Undergrad Senior w/ IB offer takes CFA Level 1?
Hey guys,
Looking for some advice here
I go to a public target (UVA/Berkeley/Michigan/UTAustin) & I've secured a FT role from an upper mid-market bank in NYC (Jefferies/RBC/William Blair) doing IB. My goal is eventually jump into a L/S fundamental HF after my 1-2 year analyst stint and I've seen people with CFAs do it.
Considering that it'd be impossible to study for the CFA during my first year in banking and I have more free time as a college senior, from a purely career focused point of view is it worth studying for during my last semester?
I'm also unsure if I want to stomach the ~ $1400 cost especially since I come from a lower-income background and have used portions of my signing bonus to pay for rent. Any insight would be appreciated.
Hi ak472022, check out these links:
More suggestions...
I hope those threads give you a bit more insight.
Commenting for reach. Interested as well.
I took CFA level 1 my first year of work (in S&T so have a bit more time). If I could do it over again, I'd probably take it senior year of college because my schedule was really light and I still had plenty of time to screw around with friends. Gets way harder to make time to study for the CFA out of college given you have to balance work, responsibilities and making time to hang out with friends and family. I'd take level 1 if you could and have a generally light course schedule, you'll be able to more than make up that money when you're working FT.
I don't think the CFA is necessary to get into L/S HFs tbh. AM, absolutely but HFs seem to care less.
I feel like there's very little point to doing L1 now then going into IBD where you won't be able to continue. CFA is partially a momentum game. Each level leads into the next. If you do L1 then wait two years (after I'm assuming you lateral to a HF) to do L2 then you'll have lost the momentum from L1. You'll have to relearn a lot of stuff. It won't be that much easier.
Also in my experience, if a hedge fund wants the charter (which is very negotiable from what I've heard), they'll want the full charter. Not an L1 pass.
Save the money and time imo.
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