasury Australian Government, n.d.). This triggers the scope of employment of the younger, technologically advanced fresh graduates to enter the banking sector and grow quickly as a professional. However, this has also made the skills subject to irrelevance as with the advent of the newer technology and their adaptation by the consumer market, the older one becomes irrelevant. Therefore, it can be said that in the following five years the professionals in the financial service sector would have to remain aware of the regular up-gradation of the technology and train themselves to remain relevant for the market. Personal skill assessment tools like 360-degree assessment and skill evaluation are essential in this case for ensuring sustenance and development in the industry (DeNisi and Gonzalez, 2017 and Mone and London, 2018).

My Gap Analysis

Half (2018) points out two different set of skills that would be required to receive and retain employment in the financial service sector of Australia in the following five years, namely the technical skills and soft-skills. The modern financial analytical tools such as the accounts payable automation and predictive analytics, while have reduced the manual efforts largely which is essential due to the increasing number of customers in the financial sectors; it has also increased the skills requirement. On the other hand, the candidates with a practical understanding of the accounting software like SAP and Oracle would be in an advantageous situation in the recruiting process in the financial sector (Australian trade and investment commission, 2019). Therefore, acquisition of these skills is important for perusing a career in this industry within the following five years. Finally, as can be seen in the industry dashboard, the organisations, I aspire to join after graduation, belong to different financial service sectors including asset-based finance and leasing, banking and insurance. Each of these sectors poses different advantages. For instance, the insurance industry offers stability and huge scope for employment while banking would provide chance of speedy development of career. The asset-based finance sector on the other hand, due to its high competition and dynamic operations would provide opportunity for substantial learning and skill development.

← Existing skills		Industry skill requirements →
Meets standards	Good	Needs improvement	Skills	Supporting skills	Important	Must-haves
	*		Predictive analytics		*
GAP	*		Accounts Payable automation			*
GAP		*	Accounting software (Oracle/SAP)		*
*			Academic knowledge			*
*			Communication skills			*
GAP		*	Reporting ability			*
*			Problem solving skills	*
*			Team work skills		*

Table 2: Gap analysis table

(Created by student)

The gap analysis table resented above avails the understanding of the skill gaps that I need to mend in order to improve my chances as an aspiring professional in the financial services industry. As mentioned in my industry dashboard technical knowledge in terms of predictive analysis and accounts automation and knowledge of the accounting software have become the determinant factors in the selection. I currently lack the latter two, which I need to improve before graduating for being considered employable. Ramadi, Ramadi and Nasr (2016) identified the gap analysis as the measure to evaluate the readiness of the aspirant. Therefore, lack of such skills would indicate inadequacy in terms of skills. Therefore, this issue needs to be mitigated. Joining training programme for modern and updated accounting software might help in resolving this issue.  The table also marks the skill gap in terms of reporting skills, which in the given table has been identified as an essential skill as the financial sectors require regular evaluation of strategies, market environment and result of strategy implementation. To resolve this issue practice and guidance would be essential. Throughout the duration of the course, several opportunities would arrive where I would need to develop reports. Completing them and learning from the feedback given to them would help in improving my reporting skills.

Conclusion

Conclusion

This particular report looks into the skills, knowledge and personality traits that play crucial role in determining an individual’s employability based on information, specific, to me. While this initially appears to be an effective way to asses one’s own suitability for a particular profession and to understand the skills that need to be acquired to peruse the profession, it also provides an insight to the importance of skill assessment based on industry standards to understand the skill gaps. This evaluation has availed me specific knowledge about the knowledge, skill and personality areas that I need to work on. Through the strength and weakness analysis, I realised that the communication skills are incomplete without the reporting abilities and the gap analysis reinforced the importance of developing reporting abilities for the academic area that I intend to peruse. I have also recognised the changes and new trends that would determine recruitment in the financial services industry of Australia for the following five years, which further emphasised on the importance of technical and software skills in employability determination. This has reiterated the necessity of IT training for my career development. The findings of this report would become the base for assignment 2, “My profile.”

References List

Australian trade and investment commission (2019) Financial Services – Austrade’s industry capability information – Austrade [online]. Available from: https://www.austrade.gov.au/International/Buy/Australian-industry-capabilities/financial-services [Accessed 28 march 2019]

Cottrell, S., (2015). Skills for success: Personal development and employability. 3^rd ed. London: Macmillan International Higher Education.

DeNisi, A.S. and Gonzalez, J.A., (2017). Design performance appraisal systems to improve performance. The Blackwell Handbook of Principles of Organizational Behaviour, pp.63-75.

Half, R. (2018) Your career in finance – 10 skills that count [online]. 12^th  May. Available from: https://www.roberthalf.com.au/blog/jobseekers/your-career-finance-10-skills-really-count [Accessed 28 march 2019]

Lester, D., (2013). Measuring Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Psychological Reports, 113(1), pp.15-17.

Mone, E.M. and London, M., (2018). Employee engagement through effective performance management: A practical guide for managers. 2^nd ed. Abingdon: Routledge.

National Industry Insights Report (2018) Financial Services [online]. 17^th Dec. Available from: https://nationalindustryinsights.aisc.net.au/industries/financial-services [Accessed 28 march 2019]

Ramadi, E., Ramadi, S. and Nasr, K., 2016. Engineering graduates’ skill sets in the MENA region: a gap analysis of industry expectations and satisfaction. European Journal of Engineering Education, 41(1), pp.34-52.

Shih, C.Y., Huang, C.Y., Huang, M.L., Chen, C.M., Lin, C.C. and Tang, F.I., (2019). The association of sociodemographic factors and needs of haemodialysis patients according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Journal of clinical nursing, 28(1-2), pp.270-278.

The Treasury Australian Government (n.d.) The strength of Australia’s financial sector – Backing Australian FinTech [online]. Available from: https://fintech.treasury.gov.au/the-strength-of-australias-financial-sector/ [Accessed 28 march 2019]