How many letters after your name is too many?

I've joked in the past that I wanted my business card to read "Heywood Jablowmi, BFD, HFS, KoK, MoA" but this is actually kinda about to become an issue.  CAIA results just came out this afternoon and somehow I passed?

Now I'm up to having the CFA Charter, my CFP and the CAIA.  Should I list them all? Does the CAIA go second or third?  For what it's worth, I'm mid-career with one published paper.

Letters after name?

Minimalist is best, Just do --, CFA
39% (25 votes)
Focus on the retail Client. --, CFA, CFP
6% (4 votes)
Go Institutional(ish). --, CFA, CAIA
5% (3 votes)
Maximalist --, CFA, CFP, CAIA
5% (3 votes)
Maximalist, but CAIA earlier: --CFA, CAIA, CFP
0% (0 votes)
You're a pompous @$$, just show the results
45% (29 votes)
Total votes: 64
9 Comments
 

Depends a little on your audience.....if you work in banking, PE, HF, corporate etc.  Name and one designiation.

If you're like a private wealth guy serving clients who don't understand all the acronyms, have as many as you want.

However, never have MBA.....for the love of God...anything but that.

 
NoEquityResearch

Depends a little on your audience.....if you work in banking, PE, HF, corporate etc.  Name and one designiation.

If you're like a private wealth guy serving clients who don't understand all the acronyms, have as many as you want.

However, never have MBA.....for the love of God...anything but that.

Yeah all the people from the crappy T50 schools put MBA after their name. No one from T20 or M7.

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

NoEquityResearch:

Depends a little on your audience.....if you work in banking, PE, HF, corporate etc.  Name and one designiation.



If you're like a private wealth guy serving clients who don't understand all the acronyms, have as many as you want.



However, never have MBA.....for the love of God...anything but that.


Depends on industry - most of those titles are easy. Only exception is the cfa which I’d consider putting

 
Pizz

3 letters 

So I should just stick with BFD (Big Effin Deal?)

The only difference between Asset Management and Investment Research is assets. I generally see somebody I know on TV on Bloomberg/CNBC etc. once or twice a week. This sounds cool, until I remind myself that I see somebody I know on ESPN five days a week.
 
Most Helpful

What are you taking all of these tests for? Are you trying to be an academic or what’s the end goal here?

I’d only bother with the CFA as that’s the most recognizable as like “oh yeah this is a tough thing to get, good on him” but it’s not that impressing anyone for a job in IB/PE/Corporate. I don’t know enough about the public markets to know how these would be useful there, maybe a quanty thing?

Stop fucking taking tests lmao - only MBA or CFA matter, but please dear god don’t add MBA to your name titles.

 

Consequuntur quibusdam quis rerum et. Ea quas magnam laboriosam quo impedit dolores culpa et.

Explicabo id harum id repellendus ut. Error omnis corrupti quod accusantium illo et odio. Et qui sunt et sed sit. Accusantium id dolor et. Et harum eaque voluptatibus dolores ut quas.

Incidunt pariatur ex nihil id in cum. Est tempore nesciunt sed veniam et labore.

Quant (ˈkwänt) n: An expert, someone who knows more and more about less and less until they know everything about nothing.

Career Advancement Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.8%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.3%
  • Guggenheim Partners 01 97.7%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 02 98.8%
  • Evercore 01 98.2%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.7%
  • Banco Santander 01 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.8%
  • Morgan Stanley 05 98.3%
  • JPMorgan No 97.7%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (14) $434
  • Associates (43) $259
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (22) $179
  • Intern/Summer Associate (13) $156
  • 1st Year Analyst (75) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (68) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”