OK, to start, I’ll walk through my current resume:
1) BS, Engineering Physics, from one of the top *Public* universities in the US. (2005)
2) MS, Biology, from a non-target school. (2007)
3) MS, Financial Engineering, from a non-target school. (2009)
4) First job (out of college, still working at it now): Assistant Trader for an Asset Management firm. Pay: ~$40K/yr with no bonuses but not extremely stressful either. (2010 to present.)
Career goals: I would like to continue to work in Trading before eventually going into portfolio management. I’ve struggled a bit with deciding on a career and may not have made the best decisions a few years ago, especially regarding pursuing higher education.
I’m almost 29 now and it feels almost everyone my age has been light years ahead in their careers. Not to whine or be negative but I strongly feel I’m not making enough at my age. This is particularly angering.. however, unlike those Occupy Wall Street people, I’m taking my anger out on the CFA exam.. I’m committed to sacrifice a large chunk of my free time to conquer those exams!! I attempted the CFA 1 back in 2010 and failed.. I’ve now signed up to retake it in June 2012 and started studying about 10-15 hours a week since a month ago. Regardless of your replies, I have my heart set on studying and passing the CFA 1 (and eventually CFA 2 and 3..) I just want to have some realistic expectations of how my career will improve if I manage to pass all 3 exams.
What do you think? Discuss it here.