Financial and Investment Analyst Career Assessment
Studying money decisions and investments
Welcome
Financial and investment analysts study how an organization is doing financially, or study investments like stocks and bonds, and recommend what to do next.
This is a demanding, well-paid office career. You will explore what it really takes and whether it fits you.
This takes about 15 minutes.
What is a Financial and Investment Analyst?
There are two sides to this job. A financial analyst inside a company studies its own numbers — sales, costs, projects — and helps leaders decide where to spend. An investment analyst studies companies and markets and recommends what to buy or sell. Both build models in spreadsheets, write reports, and present to people who make big decisions.
The Reality: Be clear-eyed about this one. It is not entry-level. Employers want a bachelor's degree in finance, accounting, economics, or a math-heavy field, and they want strong Excel skills before you walk in. It is also a small market here — about 370 of these jobs in the whole state and roughly 30 openings a year, concentrated in Fargo, Bismarck, and Grand Forks. If you also want to recommend or sell securities to the public, you have to be hired and sponsored by a licensed firm before you can even take the main exam.
Your Responsibilities:
- Build financial models in spreadsheets
- Study a company's sales, costs, and profits
- Research industries, markets, and competitors
- Estimate what a project or investment is worth
- Write reports that explain your recommendation
- Present findings to managers or clients
- Track how earlier recommendations turned out
- Keep up with news, rates, and regulations
You turn a pile of numbers into a clear recommendation someone can act on.
A Day in the Life
7:30 AM — Read market and industry news before the day starts.
8:30 AM — Update the model for a project the company is considering.
10:00 AM — Meeting with operations to check whether your cost numbers are realistic.
11:30 AM — Rebuild part of the model with the corrected numbers.
12:30 PM — Lunch at your desk while a report finishes running.
1:00 PM — Write the summary: three findings and one recommendation.
3:00 PM — Present it to the finance director. Answer hard questions.
5:30 PM — Start on the quarterly report that is due Friday.
Long screen hours, real deadlines, and a lot of explaining your reasoning.
Training in North Dakota
A bachelor's degree is the floor. Excel skill is what actually gets you hired. Finance, accounting, economics, statistics, and math degrees all lead here. Employers test spreadsheet skills, so being genuinely good with Excel — formulas, lookups, pivot tables, and building a model — matters as much as the diploma.
Training Pathways:
- Bachelor's degree (4 years): Finance, accounting, or economics. This is the standard requirement. Internships during school matter a lot for getting the first job.
- Two-year degree first (2 years), then transfer: Start with a finance or business associate degree, work in an accounting or banking support job, then finish the bachelor's. Slower, but you earn while you learn and graduate with experience.
- Bachelor's plus the CFA (4 years plus 3 to 4 more): The Chartered Financial Analyst program is the serious investment-side credential. CFA Institute says it is three exams, takes three to four years, and needs 4,000 hours of relevant work experience over at least 36 months.
Where to Train in North Dakota:
- University of North Dakota (Grand Forks) — Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance, 120 credits, on campus or online. UND names financial analyst and investment analyst as target careers and says scholarships are available for CFA exam costs — und.edu
- Bismarck State College (Bismarck) — Bachelor of Applied Science in Finance, 4 years, online or on campus. BSC names financial analyst and stockbroker among the careers it prepares you for — bismarckstate.edu
- Bismarck State College (Bismarck) — Financial Technologies, AAS, 2 years, a two-year starting point that transfers into the Finance BAS — bismarckstate.edu
- North Dakota State University (Fargo) — Accounting major and Master of Accountancy (30 credits, downtown Fargo, can be finished in one year) — ndsu.edu
- Minot State University (Minot) — Accounting, BS, 120 credits, on campus — minotstateu.edu
- University of Mary (Bismarck) — Accounting, BS, in person, online, evening, or blended, with a year-round option — umary.edu
Before You Start: High school diploma or GED to start a degree. You need to be genuinely comfortable with math — algebra, percentages, statistics — and willing to get very good at spreadsheets. You also need to write and speak clearly, because a model nobody understands is worthless.
Tip: Start with financial aid, scholarships, and any help an employer offers — that is where the money starts. After that, ask a career counselor or Job Service North Dakota whether WIOA or other programs can help with what is left over, like training, tools, work boots, or exam fees. What can be paid for depends on the program and on your own situation, so ask before you sign up rather than after. Registered apprenticeships let you earn a paycheck while you learn — see jobsnd.com/job-seeker/apprenticeships for ND programs.
Certification & Licensing
No license for a company analyst job. A license is required if you recommend or sell securities to the public. Most financial analyst jobs inside a company need no license at all. The securities licenses come from FINRA, and the investment credential people chase is the CFA.
