Financial Managers
Plan, direct, or coordinate accounting, investing, banking, insurance, securities, and other financial activities of a branch, office, or department of an establishment.
Most important skills
- Reading Comprehension
- Active Listening
- Speaking
- Critical Thinking
- Writing
- Monitoring
- Social Perceptiveness
- Coordination
Key knowledge
- Customer and Personal Service
- Administration and Management
- Economics and Accounting
- Mathematics
- Administrative
- Law and Government
- Personnel and Human Resources
- Sales and Marketing
What the work involves
- Establish and maintain relationships with individual or business customers or provide assistance with problems these customers may encounter.
- Plan, direct, or coordinate the activities of workers in branches, offices, or departments of establishments, such as branch banks, brokerage firms, risk and insurance departments, or credit departments.
- Recruit staff members.
- Evaluate data pertaining to costs to plan budgets.
- Oversee training programs.
- Oversee the flow of cash or financial instruments.
- Prepare operational or risk reports for management analysis.
- Examine, evaluate, or process loan applications.
Strongest interest areas (O*NET): Enterprising, Conventional, Social.
Qualifications and licensing
- Most common education
- Bachelor's Degree (56.3% of respondents)
- Related experience
- Over 4 years, up to and including 6 years (41.9%)
- On-the-job training
- Over 3 months, up to and including 6 months (39.6%)
- Preparation level
- O*NET job zone 4: Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed
- Licensing
- Not yet verified. Check your state licensing board.
Check before planning
- Licensing for Financial Managers is not yet verified for any state: check the state licensing board before planning.
Limits
- Distributions show what current workers or occupational experts report, not legal minimums.
- Requirements vary by employer and state; time to qualify is not estimated.
Source: O*NET 31.0 Database (USDOL/ETA, CC BY 4.0); BLS Employment Projections · dataset 2026.10.8 · method e3-qualification-1.0.0
Work environment
How the typical conditions of this occupation compare with 911 occupations in O*NET (very low = the lowest fifth).
Levels are relative. Most occupations involve a lot of contact with people, for example, so “very low” can still mean regular contact; the last column shows what workers actually reported.
| Condition | Level | Compared with other occupations | Most common answer (O*NET survey) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contact with others | Low | Lower on contact with others than 65% of occupations compared | 46% of surveyed respondents chose “Contact with others most of the time” |
| Dealing with the public | Moderate | Lower on dealing with the public than 53% of occupations compared | — |
| Teamwork | Very high | Higher on teamwork than 92% of occupations compared | 77% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely important” |
| Freedom to make decisions | Moderate | Lower on freedom to make decisions than 51% of occupations compared | 47% of surveyed respondents chose “A lot of freedom” |
| Time pressure | Very high | Higher on time pressure than 92% of occupations compared | — |
| Conflict situations | High | Higher on conflict situations than 67% of occupations compared | 40% of surveyed respondents chose “Once a month or more but not every week” |
| Dealing with unpleasant or angry people | Moderate | Lower on dealing with unpleasant or angry people than 57% of occupations compared | 60% of surveyed respondents chose “Once a year or more but not every month” |
| Consequence of error | Moderate | Higher on consequence of error than 51% of occupations compared | — |
Work-pressure profile
- Time pressure: very high
- Conflict situations: high
- Dealing with unpleasant or angry people: moderate
- Consequence of error: moderate
Each part is shown on its own. There is no combined stress score, and conditions vary by employer and role.
Full answer distributions
Contact with others
- No contact with others: 0%
- Occasional contact with others: 0%
- Contact with others about half the time: 17.04%
- Contact with others most of the time: 46.42%
- Constant contact with others: 36.53%
n = 22, Incumbent 08/2022
Dealing with the public
- Not important at all: 34.12%
- Fairly important: 0.61%
- Important: 13.19%
- Very important: 1.75%
- Extremely important: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
n = 22, Incumbent 08/2022
Teamwork
- Not important at all: 0%
- Fairly important: 0%
- Important: 0%
- Very important: 22.58%
- Extremely important: 77.42%
n = 21, Incumbent 08/2022
Freedom to make decisions
- No freedom: 0%
- Very little freedom: 17.04%
- Limited freedom: 1.07%
- Some freedom: 34.68%
- A lot of freedom: 47.2%
n = 22, Incumbent 08/2022
Time pressure
- Never: 0%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 0%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 7.6%
- Once a week or more but not every day: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
- Every day: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
n = 22, Incumbent 08/2022
Conflict situations
- Never: 0%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 33.67%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 40.41%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 8.95%
- Every day: 16.96%
n = 22, Incumbent 08/2022
Dealing with unpleasant or angry people
- Never: 0.61%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 60.08%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 18.78%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 14.69%
- Every day: 5.84%
n = 22, Incumbent 08/2022
Consequence of error
- Not serious at all: 17.51%
- Fairly serious: 14.25%
- Serious: suppressed by O*NET (low precision)
- Very serious: 15.49%
- Extremely serious: 16.46%
n = 22, Incumbent 08/2022
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O*NET-SOC 11-3031.00 · SOC 11-3031 (exact, high confidence) · dataset 2026.10.8