So I’ve seen a lot of stuff suggesting both the IMC and the CFA lvl 1 qualifications are useful for lateraling into AM.
Of course the IMC takes less time and money, but it seems like if I’m taking the CFA in the future anyway it would be covering the same content twice?
Any recommendations on which to start with?
I'd suggest CFA L1
What’s your reasoning?
Probably because of marketing value of CFA. I don't know too much of IMC but I'd venture to guess that it's as useless as CFA in terms of content and knowledge at least for entry/junior level roles in AM. A lot of basics you'll need in AM comes more from IB prep materials (valuation, modeling) and just raw research/googling and retaining these things either through notes or just sheer memory. But at the end of the day, when a fund need to make marketing materials and include your credentials in those decks, CFA would carry more weight just based off of what I've seen. I don't see IMC beside someone's name in these marketing deck but I do see CFA all the time.
Yeah that seems reasonable.
The way I was previously looking at it was that there was value in the IMC as a way of signalling knowledge to firms without a huge time investment, because it’s accredited by the CFA but takes less work.
Makes me wonder whether there are IB prep courses that are as well-accredited /CV-able… any recommendations?
easy to find ones that are good enough. I've used Wall Street Prep and Wall Street Oasis. Choose one or two and just make sure to get the most of them by doing some of those on real companies with serious reading and thinking. You really need to get comfortable with modeling because it saves time. At the end of the day, valuation is one of many many aspects of investment research.
on the presentation of CV side, don't waste time on money. If you're already in AM, only CFA will matter. If not and looking to get in, similar story (people know CFA and might get you an interview, people don't know IMC so maybe not) but more emphasis will be on actual experience from sell side. It's less about how much of financial concepts you know but more about having made the mistakes juniors usually make and having learned from those mistakes that AM employers care about. Also, how well you will fit personally and also how well you're investment philosophy aligns with the team or how moldable you are will matter more than CFA/IMC stuff.
IMC is useless once you’re started on the CFA journey so I’d recommend taking L1. I have known firms to require juniors to take the IMC before starting the CFA program though.
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