Licenses and Credentials:
- No license needed for a corporate financial analyst job — analyzing your own employer's numbers is not a regulated activity
- SIE (Securities Industry Essentials, FINRA) — the entry exam. You do not need a firm to sponsor you. Open to anyone 18 or older, 75 multiple-choice questions, 1 hour 45 minutes, passing score 70, listed at $100, and the result is good for 4 years (finra.org)
- Series 7 (General Securities Representative, FINRA) — this one does require you to be associated with and sponsored by a FINRA member firm. 125 questions, 3 hours 45 minutes, passing score 72, listed at $395. It lets you sell stocks, bonds, mutual funds, options, ETFs, and more (finra.org)
- Order matters: you can take the SIE on your own first, which is a smart, low-cost way to show a firm you are serious. Then they sponsor you for the Series 7
- CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) — three exams, typically three to four years, about 300 study hours per level, plus 4,000 hours of relevant work experience over at least 36 months. CFA Institute listed total program cost at roughly $3,520 to $4,570 depending on when you register (cfainstitute.org)
- Criminal record and securities registration: FINRA says certain misdemeanor and all felony convictions cause a "statutory disqualification" for 10 years from the conviction date. There is a real path back: a sponsoring firm files a Form MC-400 with a written plan of heightened supervision, FINRA reviews it, and the SEC must approve before you can start (finra.org). The application fee is $5,000 and the firm normally pays it
- Fingerprints and disclosure — anyone registering with a securities firm is fingerprinted and must disclose their history honestly. Hiding something is worse than the thing itself
The Exams: The SIE and Series 7 are computer-based multiple-choice exams. The CFA has three levels, taken one at a time, each requiring a large amount of self-study.
Cost: SIE $100, Series 7 $395, CFA program roughly $3,520 to $4,570 total. Your degree is the biggest expense. Many employers pay exam fees for staff they hire.
Keeping It Current: Securities registrations require ongoing continuing education through FINRA and stay tied to the firm you work for. If you leave the industry, registrations lapse after a set period. The CFA charter requires CFA Institute membership dues.
Salary & Job Outlook
North Dakota Financial and Investment Analyst Pay (May 2025):
- Starting out (bottom 10–25%): $24.85–$29.05/hour ($51,680–$60,430/year)
- Middle (median — half earn more, half earn less): $37.58/hour ($78,170/year)
- Experienced (top 25–10%): $46.17–$63.23/hour ($96,040–$131,520/year)
What that means: The middle North Dakota analyst earns about $37.58 an hour, or about $78,170 a year. Notice the wide spread: the bottom tenth is about $24.85 and the top tenth about $63.23, because this title covers both a junior analyst at a small company and a senior investment analyst. North Dakota sits well below the national middle of about $49.40 an hour, and the national top tenth is nearly $87 an hour, which tells you the biggest money in this field is not in North Dakota. Investment-side jobs often pay a bonus that can be a large share of total pay, and bonuses shrink in bad years.
Jobs in North Dakota: About 370 people do this work in ND today. By 2034, that should be about 400 (about 10% growth). Expect about 30 job openings every year in ND from growth and people retiring or changing jobs. Across the U.S., the change is about 6% growth — faster than average.
Outlook: Good growth rate, small number of jobs. North Dakota shows about 370 of these positions growing to about 400 by 2034, roughly 10% growth, with about 30 openings a year. That growth is faster than the national 6%, but 30 openings a year statewide means you should expect real competition and should be willing to look in Fargo, Bismarck, and Grand Forks.
Who Hires in ND: Banks and the Bank of North Dakota, credit unions, insurance companies, investment and wealth management firms, hospitals and health systems, large energy and agriculture companies, colleges, and state government.
Work Setting: An office, often open-plan, in the larger North Dakota cities. Some remote and hybrid work exists. Hours run long around quarter-end and year-end.
Physical Demands: Low physically, high mentally. Long stretches at two or three screens. Eye strain and back strain are the common complaints, and larger monitors, a sit-stand desk, and screen-reading software are ordinary accommodations.
Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, North Dakota, May 2025 (SOC 13-2051); North Dakota and U.S. long-term employment projections 2024–2034, via O*NET OnLine. Numbers are rounded.
Where This Leads
Path 1: Financial Analyst I — Junior analyst building models and reports.
Path 2: Senior Financial Analyst — Own bigger projects and mentor juniors.
Path 3: Investment Analyst — Research securities for a firm or fund.
Path 4: Portfolio Manager — Decide what a fund actually buys and sells.
Path 5: Finance Manager or Director — Lead a finance team.
Path 6: Chief Financial Officer — Lead all finance for an organization.
The Real Talk
What's Great:
- Strong pay for office work
- Your analysis shapes big decisions
- Skills work in any industry
- Growing faster in ND than nationally
- Remote and hybrid work is possible
- Clear ladder into leadership
What's Hard:
- Not an entry-level job
- Only about 30 ND openings a year
- Needs a bachelor's degree and strong Excel
- Long hours at quarter-end and year-end
- Being wrong is visible and costly
- ND pays well below the national middle
Be Honest: Are you willing to finish a bachelor's degree and get genuinely good at spreadsheets? Can you defend your reasoning when a director pushes back? Are you OK competing for a small number of jobs in a few cities?