Where does WSO stand on the CFA debate? Worth it? Massive waste of time? Depends?
Been seeing a lot of discussion on social media/various news outlets about whether the CFA designation is worth pursuing or a total waste of time. What's your take? Personally, I think it only makes sense if you work within AM or trying to get a foot in the door in AM.
edit: should add that I am currently studying for lvl 1 in November
I've never seen any outlet that stitches together everything finance related like the CFA does. It's always worth it if you want to learn imho
If you ever have an interview on the buy-side with previous CFA work, guaranteed you'll be respected as the PMs who'll interview you (mostly CFAs) will find some commonality in you
If you come from a solid background, useless and huge waste of time imo
Depends, but I actually see both sides (currently at L3). I think PMs can relate and will respect it, but yes if your background is solid with top tier school with large reputable firm then yeah huge waste of time to pursue and better spent on networking/skill development.
If you look through team pages at top AM firms, almost everyone on the investment side will have the CFA. It is basically required at some firms. Even if it is a waste of time, it doesn't matter because it is essentially a requirement for a few of these shops. I also found taking the Level 1 to be a nice introduction to many topics in finance.
Very firm dependent in my experience, but you hit the nail on the head with AM being one of the only lines of work that REALLY likes and respects it. I don’t think many, if any, other sects of finance will push and sponsor juniors to get it like AM does. That being said, it’s not necessarily worthless to others; it’s still a respected designation outside of AM, though it may be just a resume line.
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If it's required for career progression (ie. you aspire to become a PM) at an AM (IMO, totally stupid requirement), not that you will have a choice. Otherwise, it depends: if you are outside the industry and don't have relevant education / work experience, being in the CFA process can be a convo starter to get interviews; if you work in relevant profession, studied finance / econ in undergraduate or have an MBA, pointless to do CFA and should focus on skill development 100%.
Outside of AM - huge waste of time.
Within AM - definitely worthwhile.
/end thread
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