CAIA designation
Is the CAIA charter considered valuable in PE/HF? I want to get into private equity. Just wondering if this will add value.
Thank you
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Yes, but ofc the CFA is the gold standard. CAIA will bring you into a membership/circles with tons of private markets professionals.
Thank you. I am really interested in the private markets. I went to a well known school but its non-ivy so I wanted to see what path I can take to move into PE. Can you advise on that?
Not sure why I got ms, but yes a CAIA will help with your networking just as much as the CFA would. I’ve been to several events and got a chance to expand my network through there. Some really interesting topics are covered at them. I do think it’ll help you to go into PE, but would help more if you wanted to go into FoF investing, as you’ll see that designation more commonly at a Pension fund or asset management firm more so than your traditional direct PE MF.
Thank you so much. Really appreciate it.
Well it's because if you look at any PE person, you'll never really see a CAIA designation attached to them. It's wrong to think that the certification will help improve your chances to get into PE. Getting into PE is for better or worse a very concrete path that is generally made out of IB, Strategy Consulting (MBB usually), or some other peripheral industry. I do agree with your other points that you will likely have an easier time getting into a pension fund or cap allocator but never be under the impression that it'll help you at all for PE. PE recruiting is totally driven by where you come from whether it is an analyst program for H/W kids or a traditional associate program which targets candidates I mentioned earlier.
Bump, I'm really interested to see if anyone has good insight into this. For what it's worth, I've seen some people on LinkedIn recently with it, but generally far and away it's still the CFA. I wonder though if the CAIA is starting to gain more traction. I'd much rather get just that than getting the CFA which is much more specialized in L2/3.
CFA is the gold standard, and in the last years HF in London, and some Private Investment offices and smaller PE funds have started to require it / support CFA qualification.
Regarding networking opportunities, CFA UK Society (London) and CFA NY Society will give you access to Pension funds, HF and some PE as well.
CAIA is a good set of knowledge to learn the basics for PE, but that's something you can study yourself (e.g. get the books from a colleague).
Hope it helps,
Worthless for PE.
Good self-challenge to see if you're really interested in the HF game, or just "interested."
A lot of knowledge? Yes. Valuable skills? No. Employment value-add? Definitely not.
Won't open any doors (who the fuck knows what the CAIA is?). Network is lackluster (there's a member directory for what it's worth) -- you're better off going the tried-and-true Harvard MBA if you want to hop into finance.
Full disclosure, I only went through the modules, and never attempted the exam. You can bang it all out in a weekend with a little bit of adderall.
Agree about the knowledge, just get the books - nothing replaces real experience.
Not sure why we keep getting people asking about this, but apparently I'm now WSO's resident CAIA holder:
Yes, the CAIA has chapters on PE. No, its not super relevant to PE.
CAIA curriculum is mostly written by/for hedge fund people, and the majority of the network is hedge fund of funds/hedge fund sales/hedge fund allocators.
The main relevance of the CAIA to PE would be for a role on the PE team of an allocator - i.e. a pension, endowment, foundation. This would be a role where you were the LP and invested into outside PE funds, not doing PE investments yourself. Even then, despite lower pay these roles are still competitive and you aren't likely to get one without fund of funds/existing PE/management consulting experience.
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