As a finance student, there are certain classes you will have to take like managerial accounting and principles of business. For your electives, classes in communications can help your job search as well as give you experience that can be used in your career. In fact, some leaders who speak all the time talk about their nervousness, but they learn to work through it.
Resource: 20 Best Online Master of Finance Degree Programs
Learn Skills to Communicate Effectively
A public speaking class involves learning to speak in front of a group, but it also teaches other skills. It’ll help you lose the nerves and panic you may feel standing in front of others. Public speaking professors will teach you how to communicate effectively by giving you assignments that will be critiqued by classmates and the professor.
Employers Want the Experience
Your employer might need you to deliver a report to shareholders regarding the financial health of the company. If you’ve never given a speech, it will be evident to your employer. While each position in a company needs specific skills, one of the biggest general skills is the ability to communicate with others effectively. That skill comes from taking communication classes and practicing.
Be a Better Listener
While you’re learning to be a better public speaker, you’re actively listening to others in the class, so you can give them feedback. This gives you experience in listening to others on a variety of topics. You’ll learn to be a more active listener, which can translate to many areas of your life from your career to personal relationships.
Encourages Voicing of Ideas
Those who excel at public speaking are the people who are influential in a variety of ways. If you consider the best public speakers, you’ll realize that they’re the ones who have the most influence over others. Whether it’s politicians, professors or religious leaders, a smooth public speaker can have incredible influence over their audience. While you might not speak in front of groups where you’ll have a huge impact, learning to voice your ideas can help you become influential to your coworkers or employer.
Lessens Fear
A common fear among many people is the fear of speaking in public. You could be the most outgoing person in the world, but standing in front of people giving a speech is still scary. When you practice public speaking, the fear will slowly leave. Public speaking classes often involve standing in front of classmates and talking. The professor might film speeches and perform a critique. While these things can be scary, they help prepare you for a world outside the classroom where public speaking is vital to your success.
Communications is an important skill in any career. It’s one of those personal skills that should be taken by anyone who wants to be successful since it translates to all aspects of a person’s life. It can help you when it’s time for interviewing for a finance position too. When you’ve impressed an HR manager, you’ll likely be invited back for a second interview where there could be a panel of interviewers. A public speaking course could mean the difference between appearing confident or ruining the interview.
