Analyst in PWM....CFA or MBA?
Currently in the private bank of a BB, thinking about MBA and/or CFA...
What's a better catalyst into investment banking?
Dec 17, 2006
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MBA. CFA is pretty much useless in i-banking.
what about in equity research? pretty much everyone in that has their cfa? if i do 3 years in pwm, then mba, do i have a chance at IB?
You'll need a CFA to go anywhere in Equity Research. Like Positive FCF said, CFA's worth in IB is virtually nil.
I did an internship in portfolio management in NY, at the Wealth Management division of a top non-US BB. I was not on the relationship management side, but on the technical side, with people making investment decisions.
From my experience, CFA helps a lot in PWM. A lot of my colleagues either had their CFA 3, or were working on it. Few had top MBAs in fact - and meanwhile, getting a top MBA seems to be a key asset for IBD. BTW, I definitely agree with gossard13 - read a bunch of research report, and just count how many CFA certifications these people have! So CFA or MBA - it all depends on what you want in my view.
I would say MBA, I passed my CFA level 2 last year and I am currently in IB, its waste of time
am in Toronto bytheway
While CFA is somewhat useless for IB, the partner at the boutique I just interviewed at told me he gave me the interview for 2 reasons:
1) Because I had passed Level 1 CFA
2) I called him on the phone as a follow-up to express my continued interest (in addition to 5 other partners there) which he said no one had ever done before.
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