Free resources that would help you to move ahead

Free resources to move ahead. I will be updating it on a regular basis. So stay tuned and subscribe to our email list.

 

             CRED App

 

Unless you are living under the rock, you would have heard about this app. Since the launch, it has become a must-have app for Generation X, Y and Z. So what are we talking about?

Here is how the company defines it.

“CRED is a members-only club that rewards individuals for their timely credit card bill payments by providing them with exclusive offers and access to premium experiences. It is a platform that allows credit card users to manage multiple cards along with an analysis of their credit score. Members with a high Experian or CRIF score are eligible for exclusive rewards upon payment of their credit card bills through the app. Amongst many features in the app is CRED's credit card spend tracking and management feature which provided the user with analysis of spend tracking and efficiency of usage of the card.”

Once you become a member, you will be able to access the curated set of exclusive rewards and privileges that are offered by CRED.

Every month, I earn, at least Rs. 15 for each credit card payment, that too in the bank account and not in my wallet. This is on top of the loyalty points (Cred Coins) that I receive. Cred coins allow you to buy products on discounts. While the choices are few, new products are introduced now and then.

Click to earn rewards and save money – Link is here

 

              Recruiters and Candidates

 

If you are wondering where to find jobs, this is one resource that I can vouch for. This group is a brainchild of a noble soul, Mr Farhan Khan and some of his friends. Farhan observed information asymmetry in the job market. At one place, recruiters claim that they are unable to find the right candidate for the job and at another place, candidate claims that they can’t find the right job. Farhan observed this gap for some time and decided to do something about it. He started sharing job postings in LinkedIn. He then went on to create multiple WhatsApp group eventually culminating all those into a Telegram group. A good part of the group is that it consists of HR professionals, recruiters, hiring managers and numerous candidates. Group members are very helpful. I have personally reached out to quite a few people and was blown away by their humility.

When you join the group, this is what you would see.

Farhan also realised that candidate need guidance on how to build their career. He then expanded the purpose of the group to conduct face to face and virtual meetups that helped candidates to further their career. By now, the group conducted some amazing sessions on

             1. How to become a Finance Business Partner

             2. Public speaking and confidence building

             3. Careers in Finance

Here is a link to the Telegram Group - https://t.me/joinchat/NcKD_02omAfZLvpxWFYBMw

Here is a link to the LinkedIn Group - https://www.linkedin.com/groups/10422495/

 

             Learn SQL

 

There are quite a few candidates who want to switch career from accounting, taxation, audits to the business analyst. If you are new to the game and do not what business analyst does, here is a brief.

The analyst interacts with the business stakeholders and subject matter experts to understand their problems and their needs. The analyst gathers, documents, and analyzes business requirements. The analyst solves business problems and, as needed, designs technical solutions.

One of the skills that the business analyst is required to know is how to work with SQL. SQL stands for the structured query language.

I tried to read and understand the SQL through books. However, I ended up spending a lot of time. Eventually, I started searching for a video course and somehow landed on this course. Well, since then, I have not only completed this course but also practised my skills in my office.

Here are more details about the course.

This is an introductory course on Databases and SQL Querying. There is no pre-requisite for this course. If you are looking to get acquainted with the concept of Databases and Queries for maybe your next interview as an analyst, this is the right course for you. All you need is a windows machine and we will walk through step by step, right from setting up your environment to creating your first table to writing your first query. This course is structured in a way that you can follow along with me. At the end of this course, you should be comfortable writing simple queries including queries related to Dates, String manipulation, Aggregation etc.

What you’ll learn

Query a database, Create Tables and Databases and be proficient with basic SQL querying

Are there any course requirements or prerequisites?

There are absolutely no pre-requisites for the course. We will walk through very basic installation to set up your environment to creating your first table and writing queries against it. All videos are recorded in Windows OS. You can, however, follow this course on MAC/Linux, if you have a Win VM setup.

Who this course is for:

This course is for beginners with absolutely no experience in the database. The course will make you familiar with SQL Syntax and introduce you to the concept of databases. No Prior Programming experience is required. This course is probably not for you if you're looking to learn more advanced and complex queries

Here is a link to the course. https://www.udemy.com/share/101rjMB0Adc1xUR3o=/

At the time of writing this blog post, the course is free. Hurry up before it becomes a paid course.

 

           Finance specific courses

 

Passionate coach, Dhawal Parvatikar, is a qualified Chartered Accountant from Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and a certified general management professional from Indian Institute of Management – Ahmedabad. He happens to be my good friend and therefore I know how much effort he puts to mentor new finance professional.

During mentoring sessions, he saw some common questions amongst finance professionals. He grouped all such questions logically and bundled those in small courses. Don’t worry, most of these courses are free of charge.

One such course is - Finance For Beginners

When asked about this course, this is what Dhawal had to say.

“Primary objective of any business is to make profits. Delivering profit is not just the responsibility of the CEO or the CFO. Knowingly or unknowingly each employee's actions have a direct or an indirect impact on the profit. Financial literacy has become an important life skill today. All the leading business degrees have a finance module included in them. If you are an entrepreneur or looking to grow in your organization, then apart from your technical skills, your financial skills will be tested as well. Understanding the end impact of your decision on the profitability of the company will give you an edge.

In this course, we attempt to make it super easy for you to read and interpret financial statements in the quickest possible time. After this course you will be able to:

1. Understand and appreciate basic financial terms like Capital, Asset, Liability, Income, Profit etc

2. You will be able to read & interpret Income Statement (profit and loss statement) of any company.

3. You will be able to read & interpret Balance Sheet of any company.”

Here is the link: https://www.train4corp.com/p/finance-for-beginners

There are other courses around soft skills and mentoring, which are of great value just like this one.

 

          Business Analytics

 

Many people are fascinated with business analytics. Thanks to Big Data capabilities, this profession is growing by leaps and bounds. However, many professionals do not know the difference between business analysis vs business analytics. In the absence of proper knowledge, they end up using it interchangeably. I searched around to see who knows it best and finally can vouch for below course.

Introduction to Business Analytics – By Analytics Vidhya

When you visit their website, this is what you would see.

Getting Started with Business Analytics

What is Business Analytics? Why has it become so popular recently? What are some of the popular applications of Business Analytics? And more importantly, how can you get started with learning Business Analytics from scratch?

With the growth in digitisation, Business Analytics is ubiquitous right now. Organizations are splurging to integrate data science solutions in their daily processes. This is where they need Business Analysts.

Why pursue Business Analytics:

• Data is ubiquitous! Organizations need people who can use Business Analytics tools and techniques to make sense of this data. 

• It is one of the hottest fields in the industry right now

• There are so many Business Analytics tools and techniques which can be applied to solve business problems. Keep learning, keep growing!

• The potential of Business Analytics is limitless - spanning across industries, roles and functions

Here is the link: https://courses.analyticsvidhya.com/courses/introduction-to-analytics

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