CFA/MBA?
Quick background: I recently joined a regional boutique investment bank in NYC as an M&A investment banking analyst. I started in a MM public accounting firm and went to a state school for undergrad (accounting) (cumulative GPA: 3.93) and also did master's in accounting and data analytics at one of the UCs (cumulative GPA: 3.93). Furthermore, I passed the CPA, series 7, 73, 79 and 24.
At this point, in terms of qualifications, would the CFA/MBA even be marginally beneficial if I want to go to a larger IB/PE (i.e. EB IB or MM PE), or Im better off pouring my time into networking and improving my modeling skills? From what I understand, the CFA is only useful for asset management and the MBA doesn't help much with MF PE anyway unless you have pre-MBA PE experience.
Thanks for the input.
CFA won't do anything for PE. MBA also probably isn't that helpful unless you can get into a top school, really only HSW for MF PE and M7 to a lesser extent for MM/LMM PE.
Does your bank place into PE at all? Regional bank in NYC is hard to tell if it's a no-name bank or a boutique that actually might have some presence. Either way, if your bank places analysts into PE, even into MM firms then you should just recruit for PE after a year or two and leave. If you really want MF PE (which I'll touch on below), the ideal path there would likely be for you to do a year at your current bank, try and lateral to a better bank as an analyst, and then recruit for PE from there.
If you can get a PE seat from there you can do a couple of years and decide if an MBA would be helpful (and how feasible it is for you to get into a top school and if that will be helpful to your PE goals) or you just stick around, lateral, etc to other firms.
I would advise you to think about why you really want to do MF PE though, lots of junior people just want the best so they decide they need to chart a path to Apollo, KKR, etc. I would focus on understanding the lifestyle at those firms, the types of deals they do, and see whether that aligns with your interests. Often times the money isn't that much better than a MM firm, you're almost certainly going to get 2 and outed, there are pros and cons to diligence.
Appreciate the advice. The bank is very active in the micro cap space but most of the exits from past analysts have been BB IB or upper MM IB. The deals range anywhere from $0 to $350 million. Sounds like my best bet will probably be to lateral to reputable IB then lateral to a MM PE if that is truly what I’m passionate about.
Correct, instead of focusing on the next credential (CFA, MBA, etc), I'd do a good year of work at your current job, try to get a couple of deals under your belt, all while recruiting for a bigger brand name bank. Make the leap whenever you can and then start thinking about PE. Good luck with it!
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