Before you begin the interview process, it’s important to understand why exactly you want to pursue a career in finance. That way, when potential employers ask this question as part of the application process, you’ll be ready with thoughtful answers instead of just a blank stare and some mumbling about wanting nice office furniture.
There are a lot of answers to this interview question, ranging from barely decent to utterly bullshit. Before I started writing this article, I did a bit of research, and I was amazed at how pathetic and devoid of any imagination and creativity the search results for this particular topic are. Here are a few examples of what’s out there: financial security and stability, high salaries, a challenging work environment, there is always something new to learn, and so on. They are so cringy; I hope you’re not falling for that kind of bullshit!
In this article, not only will I give you three amazing examples of reasons why you want to pursue a career in finance, but I will teach you how to create them yourself, assuming you want something even more unique. So, let’s get into it.
Why finance?
Answer No 1:
I want to pursue a career in finance because I believe that someone is sitting in the shade today because they planted a tree long ago. I stole this quote from Warren Buffet, who is the world’s greatest investor and one of the world’s richest men. Warren Buffet is one of the persons that inspired me the most, and this is the foundation of his long-term investment ethos. Like him, I want to start early, get as much experience as possible, and learn the ins and outs of the finance industry. And eventually, become an investor myself.
You may want to adjust the last sentence with something you actually want. To give this answer, you should read more about Warren Buffet, learn about his life, read a few more quotes, and maybe listen to his biography as well.
Answer No 2:
I want to pursue a career in finance because I’m fascinated by Michael Burry, he is a great researcher and analyst, and I believe I can become one as well. But first, I want to understand everything about finance, with first-hand experience and not from books and guides. Here is one of his core beliefs: “I don’t believe anything unless I understand it inside out” and I’m here to do just that!
You may want to read more on Michael Burry, he had training as a doctor and has learned everything about finance and investing on his own. You can learn about his predictions and the way he thinks about money. There are plenty of resources available online, you just need some time to do it. You can also watch the movie “The Big Short”, where Christian Bale plays him in the convoluted events that led to the 2008 financial crisis.
Answer No 3:
I want to pursue a career in finance because I’m a big fan of Dave Ramsey; I listened to his radio talk show a lot. I like how he shares practical answers to tough money questions from day-to-day people. I believe that someday I can help a lot of people as well, I know that requires a lot of experience, and that is why I want to learn everything I can about finance.
You should read more about Dave Ramsey before you give this answer so that you can deal well with follow-up interview questions. He started offering financial advice to couples at his local church. In 1988, he founded a financial counseling service. You might also want to read his book, “Financial Peace”, and learn more about the 7 steps to budget in the popular “Dave Ramsey Method.” It wouldn’t be bad to know some things about the debt snowball method as well before you answer this way.
Why Do You Want to Pursue a Career in Finance?
How to create your personal take and why you should do it:
First, why should you create a personalized answer? Why not answer like anybody else? Think about it from an employer’s perspective. They have to select one of probably dozens of candidates who went through the same training and have no direct experience dealing with real problems, and all of them will probably answer in a similar way to all their interview questions. They can certainly clean out the weeds, those that don’t even grasp the basics of finance, but how can they differentiate from a few candidates that do a decent job at answering most of the questions? Certainly, with an interview question like this: why choose finance? This can reveal people who have more motivation, who think for themselves, and who really want to do a good job by preparing well for it. This answer is certainly one of the biggest things that can make a difference in the hiring process. Another reason why you should craft a personal answer and not copy the ones I provided above is that one of your competitors might come up with the same answer. They might be lazy and just pick one that they like of the 3 above. If you give the same answer as your competitor, the employer will realize both of you read this answer somewhere and did not come up with it. But before you start working on a customized answer, you should know that it’s not easy to craft one, but there are some benefits; here are the pros and cons of writing one yourself:
Pros and cons in simple words:
Pros:
- You can create it based on your beliefs
- It will be unique
- It will be better than anything else that you find on the web
- It can work wonders for your hiring process, and also motivation
Cons:
- It takes time to build, probably at least a few hours
- You need to be able to answer more follow-up interview questions, so more hours are required to do research
A short step-by-step guide on how to create a personalized answer to the interview question “Why finance?”
- Step 1 – Do research about people in finance. Choose one that you like.
- Step 2 – Read about his / her beliefs, and understand their motivation.
- Step 3 – Make their beliefs your own, or use them as inspiration.
