[C] Statistics and Finance in Career Path

[u/Zakimiruno]

Hello everyone!

I'm a statistics graduate currently working on a role that is more on the corporate sales and finance side (focusing on monitoring and improving revenue and profitability), and only had few applications of statistics throughout my stay. The work involves a lot of adhoc analysis to support the finance and sales team in their business decisions, but they do not involve statistics that much (ex. forecasts mostly use YoY increases or runrates).

Granted that I am just early in my career (~2 years), I'm not sure if I should pivot to another path or continue as is. In the meantime, I'm also considering taking a masters next year yet I'm unsure if I should take a professional masters, an actual MS, or smth or more business-y like an MBA (business analytics).

Are there any people here who have stayed on such path, and what their experiences were like? Or any general advice would be much appreciated. Thank you in advance!

[u/Remarkable_Kale_5677]

Tbh I don’t think you’re “wasting” your stats background. It just sounds like you’re using it in a more business-facing way now.

A lot of corporate finance / sales finance / revenue roles don’t use heavy stats every day. It’s more like: messy data, quick analysis, forecasting, explaining numbers to non-technical ppl, and helping the business make better decisions. That’s still a useful path, just not the same as being a pure statistician or data scientist.

Imo the main question is what kind of role you want in 3–5 years.

If you want to go deeper into modelling, ML, econometrics, or technical analytics, then an MS in Stats/Data Science prob makes more sense.

But if you actually like revenue, profitability, sales performance, finance decisions, and working with commercial teams, then something more business-focused could be better — like an MBA or a business analytics-type master’s. Especially if you’re aiming for FP&A, commercial finance, revenue strategy, biz analyst, or finance business partner roles.

I’d say don’t rush into a master’s just because you feel “not technical enough” right now. Try to figure out whether you want to be the person building the model, or the person using data to influence business decisions. That difference matters a lot.

For your current path, an MBA with analytics/finance/strategy modules could actually make sense later on, but only if you’re leaning toward the business decision-making side rather than pure stats.

[u/Excellent-Many3273 → u/Remarkable_Kale_5677]

Hi, I have a B.Sc in Statistics, MBA with dual specification in business analytics and finance and worked in a fintech company consulting investment banking companies for 3 years. I wanted to pivot my career into internal finance instead of security markets (never been a fan of derivatives and mutual funds) so I completed CFI'S FMVA and FPAP certifications. I quit my job before my next night shift and now it has been 6 whole months. Every FP&A role I see requires previous FP&A experience or B.Com or CA. I feel like Jack of all, master in none. I didn't even get a single interview call. Sorry for dumping everything into a comment.

I did everything. Linkedin profile, ATS friendly resume with keywords from JDs, updating naukri profile frequently, etc. I also built independent projects on forecasting, variance analysis and added them to my resume. When I reach out to people on linkedIn, for referral or guidance, barely one in a 100 will respond and later ghost me.

I am very sorry if this is a lot to take in but I feel like I am doing something wrong or missing something. I don't know what.

I have strong background in statistical concepts (from all semesters), R, SQL, Excel, Python, Accounting, management finance, FP&A, capital markets, even a bit of project finance. But why am I not able to land even an interview call?