I needed some career advice and hence thought of getting some direction from some of our experienced fellow CFAs.
I have cleared CFA all levels after starting in 2015. I am a chartered accountant with some years’ experience in audit with EY. I left EY to work for an investment firm but my duties are predominantly back office and compliance related. After joining the investment firm, I felt I could do well in the investment field and stated my CFA in 2015.
Now, having passed all three levels, I stand at a cross road - I am not sure if my current employer would absorb me in their investment team despite having cleared CFA (budgets and hiring constraints). Now I am not sure, which of the following routes should I take from a long term career perspective:
1- Continue in my current firm, wait for them to allocate me to their direct investments team (if at all)
2- Quit and look for a basic/entry level job in another investment firm - which would mean a decrease in pay and starting over again
3- Quit and look for a job that is predominantly accounting related with CFA to only complement (seems a bit odd as I have given a lot of effort to get my CFA exams cleared). Although I am not sure what such a job could be?
Please share from your experience which of the above (or anything else) could make sense in the long run. Really look forward to your advice. Thanks.
A lot depends on the career stage and dependents that you support. It seems clear that passing CFA wont get you much further in current setup. Consider taking up 1Yr exec/2 yr MBA in a good institute and that should give you a break into Investment Banking.
i also feel doing a full time MBA can only give a career break to make best use of your hard earned CFA qualifications. Which part of the globe you belong?
I’ve worked in a few firms and have seen the problem many times. People not in investment related job earn their charter, and then expect to be moved into an investment related job and aren’t. The truth is, waiting will just make it appear as though you have no other options. Your solution is to either look for a new job, or to get your MBA full time, which allows you to essentially relaunch your career.
I have a different view of this. Twice I was able to make moves to companies I worked with. In both cases, they were also working on some of the same clients, but in a different capacity. Thus, we met, and they knew something about me.
A lot of what you do in life, is about seizing opporrtunites, taking risks and this sometimes pays off and sometimes it does not. It depends on your personal/family situation, how far do you have to go down from your current position to get back up.
– since there are no guarantees… if you do take risks , you should be steadfast and focused to work towards improving your situations (similar to CFA examinations) and not blame yourself if you do not get too far ahead within a time-frame you have laid out… but it may also improve your situation and take you far ahead than you can go with where you are…
That said… it is difficult for others to judge your situation…getting another degree may help…but an MBA from a not well-respected institution can only take you so far…
you situation is no different from that faced by many in their mid-career level…where they have already reached far ahead in their career…to convince themselves to start two notches down in a different position after a CFA…
to put it in perspective, i’ve been in back-office/mid-office for almost 4 years now. the jump is difficult without A) connections B) a top-tier MBA (in which you still have to build connections).
I feel like charterholders sometimes have this entitlement that they deserve to be somewhere after they clear L3, which is probably not the case.