- Step 4 – Check the beliefs and values of the company you want to work for, and try to factor them into your answer.
And here are a few more tips and tricks to help you at each step along the way:
Step 1 – Choosing a role model
This should not be hard to do. It requires research on popular people in finance. Just open Google, and type “popular people in finance” and you will get a list with plenty. The hardest part is choosing one. The more popular the better, don’t choose somebody very obscure, even if it’s among the most successful people in the world, because your employer might not know about him. But they will probably know about the most popular ones like the examples I shared above: Warren Buffet, Michael Burry, and Dave Ramsey. They are all good even if you come up with something different from what I came up with. A few more examples would be Ray Dalio, Benjamin Graham, or even some popular YouTubers like Graham Stephan, Ben Felix, or educators like Aswath Damodaran. Using them is a bit more risky, even though they are popular, they are not so widely recognized by people. Anyway, choosing them has an advantage as well, because it will certainly make your answer more unique.
Step 2 – Answering “Why did they choose finance?”
This step is a bit harder to make, you basically have to do some investigation and understand why your chosen role model pursued a career in finance. What does he believe about investments, money, about life? The key point here is to start with the question “Why?”, “Why finance?”. Something that will help you at this step is the book “Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action” by Simon Sinek. There is also a short video by the author, in which he explains the whole process step by step. He also gives a few hands-on examples of his theory put into practice.
Step 3 – Can their beliefs become your beliefs?
This step is a bit harder than the previous one. Here you have to actually use some creativity and adjust what you find in the previous step to what you currently believe. In other words, you have to create something that sticks, something interesting, something good while mixing your role model’s beliefs with yours. To help you with this step, you can use the advice Chip and Dan Heath gave in their popular book called “Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive, and Others Die.” The short summary is this: to make an idea stick, it has to have 6 qualities all wrapped up in a clever acronym SUCCES so that you can remember them easily. Each letter means the following: simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, emotional stories. So, whatever you create should have these qualities. Let’s take the first example I mentioned above, the one with Warren Buffet, and go through the checklist:
- Is that example simple? Yes, it’s only a paragraph; it wouldn’t even be hard to memorate it word by word.
- Is that example unexpected? Yes, your future employer will expect a boring answer like a challenging work environment, dynamic industry, opportunities for growth, “I like problem-solving”, or other stuff like this.
- Is that example concrete? Yes, very much. We are talking about Warren Buffet, who is a well-known person, and we are giving away one of his quotes. This is not astrology, speculation, wishful thinking, or something that does not connect easily to stuff that everybody knows. In contrast: “I enjoy rising to new challenges and resolving problems that might arise” – is vague, don’t do that!
- Is that example credible? Yes, this example is something that might really motivate somebody. A good example or role model is one of the most powerful motivators. In contrast to “fast-paced environment”, or “I enjoy rising to new & hard challenges”. If you really like solving hard challenges, why don’t you try to find a cure for cancer, solve hunger, and save the environment? Why finance? Challenges in finance here are not “special” when compared with challenges in other fields. Those generic & typical answers are certainly not credible.
- Is that example emotional? Yes, because it touches on a point that many people know is true but don’t really apply in practice. The more scientific term for it is delayed gratification. It can touch a sensitive cord when you see a young person thinking for the long term when you as the employer know that you probably took a lot of decisions that favored faster and smaller benefits and sacrificed long-term results in the process.
- Is that example a story? Yes. It’s a small story: you found out about Warren Buffed, you got inspired by him, you want to become like him, and you are starting now.
Step 4 – Mix in something from your future employer’s beliefs
This is even harder, but it will bring extra value. What you need to do is some research about the company where you want to apply for the job. Learn their core values, their goals, their targets, in other words, what they want to become. Try to incorporate these values in your little story; for example, do they want to grow bigger? Make your story about growth. Do they want to invest smartly? Make your story about investment decisions. But don’t be too specific because you risk falling into cringy land if you keep harping on too much. Keep it general; use the direction they want to go in as your direction.
Conclusion:
Answering the interview question “Why finance” is pretty hard; if you don’t want to bother too much, use one of the 3 examples I gave above. A lot of people search for answers to this interview question: why do you want to pursue a career in finance? And there is a tiny / very tiny / very small chance that somebody who competes with you will choose the same answer, but there is one nonetheless. And if you want to be unique and you don’t want to take any chances, create one good answer using the step-by-step guide I wrote above. Good in this case means that you should be the one satisfied with the answer. And then have a prosperous career, my friend!