- What do corporate treasurers do?
- Corporate treasurer career path
- Corporate treasurer salaries
- Qualifications and training
- Corporate treasurer skills
- Pros and cons of being a corporate treasurer
- Corporate treasurer work-life balance
- Typical employers
- Related jobs
Do you work well under pressure? Are you great at dealing with money? If you want a job that combines your interest with finance and your business know-how, a career as a corporate treasurer could be perfect for you.
Are you interested in a career as a corporate treasurer? Explore the financial services graduate opportunities available to you right now.
What do corporate treasurers do?
Corporate treasurers are responsible for managing a company’s finances. This can include the investments that a company makes, its insurance and managing the financial risk that it could come into. Here are the tasks that you might have as a corporate treasurer:
- Making and managing budgets for the company.
- Reporting on the current financial position of the company to your colleagues and stakeholders.
- Dealing with any potential issues that are flagged up to do with financial policies and regulations.
- Overseeing the work of the finance department, making sure it fits with the company’s policies.
- Managing the accounts and assets that a company has.
Corporate treasurer career path
Becoming a corporate treasurer doesn’t have a standard career path. You work your way towards the role by gaining experience in other areas of finance before building your CV up to the point that you can work as a treasurer. Here are some career moves that you could make to get towards a corporate treasurer role:
Entry-level
Many corporate treasurers begin their careers as accountants or in banking roles. Working in the sector gives you great background knowledge that you can apply to your future career. You also learn the skills of dealing with accounts, budgets and other relevant areas that will be useful when you reach a treasurer position.
Career progression
You could move into a financial analyst position. In this role, you manage how well a company is doing financially. This means analysing the accounts to understand how it’s performing in relation to other companies.
Another way to get into a treasurer role is through banking. You could work as a branch manager for a bank or any other banking position which teaches you the skills that you need to work in finance.
Future career
With enough experience in the financial sector and having gained relevant skills, you can move into a treasury position. You’re responsible for the finance of a company, making sure it is in a stable position, performing within budget and not at any financial risk.
Corporate treasurer salaries
Since the path you can take to a corporate treasurer position varies so much, the salaries you earn throughout your career could vary considerably. The salary you earn also depends on the type of organisation you work for, its size and location. Here are the salaries that you could earn in this career path:
- In an entry-level junior accountant position, you earn between £20,000 and £30,000 per year.
- In a mid-level accounting position, you earn an average of £38,000 per year.
- As a corporate treasurer, you earn an average of £100,000 per year, spanning £50,000 and over £200,000 per year depending on the organisation you work for.
Qualifications and training
Having the right education and experience sets you up well for a career as a corporate treasurer. Here’s what you need to get ahead in the field:
Education
Most corporate treasurers have an undergraduate degree. Relevant degrees include finance and other money-related or business subjects. Having a degree in one of these subjects teaches you relevant skills and background information that you need to work in the sector. Doing a master’s degree isn’t usually a requirement of being a treasurer but it can help you specialise and have a more in-depth understanding of the sector.
Work experience
Having work experience alongside your education helps you progress in the career, giving you relevant skills that you need to do the job and teaching you the environment you’ll be working in. One great way of getting work experience that you need to break into the career path is through an internship. You can explore the financial services sector internships available right now.
Once you’ve started your career, getting some work experience related to being a treasurer is a great way to demonstrate that you can do the job. One way to do this is by volunteering for a charity, local business or society.
Professional qualifications
Going from an accounting or banking career path to treasury involves learning additional skills and demonstrating your experience. There are many professional qualifications that you can get to prove your ability and prepare yourself for the career. The Association for Corporate Treasurers offers certifications in treasury which you can complete. Similarly, the Institute of Chartered Accountants offers corporate treasury training courses which you could consider taking. Remember, these qualifications are intended for professionals already working in the sector. If you want to look into these qualifications, consider where you are in your career carefully to make sure that it’s the right option for you. You can contact a course administrator if you’re in any doubt.
Corporate treasurer skills
Having the right skills to do a treasury job is a great way to impress a hiring manager and break into the sector. You should provide examples of when you’ve demonstrated the skills in your working life to make your application effective. Here are the skills you need for the role:
Hard skills
- Financial management. You need to be great at dealing with money. This means being able to manage accounts, make budgets and analyse the financial activity of the company.
Soft skills
- Detail orientation. Whilst your job involves having a good overview of the company’s finances, you also need to be able to understand the intricacies of the company’s finances. This is so you can understand what’s going well and what you work collectively to improve on.
- Written communication. Part of your job is writing reports. You could write about the progress of the finances including how the business has performed in the past including analysis and implications. You may write about future strategies including what you intend to do to improve financial performance and other changes that will be made in the near future. Having good written communication skills means you can write reports accurately and with clarity so there is no confusion between the departments.
- Analytical skills. You need good analytical skills to be a treasurer. This is so you can find meaning behind the numbers and suggest workable actions to improve the company’s performance.
- Leadership. You’re acting as a senior financial representative in a company and should act accordingly. You need to be able to inform junior colleagues of the policies that you’re going to work towards as a department and their roles. Being a good leader means having great communication skills, being authoritative but respectful and compassionate. Brush up on your leadership ability with this Bright Network Academy leadership skills course which includes modules on developing leadership and adapting your communication style.
Pros and cons of being a corporate treasurer
As with any career, there are great and not so great parts of being a corporate treasurer. Knowing the good and bad parts of treasury helps you decide whether it’s the right career path for you in the long term. Here are the pros and cons of working as a corporate treasurer:
Pros
- You can earn a great deal of money working as a corporate treasurer.
- You can get into some great pension schemes.
- You have the benefits of working high up in a company, including bonuses, development programmes and good holiday leave.
- There are lots of opportunities to help you reach the treasurer level, for example, volunteering and training schemes.
Cons
- It can be a highly stressful job. You’re responsible for the finances of a company and if something goes wrong, you might be held accountable.
- Since your job is within the financial sector, factors outside your control might impact your job performance, for example, the economic situation.
- There are relatively few opportunities to work as a corporate treasurer, particularly in large companies.
- It takes a long time to work your way up into the role.
Corporate treasurer work-life balance
As a corporate treasurer, your working hours depend on the amount of work you have to complete at the time. This could be standard office hours of 9am to 5pm or may expand beyond this at busier times and when you have big deadlines to meet. This means maintaining a good work-life balance is possible within this career path. However, working as a corporate treasurer may have implications for your stress levels. You’re responsible for the financial security and prosperity of the company. This can make your work stressful as a lot rides on the back of your work. Having healthy stress management strategies in place helps you deal with the stress that you might experience and prevents any negative implications further in the future.
Typical employers
Knowing the typical employers that hire treasurers means you can research the type of company you’d like to work for and tailor your applications to them. Here are some typical employers that you could work for: