CFA worth it when I already have the CIMA?
Question is in the title, my ultimate goal is to land a strategist role and a large asset manager.
Trending Content
Career Resources
WSO Free Modeling Series - Now Open Through
April 30, 2024
9 Free Financial Modeling Lessons
Get instant access to lessons taught by experienced private equity pros and bulge bracket investment bankers including financial statement modeling, DCF, M&A, LBO, Comps and Excel Modeling.
+Bonus: Get 27 financial modeling templates in swipe file
+Bonus: Get 27 financial modeling templates in swipe file
Are you an accountant? Why did you get the CIMA in the first place? And if you are, why not the CPA instead
What's your current function now, and is it related to investments? I.e. your profile has analyst, is that a research analyst or more of a 'marketing analyst'/wholesaler/hybrid type role that some AM firms have, more akin to client service/relationship management/marketing?
Either way - yes - a CFA will bolster your case for a strategist job, especially if your background lacks much of the requisite experience. Sometimes you can hop in at the ground level and work your way up, even there a level or two is going to be beneficial.
Thanks for the reply, sorry I was limited in the amount of characters I could put in my title, my background is primarily in wholesaling 3 years as an internal at a top 5 asset manager and now in hybrid role for a fintech company, where I work more directly with advisor portfolio's and sell various other services. Strategist role is the ultimate goal and CFA seems to always be a prerequisite for those roles so will almost certainly sign up for level 1.
Got it. Depending on the firm, portfolio strategy is generally a pretty big grey area. Some are more quant, some are more sales, some are actually managing the portfolios, some are highly technical client managers, others specialize in an area acting in place of the PM, some exist just to ghost write technical thought leadership.
All that said - yes - I'd still recommend the CFA. Your competition for those jobs will have it. If they don't, they'll have the investing background. Most will have both. At the very least it will help buoy that side of your resume that you don't have. I'm sure you do this, but the best route is probably going after junior level roles where you can lean heavily on your sales experience in the 'communication' side of the role with clients to build experience.
Good luck - that's a challenging switch, to go from sales to portfolio strategy. That's the far less common route, in my experience.
Will say I'm not the biggest expert on this, getting my Level 2 results in just over a week, BUT from what I have seen in job applications & not to come off as harsh, but CIMA is an absolute no-name credential. I've never seen it IIRC. What I typically see is CFA followed by FRM/PRM. I see either FIC or CAIA after those first 3, occasionally I run into some niche stuff like "VBA Investment Management" and CIPM/IMC.
I don't know who posted this or where I got it from (have it in a Notepad) since Google searching for it didn't give me any results, but here's an additional opinion from a 3rd party - again, a lot of credentials mentioned, but CIMA not a part of the discussion:
Neque in laborum ut maxime et molestias tenetur. Eum neque deserunt fugit aut vel nihil exercitationem. Aspernatur eos voluptatem in ut. Quam dignissimos et modi vel magni nesciunt dolor quia.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...