I just heard about the CAIA exam a couple of days ago and wanted to ask if it's better to take that if you are trying to break into investment banking or CFA still has some more relevance in the field.
Thank you.
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CFA had limited practical relevance to IB and most people will raise an eyebrow at what the CAIA is.
Since IB is relationship driven, going to an elite school increases your odds enormously..either that or a good network.
The CAIA is completely irrelevant to IB, it's literally taken only by people in like Alternatives Sales/Biz Dev, or allocators occasionally. The CFA has limited relevance to IB. There is no qualification out there that's gonna help you get into IB except a degree from a target.
Don’t know what the first one is but either way it’s not worth it. Spending your time literally doing anything else provides a better ROI
What would you recommend to a guy who isn’t in a target school and doesn’t have a particular financial experience?
Do you think WSO fmc program or from anywhere else will help?
Do an unpaid search fund internship
Get a perfect GPA, get good internships, network with alumni.
Pursuing these designations would be mostly be a waste of time if you want to break into IB. If you are a non target and want to break into IB, you might want to think about doing courses in modeling, which I think would be useful in IB. Also, as others have said, work on networking.
CAIA is for alternative investments and honestly, I think it's a giant waste of time. People will do CAIA if they can't handle CFA. More and more non-for-profit organizations are popping up and developing their own charter and exam after seeing how much money CFA is making. There are only two designations that matter outside of PhD, CPA only if you're an accountant, and CFA. Everything else is a money and time sink.
If you're in undergrad, I would invest time in taking modeling courses and then you should create your own model that you can present to interviews to show your interest and initiative.
If you don't break into banking in undergrad, passing level 1 will be helpful. After that you should just focus on being a good performer at work and applying + networking everywhere,
I don’t know one company that cares about the CAIA
Ive heard that both the CAIA and FRM are great time killers between the level 2 and 3 CFA exams. I'd say both are 'nice to have' but not replacements. (I don't have either)
For anyone with their Charter I don't know if there is much beyond a PhD or serious math based masters that really moves the academic goalposts, and anything worthwhile is going to be a super-specialized designation like the CIPM. An MBA is probably a big deal in IB for relationship reasons, but doesn't mean much here in AM.
CAIA is for people who work at endowments
CFA is for bond traders and equity research
Want to do IB? Don’t waste your time, seriously.
If you just heard about it, chances are your interviewers have no clue what it is either. Stick to the gold standard, the CFA or don't do a charter at all.
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