What should I do next?

Water Cooler Careers
#1

Hi guys,

I would like to share with you concern regarding my career prospects and looking forward to your advice :slight_smile:

First of all I would like to underline that I’m 27 years old and I’m living in emerging market where there are not many jobs in FO and in fact vast majority of the people work in BO (due to relatively low cost my country is one of the main direction of outsourcing)

Hence when I achieved my Master Degree in Finance I started to work in BO , due good work /life balance I was able to prepare to CFA exams which was very big advantage of working there.

However right now once I passed CFA L3 I’m wondering what should I do next ?

  1. Theoretically I can switch to ER on junior position but salary there would be significantly lower than on my current position (team leader of financial accounting and reporting department) and due to my financial obligations (mortgage, student loan etc.) I cannot afford for such salary reduction unless I will get a solid pay rise/bonus in 3-6 months .

  2. I can stay on my current position but it’s quite boring and my career prospect is poor - that’s why I decided to get the CFA charter. Moreover I believe my current position cannot be treated as relevant experience for CFAI

  3. I can try to apply to other countries (e.g. UK/London ) for some junior position in IB/PE but it might be a problem to get there with my current CV

  4. I can try to switch to Middle Office positions in my current country (which should not be so difficult comparing to breaking into FO) which at least will be relevant experience for CFAI (internal audit, risk department, product control etc.)

Your advice is greatly appreciated

Regards

VVADER

#2

Interested in this as well. MBA from top 5-10 and relocate? Hope you can get the answer you are looking for.

#3

As I wrote before I’m living in the developing country (eastern Europe) and my salary is relatively low, thus I cannot afford to pay tuition :/…

I can apply for top MBA in my country but it’s out of first TOP 50 in global rankings so I doubt if it will help me at all.

#4

Any other advice guys?

#5

Study an MBA in a developed country (UK, France, Germany,…) first, and find a job after?

#6

Hi Pierre thanks for your advice.

Again - cost of the MBA might be the biggest problem for me

#7

just take out a loan

and dont join a program that doesn’t have published salaries post graduation

#8

I’d go as far looking up every recent graduate of the program on LinkedIn and seeing what they do for a living. After my hacksaw U experience, I’ll never trust another school’s numbers ever again.

#9

Probably #4 if you are relatively risk adverse (you seem risk adverse based on your posts). You can always do #3 while doing #4 and see if it pans out (highly unlikely).

If you are serious about getting into a developed country IB / PE, top MBA as others have mentioned, but you need to be a risk taker and there are no guarantees after.

Also, #1 probably isnt the best option regardless of the paycut because research is a dying field.

#10

Yep I am risk averse person

It’s funny but in some BO/MO departaments hirings guys think that I’m overqualified person whereas for FO I’ m underqualified