CFA Hypocrisy
On several WSO posts I have seen people make the claim that the CFA cannot replace good/relevant work experience, but if a person attempts a career lateral switch without any relevant experience for the position they are interviewing for (say for instance going from PWM to IB/PE) why would taking the CFA to set one apart from other applicants NOT be a good idea? If there is literally no other way except spending $250000 on an MBA or MF, why not attempt the CFA? Networking IMO is a copout answer, its essentially ineffective in today's financial industry due to the biblical levels of competition for some of these jobs. My own father who works at an employee-owned broker dealer even said there were no guarantees I'd get an internship (I've been working in financial services for a year now) because the positions usually go to client's sons, so based on my own personal experiences networking is irrelevant and ineffective. Taking the CFA thus makes sense to me, so why do people argue that it doesn't matter to employers?
If you have no relevant position does taking CFA have any downside? No. Will most people look at/care about it when they screen resumes? Absolutely not.
There is obviously value in getting the CFA. But a lot of people treat the CFA like is this golden ticket to break into IB or go straight to the buyside while bypassing business school. I went to an M7 b school coming from a non-finance background and was shocked by how many CFAs there were. You couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting one. Almost all of these folks had worked in finance before business school, took the CFA with dreams of breaking into IB or PE and after hundreds and hundreds of hours of studying, the ended up needing to get an MBA to make it happen.
I may be in the minority here, but with all the time spent on the CFA (hint I don't have one), wouldn't it be a better use of one's time to read a few investment books, self-study to maybe model and crack out and read a bunch of 10ks and come up with actionable investment ideas? There is so much information on the inter-webs nowadays with regards to teaching oneself a lot of the core skills needed (one probably won't be an expert without real world experience but that's why one starts as a junior)...
Then one could cold call/email/network etc people and say "Hi I want a job, but attached is an actionable trade idea - I would love to discuss if you have 3 minutes sometime this week"
Yes the CFA etc shows commitment etc. But for me the above shows passion, drive and something tangible that can add value day one, whereas the CFA is just a 3 part exam.
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