Senior CFA Level 2 Candidate

Hello all,

Just wanted to thank you for reading my post and any input you would provide me with.

This winter I took a Busy Season Internship with a Middle Tier Firm in Tax Accounting. After a few weeks, I realized Tax nor Accounting (even Audit or Advisory) is something I want to do when I graduate in December and complete the 150 credit hour CPA requirement in May of 2017. Thus, this prompted me to write and pass the CFA Level 1 - which I thoroughly enjoyed the process.

I am currently a Senior at the University of Illinois' College of Business as an Accountancy program, with a 3.43 GPA. The U of I has very prestigious Accy program, and almost all students start out in Public Accounting. I am fearful that I will not get too much exposure to the various Finance industries, such as Equity Research or Asset Management.

Thus, I am wondering will my CFA Level 2 Candidate status, even with a not so great 3.43 GPA, help me get some interviews at some Asset Management/Equity Research Firms? I have already tried connecting with former U of I alumni and CFA charter holders who are in the aforementioned industries on LinkedIn and I am meeting one for coffee next week. Is there anything else I can do? Are there other industries that I should look into? I would even be interested in working for a boutique investment bank, and would actually prefer working at a smaller outfit rather than a larger one, as I have found myself not to be the prototypical "company guy".

The reason I am asking this is that I have applied to few Asset Management outfits, and some of the job requirements are that a candidate have experience in Public Accounting either in the Middle Tier of Big 4. Im sick and tired of Accounting....

2 Comments
 
Best Response

You can't put level II candidate until you register, you can't register for level II until you're graduated. You can disclose that you passed level I of the CFA exams, the recruiters would get the hint. Passing level I before graduating with Accounting and finance degree in the same region didn't really help me at all in the job market no one really cared honestly, but the market is different now hopefully. The knowledge you picked up in the level I curriculum is more helpful than anything I think at this point given you are only an accounting major so should help you answer technical interview questions.

 

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