What is the Must-Have Skill to Succeed in Finance? It’s One the Robots Can’t Take (Yet)

Wall Street is no stranger to the benefits — and enormous change — that increased computing power and advanced software can bring. The ROI of adopting new tech, and competitive nature of the industry, has always made the banks prime investors in anything that helps money move faster, gives some edge for trades or makes it easier to shave costs.

Now, with AI promising an even greater reshuffling of the finance world, we asked bankers and fintech experts to tell us how they’d advise people just entering the world of finance. What skills are necessities — and what talents may be shrinking in importance?

The surprising answer: to really make it you'll need to know how to work the room and build emotional intelligence.

In our survey of 1,000-plus retail bankers, investment bankers, financial advisors and fintech professionals, LinkedIn found that finance professionals now see greater value in skills that robots lack (so far, anyway) — so-called “soft skills” such as effective communication, and managing projects and teams.

Overall, respondents to our LinkedIn survey said these are the skills required to be successful in the financial services industry, regardless of sector: communication skills (75% of all finserv professionals), presentation skills (46%), and management skills (39%). Unexpectedly, those three soft skills were mentioned more often than traditional finance-related skills, such as statistics and math or even analysis and financial reporting.

Considering that, perhaps it’s no surprise that full-time MBA programs are diminishing and MBA-light courses have become so popular. It’s not about how good you are with spreadsheets; getting ahead means mastering basic organizational, management and people skills. That neatly complements the results of our survey findings that we released in July — that one in three bankers were worried about robots stealing their jobs.

Why the shift away from hard numbers toward softer skills?

“Every industry has been impacted by rapid change and job disruption,” wrote Karan Sampson, a Philadelphia-based financial consultant who responded to our survey. “Now the financial services sector is feeling the heat from the threats of quantitative investing, artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain and crypto-currencies.”

Soft skills will gain in importance as companies seek staff who can bring disparate people together to work collaboratively, Sampson wrote in a LinkedIn article.

“You may be able to program a computer to filter data, but your future workplace is likely to be a global network of associates from multiple countries and cultures, linked by virtual reality and screens,” Sampson wrote. “Diverse backgrounds, skill sets, and expertise will need to be accepted and optimized to collectively achieve a team’s full potential and generate a positive outcome.”

In her LinkedIn article, “Why your MBA isn’t enough,” AIG Chief Human Resources Officer Claudine Macartney said soft skills have always been important parts of every employee’s professional toolkit — and probably always will be no matter how much robots proliferate in the workplace.

“Today’s workplace looks very different than it did 50 years ago,” Macartney wrote. “Open floor plans are the norm, a manager may sit in Dubai while the person who reports directly to them works from home in Chicago, and weekly staff meetings may be hosted in a Google Hangout rather than a conference room. These physical changes to workplace dynamics have only increased the need for employees to have skills that they may not have been taught in school.”

Not everyone agreed with this assessment. Jason Schenker, president of Prestige Economics, made the case for formal education in his LinkedIn article, “Want a career in finance? Soft skills alone won't get you there.”

“A successful career in finance requires hard skills and formal education. Education is a great professional divider for workers in the U.S. economy, and this is true in the finance sector, as it is for the economy as a whole,” Schenker wrote. “Praise for soft skills is in vogue, but those skills alone are insufficient ingredients for a successful career in finance.”

Is an advanced degree still worth it? Depends on who you ask...

To capture a snapshot of wider industry sentiment, LinkedIn surveyed 1,012 U.S. financial professionals who work in fintech, investment banking, retail banking and wealth management/financial advisory services. Our survey was conducted from May 17-June 1, 2017 and also included respondents from the fields of corporate banking, hedge fund management, accounting, insurance and private equity.

Among respondents in fintech and financial advisory/wealth management, we also found:

For many, college is still worth it: Financial services professionals are largely in agreement that “thriving” in the financial services industry requires some form of bachelor’s degree (60% of all financial services professionals thought so). But the specialization is subject to debate, based on the sector you ask.

• 46% of retail banking professionals think a bachelor’s degree in business administration is necessary to thrive (compared to 28% overall).
• 41% of investment banking professionals think a bachelor’s degree in finance is necessary to thrive (compared to 37% overall).
• 46% of fintech professionals think a bachelor’s degree in computer science is necessary to thrive (compared to 18% overall).

