FCA Studies During the earliest stages of your development, you will begin to realise that simply having an academic degree in finance is not enough to enable you to break into the financial markets.

To be able to provide investment or financial advice in the UK, it is a legal requirement that you fall within the rules and regulations of the FCA- Financial Conduct Authority.

The FCA license that you will need will greatly vary according to the type of financial role that you will be applying for.

Having academic knowledge and a thorough understanding of the financial industry is not enough to allow you to hand out investment advice like its confetti.

You will have to have some further development within the industry by obtaining a regulatory certification.

Don’t feel as this is an obstacle, it is far from it, being FCA approved gives you a massive advantage over candidates that have not had the foresight to atleast begin to become regulated.

Depending on what field you go into will vary on the average study time related- some range from barely 2 weeks up 9 months in some instances.

How does this affect your application status and your current job search?

Typically candidates that have just graduated and have no idea of the serious importance of FCA certifications tend to make hundreds of job applications on a weekly basis with no results.

Recruiters look through your CV and when they specifically do not see compliance certifications they tend not to follow up and in many cases will not even give you a call to let you know why you were not selected.

This will dramatically affect your ability to gain interviews.

Choose your career path wisely and obtain the appropriate professional qualification/certification required for your field.

You will be surprised at just how fast you not only gain interviews but land your first job! When you have doubts about the extra study time – ask yourself this!

If you are not willing to invest in yourself then why should anyone else invest in you?