25 Key Attributes Financial Examiners Need To Succeed In Their Career

by Michael Davis

Monday, September 14, 2015

Financial examiners enforce or ensure compliance with laws and regulations governing financial and securities institutions and financial and real estate transactions. They may also examine, verify, or authenticate records.

The core tasks that financial examiners are likely to carry out include:

Investigate activities of institutions to enforce laws and regulations and to ensure legality of transactions and operations or financial solvency.
Review and analyze new, proposed, or revised laws, regulations, policies, and procedures to interpret their meaning and determine their impact.
Plan, supervise, and review work of assigned subordinates.
Recommend actions to ensure compliance with laws and regulations, or to protect solvency of institutions.
Examine the minutes of meetings of directors, stockholders and committees to investigate the specific authority extended at various levels of management.
Prepare reports, exhibits and other supporting schedules that detail an institution's safety and soundness, compliance with laws and regulations, and recommended solutions to questionable financial conditions.

In order to successfully forge ahead with their careers, analysts in a survey carried out by U.S. Department of Labor (via O*NET) have marked out the following as important attributes that financial examiners would need. These attributes have been selected from characteristics and requirements strongly associated with the occupation. They are

Abilities: Enduring attributes of the individual that influence performance
Interests: Preferences for work environments. Occupational Interest Profiles (OIPs) are compatible with Holland's (1985, 1997) model of personality types and work environments. Six interest categories are used to describe the work environment of occupations: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional. An OIP consists of six numerical scores indicating how descriptive and characteristic each work environment (or interest area) is for an occupation
Knowledge: Organized sets of principles and facts applying in general domains
Skills: These include basic skills, which are developed capacities that facilitate learning or the more rapid acquisition of knowledge. Plus cross-functional skills, which are developed capacities that facilitate performance of activities that occur across jobs
Style: Personal characteristics that can affect how well someone performs a job

We have listed out attributes which were scored 80% or more in terms of importance by the analysts.

Having a strong preference for enterprising work environments. Enterprising occupations frequently involve starting up and carrying out projects. These occupations can involve leading people and making many decisions. Sometimes they require risk taking and often deal with business.
Attribute Type: Interests Score: 95.29%

Being honest and ethical.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 94.2%

Being careful about detail and thorough in completing work tasks.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 93%

Analyzing information and using logic to address work-related issues and problems.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 90%

Being pleasant with others on the job and displaying a good-natured, cooperative attitude.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 90%

Being reliable, responsible, and dependable, and fulfilling obligations.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 86%

The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
Attribute Type: Abilities Score: 85%

The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
Attribute Type: Abilities Score: 85%

The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
Attribute Type: Abilities Score: 85%

Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
Attribute Type: Knowledge Score: 84.6%

Establishing and maintaining personally challenging achievement goals and exerting effort toward mastering tasks.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 83%

The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
Attribute Type: Abilities Score: 82.6%

Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
Attribute Type: Skills Score: 82.4%

Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
Attribute Type: Skills Score: 82.4%

Being open to change (positive or negative) and to considerable variety in the workplace.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 82.2%

Developing one's own ways of doing things, guiding oneself with little or no supervision, and depending on oneself to get things done.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 81.8%

Having a strong preference for conventional work environments. Conventional occupations frequently involve following set procedures and routines. These occupations can include working with data and details more than with ideas. Usually there is a clear line of authority to follow.
Attribute Type: Interests Score: 81%

Knowledge of economic and accounting principles and practices, the financial markets, banking and the analysis and reporting of financial data.
Attribute Type: Knowledge Score: 80.2%

Persistence in the face of obstacles.
Attribute Type: Style Score: 80.2%

The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
Attribute Type: Abilities Score: 80%

Talking to others to convey information effectively.
Attribute Type: Skills Score: 80%

The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
Attribute Type: Abilities Score: 80%

The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
Attribute Type: Abilities Score: 80%

The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
Attribute Type: Abilities Score: 80%

The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
Attribute Type: Abilities Score: 80%