It is possible to pivot into investment banking coming from the big four financial /transactional advisory type of work? With level 2 CFA
Thank you!
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Yes
I may be wrong on this but i’m pretty sure getting the ACCA qualification will help you more for IB? The CFA is more an AM designation
Yes have seen multiple people who came in with 1-2 years of transaction services experience and came in as analysts, usually 1st year analysts / joined at new hire training
Yes although the CFA doesn’t matter
Agree with the comment above. I worked in lead advisory at a Big 4 for c.4 years, now in Corp dev. Typically, they take on a handful of grads each year, who normally do ACA (sometimes CFA but not really relevant). A lot come over as AM's / Executives from Audit - typically do 2 years then leave. If you google "ACA Linkedin" + "Greenhill" OR "Lazard" OR "Bank of America" OR "JP Morgan" OR "Rothschild" OR "Arrowpoint" OR "Evercore" or frankly almost any other bank, you'll find plenty that have done it. Having said that, assuming you aren't already in Big 4 advisory, it isn't that easy to get in as there's loads of fresh audit guys competing for every role.
So if CFA isn’t relevant which certification could I do to make myself more competitive for that IB job?
Also to switch over from management consulting to financial advisory with an engineering degree I.e none finance , I always thought that CFA at least level 1 or 2 would help me in transitioning over to Financial Advisory M&A at e big four then eventually pivot into investment banking.
Would that work?
Apologies for slow response. As you say, CFA L1 may help you jump across to Big 4 advisory from another part of the firm - it demonstrates your interest and gives you a reasonably grounding for the basics.
However, I'd be inclined to suggest you do the CFIs FMVA course instead - it's cheaper than doing the CFA level 1 and gives you far more practical modelling skills. Even if you were just to do the LBO and M&A modelling modules. From my experience, modelling skills are pretty poor within the Big 4, at least at Manager level and below, so this would put you ahead of the pack.
Equally, making sure you fully understand and M&A process (sellside vs buyside) and what your role would involve is really important. Sounds basic but to provide a useful and funny example of where someone failed to do this - a friend of mine interviewed an audit guy looking to transfer into CF - he asked "Can you explain what a data-room is and what it is used for". The candidate thought that a data room was a physical room in which client information was stored. Knowing the basics really well is what gets you across.
Seperately, worth noting that a number of the big banks are now looking for newly qualified ACAs to move directly into analyst positions e.g. JPM. Certainly worth looking at this if you were starting out down the ACA route. I know Roths are also pretty keen on ACAs.
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