CFA for an MBB Management Consultant
Hi, I'm a 1st year associate at one of the MBBs (Europan office). I don't have an MBA
(I transitioned directly from Analyst to Associate) and I have an engineering background.
I've been trying to land a job in Private Equity in the last year and although I got really close to it (interviewed with 3 megafunds and always got to the final rounds) I didn't make it to get an offer.
I'm just wondering if taking the CFA level 1 might help in the future both for PE or for other finance related positions. Remember: I don't have an MBA and have an engineering background.
Thanks!





It will not. Don't do it to
It will not. Don't do it to yourself, it's not fun and your time is better spent networking.
Oreos - that is the best
Oreos - that is the best thing about reading WSO, I too was looking at doing a CFA and the conventional wisdom is, as you point out, to network and spend that effort doing other things.
Scott Irish wrote: Oreos -
Oreos - that is the best thing about reading WSO, I too was looking at doing a CFA and the conventional wisdom is, as you point out, to network and spend that effort doing other things.
I should caveat by saying that L1 will do nothing, but the full charter will make a difference; however, it's a big commitment. I'm revising at the moment and it sucks and can say that when I passed L1 my career prospects went no where, it was a nice conversation point but did nothing other than that.
The only reason I did it was because I had the opportunity for it to be paid for by my firm and I had the time (nice working hours). If you're already working hard (e.g., finish at anything later than 8:00pm) then save yourself the trouble and go get coffee with that MD who went to your school.
EDIT: I just thought I'd procrastinate by augmenting my post. I think the CFAI have a great product going, from a business prospective. People see it as a well regarded, rigorous program which they can complete without forgoing earnings like full time school and which is assumed to lead to career progression. The buy-side like their employees having certifications because when raising/managing funds letters after names and prestigious institutions are well received. So demand is very high (just attend an exam to see how many people there are), without having to actually do anything or being truely accoutable for the quality of education.
But when it comes down to it most, if not all, concepts which are of any real value would be learned within the first 3 months of any FT job; without having to cram useless concepts, spending agonizing amounts of time and effort in revising and with no need to pay the CFAI for the pleasure.
Don't do it. The CFA is not
Don't do it. The CFA is not helpful for the jobs it was intended for (AM / ER / HF) and is actually less than worthless for PE after you factor in the massive opportunity cost. The whole program is kind of a sham. Source: I am a charterholder. The best way to get into PE is to learn how PE works, network, and kill the interviews. CFA is nothing but a path to pain and disappointment.
since you've already been to
since you've already been to final rounds for megafund positions you should try to understand what went wrong in those interviews
Thank you for all your
Thank you for all your valuable insight.
Not sure what went wrong during the interviews, PE recruiting in the UK is just so competitive.
For the last fund I interviewed with I got the bad news directly from one of the interviewers (not from the headhunting company) and he just could't find a single thing that went wrong. He just said that the pool of candidates was very competitive.
The fact that I don't come from an IB background and that I don't speak any really valuable EU language (I'm an Italian native speaker) is kind of a disadvantage for me.