Why YOU should take the CFA
There is a lot of discussion out there as to why you should take the CFA, why it is shi.t, why it is a waste of time, why it is great, etc... Now I will try to explain why (IMO) you should take it:
I. What it takes to pass your CFA:
1) You need to have been relatively good at University, and you can sit your ass down and study for it.
2) You need to have time; working in M&A and taking the CFA is not advisable. But some people are "crazy, yo"; and can manage it. Brother of my old flatmate, Goldman FIG M&A group passed it in a year and a half. Another friend of mine same thing, took two weeks off, worked his ass off and passed all 3 on the first attempt. Some people are just better than the normal and manage it...
3) If you are at University, start TAKING IT - you will thank yourself later for it.
4) You will NEED the time, I have spent about 150+ hours I reckon to pass level II; I am not a genius like my friends, and consider myself pretty average when it comes to studying
II. Why people tell you not to take it:
1) An MBA is better - false, an MBA is DIFFERENT not better. The two are mutually exclusive and should not be compared. You use an MBA to network and get another job, I will go later into why you need the CFA
2) People are too lazy to take it themselves so trash it - by far the most valid reason I have found. You will find that people are envious if you take it and will try to bring you down, this usually comes from people in their mid-thirties who are anxious about their own careers and don't like to see a young shark trying to get ahead
3) It does not guarantee you a job or a career advancement ?? No sh.t! Just like an undergraduate degree from HBS does not guarantee you a job. What type of bull shit argument is that?
4) It takes a lot of time, and does not add any real value to your future career prospects. Probably the only argument that is actually valid, but is highly debatable. I will try and explain in the next section how again IMO it adds value.
5) If you are a 35 year old MD, you are probably heading toward the end of your career at this point, and you are so expensive no one will lateral you in any other job, so no point in doing the CFA as that won't help you...
III. My own quest to get the level II:
1) It took me a lot of time to decide to get cracking on it again. I took my level I in dec07 of my MSc, then started work and did not look at it again for a while. I had enough shit to sort out at work to avoid getting fired and getting paid.
2) I decided to go and take it for jun11, I ended up getting poached at another company at the beginning of May, did not have enough time, and mainly ended up on a nice garden leave, and came back for the week end for the level II etc... Needless to say I FAILED it. Took it in jun12, and passed it. Now on to level III for jun13
IV. My reason to take it:
1) I work as a sales person, sales people do not need the CFA to do their jobs. I have clients and they could not care less whether I have the CFA or not. Will I be a sales person my whole life? Look outside for a moment, I started at a top BB 4 years ago, today 40% of the people I started with were mainly fired, or changed jobs; and that bank is going down faster than a hooker on a $100 bill. Instability, yea that's right... Surprise, banking is not a stable job...
2) In the US - all equity fund managers are more or less required to have the CFA, in
London not all of them have it, so it puts you at a massive advantage. ER need the CFA etc... There are a LOT of jobs that require or are well known to look very favourably on the CFA in finance, so why not give yourself an edge.
3) In 1 and 2 it points to the CFA giving you an edge - how does it do it? Uni is great it means you've made it out of high school, you have been pre screened to go to a target, but it does not tell your employer how good you actually are at sitting your ass down and working. The CFA proves that to the employer. If you are in the investment
profession, all bankers will show experience on the prospectuses, who they are, where they come from. I can guarantee you that if they have their CFA it will be on there. It adds a credential to the company that has hired you.
4) The CFA is impressive, people know how hard it is, and when you get that interview, if the guy gets along with you, it will help him know that not only you can be a fun guy to have a pint after work, but you can actually do that aforementioned work...
5) It's the highest credential out there in the finance world, might as well get it...
6) You do it for the knowledge. Ok, I don't believe a single person who says that, you might as well just pick up a book or the internet and google what interests you. It's true you will learn a lot, but never in enough depth to actually do any of the related jobs without learning something else.
7) I want to further my career and it will help it. Plenty of things can help it, I network work hard at my job etc... But let's take for example my bosses... Some of them have the CFA, how do you think it's going to look when I pass all III? I'll be member of the CFA network, and it's growing.