Specialized training also is key: On par with a bachelor’s degree, financial advisors / wealth managers are most likely to consider the Series 7 exam (GSRE) necessary to “thrive” (51%, compared to 18% overall).

But an advanced degree is not… When it comes to advanced degrees, there’s both a generation gap and a divide among banking specialties. 

• Older financial services professionals are more likely to think advanced degrees are necessary — only 34% of millennials (ages 18-35) think they are necessary to thrive, while nearly half (47%) of ages 36+ think advanced degrees are necessary to thrive.
• Investment banking professionals are most likely to think any advanced degree is necessary (52%, compared to 43% overall), while retail banking professionals are the least likely (31%).

Five-Year Plans: Should You Stay – or Should You Go?

When it comes to longevity in finance, we found very different five-year plans depending on who we asked. For example, we found that fintech and wealth management professionals seem most committed to staying in their respective fields, while bankers are more likely to jump ship after five years.

• The future is fintech: 63% of fintech professionals see themselves still in that space after five years
• Or in wealth management… 70% of financial advisors and wealth managers see themselves still in that space after five years
• But bankers are less certain: By comparison, only 38% of investment bankers and 40% of retail bankers see themselves sticking around in their industries after five years. Retail bankers are not as ‘regular’ in their pathing, but nearly one in five (19%) are “not sure” about where they see themselves in five years (compared to 12% of all finserv professionals).

Finally, of all the finance professionals, investment bankers tend to see their space as a “short-term opportunity” only, or a stepping stone for opportunities elsewhere.

• Greener pastures in venture capital: Five years from now, fewer than half of investment bankers (38%) see themselves staying in investment banking, with 22% seeing themselves moving into VC/private equity and 10% moving outside the financial services industry entirely.
• Short-term gain: 66% of investment bankers recommend the next generation of talent pursue a traditional financial services company in the short term, but they are most likely to recommend a company outside the financial services industry entirely in the long term (39%, compared to 28% overall).
• Regulatory burden: Among reasons to consider a long-term career outside financial services entirely, those respondents cited 1) regulatory requirements and restrictions being a drag on the industry, 2) fintech taking jobs and opportunity from the entire industry, and 3) the ability to use skills gained in finance to do something “cooler” or “more innovative.”

Lex Sokolin, global director of fintech strategy at London-based fintech research firm Autonomous, confessed to chasing the next “cool” thing after working at Lehman Brothers and Barclays Wealth Management.

“The first half of my career I spent chasing gold stars — an undergraduate BA from a liberal arts college with a rowing team, Wall Street investment banks, a law and a business degree from an Ivy League university,” Sokolin wrote in an article on LinkedIn. “So what credibility do I have to say that education isn't working, or that kids should go build a company instead of spending $300,000 on four years of keg-stands?”

Ultimately, successful financial professionals will have to “invest in lifelong learning” to thrive, he wrote. “The skills most valuable will be those that are most human so that we can best serve each other, and nothing is more human than adaptability to change.”

What do you think? How important do you think formal education and training are for professional success in finance? And is a college degree or advanced degree the key to that success, or will soft skills get you to the top? Join the conversation and weigh in using #LIFinanceSurvey to share your thoughts.

We asked several experts to weigh in. Highlighted writers include:

What Sets a Financial Professional Apart: Integrity, Soft Skills and Continuing Education, by Kevin Richard Keller, CEO at CFP Board

Now Hiring — Why Your Next Job Should Be in Insurance, by AIG CEO Brian Duperreault

Hire For Values and Skills — Not Credentials, by Amy Zimmerman, head of people operations at Kabbage

Five Skills for Data Science Success in Financial Services, by Gahl Berkooz, chief data and analytics officer, Acorns

Degrees and careers: There is no right path, only the path that's right for you, by Catherine Mattice Zundel, coach at Forbes Coaches Council

Yes, 'Game of Thrones' Can Help You Succeed in Finance, by Matthew Bartolini, head of SPDR Americas research, State Street Global Advisors

Why your MBA isn’t enough, by AIG chief human resources officer Claudine Macartney

What Skills Do Financial Pros Need To Succeed?, by Ken Boyd, co-founder of Accountinged.com

Critical skills for success in jobs we have yet to create, by Karan Sampson, a financial consultant with KSD Consulting

Another brick in the finance wall, by Lex Sokolin, global director of fintech strategy at London-based fintech research firm Autonomous

Want a career in finance? Soft skills alone won't get you there, by Jason Schenker, president and chief economist at Prestige Economics