A career change from finance is worth considering if you are feeling boxed in or burnt out at your current role. It can take you to new opportunities that align better with the life you want to lead.
If you are considering a switch, follow along as we cover the skills you can bring with you and the career paths that may suit your background. We will also touch on whether you should consider upskilling and tips to mentally and financially prepare for the transition.
Key Takeaways
Signs that it is time to leave the finance industry include chronic burnout, loss of interest in the work, lack of growth, and poor work-life balance.
Your transferable finance skills, like financial modeling, performance tracking, decision-making, and analytical thinking, can help you stand out in new fields.
To land the best jobs for ex-finance professionals, you should write a resume with quantified achievements and strengthen it with courses, certificates, or degrees.
Some of the top alternative careers for a finance background include business analysis, product management, human resources, and marketing.
4 Signs It’s Time to Leave Your Finance Career Behind
Signs you are ready to leave your finance career behind include chronic burnout, loss of interest in the work, lack of growth, and poor work-life balance. Let’s look at each in more detail:
#1. Chronic Burnout
In high-pressure finance roles, it is common to feel tired and stressed. However, if exhaustion becomes constant, and you worry you won't be able to bounce back, you are likely dealing with chronic burnout and should consider a career change.
In a 2024 industry survey, over half of the participating finance professionals reported experiencing burnout, a clear sign of how widespread the issue has become. Left unchecked, this kind of strain can affect your well-being and spill over into other areas of your life.
#2. Loss of Interest in the Work
Many people enter finance for its prestige and progression opportunities, but over time, the day-to-day tasks can become monotonous. When work feels repetitive or disconnected from your values, it might mean that your priorities have shifted.
In such cases, you should see if you are just going through the motions, watching the clock, or feeling indifferent to the outcomes of your work; if so, it may be time to consider a new path.
#3. Lack of Growth
Although finance seems like a large industry, most roles often have little room for exploration. When your potential feels limited, it helps to ask whether your current position still supports your development. Are you learning anything new? Do you have space to shape your career in line with your interests?
Feeling stuck in the same responsibilities suggests that you may have outgrown your role. If that’s the case, it is wise to pivot to another career when you are always craving variety, autonomy, or a more adaptive work environment.
#4. Poor Work-Life Balance
A 2024 Finance Trends Report found that 91% of finance employees work outside their contracted hours. When professional demands regularly cut into your personal time, it can take a toll on your relationships, health, and sense of self outside the office.
If you find yourself constantly skipping meals, canceling plans, and checking emails late into the night, your finance role might be keeping you in a cycle of overwork. If so, exploring alternative careers might improve your work-life balance.
20 Finance Skills That Transfer to Any Career
There are many finance skills that transfer to any career, including problem-solving, decision-making, and communication, among others. When writing your resume, demonstrating these through quantified achievements and tailoring them to the job you are pursuing is key.
Here are some transferable finance skills that can help you stand out in a new position:
Hard Skills That Transfer Well
Hard skills that transfer well into other industries and positions include:
Hard Skills
Excel proficiency
ERP and finance software technical skills
Data analysis
Report writing
Budgeting
Forecasting
Financial modeling
Risk assessment
Performance tracking
Strategic planning
Soft Skills Developed in Finance
Soft skills that you have developed in finance and can support your career change are:
Soft Skills
Adaptability
Integrity
Communication
Negotiation
Attention to detail
Quantifying Your Achievements
Quantifying your achievements helps make your experience more concrete and credible to employers, even if you are new to the industry. It shows you deliver results and simplifies decision-making for hiring managers reviewing your career change resume.
Follow these steps to quantify the achievements on your resume:
Identify the outcome. Ask yourself, what happened because I did this work?
Find a measurable result to attach a number. Common metrics you can include:
Volume, like the number of reports automated or clients served
Time, such as hours saved
Money, like cost reduced or revenue increased
Growth, such as performance increased
Compare to a baseline. This means using before and after context where possible. For instance, you can state that you have:
Cut processing time by 20% by automating manual data entry
Reduced reporting errors from 15% to under 5% through validation checks
Increased client renewals from 60% to 85% over 6 months
A quick formula to keep in mind is Action + Metric + Outcome. So, automated X process, saving Y hours and reducing errors by Z%, for example.
Here are some other samples of achievement statements that resonate across industries:
Achievement Examples
Identified and eliminated redundant vendor costs, saving $85K annually
Streamlined month-end reporting, reducing completion time from 12 days to four days
Managed cross-functional project rollout across three departments
Trained four junior data analysts, three of whom were promoted within a year
Best Career Paths for Former Finance Professionals
The best career paths for former finance professionals are those that build on your existing skills and qualifications. Below are three directions many professionals take when making a career change from finance.
Career Paths with the Easiest Transition
If you want to make your shift without starting from scratch, these fields leverage your core finance skills while still offering fresh challenges:
Business analysis. Roles like business analyst, systems analyst, and process analyst all benefit from your ability to uncover trends and patterns and link numbers to outcomes. Rather than creating reports, business analysis lets you apply data operationally. It is a good option if you previously felt that your work was meaningless.
Corporate strategy. You are already comfortable with evaluating ROIs and building forecasts; these are sought-after skills for strategy analysts, strategic planning managers, and corporate development associates. Going into corporate strategy allows you to be more forward-looking.
Operations. Compared to finance, this field is more hands-on and execution-focused. Using your existing skills and abilities, you can optimize resources, streamline workflows, and ensure targets are met in real time. As an operations manager, head of business operations, or supply chain analyst, you can manage day-to-day activities, teams, logistics, and more.
Product management. Your analytical thinking, financial modeling, and software skills translate well to product management, where data-driven decisions are essential. Unlike in finance, however, roles such as product manager, product analyst, or growth PM offer more autonomy and variety.
Complete Career Pivots
Your transferable finance skills can set you up for success, even if you prefer to leave the finance industry completely; consider the following fields:
Human resources. A career change from finance to HR is a smart move if you want to stay data-driven but more focused on people. It lets you apply your analytical and communication skills in areas like workforce planning. You can consider roles like HR generalist and HR manager.
Education. You can become a business teacher, corporate trainer, or curriculum designer. The L&D industry is growing rapidly as companies invest more in internal training. Your presentation skills, patience with complex concepts, and ability to explain data clearly all make you a great fit.
Marketing. A career change from finance to marketing works well if you are looking to move into more creative, consumer-facing roles. Your strengths in working with numbers can give you a strong edge, especially as marketing becomes increasingly data-driven. You will still use spreadsheets, dashboards, and reporting platforms, but now, to shape campaigns.
Entrepreneurial Paths for Former Finance Professionals
When switching careers after finance to gain more independence, entrepreneurship is a natural next step. Thanks to your experience with budgeting, forecasting, and financial modeling, you already have a solid foundation. Here are a few ideas:
Financial coaching. Use your industry expertise to guide small businesses or individuals through budgeting, investing, or strategic planning. Unlike corporate roles in finance, a consultant path offers more flexible hours and greater control over your clients and services. That said, it is one of the best finance burnout career options.
SaaS or Fintech. Switching careers after finance into SaaS or fintech makes sense because these businesses are built around solving financial problems with software. You are equipped to identify inefficiencies, validate product ideas, and shape solutions that resonate with users.
Fractional CFO services. Many small to mid-sized businesses need the help of a chief financial officer (CFO) to monitor inflows and outflows, improve accounting processes, and build long-term financial plans, but cannot afford the cost of a full-time CFO. You can fill the gap by working on a part-time, contract, or project basis.
Content creation. The U.S. creator economy is projected to reach $1,072.8 billion by 2034. You can tap into this growth by packaging your finance expertise into newsletters, YouTube videos, digital courses, or podcasts. If you have solid teaching or writing skills, content creation is a rewarding path for a career change from finance.
Upskilling and Education: Smart Steps Toward a New Career
Upskilling and investing in further education are smart steps to take toward a new career, but it does not always mean going back to school full-time. Depending on your next move, you may only need to fill a few skill gaps.
Do You Need Additional Degrees or Certifications?
You need additional degrees or certifications if you are transitioning from finance into a regulated profession, like HR or education, or a field with specific technical requirements, such as data-heavy product roles.
Upskilling is not as necessary in most other positions, but it can still strengthen your resume. For example, a CBAP for business analysis, a CIM for marketing, and a Scrum Master for product management help validate your high-income skills and build trust with employers.
Self-Directed Learning Approaches
Self-directed learning approaches can help you stay competitive when job hunting without committing to costly formal programs. Platforms like Coursera, edX, and LinkedIn Learning, as well as podcasts, YouTube, Substacks, and expert-run industry blogs, can be valuable resources.
You should reinforce what you learn by building simple, skill-based practice projects, like a SaaS competitor analysis, a mock product roadmap for a Fintech tool, or a content calendar for a personal finance YouTube channel. These can additionally serve as portfolio-ready assets for your next role.
How to Budget for a Career Transition From Finance
To budget for a career transition from finance, start by managing your salary expectations and creating a budget buffer. This way, you will not have to rush into a new position, even if you quit your finance job immediately.
Salary Expectations During and After Transition
Finance is a high-paying field, which means transitioning out of it often involves a significant pay cut. This is especially true when you enter a new industry without direct experience.
Use salary data from platforms like Glassdoor or industry reports to find the typical compensation at entry, mid, and senior levels in your target field. This will help you gauge how long it may take to recover and eventually exceed your previous income.
Creating a Transition Fund
A transition fund usually involves:
Your monthly living expenses
A safety net of three to six months’ worth of expenses
Funds for certifications, courses, study materials, software, subscriptions, etc.
You can follow these general steps to create a transition fund:
Tally up rent, utilities, groceries, insurance, and any recurring non-negotiables.
Research upskilling costs.
Decide how long you want your safety net to last.
Limit or temporarily pause non-essential spending.
Create a separate account and set up automatic transfers each month.
Resume Builder and Templates for Career Changers
Once you have an alternative career for your finance background in mind, create an ATS-friendly resume to position yourself as a strong candidate.
Resume.co offers 200+ templates and samples made for career changers, so you don’t have to start from scratch.
This resume builder will guide you in showcasing your skills for a different industry. You can also use its AI assistant to receive real-time suggestions and ensure everything you put on your resume is polished and professional.
Final Thoughts
Making a career change from finance might seem intimidating at first, but it is entirely achievable with the right insights and steps. You will have to start by recognizing when it is time to move on, and then leverage your transferable skills and invest in upskilling to boost your marketability.
Managing your salary expectations and creating a budget buffer helps ease the transition, and a targeted resume sets you up for success. Be patient and prepare carefully; your career change from finance can open the door to fulfilling new opportunities.
