Written by : Eric Thu
When I first decided to enter the world of Finance two years ago, I fantasized about a prototypical finance career : sporting neatly combed hair and wearing a three-piece suit, coffee on hand, while working long hours in the office surrounded by numbers. I believed for years that was the only skill necessary, just knowing numbers. Ensure my work is efficient and everything is rainbows and sunshine. That fantasy came crashing down to say the least. My biggest finance rookie mistake? Ignoring the improvement of Public Speaking Skill.
A super common rookie mistake, and it’s easy to understand why. Schools rarely emphasize the importance of communication in finance. All we are shown are the glitz and glamor of the Finance world, but not the necessary skillsets required in order to reap the fruits of the rewards. When I was young, I was incredibly shy. I also encountered difficulties in communicating with people due to my lack of mastery of English and constant moving around different countries. As a result, I was the target of bullying which in turn completely destroyed my self-esteem. Gradually, I shifted into the role of a quiet, timid, isolated individual who was afraid of even telling my teachers about my struggles. Finance felt like a relief career option because I naively assumed there was no need to speak much but just produce high-quality work.
That illusion came crashing down when presentations and group projects became unavoidable. Even though the results were successful with often having a great time with teammates, I was not ignorant of my struggles. I knew I struggled with delivery, with heavy reliance on filler words like “um” and “ah”. In a cut-throat industry like Finance, I realized that would not cut it long-term.
This Fall Semester, I took a course titled “ Public Speaking: Voice & Diction”. This was one of my theater arts minor requirements, despite feeling incredibly uncomfortable due to the nature of the course, I still enrolled having little to no choice. After just three weeks, I say proudly that this course has been an eye-opener for me. The greatest privilege I enjoy is having amazing classmates who were respectful, cheerful, and also themselves had similar struggles. This motivated me to finally overcome my fear and improve as I no longer felt like the black sheep. After my first speech on my personal artifact, I was shocked by how much I had changed. My confidence level was high and for the first time in a while, I never used any filler words when addressing the audience. Funny enough, I now look forward to speech class, something I never would have imagined would come out of my mouth just a few years ago.
Throughout this experience, I’ve learned lessons that would not only shape me at Emmanuel College, but also my future career in Finance.
1. Number cannot speak for you. Only You
The first mistake made by rookie finance individuals would be assuming that all that is needed is to present your work and that alone will speak for itself. Unfortunately, that is not a reality. You can have the strongest analysis, clean valuations, spotless calculations, but if you cannot articulate what it means or why it matters, it is the same as an empty piece of work which would be ignored.
2. The Importance of Meetings
The majority of financial decisions do not happen on spreadsheets or documents. Rather, it happens in meetings, presentations, personal interviews, and group discussions. This is the area where public speaking is a silent factor in deciding what ideas go forward.
The failure of inability to communicate under high pressure is oftentimes catastrophic as this could make it or break it for your career opportunities. Someone else will simply capitalize on your failure into their golden opportunity even if you know their work is nowhere near the quality of your work, however they possess that better delivery factor which is a big impact.
3. Confidence affects people’s perception of your competence
I was once a believer that a person’s confidence comes from their ability to understand the material thoroughly. In reality, it comes from your ability to articulate your points clearly. The more you speak with calm, precision, and structure, the more likely people are to perceive you as somebody who is trustworthy.
Fair or not fair, strong speakers oftentimes are more likely to be positively viewed as highly competent, thus comes the greater opportunities that associate with it.
4. Public Speaking has nothing to do with being dominant or loud
Public Speaking in Finance is not about being dramatic. It is the ability to break down complexity, answer tough questions, and explain decisions in a simple articulate way.
The main goal is not to impress but rather to be understood.
5. Many Finance Students learn this too late
Education in Finance for the most part is focused heavily towards exams, building technical skills, learning different financial concepts. However, rarely do they ever emphasize the importance of one’s public speaking ability. In real life, one’s ability to speak articulately is important if not more than your ability to calculate.
The ones who often understood this gained an upper hand over the ones who didn’t, and that means getting more opportunities which are scarce in the Finance Industry due to the brutal nature of it.
Final Thoughts :
One must understand that Public Speaking will not automatically make up for your lack of expertise in technical skills, however without it, a strong quality piece of work would go unnoticed. In Finance, it is not the most genius idea that dominates, but rather the clearest idea that does.
Should you have the ability to not only make fantastic financial analysis but also do it with strong confidence as well as clear articulation, you will no longer be a participant, but rather a person of influence. Make sure to learn the number but don’t forget to learn how to explain them too!
Emmanuel College The Hub 
Leave a comment