Financial Advisor Career Plan Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Financial Advisor Career Plan - Assignment Example For purposes of this career plan, I have used these two occupations interchangeably because these are two closely related entry-level occupations available in the financial services industry (Murdoch, 2005, p. 8). A financial analyst and a financial advisor can work at a commercial or investment bank, a stock brokerage, or for a private financial services company, analyse financial reports for the purpose of providing investment advice, and open up similar career opportunities within the diverse financial services sector. Both occupations also require similar personal and professional qualities such as good interpersonal, analytical, and decision-making skills. This section provides a thorough analysis of the labour market conditions of personal financial advisors, based on the situation in the U.K. where I plan to pursue the first ten years of my professional career. The main reason I chose U.K., more specifically London, is that this place is the generally acknowledged financial centre of the world. A recent article (Economist, 2006) confirmed this and cited geography as one of the main reasons for its success: it is between Tokyo and New York, the financial capitals of Japan and the United States, two of the world's economic superpowers. London's location means that it can trade with both cities every day, starting the day trading with Tokyo and, just as the workday is ending in London it can also start trading with New York. Throughout the day, it can also trade with other countries in Asia (China and Singapore), the Middle East, Europe, and Latin America. It is the ability of London to trade any time with any other country in the world during a normal working day that makes it attractive for financial companies to have a branch in the City, as it is called. This gives us another reason why London has become the financial capital of the world: the number of finance companies based in London is growing. This means that there are more opportunities to find employment and to gain experience because of the high demand for workers and the high supply of jobs available. This is confirmed by a recent study (Murdoch, 2005) of career prospects in the financial services sector. As the Economist (2006, p. 76) article points out, London is an economic cluster in the fast growing field of global financing. Globalisation Another reason why London provides more job opportunities is globalisation. Micklethwait and Wooldridge (2000, p. xvi) called globalisation "the most important economic, political, and cultural phenomenon of our time" characterised by the "integration of the world economy, reshaping business and reordering the lives of individuals, creating social classes, different jobs, unimaginable wealth and, occasionally, wretched poverty." The globalisation phenomenon is exerting pressure on companies and governments to adopt a global strategy, which Stiglitz (2002, p. 9) defined as "the way firms cope with globalisation, the integration of countries and peoples of the world brought about by the enormous