Job of the month: Commercial analyst

Commercial analyst positions are currently very popular roles. This is because they incorporate an opportunity to bring your opinion into your work.

So although reconciling and closing are a key part of the job, it is also about looking at the business and making informed judgements and predictions about the market.

With businesses now thinking of investing in the future more than they were, we are seeing more commercial analyst opportunities become available at the part-qualified level.

Employers are currently looking to maximise their investments and need people who can act as a business partner, but who are also cost-effective.

Although the job will vary depend-ing on the organisation, the main objective is to maximise savings and minimise spending.

As part of this, you will have constant meetings with stakeholders, reviewing daily and non-daily KPIs (both financial and non-financial) and monitoring cash flow within the business.

The job is not for everyone though. Making future predictions is not an exact science – no-one can read the future, after all – so you have to be confident in trusting your gut instinct to a degree.

Your forecasts need to be underpinned by a solid understanding of current market conditions. As part of this you’ll need to take into account your competitors’ performance and external regulatory developments, while considering dividends and shareholder pressure.

To be successful in securing one of these jobs, strong systems experience and analysis skills are essential. You’ll also need to be confident in dealing with other people in the business.

For example, part of the job will be convincing sales directors of your arguments when they may not be fully on board with what you initially have to say. You will need to demonstrate on your CV where you have made savings and managed projects of this nature.

Recruiting managers value people with a CIMA qualification because they realise that it arms them with the technical and business understanding to make a difference in this role. Indeed, most senior commercial analysts are CIMA-qualified.

For part-qualified accountants, these roles offer very exciting opportunities in themselves and, beyond that, excellent career development potential.

The natural next step is into a full-on business analyst role and, from there, you can specialise in a niche area (e.g. procurement, M&A etc) and really progress your career forward in that way.