How to Become a Financial Manager in 2025?

The finance managers are responsible for the company's funds management, which involves monitoring financial health and long-term sustainability. Being part of the senior management team and having sufficient knowledge in this area, I participate in the decisions. Together with the CFO and other top executives, we make strategic decisions.

In this discussion, I will be talking about the skills you need and the requirements you must have to help you determine if this is the career direction that you want to take. Most importantly, you must know how to become a financial manager to make sure you are on the right career path. I would like to provide a walkthrough of the procedure, which would be likely for you to learn how to be a good finance manager.

Who is a Financial Manager, and What Do They Do?

A finance manager analyzes a particular company's financial health by supporting the management team and handling different tax responsibilities. As a finance professional, I also create budgets and advise clients at times. I analyze various reports and data to maximize my company's profit.

Finance managers like me, further use presentations, reports, and budgets to communicate the company's financial health for various purposes. These professionals are essential to the finance department because they primarily work with different company owners and managers.

An IT service management certification can further help you know how to become a financial manager.

How to Become a Financial Manager in 5 Easy Steps?

Regardless of their goals, I believe every business needs a financial manager, whether it's a designated role or combined with another business function. That's why, when I was an accounting professional, I always pondered the question, "How can I become a finance manager?"

I have curated the important steps to becoming financial manager for your understanding below

Step 1: Master Skills

One of the fundamental responsibilities of any company is to manage finances, as the wrong decision could lead the organization to suffer significant financial casualties. Let me highlight the skills for those who want to know how to become financial manager:

Top Skills Needed to Become a Financial Manager

Job requirements may vary based on the professional’s role, seniority, and company. However, what I believe does not change is the requirement for top skills. These include:

Soft Skills 

Here is a list of soft skills to teach you how to become a finance manager after the 12th:

• Communication: Members of the public can get knowledgeable explanations for specialist fields of study.
• Negotiation Skills: It finds the deals that benefit everybody.
• Influencing Skills: These specialists should be ready to convince their audience that their goals are in the common interest.
• Critical Thinking: The manager has to take a detached, impartial, all-encompassing view of the situation.
• Problem-Solving Skills: The expert must immediately recognize and assess the problem, estimate possible approaches, and make decisions swiftly.

Hard Skills

Here are the hard skills that further make you learn how to become a financial manager:

• Analytical Skills: They act as a link between management, staff, and other departments in the organization through meetings, facilitating the execution of plans, and finding solutions to problems.
• Accounting and Budgeting Skills: Through them, professionals learn how to apply methods in accounting and budgeting and discuss them with the team.
• Decision-making and Leadership Skills: They shape the strategic direction of the company and approve the finance team to put those directions into action.

Top Financial Manager Certifications/Degree

To become a financial manager, a bachelor’s degree in finance, accountancy, or a related field is typically required.

Meanwhile, I have curated the following certifications to become a financial manager:

• IT Service Management Certification: This certification helps you develop several world-class IT service management skills and become an ITSM leader.
• ITIL 4 Certification: It helps fast-track your career in the IT service management domain and master the financial skills to drive successful IT service delivery.
• KnowledgeHut IT Service Management Certification: It helps you manage, lead, and secure IT service management across different organizations.

Step 2: Determine Your Ideal Timeline

Setting a timeline for learning financial management is an important step in managing your expectations and establishing effective goals.

Start Learning in a Format That Suits You 

I think you must choose a learning style that suits your time, work experience, budget, and pace of learning to acquire the skills and competencies:

• Online Courses: Sign in for online courses that are available on sites such as KnowledgeHut. It is beyond essential to search for certifications holding the topics and skills in the context of financial management.
• In-Person Classes: If you are looking for personalized and in-person teaching, taking classes in a college, university, or finance management school may offer you full instruction.
• Books and Blogs: To extend your personal finance knowledge, consider reading finance management books as well as following blogs and online resources.
• Build a Portfolio: If you consider yourself one of the hands-on learners, try to experiment or find internship opportunities for your own financial management projects.

How Long Does It Take to Become a Financial Manager?

People who desire to become financial managers must have a bachelor's degree, and the period of study will take about 3-4 years. As I am pursuing the same journey, I require five years of related work experience to be eligible for more desirable higher financial management roles. I have already discussed the certifications that help enhance your skills to become a financial manager. Doing such courses may also require you to wait for around 1-2 years to join the field.

Step 3: Begin Building Your Portfolio / Resume

You must start building your portfolio or resume once you learn how to become a financial manager. I understand that building such documentation can be confusing for you the first time. That is why I have curated this resume template in PDF format for your understanding.

Here is another example of a financial manager’s resume for your understanding:

ResumeKraft

Step 4: Where and How to Find a Job

The next step in learning how to become a financial manager is to actively search for a job. Moreover, I feel it's crucial to understand where and how to find employment in a competitive industry.

Top Companies Hiring Financial Managers

I have made this list of top companies hiring financial managers to help you in your job search:

Company Name	Average Annual Salary
Amazon	$204,254
Microsoft	$208,913
Cisco Systems	$214,314
American Express	$147,322
US Army	$101,515
Google	$250,465
Johnson & Johnson	$165,782

Source: Glassdoor

Job Outlook for Financial Manager

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), finance jobs are projected to be in demand from 2022 to 2032, with an average of 911,400 openings each year. Certain roles within finance are expected to grow over six times faster than the rate for all occupations. Given that finance is an integral part of businesses, I anticipate that the demand for financial managers will also increase over time.

Step 5: Ace the Interview

The final stage of becoming a financial manager involves attending interviews at reputable organizations.

Learning the common interview questions can help you know how to become a financial manager and prepare for the selection day. I recommend checking this link for common interview questions that may be asked.

Who Can Become a Financial Manager?

There is no single-size-fits-all answer to the qualifications to become a financial manager. However, there are key requirements that I believe you must fulfill to become an efficient professional in this role.

Financial Manager Requirements

According to me, any professional who wants to know how to become a financial manager must fulfill these requirements:

• A Bachelor's degree in finance, accounting, economics, or business administration
• A Master's degree in Business Administration (MBA) with a specialization in finance (optional)
• A Master's of Science in Finance (MSF) (optional)
• At least five years of experience in a finance-related role
• Professional certifications like the KnowledgeHut IT service management certification

Why/Benefits

Now that you know how to become a financial manager, let me highlight the benefits of becoming one below:

What’s the Demand for a Financial Manager? 

Employment of financial managers is estimated to grow 16% from 2022 to 2032. I think this progress is much faster than the average for all occupations. Moreover, around 69,600 openings for financial managers are projected each year. This implies the demand for such professionals in the financial management field.

Salary Details for Top 6 Countries

Here is a list of the top 6 countries with their respective salary details for financial managers:

Country	Average Annual Salary (Source: Glassdoor and Indeed)
United Kingdom	£64,697
United States	$107,211
India	₹14,00,000
Australia	A$153,819
Canada	CA$97,934
Singapore	SGD 8,013

Summing Up!

‘How do I become a financial manager’ is the first thing that comes to your mind when thinking about pursuing the profession. I have curated all the information in this guide to help you with your progress. However, let me tell you that the path toward success can be long, making you ask ‘how long does it take to become a financial manager.’ As I mentioned above, you need to have the required Bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree (optional), certifications, and skills to become an efficient financial professional.

I recommend achieving all these achievements, one at a time, so that you get the time to groom yourself as an expert professional. My recommendation is to choose the KnowledgeHut IT service management certification to learn more about this career. Not only will the course teach you how to become a financial manager, but it will also make you an expert in this field.