Is CFA worth the effort for career options?
Graduated a couple months ago and have about a month of free time until I begin doing commercial banking at a BB. I don't want to be in commercial banking long term and ideally would like to switch over to something more competitive and with higher earning potential. Not sure exactly what yet. I've considered aiming from everything from a a lev finance group in IB to ER. Would a CFA make me more competitive when recruiting? Or would my time be better spent doing something else?
A lot of folks in ER have CFA. Doesn't say anything about usefulness of it though.
Anyways, following the thread.
MBA is more turnkey to new opportunities (T10 MBA). CFA is like the icing on the cake. It’s not going to make you that much more competitive until you pass Level 2 and even then and after passing Level 3 (which would be 2022 at the earliest for you), IB doesn’t care about the CFA anyway, so your focus should only be on the CFA if you want to go to ER or AM, or if you’re in Toronto, where it seems to be an entry requirement rather than a competitive advantage.
I agree with Isaiah on this - even with an MBA at this point, I'm not sure you've got enough experience to justify it (give it a few years at least).
For the CFA - it's immediately applicable to research roles (equity, fixed income, etc.) and really any investment roles within AM. "Hybrid" roles - like product strategists or specialists - it also helps considerably, considering many of them will have it. Client facing - less practically relevant depending on the firm, but it always looks good in brochures and gives credibility in front of clients. AM is an oddly small, narrow world. Within it - CFA is relevant, and keeps doors open for you that wouldn't have been otherwise. Outside of it, no one cares.
Can confirm on the Toronto comment. I know firms where they insist on even the back office teams pursuing the CFA.
It's a brutal process.
That's what makes it valuable.
In quant equity research, the two places I've been have had 85% and 66% charterholders.
Lower tier MBAs are almost worthless. A coworker who's a --CFA, CFP doesn't even mention his Penn State MBA in normal company.
As to getting your Charter: There is no partial degree, you're in an all or nothing situation, and the "all" normally requires a minimum of 2 years of full time studying, and 4-5 at a more reasonable rate. The aggregate pass rate of people who ever start is ~20% so you're likely to burn out.
MBAs are tough to get into, but easy to pass. If in doubt, just look at executive MBA degrees, which are essentially sold for more cash to university coffers.
Yeah definitely.
Long time reader, not really contributed though but feel I got something to add here from my very personal perspective.
I work as a credit structurer for a BB in Europe and passed lvl3 last year June with pending work experience recognition to finally receive the charter. Passed all three levels within 18 months and invested overall 21 months into studies.
The question "is it worth it" gets asked very often and never really leads to a comprehensive conclusion. Reasons for this in my opinion is the fact that everyone regardless of the background can take the exams meaning test takers are very heterogeneous and so are the answers to the question "is it worth it". It is a very individual assessment if the time and dedication should be invested, your first investment decision as part of the CFA journey.
Besides individual factors there are some general benefits for charterholders rarely mentioned:
If you work for a large corporation you join an exclusive network. My employer reimbursed most of the CFA cost and offered a learning platform where I could connect with others currently studying but also received mentoring from charterholders. Besides this obvious network you also join the anti-network of people who failed the exams and gave up at some point: they know the pain and understand your achievement. My MD came to me after I got noticed I passed lvl3 to congratulate and he told me he failed lvl1 three times and gave up.
Especially the ethics part of the CFA will, in my opinion, gain more traction in the upcoming years given stronger regulation and compliance framework all around the finance industry. Internally the charter comes with a big plus of integrity and credibility if you e.g. have to defend a trade in credit or compliance committees.
Especially in Europe I feel there are tons of people who study hard to graduate from a top school with best grades but when they land the first gig they stop learning new things believing its harvest time (those are the people that get laid off in their end 40s/50s writing weepy articles that experience is not valued in the industry as they cannot find a new job FYI). The CFA not only shows that you learn on the job but also offers lots of opportunities to keep learning about topics in particular outside your direct field of expertise boosting your ongoing emplyoability.
For me the individual factors were very strong so I was very confident that the CFA will have benefits for me personally and my career. I have a natural science background and the CFA added a ton to my knowledge base. I also realized that I have quite some face time between transactions that become hot so I managed to read most of the curriculum in the office (this strategy failed for lvl2 though as I had back to back transactions and I narrowly passed). Overall these individual factors are decisive for the question "is it worth it": Do you really expand your knowledge (e.g. if you have an MSc in Finance you probably don't)? Do you have to pay for the CFA yourself? Do you have to sacrifice free time or can you squeeze in reading in the office? Does it benefit your personal career path (as mentioned a CFA is probably a must nowadays in ER or AM but less important in IB)? Figuring this out will give you the answer to your question.
It continues to be a growing company. They had their best month ever during quarantine, of all things. Fantastic perks at HQ, a California office if you don't like the South, and all employees get a monthly profit share check.
Now, you do have to deal with overt religiosity and a history of anti-gay funding, so it's up to you if you're ok with that morally or not.
I think you might have posted in the wrong thread, CRE.
This thread is about CFA, right?
Mark Meldrum, find him on youtube, answers this question really well.
I'll say that CFA has definitely made me more knowledgable of finance, increased my base understand of finance and prepared me extremely well for technical interviews and anything thrown my way. I also get complements about it at work, people know the sacrifice it takes. However, what really matters is what you get from doing CFA knowledge-wise. I have met some charterholders who passed all three levels and don't know what duration is yet complain about not getting a better finance role( duh, how can people take you seriously not knowing such a basic concept?)
Watch Mark Meldrum's youtube videos about cfa, it should help a lot.
CFA is only for ER & AM
Even HF doesn't require it / ask for it
Pretty much every other career doesn't require it in finance (aside from maybe FA)
Et eum aperiam velit asperiores. Ea voluptatem consectetur tempora voluptatem sunt rerum. Quia aliquid quis enim veritatis nulla. Eos sed unde animi et rerum aperiam.
Sequi odio libero sint corrupti voluptatem consequuntur. Et blanditiis voluptas quo nihil dolor. Earum odio qui reprehenderit porro.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...