Hi guys, what’s your opinion of the following plan: ambitious and effective or just weird?
I am 29, 9 years in Banking, 2 years apprecenticeship included, the last 3 years in Private Banking (Investment Management), regional German bank (2000 employees, maybe 5 of them have heard of the Charter in their lifes).
I did my B.A. A grade parallel to full time working (evening classes, no hobbies and shuttered relationships 
). After that I cleared CFA Level I in 2013 and simultaneously I struggled 3 semesters with a German state-run distance learning M.Sc in economics., which indeed is cheap and regarded, but not the right program for me (loads of deep deep economics, big formulas with symbols I’ve never seen before in my entire life)
Then band10 fail this year, maybe 400hrs+ learned, used Schweser Notes only and a bit Allen TestBank (I know…). I started learning in January and could have needed 2 months more. I had two weeks holiday but nevertheless I only made 1 practice exam. In the middle of may I just completed 2times reading the stuff and writing a big summary in word, too less time for the questions.
My Level-II plan is now, thanks to JayWill in this thread: http://www.analystforum.com/forums/cfa-forums/cfa-level-ii-forum/91344515level , Starting in Oktober, reading CFAI, watching wiley videos forward and back, reading my schweser-summary again and again, maybe writing flashcards, learning to write all the formulas from scratch and in the final 3 months using schweser qbank + doing every questions+practice exam I can find.
And now the exciting part of the question: I fear of getting bored by just working 50h and learning for the exam (okay, not really). I am very interested in this Distance-Master-Program http://www.cefims.ac.uk/cgi-bin/programmes.cgi?func=programme&id=53#3 for working professionals, because I heard good recommendations about it, I like the topics and it could be helpful to get a better job in the European Finance/Banking/Asset Management or maybe consulting sector, although it is not Tier1.
More tangible: In the long term I want to get a senior management role in the mentioned areas, starting maybe in business development of an institutional asset management firm or as a management consultant (master’s required) for big mutual fund firms. I am also very interested in private equity in the middle term, but I know it’s very hard to get in, especially because I have no investment banking experience and I think I am 10 years to old for that game when I am going to take the step. What I am not looking for is a pure analyst or portfolio manager role. If it has to be done after all, than only equity or alternatives, I don’t like fixed income and currency stuff. In my current position I have also met many mutual fund head of bank-sales guys and so on - that doesn’t fit for me, because it is just sales.
I know that I will need a Top-MBA for reaching my goals, but I think it’s too early now (not enough money and no relevant leadership experience), so the M.Sc. could be a logical step, if I strech it around the exams (maybe one 8week-module in january, one in july, one in september and so on for maybe 3-4 years). Another advantage is, that I can decide to do an PhD afterwards, if I want to. Disadvantage: In most cases a M.Sc. is done before you work the first day, maybe it is nearly useless after 12y of finance experience. And there are these 14k EUR and the TOEFL requirement, which I have to organize both in a discrete way
Reducing working hours? No way, I need the money to pay for my big expensive learning-flat and my trading debt And in my company inhouse career opportunities are better (every EUR counts) if you spend more facetime.
I am looking forward to your responses - and sorry for my language, I believe that was the longest text I’ve ever written in English
Best regards from Berlin
