Hello folks, I am in the biology research and am thinking about switching to finance related jobs. The main reason I want to switch is I dont see a future continuing bio research with a masters degree (PhD is not an option here, lack of passion and interests for basic research), and am only making 40K:-( the idea of finance came to me b/c I think I am ok with math (quantitative 800, analytical 790 for GRE back in year 2000) and I think (hope) switching to finance is practical: CFA is cheaper and I can maintain my day time job. I am posting here to get some insights from insiders: what are the chances for me on landing an analyst job after I pass CFA level II or III with my background? I am not talking about jobs making big money, anything better than my current is acceptable: of course the higher the better, will work hard to earn it, but I think the biggest challenge is to break in the field at this point. Thank you all very much! p.s I am a green card holder from China. Had a BS in bio from top university in China and MS in bio from top 30 US university, and am working as a research associate at top university in US.
I don’t see why not. CFA Institute writes on their web page: “The June 2005 exam results demonstrated the outstanding potential and performance of CFA candidates in China. China’s average pass rate for all three levels of the examination was 57 percent, among the top performance rates globally.” A Chinese friend of mine flew over from Europe to mainland China to participate for a few weeks in some preparatory program (like Schweser’s). I can’t read Chinese very well but you might find something useful here (at least I recognize CFA Institute’s logotype) http://www.chinacfa.com/ maybe this was it.