V. Concluding remark
I have a good job, I am quite cosy were I am, things are going well (crossing fingers). Yet I am busting my ass after 4+ years in finance doing an accreditation that takes me plenty of hours and money. I could have given up when I failed but kept on going, if anything that should tell you to bust your ass and get cracking! (No matter which sector of finance you are in - be flexible and maleable, improve your employability!!!)
PS:
1) Not everyone should take the CFA, but no one should spit on it either. Most of my friends in Corporate banking don't have it, and they are doing just fine. However, you should seriously consider taking it. I am rambling a lot above.
2) If you are an introvert back office clerk with no social skills etc... The CFA sadly won't help you so much, there were a few of those guys at my old work, and usually they would actually just stop at level I; as one of my point above - the CFA will NOT get you a job in and of itself!
On this note off to bed - waking up at before 6AM (4+ years and loving it!)
Good to see some love for the
Good to see some love for the CFA. Passed Level 1 this June on the first try and was very happy with that. I see a lot of people criticize the CFA yet in person when I tell people that I passed Level 1 I only get impressed remarks (Except some ass hat interning at a family member's Wealth Management office who responded to my fact that I studied ~200 hours, "Oh, so it's not too bad"). Hoping that the CFA will show my passion and interest for investments to someday work for a HF or Good ER shop.
Blue horseshoe loves Anacott Steel
tl;dr The CFA is worthless to
tl;dr
The CFA is worthless to career switchers without another, more compelling, complementary hook. Worthwhile for AM, PM, ER, folks.
Otherwise, shit waste of time, better to focus on other things.
/thread.
Got a MBA and a CFA. I
Got a MBA and a CFA. I believe the MBA is really good for your network and connections. I believe the CFA is very good for your analytical skills and serves as a piece of evidence that you really understand finance. It is much tougher to obtain though because you need to study after work and if you don't pass an exam, you have to wait a full year, which really tests your patience and persistence. However, if you already know you want a carreer in asset management, hedge funds, equity analysis, portfolio management, the CFA is definitely very useful and opens doors. When it comes to investment banking/consultancy, an MBA degree more than suffices. What I have noticed in discussions with headhunters who approached me is that you are on the top of their list if you have both but if you already know that you want a life in IB/corporate finance, stick to the MBA.
Have to agree with YT81. Most
Have to agree with YT81.
Most people tend to assume that CFA is some sort of a magic wand that will open the doors to high-finance.
Going for the CFA shows that you are focused on getting somewhere. You will sweat your ass off for that title and people know it.
An MBA will just swing you upstairs after doing your time.
Death is certain; Life aint.
Soon in December I will
Soon in December I will graduate from a mechanical engineering program 3.6 GPA no experience. I dont like engineering and i want put me foot in an finance job. I will go to atlanta because my wife have an good offer. My plan is study for cfa level 1 and two actuary exam and practice my english in the semester that i will be free and next do a master in finance. Its a good plan, any suggestion
a masters in finance from a
a masters in finance from a target will probably help you more than the cfa level 1 if you are at the entry level, which it sounds like you are
australian?
australian?
Thanks, great post.
Thanks, great post.
For getting a job networking
For getting a job networking beats everything, you should be the biggest a**kisser ever, yadda, yadda, and the CFA takes time away from that.
For keeping a job the CFA is awesome, because the content is really hardcore. You may kid yourself that you'll learn the same from reading books, but you won't. The time pressure and the need to understand every little detail cold makes you learn much more than whatever MBA you may think it's hard.
True, a lot of people just scrape by, and then you have all those people saying they study 150 to 300 hours for L2 or 3, which may be true. If you want to take the test comfortably, to be reasonably sure you've passed, you'll need many many very focused hours - this is real study, not watching classes or doing some paper with FB on the background.
If you do it right, you'll learn a lot in relatively little time. Networking is better to get jobs, working is better to learn whatever you need for your current specific job, but the CFA is pretty good. Most other credentials have the same effect to some extent, but the CFA gets some instant recognition while most people don't really know what FRM, PRM, CQF and others are about.