Is ALL work experience worth it?
I am finishing my Masters in Finance at a non target grad school in May. I am having the same trouble that most people are, and the job search is not going well. I have a 3.9 GPA for Grad School and will take and pass Level 1 of the CFA in December, but I didnt do so hot in my Undergrad, and it is really hindering me in my search.
So I will come to the point. I have the opportunity to become an FA with Edward Jones, and take over a book worth in the hundreds of millions. Being a FA is definitely not what I want to do for the rest of my career. But my question is, will taking this job with EJ and doing it for about 5 years going to make it impossible to move back into more "serious" aspects of finance later on? I'm not talking about Wall Street, think regional boutiques or trading.
Please, I am looking for peoples opinions, but if you are just going to make some snide comment about EJ don't waste my time or yours.
You're not going to gain any useful knowledge/experience by being an FA at Edward Jones besides how to be a salesman, which can be useful in its own right. There is literally zero financial acumen required to be an FA, you have to be able to smile and shake hands and convince old people to give you their retirement assets while you collect a fee for sticking it in mutual funds. Not to say its a bad job, plenty of people do it and make a lot of money at it, but its not something you're going to enjoy if you want a job in finance.
As far as getting a job later on, nothing is impossible. I work in ER at a boutique and there's a few guys here, including myself, that did a stint as an FA before realizing it was a shit job and going back to school. If I were you Id spend some time looking if you can afford it, because it takes a while to start making any decent money as an FA and as I said earlier, you won't be learning a whole lot in the process thats going to help you later on.
I appreciate the feedback. I know I can afford it, as I would be starting out taking a sizeable piece of a book from a current FA. I would still be required and encouraged to do the door knocking and increasing the client base, but I would still have food on my table even if I didn't.
I am just worried that in 5 years when I want to get out it would be difficult to do. I wont really have the option to go back to school, as I've already gotten my Masters, so I dont really have that to change my situation.
I meant if you can afford to keep looking for a job you should. If you ultimately want to get into a "serious financial job" you're better off getting some real financial experience that will help you get a better job. At the very least you would gain a better network than you would with a stint as an FA.
And there's always the possibility of going back to get an MBA if you can get into a top program. If you haven't noticed yet, a Masters in Finance (I have one too) tends to get you lumped into a "more qualified than an undergrad/ not as qualified as an MBA" category. I think the bottom line here is that if you know you don't want to be an FA forever you'd do yourself a favor by holding out for a job that you really want or atleast for something that would transfer well into the job you want at some point.
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