Background: I have been in the accounting profession since last 6 years with big 4 accounting firm. Involved in auditing financial statements. I have Chartered accountancy from India, and CPA from US. I have been thinking of shifting to the finance world and so thought CFA would be a nice way to get into this field. I have now cleared Level 1 now and i am really now looking for a shift from accounting/auditing - don’t feel motivated enough to do this forever. I am currently in west coast but plan to shift to NYC area in next few months. I am looking for something more exciting than auditing. Since i have a strong understanding of how to read and interpret financial statements of a Company, i think any job which involves interpreting the financial information and preparing analysis on that might be something which would look a more obvious shift. Can anyone help advise what types of jobs might be suitable to my background? I am ready to make shifts out of comfort zone if there is something out there which would be challenging and interesting. Any comments or adivce would be more than welcome. Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
hedge fund accountant? a MBA would be nice.
Hedge fund accountant sounds like more of the same… What is exciting to you? How’s your math skill? [Test: define Riemann sum! Solve: y’’=cos x, y(0)=0, y’(0)=1] If you’re good with numbers you could go into middle office/risk management. Auditing might constitute a good building block to go into some supervisory role with some financial supervisory authority. If you’re strong with penetrating the underlying meaning of regulations such as FASB and IASB that might be something for you. I’ve been given the impression that people come and go in that field, and that job openings keep showing up albeit you will probably not make a lot of money there… Also: decide whether you’d like a small firm (broader job description) or to stay with a big firm (more career opportunities once inside). A smaller firm’s CEO might hire you on the spot if he likes you and believes in you; a bigger firm would probably almost always go by way of recruiters and a series of tests and pre-defined screening tools. What is exciting might be different to different people. I know of someone who, in the lack of other opportunities, took up a job as a researcher in order to be able to travel across the globe.
If you are wanting something that leverages your background you could look the TS route. It is still similar to audit, but most people I know from audit background like it much better. Lots of travel, but usually they are (big 4) better about flexibility on your schedule. Like the other poster said, hard to know what YOU would like. I think it may be hard to get into something that is more valuation finance since that isnt your background. You might like certain industry Corp Fin (or consulting Corp fin) roles as well, if they are defined away from the accounting side. Those you could have a shot with depending on the company. I have a similar background with CPA and Audit experience. I have some outside experience directly with Financial Statement Analysis for a small M&A firm (which too bad wont count for my CFA experience…) but, no direct valuation and when I looked at valuation related jobs it was a tough sell.
Thanks all and kevin for your thoughts, i would prefer not to travel much, so TS is not my first choice. Is private equity/asset management an option to get into. With my audit background, i don’t have any experience in these areas. The problem with me is that i am so over this auditing, that i can get into anything which is away from accounting/auditing. the other problem ofcourse is that, accounting/auditing is what i know and have been doing. Can you suggest some websites or contact persons, where i can get to know more about the options which i can explore given my background. At this stage, i am not sure into what field i want to get into. Thanks again.
Hey, hey, why dont you email me at kevin underscore f1 at hotmail I can at least tell you more of what I saw when I was looking and when I talk with my friends now. I dont think PE or Asset MGMT is much of an option unless you know someone, even in a good market. The problem is you would really need some kind of operational experience or valuation experience to be viewed as much of a potential interviewee. Shoot me an email and I can tell you what I have heard when talking with people, etc.