Accounting or Finance?

Added: 2026-05-24

[00:00:00]So, accounting and finance, what's the difference? Accounting is the beginning phase, while finance is like pretty much more advanced than accounting, arguably.

[00:00:11]Hello guys, welcome once again. I am Favour T. Obidiegwu, and today I'll be sharing my thoughts around the various career paths that one could pursue in finance. And before I do that, I'll be explaining the difference between accounting and finance as a career path.

[00:00:26]No, I understand there's a bit of a misconception between both professions.

[00:00:30]I'm coming from someone like me who studied accounting, did the chartered accountancy program, and also had some accounting internships before switching to finance, which I currently work in. I hope I'm able to do justice to this, so stay with me.

[00:00:42]So, accounting and finance, what's the difference? I'll try to make this really um high-level and really short, so that it's easy to understand.

[00:00:50]>> [music] >> So, maybe just for a bit of a background, accounting ideally people say is the foundation of finance, >> [music] >> because many times finance guys make use of, not whole, but a lot of finance guys make use of, >> [music] >> you know, the accounting statements, especially when it comes to financial analysis, investment banking, and the likes. They typically make use of financial um reports that have been prepared by accountants, right? [music] So, what is accounting, what is finance?

[00:01:15]Accounting is the beginning phase, while finance is like pretty much more advanced than accounting, arguably. So, what is what is account What does What does accounting entail? Accounting has to do with the part of aspect of, you know, recording transaction, bookkeeping, rep- preparing that into like a decent report that people can easily understand. Auditing, what does come out of that? This is still the whole of [music] It's still like an accounting process. Oh, a company makes profit, they need to be taxed, right?

[00:01:40]You need a tax accountant as well, >> [music] >> um to to do that. So, essentially, accounting has to do with more bookkeeping, you know, financial reporting, you know, uh auditing, tax. I mean, there there there's a lot There's There's a list long longer list, but it's This isn't an exhaustive But this is high level what accounting is.

[00:01:59]Finance on the other hand typically [music] takes you to the report that I just prepared.

[00:02:03]They, you know, make some forecasts that's more intuitive. It's more It's more >> [music] >> It's more analytical, you could say, because they're not just taking the numbers for it. They create an assumption. They try to drive that assumption, have their own forecast. And so, if you're working in budgeting and analysis, essentially you're already diving towards the aspect of finance and no longer in accounting.

[00:02:24]>> [music] >> Right. So, finance also has like so many aspects that you could pursue a career in this There's the typical [music] investment analyst or financial analyst.

[00:02:32]There is portfolio management. There is global markets, sales and trading. You know, there is asset management. I mean, the list is inexhaustive. There's compliance, there's risk. All of this is still under finance because >> [music] >> at the end of the day, what is the risk if you're just reporting, right? Risk comes when you're trying to make some forecast, take some positions in markets. So, then you need like a risk person.

[00:02:54]>> [music] >> If you're working in risk, you're still kind of working in a finance-related role. Although maybe not core finance, but it's still [music] finance. So, what are the high-level parts? I think I've already done this already, but I'll just mention like three more or four more and explain in detail [music] or in I'll give a summary of what they do. So, stay with me. So, what are the various aspects in finance that one can pursue a career in? Number one of the general ideas investment analysis. Now, this can be done >> [music] >> on a proprietary basis or on a client basis. I.e., you're working you're managing or preparing reports for just your company's funds or you're preparing reports for your for like managing [music] clients' money. So, it's still like investment analysis. You could be doing this from a public equity standpoint or [music] you could be doing this from a private equity standpoint.

[00:03:40]So, if you're working in an investment management firm or in an asset management firm, you could potentially your role is going to be tied to the investment [music] investment analysis.

[00:03:48]But then you could be doing equity research as well, right? Which is also like another career path that one could follow. So, an investment analyst could find himself doing equity research, depending on the company he company works for, and also could find himself doing portfolio management, depending on the company he works for. So, essentially, this investment analyst which kind of many times has so many roles in it. When it comes to the specific roles, we have equity research, which means you are picking companies on the public market, writing reports on them, [music] and giving recommendation on buy, hold, or sell, right? And people typically make it of this result.

[00:04:23][music] Portfolio management is when you're working in an asset management firm where you guys are managing clients' money or managing company money. And then you have to like prepare portfolio, try to reallocate [music] it such that you generate the maximum profit with the minimum risk, right? So, that is what portfolio [music] management entails. We also have investment banking where the analysts, associates, and the team typically advise companies [music] when it comes to M&A's, M&A's being mergers and acquisitions. Two companies are trying to merge or a company is trying to acquire one or the other one, they come [music] to an investment bank.

[00:04:58]Investment banking entails either working on M&A's or advising companies that trying to like raise [music] capital, or they're trying to go public, call these call these IPOs. So, an investment banking >> [music] >> firm services are required when it comes to M&A, capital markets, ECM, [music] DCM, they're trying to raise debt, they're trying to raise equity, they come to an investment [music] bank. When they're trying to go public, they come to an investment bank. If they want to go out of the market, they come to an investment bank, right? So, this is what investment banking entails.

[00:05:28]>> [music] >> Then we also have global markets. Global markets has so many things. Well, the general role in global market that we know is sales and trading, [music] i.e. you guys are like working either either a sales person or you are a trader, which means you trade different [music] asset classes on the market. There's like ton of asset classes, right? You could trade in equities, you could be trading fixed income, we trading currencies, you could be trading like derivatives, you know, so there's so many things that one could trade on the market. So, that is also global market.

[00:05:58]Then we [music] have asset management which I've kind of already touched on when I'm talking about portfolio management which also entails [music] managing assets for your clients, trying to find the right place to allocate capital to like so in summary in summary, we have equity research, we have investment analyst, we have [music] portfolio management, we have investment banking, we have global market, >> [music] >> and we have asset management. But again, the list is non-exhaustive, but hopefully this helpful to like make a decision. So, when when it comes to like what do you want to do?

[00:06:31]>> [music] >> Which one is most suited to me? I'll try to make subsequent videos on this to let you know what is [music] the skill required for each of these roles and where you can channel your application to in case you don't know where you're struggling.

[00:06:45]Hopefully [music] that will be helpful.

[00:06:46]So, make sure you share this video with others, help them and make them informed, and [music] see you next time. Cheers.