How To Become A Finance Executive: What It Is and Career Path

What is a finance executive and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Nate Peach Ph.D.

For a finance executive, it's all about the money. They oversee all of a company's financial transactions and information, from budgets to income flows to mergers. With their help, a company can improve its profit margin, cut expenses, and make dynamic market moves ahead of competitors.

The day-to-day tasks of a finance executive depend on the needs of the company. Some days, they spend most of their time overseeing the whole finance and accounting department. Other days, they may spend their time preparing a financial report analyzing the business's cash-flow, and making recommendations for improvement. They may meet with other executives to plan the next steps to bring in more profit for the company.

The road to becoming a finance executive is not easy. Qualified candidates usually have at least a bachelor's degree in business, if not a master's, and many years of work experience. The hard work does not stop once they get the corner office and fancy nameplate. Many finance executives work long hours to manage a company's accounts.

What general advice would you give to a finance executive?

Nate Peach Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Economics, George Fox University

Try to stay optimistic. You've invested your time, energy, and money on a precious degree. The pandemic has not changed the value of the skills you've acquired. What it has done is to make it challenging to find a job for the moment. Things are weird right now. Many companies are redesigning their hiring practices, which is bound to cause challenges for job seekers. The skills that you developed as an economist are precious to employers, be diligent in your job search, and you will be rewarded with a great career.

ScoreFinance ExecutiveUS Average

Salary

7.9

Avg. Salary $110,830

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.8

Growth rate 17%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.3

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.34%

Asian 9.99%

Black or African American 7.43%

Hispanic or Latino 14.18%

Unknown 4.10%

White 63.97%

Gender

female 36.70%

male 63.30%

Age - 46

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 46

Stress level

7.8

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

9.2

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.6

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a finance executive

Explore finance executive education requirements

Most common finance executive degrees

Bachelor's

67.0 %

Master's

21.8 %

Associate

4.0 %

Start to develop specific finance executive skills

Skills	Percentages
Financial Statements	18.44%
Financial Services	12.25%
Portfolio	11.74%
Financial Products	3.48%
Real Estate	3.08%

Research finance executive duties and responsibilities

Manage financial statements and work independently to produce accurate records for petty cash, bank reconciliations, and data inventory.
Experience in ERP implementation when A/R module are migrated from old system to new PS system.
Improve financial results $50 million (GAAP) in 2000 over 1999 and generate the first profit in four years.
Assist with compliance with SOX requirements by improving internal protocols and documentation procedures.

Get finance executive experience

Generally, it takes 6-8 years to become a finance executive. The most common roles before becoming a finance executive include chief finance officer, account executive team lead and finance analyst.

Prepare your finance executive resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your finance executive resume.

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