Canadian Looking for Career Advice

Recently attained Finance undergrad from non-target school in Atlantic Canada. Looking for advice on what to do for 2 years while completing CFA. Completed CSC and CPH. Currently have three offers that I consider far away from IB land.

Citco Op Analyst(fancy term for back office peasant) $40k plus CFA value $1400 plus free beer on Fridays assuming $3/beer x 10 x 50 weeks = $1500 for total comp of $42,900

BMW sales in Toronto - Opportunity to make $100k per year plus networking opps

Cold Call as a Licensed Associate and try to build a book at a retail brokerage firm on Bay Street - $30k

Am I absolutely nuts or just lost?

 
Best Response

relevant job experience trumps CFA any day. i would assess your current career ops by your offers only, and both are not looking good. Consider the following: 1. Good to get a job in a bigger city, from Atlantic Canada that's basically Montreal or Toronto, easier to network there. 2. Starting in a financial institution is good, even when comparing "back office" jobs, brand matters 3. CFA is useful but think about it in terms of resume real estate, CFA Level X Candidate is basically 3-4 words, there's the rest of the page to fill up. Ideally that should be relevant experience or at least experience that positions u for finance. 4. Being a fresh grad there's the unique benefit that people may accept you more with no relevant experience. If you take a job that's not relevant just for $, wait a year or so, people won't be as accepting. Sometimes it's better to stay unemployed a few months more to try to land a role with better exp. Of course you have to hustle really hard during those months (cause you are already behind).

Good luck

 

Citco has a bad rep in Toronto. If you did go that route, you would need to try and get out soon after (6 months - 1.5 years) before you get pigeon shooted. But it is more relevant that car salesman and I've seen plenty of people do that in Tdot; starting as a fund accountant there then heading elsewhere - it's hard but not impossible. Citco employs mostly FOBs, so if your english and interpersonal skills are decent you should have a leg up.

I don't know about that sales gig. Where did the sales manager pull that number? his ass? Sure you could make $100k, you could also make $300k, ....or nothing right. What kind of networking opps are you referring to?

Don't listen to anyone, everybody is scared.
 

Would you say Citco in Halifax is worse than Toronto?

I think you're right about the manager but I think knowing the brand inside out could help me move units

In terms of networking opps, I mean usually people who drop >$60k for a 5 series and above who are not FOBs, housewives, or trust fund babies are generally established in the business world

 

I'm currently working at Citco in Toronto and have seen several people end up here from Halifax, usually if they started as an operations analyst they'd end up in Toronto as a fund accountant or investor relations specialist. I've also seen people move out of these roles into different industries.

I forgot to add this but beers not only on Fridays, it's available everyday after 5 PM so you can factor that in to revise your salary estimate if it helps. There's great benefits here and I've probably saved around $2000 from the benefits I used this year.

 

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