So I'm a trainee auditor at a Big Four in London, working towards my ACA. I also want to do the CFA Level 1 soon. I want to get out of audit as soon as I can because I really want to be an analyst at a bank or fund. The areas I’m looking at are:
1) IB/corporate finance
2) Buy or sell side equity/debt analyst
I know that directly jumping into such a career from audit, though possible and has been done before, can be difficult. As such a more feasible option would be to transfer internally to Transaction services and then move to a bank/fund.
Anyway in addition to corporate finance, my firm also has a specialist financial modelling department that does all sorts of models. Some are transaction/valuation models, others might not be so grand.
What I was wondering if having some background in such a department (say 6 months to a year, maybe more) would be a good foundation off of which to apply to the roles I listed above? I’m just wondering how it would compare to going into a corporate finance department which I guess would be slightly more relevant to my future dream career.
During that time I’d probably go for CFA Level 2 as well while waiting to get into a bank/fund.
Advice?
If your office has a dedicated corporate finance practice, that is technically a MM bank (though some will debate this) so you should try to network into it if possible. If not, runner-up is the TAS/TS division where the modelling group would probably be good.
If you manage the above, you should have a decent shot at getting into a dedicated bank if you network hard and build a good resume. Other than that, have you considered doing the Big 4 thing for a bit and getting an MBA? Best of luck!
An MBA I definitely do not want to do as I don't have the money and I don't want the career break. Plus I'm getting my ACA and possibly adding a CFA to it as well, not sure if an MBA is that useful after I got both of those.
If you can't swing it then obviously don't force the MBA, but you should note that the CFA is of limited value in banking but would be good for funds or equity research, the ACA is in many regards useless and depending on your resume's content could brand you as an accountant which is not necessarily what you want for finance recruiting. Also, these designations do not provide the networking opportunities or the rebranding that a well-regarded masters program would give you. Just sayin'.
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