Most careers in finance involve finding effective ways to manage an organization’s money to create wealth and increase the organization’s value. Finance majors prepare for this career by studying planning, raising funds, making wise investments, and controlling costs. This knowledge sets them up for a wide array of career paths in all areas of financial services, including corporate finance and investing.

Increasingly, however, finance students who also are skilled in select non-finance areas may have the upper hand when it comes to job opportunities.

What Companies May Want to See in Finance Curricula

Executives in search of well-rounded finance students look for certain skills. Surveys have found that these executives want schools to place more emphasis on qualitative, strategic, critical decision-making, and communication skills, which are sometimes developed better in non-finance classes.

If you want to get the best possible preparation for the finance world from your undergraduate education, think about classes that may fall outside of the finance curriculum.

Non-Finance Courses for Finance Majors

As business schools continue to revamp MBA curricula away from traditional courses, here are some classes finance majors might want to consider to round out their degrees to make themselves not only more appealing to future employees but also MBA admissions teams.

1. Accounting

Financial and managerial accounting courses teach finance students how to understand, record and report financial transactions, monitor the company’s budgets and performance, and examine the costs of the organization’s products and services.

2. Advanced Mathematics

Courses in college algebra and calculus will help students learn how to solve equations in complex financial markets. Statistics courses can help learn to make decisions based on the likelihood of various outcomes. They would teach finance students to reach conclusions about general differences between groups and large batches of information. Courses in statistics would also help to explain the movements of a company’s stock.

3. Communications

A communications course, such as public speaking, helps finance students present financial reports and explain the meaning behind equations and numbers to colleagues in group settings.

Good communication also can help when managing people and organizations, such as delegating responsibilities to employees within a finance department. Business students also need courses in corporate communications, crisis communications, and public relations strategies.

4. Economics

Economics looks at how scarce resources are allocated to achieve needs and wants. A course in macroeconomics would teach finance students to understand the impact of financial market activities on the overall economy. Microeconomics would help them to learn about the behaviors that occur within individual firms and among consumers, as well as how various financial decisions can affect a firm’s success.

5. Ethics

The incidence of corporate scandals has encouraged some business schools, such as the University of San Francisco and Loyola University Chicago, to add ethics courses to their finance curricula. These courses focus on moral development in an attempt to stem future misconduct in business environments.

6. Psychology

Financial professionals need to understand the behaviors and thought processes that help drive movements in financial markets. Behavioral psychology can show finance majors how to examine human behavior and its impact within a financial environment.

Behavioral finance can help students explore why and how the financial markets aren’t working by examining how investors’ behaviors are associated with market anomalies.

7. Writing

Finance curricula miss the boat by not including basic courses in writing and grammar, including technical writing. More often than not, students graduate with a master of business administration (MBA) degree but cannot form their thoughts cogently in writing. Writing courses teach students to craft strong, clear, and organized ideas for memos, reports, and letters.

The Bottom Line 

Students studying finance will be tasked with big responsibilities in their careers, like managing the flow of money at their companies and identifying financial risks and returns to make effective business decisions.

Those finance majors who want to have an edge over their competition, both during the initial post-graduate job search and throughout their careers, will take advanced mathematics, accounting, economics, psychology, communications, and writing courses to gain deeper insight into their jobs and a better ability to work effectively with people.