Has anyone ever been to a CAIA official networking event? What was your experience like?
@investorman; happy to share my thoughts re the CAIA networking events with you, so feel free to message me here or on linkedin. Re the @highbeta post, I find it offensive and completely unprofessional and have reported it to the owner of this website.
Curious to hear what people think… my experience was when the chapter first launched in my city, I met some really top notch people show up, people from hedge funds, vc, pe… but over the 3-4 events I’ve been to maybe (admittedly a very small sample) you’ve got a lot more people trying to break in show up. Perfect example, last one I went to, some recent graduate turned his nose up to me about being on the ss (he was holding out for a bs offer to appear HA), while the guy never had a month of finance experience and wasn’t enrolled to even take the CAIA or CFA. I think these guys might be forwarding the invites around or something, who knows. I know the point of events is brand awareness and growth but that invites riff raff on our dime.
Anyways, as long as I’m a charterholder, I might as well go listen to the panels discuss things but if my employer doesn’t pay, I’m 50/50 on renewing and may just stick to CFA events (which are not immune to such problems but at least they make you pay an entry fee if you’re not a member)
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It’s pretty concerning how pretty much the only forum for financial analysts cares more about what a CEO has to say than providing an open forum for people to exchange honest ideas and banter. There goes the first amendment.
But yes, it is a good opportunity to meet people (keyword: in the same situation as yourself) but I didn’t find many who were actually in alternatives. Lots of traditional portfolio managers. If you are still a candidate then you really won’t get any FaceTime or advice from guys in the industry and have the charter. Very divisive and elitest.
Highbeta, which geographic location was your event held?
Nice, I am here in Toronto. Probably going to attend and see what happens.
Many of my clients (CPPIB, otpp) and other LPs are in Toronto. I work for JPM in the PE Infrastructure team.
Wow, that is super impressive! I am not in the AI field at all except through a university hedge fund as part of a MFIN degree. I work for government in accounting/finance supplemented by part-time teaching and consulting. How long have you been at JPM for?
3 years. I’m 29 and worked at Aqualine before for 3 years. No Masters Degree, just a CFA Charter holder and CAIA Level 1 candidate. Went to MIT for Computer Science. There is a guy in Toronto in PE that has a music degree and is smarter than I am. I’d like to say pieces of paper don’t matter but investment management is very snobby.
Highbeta - Not sure about the snobby part, the fund managers I interact with are pretty nice and humble people. I guess every profession has its share of snobs, I’ve been lucky in my interactions thus far. Perhaps it could be a geographic thing. New York tends to be high on the side of efficiency, rather than personal relations per say.
That’s true. It’s more so the school that you go to rather than the degree. Here in Toronto, good luck landing a good job if you are not well connected or go to Ivey league schools. I do enjoy school though for the theoretical side that I can combine with practical experience I am gaining over time.
I think in the finance industry there is a certain amount of bravado and confidence, even overconfidence, that one needs based on the risk-taking culture of old. My experience with people in the finance industry is that if they have nothing to gain from you (e.g., money, a job, clients, connections) then they won’t focus their attention on you. If you are one of the top executives or are well-known in the industry, you also have a sea of sycophants that swarm you at every industry event. I think these two reasons are a big part in why finance men and women optimize their interactions. Just my two cents.
I disagree, to a certain extent. In life, qualifications are great but in the end it is who you know. As I said before, I know smart people that don’t have ivy league degrees or even finance degrees that have great jobs.
I think we agree more than you think, as I stated “good luck landing a good job if you are not well connected or go to Ivey league schools”. I know a few people as well with non-business or math degrees, or a degree at all, that have great roles. But applying that reasoning to an entire population is an availability heuristic. There is a high correlation between education level and income, as well as your family’s income (or generation income) with your future earning potential. I also know a lot of people that I do not find to be hard-workers or of even average intelligence that are making great money or have a great job. But in general , there is a high correlation with education and income earning potential up to a certain point, e.g., not much difference between master’s and PhD’s for lifetime earnings. Relationships and networking are also the key tools in landing jobs, but a lot of that is also based on generational links. There are always exceptions to the rule, but in general you stay in the socioeconomic class that you were born in. It is even harder now to move up from one “class” to another than in prior decades.
yeah
Not working is not embarrassing. More often a comment on the general economy than on an individual.
Very kind of you to say.