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June 30, 2026
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It could if there is a solid background... meaning good schools, good votes and interships.
CFA is a plus, and even a very appreciated plus to put on you cv or talk about during recruitment, but it doesn't represent a guarantee to land in IB.
In cocnlusion, I am studying the second level and it is a very good signal to the recruiters.
Doesn't hurt... unless you spend too much time and money on it that you can't afford to lose. It could potentially help, especially if you're trying to get into a group that has CFA people on the team. From what I've seen, only a small amount of the people that gets offers have the CFA level 1 completed. Many students consider it but then don't continue because they realize that only really asset management cares about the designation. Go for it if you want!
I was going to say this myself, some people that already have their CFA may give some props for it but ultimately it'll depend on the rest of your profile / interviewing performance. Don't think it'll make or break a decision but shows some dedication.
You need to weigh the time spent studying / preparing against the networking and interview prep you could be doing though, especially for IB. Interview guides will give you most of what you'd need to know and it's probably more beneficial to get some face/phone time with people at the banks you'll be applying to than having that additional line on the resume.
I passed level 1 and during recruiting was asked if I planned on taking level 2. Some may see it as a sign you want to go to a buy-side / AM role, so if you do get it done by the time you're interviewing I'd be prepared to have an answer for that.
It doesn’t hurt and may help with some, but overall I always kind of ignored it. To me CFA was more for a trading type role and in reality level 1 is just a summation of your high level finance classes you took in college. It was great to see you’re trying to advance yourself but if you didn’t have the GPA or work experience, it wasn’t going to outweigh that.
So it's like a cherry on a cake; makes the cake look good, but if the cake is shit, it doesn't matter.
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