One of the major employment stories of the past decade has been the rise of the remote worker. In the UK, remote working ranks as office workers’ third top priority after salary and holiday entitlement.
As corporate giants like Amazon, Dell, Kaplan, Phillips and Gartner get in on the action, one sector where employers have been slower to adapt is the financial industry. There are probably numerous reasons for this (IT security surely ranks among the top obstacles) but for the sake of the sector, it’s important to find a better balance that serves employee and employer alike.
Financial adviser
Many financial adviser jobs are beginning to offer flexible working arrangements, including remote work. If you’re an established professional in this area, you could even consider working out of your own home, as long as your family are willing to share their home with your business.
There are some provisos to factor in here, however. You’ll need a dedicated workspace within your home, including an area large enough to comfortably receive and entertain clients. The location and look of your house will naturally affect your clients’ perception of your business. To make the right impression, you’ll have a tidy and stylish house in an affluent area. There are other logistics to consider as well: parking, accessibility and business licensing, to name but a few.
Reducing your overheads and eliminating your commuting costs are two added benefits of adopting a work-from-home arrangement as a financial advisor.
Day trader
Day traders hold positions in stocks for a very short time (hence the name). Make no mistake: this is a high-powered career, and not for the faint-hearted. There’s no guaranteed salary or benefits, just huge earnings potential. The best traders might see 500% returns over the course of the year. The usual considerations about working from home apply here. With any stressful job, it’s important to create a physical distinction between space for work and relaxation.
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Success as a remote working day trader will depend on your ability to manage your emotional stress levels, not to mention sophisticated knowledge of trading software, market contacts and deep pockets of capital.
In terms of the practical arrangements, day traders need an understanding of longer market movements and access to up-to-date market information including real-time prices. Any home working setup will depend on a flawless and powerful wi-fi setup with watertight security.
Financial writer
The advent of content marketing has generated an unprecedented surge in demand for copywriters of all creeds. Like most other industries, the financial sector needs copywriters for a range of tasks: creating online content, writing product descriptions, and marketing its services. As well as having a way with words, the best copywriters also have experience and expertise in the areas they write about.
If you’ve done your time in the financial sector, making a move into writing could be an easy way of opening yourself up to remote working opportunities. After all, written material is easily devised and delivered remotely. While entry-level jobs might not get the remuneration of other financial jobs, an experienced financial copywriter with a strong portfolio of professional work can easily command a salary on par with the other roles discussed in this article. Financial writers are heavily in demand.
Freelance financial careers
Many companies are reluctant to pay for costly additional office space to house new personnel. Some prefer to offer existing employees remote working concessions as well, and implement hot-desking strategies to keep costs down. With corporates increasingly outsourcing work to independent contractors, any job that’s largely computer-based could be a candidate for remote working. Working in financial analysis, public accountancy, tax research, or IT support could open this door to you with many of these roles requiring little more than a weekly face-to-face.
While it may be lagging, there are signs that the financial services industry is catching up with the trend of remote working. With 99% of employees expressing the desire to work remotely at some point in their career, it’s not a moment too soon. And employment in the sector looks like it will become still more footloose in future.
There are already well-compensated options on the table for anyone looking to make the leap. Whatever your reason for wanting a home-based role (reducing travel times and expenses, schedule flexibility, childcare) there are jobs out there – if you know where to look.