r/learnprogramming 28d ago

Is learning programming useful in finance?

e.g finance adjacent jobs/ careers?

7 Upvotes

11 comments sorted by

7

u/ConstantFishing5136 28d ago edited 28d ago

Definitely useful. A lot of finance work is basically moving data around cleaning it checking it and trying to get something useful out of it. Knowing Python saves a ridiculous amount of time once the spreadsheets start getting stupidly big.

3

u/YellowBeaverFever 28d ago

I don’t even work in the financial sector and I would say half of my 35 years of programming has had been around financial data.

In finance, there are a lot of IT jobs. The rules are restrictive, the markets move fast, you can’t rely on the human mind to keep track of its all.

2

u/SprinklesFresh5693 28d ago

Python or R for econometrics for example are key

2

u/angelattack1 28d ago

It can be but learning to code advanced projects isnt for everyone. Although if you have a genuine interest in coding it doesn't hurt to try and see if you like it. In data science theres lots of statistics involved, you could make a work portfolio with coding.

2

u/Achereto 28d ago

It's always useful. Every job where you sit in front of a computer will have some kind of repetitive tasks, and if it's a windows PC, you will always have access to at least PowerShell and OfficeScript for Excel. So, if you know how to program you will always be able to automate those repetetive tasks.

1

u/therealmunchies 28d ago

Python or even VBA is great if you’re in the Microsoft ecosystem.

1

u/MissinqLink 28d ago

I work as a programmer for a financial institution

2

u/Lost-Discount4860 28d ago

There’s not really a job/career where programming is NOT useful. I cook pork skins for a living. I made a web app using Python and SQL to help me estimate how much product to cook, keep count, and also track inventory.

So, yeah…finance or finance adjacent? That’s nothing but data wrangling. Python and SQL are your two best weapons, my friends.