I am 36 and just sat for level 2 exam this June, I had been in sales and marketing lines for more than 12 years. Besides having great interest on investment knowledge, another reason I enrolled in CFA program is to get ready for career change to investment line if any opportunity Would like to get advices from everbody on the planning of career change 1) will it be too late for me to switch to investment line with this age, am I be not competitive or not preferable in the job market compare to those 20++ Suggestions and comments are appreciated, in junction of life now … …
Hi step, i’m 30, work as an economist in a bank and have asked my manager to transfer to another department that will allow me to qualify for the designation at some point. so if you are in a situation where there is flexibility to start you career change within the organization you are currently maybe that’s a good idea for you too.
The biggest issue you will likely run into switching careers at this point in the game is probably going to be economic in nature… starting at the bottom somewhere. Unless you enjoy sales, then you can sell bonds for anybody and the sky is the limit.
have you asked yourself: why a bank or asset management company wants to hire someone like you as a entry-level analyst? But you can surely be a sales at financial institutions, but i don’t think it would be more fun than the job you are doing now.
ZealVoyage Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > have you asked yourself: why a bank or asset > management company wants to hire someone like you > as a entry-level analyst? > > But you can surely be a sales at financial > institutions, but i don’t think it would be more > fun than the job you are doing now. that is some eye-popping truths you are handing out there ZealVoyage, eye-popping to be sure!
CFA as a career change tool works if you are young sales, HR marketing to Finance. After 30 CFA is mostly to moved higher or within the sector i.e move from corp finace project financing to valuation , Equity research in I bank, PE
^ I mostly agree. Even young people passing L1 and L2 are hitting walls trying to break into finance. Late 20’s and 30’s trying to break in will definitely be even harder
ha ha many soothsayers… if you blow up a bit more maybe i’ll get to see you all the way from here
Hey Step, I’m in the same boat. But I don’t give a crap what the replies are to your question. Just an obstacle that I’m going to overcome. There will be less opportunities, but you only need one.
^ i think you need to change your name. great attitude.
Hope I didn’t sound too mean. You always have a chance but you probably should change the thinking from “what I want/what I can do” to “what the potential employer wants from me”. My situation is even worse. Being a financial journalist and a woman in 30s, in a city flooded with financial professionals - it is tough!
Telling someone that he/she cant do something because hes too old or because of gender or whatever is pathetic. Here’s a great line from one my favourite movies, The pursuit of happiness “Don’t ever let somebody tell you… you can’t do something”
No one is telling some one what to do or what not to do. Changing careers is always tricky, given this environment even more so, so everyone is just given their own 2 cents. The decision is on the person " Look before you leap" a quote from real life …ps Movies lie !!!
You’re always going to hear of some example where someone made it against all odds. This forum is good because it gives people a healthy does of reality from people who actually work in this industry and have seen a lot. People are not beating you down for the sake of it, they’re just telling you the realistic odds of success. What you do is up to you. “Hope. It is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and your greatest weakness.” It’s why people still play lottery even if the odds are 1 in 300 million
greengrape Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > People are not beating you down for the sake of > it, they’re just telling you the realistic odds of > success. What you do is up to you. > “The realistic odds of success”…? just out of interest, what distributional assumptions (of the underlying stochastic process of course) are you incorporating in this theory you are developing?
Penny-wenny Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > greengrape Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > > > > People are not beating you down for the sake of > > it, they’re just telling you the realistic odds > of > > success. What you do is up to you. > > > > “The realistic odds of success”…? just out of > interest, what distributional assumptions (of the > underlying stochastic process of course) are you > incorporating in this theory you are developing? The hardest part of breaking into finance is having a contact inside or a way to initiate conversation. The easiest method to do this is through your school. At 36 your far removed from your education and you don’t have that option. All that is left is your personal network and the online application process (read garbage disposal). If you don’t have a person with some sway inside advocating for them to view/consider your resume your going to have difficulity. It’s not based on any hard numbers it’s based on common sense. I belong to another forum that discusses finance and every so often the CFA comes into discussion. They generally say the CFA is not a career changer and suggest an MBA for that. The only people they encourage to do the CFA are usually fresh graduates who missed their recruiting opportunites during school (as far as for breaking in purposes). I’m not saying this to discourage you. I really like the positive attitude on this forum and as someone said, “you only need one opportunity.”
lxwarr30 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- At 36 your far removed from > your education and you don’t have that option…The only people they > encourage to do the CFA are usually fresh > graduates who missed their recruiting opportunites > during school hurrah for me! i’m not 36 and i am a recent graduate, i’m ready to step into your world now,… wait for it… wait for it…, oh wait that’s BS
Making a mid-30s transition is totally doable. I got my MBA at 32 and didn’t officially break into the investment industry (aside from years of real estate investment consulting) until I was 33. I didn’t start working on my CFA until actually getting into the industry directly. I have a “regional” MBA and never worked in New York. I’m now 36 and awaiting L3 results and waiting for the return of my wife and kids from their “CFA vacation” that started in May. Since my early mid-life crisis/decision to transition, I have had two great buy-side positions at a large university pension+endowment and a corporate pension fund. I was very focused in my search and identified positions in which I was truly interested and against which I could map my skills and education to demonstrate that I would be a strong organizational fit. I only applied for a handful of jobs but really spent the time on my approach to each potential position. I didn’t have a deep network when I sought out each job but I did leverage connections on LinkedIn of all places to conduct informational interviews and to get some inside information on both organizations. I think the key is to wring anything out of your previous career that can be applied to the industry you seek to enter. The toughest questions to deal with, though, are the “why know?” questions. Work on your story and your “elevator pitch” and you’ll be on your way.
hey step, if youre a criminal then get on the floor.
It all depends on what you mean by the “investment line” If you mean research/portfolio management, that will be a tough move because being in sales/marketing you just have never performed that type of job function. If you want to get more into a technical investment facing role, but don’t necessarily have your heart set on being a portfolio manager, something like Relationship Management/Product Management might be able to leverage your skills from your experience while also giving you more experience working directly with investment concepts. While this also might not be an easy path, probably more likely than going the portfolio management route.