CFA for IB
Hi, im looking for opinions on the CFA's content for IB and beyond. To be clear I'm aware that the CFA certification itself does not carry much weight in terms of resume.
I come from a pretty rural area and I don't have great finance exposure outside of my laptop and phone and I was wondering if the content of level 1 could help bridge that gap. With how early and competitive recruiting is now I really don't want to play catch up or squander the opportunities being given to me. Some pros and cons im weighing:
Pros:
- Respected certification if (probably) I try to break into the buy side.
-Structured content through accounting, corporate finance, equity, fixed income, derivatives, and ethics without me needing to surf Youtube videos and etc.
-I have been told it has good financial statement analysis depth which is imperative.
-Macro and markets literacy, L1 Econ will paint me a better picture into why markets move and also just make reading financial news easier. I could also hopefully apply this into equity research and what not.
-It would also help me connect economics to actual valuation fluctuation and pricing.
-Also crucially it would let me actually understand more financial terminology which more often then not sounds like a foreign language to me even if its intuitive.
Cons:
-its relevance per hour of studying isn't perfect for IB.
-Opportunity cost
-Breadth over depth generally
-Ill be majoring in finance, coursework could overlap and go much more in depth rendering my studying semi-pointless
-Actual certification ROI probably won't show until when I recruit for PE
-Not even sure if i'd take L2 or L3, are those worth it for buyside?
-Can only take the exam junior or senior year so that coincides with my recruiting window and it'd also be some time off from when I studied for it.
Important context:
-Rising Georgetown finance freshman
-Costs of books + exam fee covered by scholarship money
-Already doing excel courses + vba eventually, will definitely finish before I get started at school.
-I would be studying it my rising freshman summer and freshman year where I could actually manage that excess studying.
I guess my question boils down to is L1 worth the time as a way for me to greatly increase my financial and market literacy as opposed to school curriculum. Will it help me stand out during interviews, networking, or internships? Thank you for any and all input given and I'd also appreciate insight on L2 and L3 for buyside if possible.
