Can my experience help me land the job i want?

I graduated last year with a bachelor degree inFinance and the company that i did an internship with decided to hire me full time. My position is Wealth management assistant. The firm is small and most of my daily duties is to assist financial advisors and participate in meetings, and participate in portfolio analysis. I wonder if this experience will help me down the road to get a financial anslyst position after i pass CFA level 1 or 2 or 3. thank you

The short answer is if you make the most of your experience there and make progress towards the CFA, yes. It sounds like your company is similar to mine. But, I came from equity research to go a wealth management firm, not the other way around. My official title is “portfolio manager”, but I do a lot of work with clients and a lot of proposals/presentations. “Financial analyst” is pretty broad. Can you be more specific? I would try to spend more time with the portfolio management team (could be important in getting the required work experience for the CFA) and do projects for them as oppose to working with financial advisors. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great experience to get in front of clients and be on the front lines, just be careful not to pigeon hole yourself as a financial advisor or sales guy.

I wanted to be an equity analyst, research analyst. However, i have no experience in financial modeling and CFA program does not teach modeling.

If your firm does not perform equity analysis (if you pick managers, for example), then it will be difficult to get that hands on experience, clearly. Is there someone there you can mentor with who has the experience you are looking for?

No, since we are small firm, we get the research from third party

take one of the analysts you like to read and develop a relationship. ask questions, without being over the top.

I’ve noticed that CFA is a strong plus in equity research. Many companies that hire equity analysts insist on having the charter or at least working towards it. It has become popular in the EM countries too.

good to know

ssdnola - You’ll be just fine. Working at a small company gives you the opportunity to do a lot of different things and get broad experience. Hopefully your firm hasn’t become too bureaucratic and you have latitude in determining your course.

Thank you guys. I am really hoping the CFA will help me get the job i wanted.