[Advice] Interested in risk management. CFA® helps?

Folks,

I'm in need of some advice from people currently in the industry.

I'm really interested in financial risk management and I'm currently pursuing a masters in regulation and risk management.

We have some hours allocated to CFA® and FRM (both level I) as part of our program. We can choose both but it becomes impossible to go for CFA®, FRM and the coursework.

I was planning to concentrate on FRM as I really wanna work in RM once I graduate. But my program director is pushing for me to drop FRM and concentrate on CFA®. He says CFA® has global recognition, even if I wanna work in risk where as I'll be limiting myself by going for FRM and also that FRM doesn't have much recognition.

While I haven't exactly decided where/what posts to target, one thing I definitely know is I don't wanna work as an analyst. Nor in portfolio management. I've been a tech guy all my life and I love the quant part of risk management and I previously have a masters in IT and I believe this will complement well in RM roles. Am I wrong to believe this?

Would the people working in the industry recommend me to go for CFA® even if I wanna target RM roles or should I concentrate on FRM?

Thanks y'all for your advices.
Kal-el.

3 Comments
 
Best Response

I personally know people who's goals are Risk management yet choose to pursue the CFA over FRM, I've never brought them up on it to know why. I wouldn't of liked to throw the CFA on top of my masters studies and was never encouraged to do so but our head of program pushed some students towards FRM level 1 while also working on the masters as he must of felt it wasn't total overkill. If you are looking to step into a RM job straight after college I'd probably recommend lightening the load with the FRM and not letting your current studies suffer due to increased pressure from CFA.

 

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