A financial representative is a customer service professional who is responsible for selling products such as financial insurance and securities. To become a financial representative, you may first want to earn an undergraduate degree in a field such as finance or economics. For some positions, this credential may not be necessary, but it certainly can help you to appear to be a more serious job candidate to potential employers. It is also important to keep in mind that by taking courses in finance or economics, you can become comfortable with important financial principles and terms that can help you to excel early in your financial representative career.
To become a financial representative, it might also be necessary to earn certification. If you would like to become a stock broker, for example, you should earn a brokerage certification. In order to earn this certificate, you probably have to take a number of professional development courses in which you will learn about the buying and selling of financial instruments. These courses also prepare you to take a proficiency exam.
An individual who would like to become a financial representative in the financial insurance field, on the other hand, may not need to earn certification. Instead, an employer might offer extensive training once a job applicant is hired. In these situations, individuals should have at least a few years of experience in customer service. A background in finance can also strengthen your chances of becoming a financial insurance representative.
In most cases, a person who wants to become a financial representative does not need to be a computer expert. He or she should be fairly comfortable, however, using basic financial software, as well as generating and reading spreadsheets and charts. If you do not have the opportunity to practice these skills in an academic context, you might want to take some continuing education professional development courses in which you learn how to use these programs.
If you find that a financial representative position requires job candidates to have experience working in the financial industry, a good start might be an entry level position in a bank or credit union. These are financial institutions where many people find jobs as bank tellers and customer service representatives. Individuals in these entry level positions are introduced to working with financial clients and using financial software. As a matter of fact, many job requirements list customer service in banks as valuable experience.
