Hi Everyone Does anyone here think a JD and CFA along with an engineering degree and couple of years in the middle office will give me a better edge over someone with an MBA? I’m interested in getting into the buy or sell side, but don’t have a clear career direction at this moment. If anyone here knows a colleague or a friend who has a JD/CFA, would you mind telling me what kind of career path they ended up pursuing? Thanks!!
too many lawyers
You do not need an mba to get into the sell side if your JD is in securities law or possibly even IP. I know investment banks love JD’s in securities laws. A
can work in compliance
I’m planning on applying to law school this year, but still questioning its value because I think of it as being an alternative to MBA to help me get more finance work later on. Like you norcaguy, I also have trouble coming up with good ways to position my career 
Good god, not compliance. Any jobs containing reporting, compliance or combination of both makes me want to pull my hair out. I’ve had enough of that from the middle office
If you are ok with IB, then you’ll have an easier time with a JD in securities than with an MBA. JD’s tell me their recruiting process is much easier (no networking, just interview) versus MBA’s (networking, selection for interview, interview). If you don’t like IB after doing it a 2-3 years, you can get into practically anything in finance. Just my observations from my mba classmates and the recruiting process. It also depends on your age, family life, and stamina–do you want to work 100 hours a week. A
frangoya Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Good god, not compliance. Any jobs containing > reporting, compliance or combination of both makes > me want to pull my hair out. I’ve had enough of > that from the middle office That is an easy and very secured job with a decent salary (120K+).
I contemplate that all the time. Do I want to work 100+ hrs and become a stranger to the husband and kids (when I have them), or just accept that I’m comfortably stuck at a 9-5 secure job with more free time than I know what to do with.
If you have any doubt about IB, don’t do it. Also, if you’re already 30+ before applying to a JD, then it will be difficult age-wise to get into IB after you finish JD (4 yrs away? 1yr to apply, 3 yrs to finish?). If you already have a CFA or close to it, how difficult is it for you to get into your field of choice? I had a classmate who worked in opeations, then got CFA, then moved into pm role, and just finished mba. A
Go to a law firm with a securities practice. They would hire you in an instant. There are not many people with your training.
As one who has done securities work as a lawyer and who just passed the Level III exam (knock on wood), I can tell you that the training from the CFA program will be of very little value in practicing securities law. Securities law has nothing to do with valuation or business decisions, it is entirely about disclosure and complying with mountains of rules. You do of course have to understand the structure of the securities you’re dealing with (though not necessarily the economics) but any smart lawyer without the CFA training can do that.
In response to the original post, if you know you want to go into the investment industry I think an MBA rather than a law degree is a no-brainer. While it’s true that a fair number of lawyers become investment bankers and occupy various other roles in the business world, law school really trains you to practice law and helps you to get legal jobs, not business jobs. I sure wish I had an MBA from Harvard or Wharton rather than the law degree I have right now. An exception would maybe be if you will be going to one of a handful of law schools (Yale, Harvard, Stanford, maybe a couple of others), are confident you are going to excel there and just want to get the legal training/take a different path/be sort of contrarian. Of course then you would miss out on the business school training and networking though.
Of course there is also the joint degree (JD/MBA) option, which in my experience can be useful if you don’t mind spending an extra year (as compared to a JD) or two (as compared to an MBA) to do it.
Hmm, I don’t think I have the grades, money or lsat to get into the top law or business schools (Harvard, Yale, Wharton etc) in the states. Realistically, I would get into one of the top 5 in Canada. I’m not sure what I want to do with my life but I guess I’m still relatively young (26). I’m not sure an MBA would be all that valuable if I didn’t get into the top schools, where as I think that law school would give me skills that will actually be useful, and make me stand out. I feel like there’s not that many engineer/lawyer/finance combination out there, but I’m just speculating.
There are a lot of folks out there with MBAs from other than top-10 US business schools working in the investment industry. At least with an MBA you would have been trained in the field you want to get into rather than one that’s ultimately fundamentally different. I think you would probably face resistance trying to get into the investment industry with a JD from a decent school, rather than it being an advantage. I think I share your view of an MBA - it doesn’t seem terribly challenging and spending that time studying other things seems more appealing - but I think it is a better way into the investment industry than a JD, generally speaking. On a side note, I once visited a friend who was doing an MBA at a non-top-10 but highly regarded big US state school and sat in on a class with him. Hardly representative I know, but I was shocked at the pedestrian level of the material. I wasn’t in the class, hadn’t done the readings and wasn’t studying (nor had I studied) business, but I had no problem following the discussion and probably could even have given good answers if called on by the professor.
Speaking of newbie level material in MBA courses. I was required to enroll in a pre-mba online tutorial called MBA Math. The purpose of which is to familiarize incoming students with basic concepts in Finance, Stats, Accounting, Economics, and Excel. Given that incoming students come from a variety of backgrounds it was about on par with the 1st day of class at an undergraduate business program. I’m attending a top 20 program (not top 10). There’s a link on the MBA math website that lists schools that use and endorse this course: Tuck, Cornell, and a few others. So I see your point Captain.
Captainwindjammer, You made a good point. Security law has nothing to do with valuation, it is entirely about complying with mountains of rules. I also, understand that one with JD might face resistance rather then being an advantage. But I think, if you dissect the ‘investment industy’ many of top IB, private equity, financial consulting firm would prefer JD if your MBA is from mediocre school. Maybe, small asset management, hedge fund and small to medium private equity might prefer an MBA because they have been taught directly related to industry and relatively little cheaper to hire. In absolute stand point(not relative to JD) “Would an MBA ultimately get you in?” or “Does MBA advantage?” is whole different story. Presumably, you earn your JD and practice the security law before you pursue CFA. As a pursuer of your credencial, JD CFA combo, out of total curiosity, why did you decide to pursue CFA?
If you’re asking me skycfa, I pursued CFA purely out of interest. I was bored with my first job and wanted to find something useful to do. Also at the time I had a skewed notion of what finance was really like (thank you gordon gekko), and now stuck in the middle office wondering what to do with my life. I’m considering JD now because it’s different than everything else I’ve done.
At 26, the JD/banking route is still open if you can get into a top 10 or so law school. It didn’t sound like you mind doing either law or banking. The other consideration is if you can get into a better law school or a better mba school. See if your workplace offers law or mba tuition reimbursement if you go part-time or if you promise to return. But the priority should be getting into the best schools over tuition reimbursement as the caliber of network and companies that recruit at better schools are higher. A