I was talking to someone a few weeks ago about a joint project team. This person referred to someone in the team as being “just the modeller”. That really irritated me. It annoys me when people view modelling as being easy, something for the juniors, something that anyone can do.
In my experience this is not true. Modelling is difficult. It’s complex. To be a good modeller, you must bring together a whole group of different skills – commercial, technical, financial, project management, analytical, commercial. And a good amount of plain old resilience to be able to work long hours under a lot of pressure.
It is difficult to find people who bring all these qualities together. In the video below, I share my opinions in greater depth.
Where are all the good modellers?
On the one hand, I hear people being talked about as ‘just the modeller’ as if it is easy. whilst on the other hand, I hear people talking about how it is so difficult to find good modellers.
We recently sponsored the biggest survey of the financial modelling profession. 79% of respondents said that they thought that financial modelling should be considered a profession in its own right. One of the comments which we received on our original LinkedIn post I thought was a great point so it is worth sharing, here is the original link to Navdeep Singh’s comment.
“Many people think of models as just excel files which can be developed overnight and modellers are seen just as excel geeks, but they don’t know how someone can develop the model without understanding the business. What I have learnt from my experience is that it is on us how we present the model to the audience. Most of the time the audience is from a non-financial or non-excel background so the way in which we present makes a huge difference. Many times, you do not even get the opportunity to present and model, the output just goes into the report. This report then overshadows the hard work behind the modelling to get those decision-making numbers.”
-Navdeep Singh (Power International Holding)
Your opinion matters!
I am proud to be a professional financial modeller. What has your experience been? We would love to hear what you think!
Do you consider that your skills are at a premium?
Do you feel valued?
Or, have you been referred to as ‘Just the modeller’?
This video was first posted on LinkedIn, see the post here.
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