Risk Management Analyst

Because you could get sick doing it, eating undercooked chicken is risky. Because you’ll be hung over in the morning, doing shots at the bar is risky. And since you could lose it, gambling your paycheck at the casino is — you guessed it — risky.

Risk is all about balancing potential consequences with potential rewards. That’s true for people, and also for corporations.

For corporations, however, consequences are more costly than upset stomachs and headaches. In some cases, they cost millions of dollars in losses, damages, and missed opportunities. Companies don’t like taking risks, therefore; instead, they prefer to mitigate them.

When you’re a Risk Management Analyst (also known as a Risk Analyst or Risk Manager), you’re in charge of minimizing risk. Usually employed by a consultancy — often an accounting practice or insurance provider — you’re therefore hired to analyze a business, looking for vulnerabilities and offering solutions for addressing them. Think of your clients’ companies as ships: As a Risk Management Analyst, you are paid to examine the hull for holes, and to fill those holes so the ship doesn’t sink.

To find risks that need to be managed — common examples include operational risks, like employee fraud; credit risks, like clients that default on payments; market risks, like competition; and regulatory risks, like anti-business legislation — Risk Management Analyst’s spend their days meeting with clients, reviewing financial statements, collecting data, performing statistical analyses, and producing reports that include assessments and action plans.

Basically, you’re a corporate Bodyguard: It’s up to you to protect your clients’ assets and reputation — but with information, not fists.