Hello All, Let me start off by saying this is my first time posting here. I also sincerely hope that my confidentiality will be maintained since I see my email address listed above. Nonetheless, here is my question. I want to know if my career plan seems realistic, and a good choice. I am interested in becoming a CFA . My short term goals would be to obtain work that allows me to work w/investments on the buy side in role such as - investment plan analyst, stock plan analyst, portfolio manager, equity administrator (401k/pension) My long term and ULTIMATE GOAL is to obtain a position that will allow me to work in the Financial Rewards Realm of a company where I get to handle ( compensation, investments, benefits, and other items, in the listed order) preferably in the energy industry or more specifically renewable/alternative energy if possible. My obstacles are what prompted me to gain your thoughts about the feasibility. I have a plan to address them. 1. boost my advanced quantative skills: a- get tutored in high school algebra b - take an accounting course c - brush up on macro/micro econ d- get private tutoring in gmat and get 600 above score e- take calculus 2. enroll in graduate finance degree program,and ask for scholarship after completing above. I know if I have good score I can ask for a partial scholarship. But I really need/want a full ride. Alternatively, I could just enroll now and they will accept me since I already have a graduate degree, but I am unsure if they would give me a scholarship. I also wonder if I will struggle with the math if I just jump in. Part of me knows that I could make it work, but I don’t want to ignore my weaknesses and get by, I would rather address them head on and excel. 3.pay off a select few of my debts (my credit and debt load is scary) untill my income changes and I can start to make serious inroads. 4. Take and pass the CFA. 5. Obtain one of the short term jobs I mentioned or 6. If I can just skip to my ultimate goal 
The last item is what concerns me the most and the amount of time it would take to get tackle #1 and #3 extensively. I say I want to manage other people money to a certain extent and I know I could do a good job at it, but will I get a chance? I just don’t want to start the process and then be unemployable due to #3. I don’t even know if I could get a regular financial analyst role in a company after I finished the degree w /obstacle #3. So what are your thoughts? Do I have a shot or am I a fool?
Anyone can do anything if he puts his mind to it and makes an honest effort. Just to be humorous, i am not trying to seem that i am bright or something … in level 1 you learn that you can never be a CFA. The CFA cannot be used as a noun … but it can be used as an adjective aka CFA charterholder. Best of luck in your dreams
First, what is your background. School and GPA, age, work experience, have any connections to people in finance?, what do you do now? what skills do you have? Laying out a plan is good, but the above will greatly determine your chances of success. Why do you want to do finance? For the money? the passion? the models and bottles?
I think you need to take some serious thought as to why you want to switch into finance. It sounds like you have a long road ahead from all the additional education you need. The CFA exams are nice, but far from exclusive enough to get you a nice paying job by themselves as you will read all over these boards (plus you need work experience to get the charter). That being said, considering that you are in debt, how long do you imagine it will take you to get into the industry? How long do you think it will take you to start paying off your debts? The job market in finance right now is still not good and you need to claw your way into the even the lowest level jobs.
What you’ve just typed is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever read. At no point in your rambling, incoherent explanation were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone on this forum is now dumber for having read it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
You didn’t post your background, so I might be off base with comments, but I would discourage you from pursuing this plan and would instead suggest going with something more closely aligned with whatever it is you have studied / done in the past. You seem enthusiastic, so it may be hard to appreciate this from your perspective, but you are looking at something like a 5 to 7 year grind of pain. If you assume it takes you two years to brush up on your math skills, take the entrance exam, apply and get accepted to school (if you pull it off), two years in school (for an MBA – maybe only 1 year if you go to a MFin program that accepts the GMAT) and then ~3 years to complete the CFA exams, that’s a lot of time before you even break into the industry. It doesn’t seem like it’s beyond reason to take that path, but be aware that what you are talking about is a long and sustained grind that would burn most people out. If you pull it off, you will likely be facing a very competitive job market against people with similar or better qualifications, which could feel like little reward after all of that work. Despite the high amount of interest, most people are not cut out for finance, and the failure / attrition rate is very high. I did something similar to what you are talking about, though I skipped grad school and my math skills were probably better, and I wouldn’t do it again even though I made it to where I wanted to be. Learn to think in terms of costs and benefits – right now it seems that you are thinking only of the benefits, and not of the brutal costs you will go through. My advice is to do something easier and enjoy your life in the process.
My background: liberal arts education undergrad education, and then social work for graduate school. My work experience has been in soft skills areas - sales, training, customer service. Why, am I looking to switch into finance - my analytical mind. I recently had some experiences that made me think I could pursue a career at this. The social work thing is too disappointing in terms of opportunities and pay. I think I could get prepared for the finace education in 1- 1.5 yrs I think if someone would hire me, I should be able to start working in the field in 3yrs. So total educational prep time would be about 3years. I thought with my background and finance education, I should be able to do the intellectual work that I crave, and be rewarded and make an impact. I am in my early 30’s and graduate gpa was 3.5 and undergrad was 2.8 Like, I said earlier my main concerns are the employability prospects and the money issues. I don’t want to waste any more time if this aspiration of mine is too “pie in the sky” and not really achievable or would take forever to accomplish.
icme Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > My background: liberal arts education undergrad > education, and then social work for graduate > school. My work experience has been in soft > skills areas - sales, training, customer service. > > Why, am I looking to switch into finance - my > analytical mind. I recently had some experiences > that made me think I could pursue a career at > this. The social work thing is too disappointing > in terms of opportunities and pay. > > I think I could get prepared for the finace > education in 1- 1.5 yrs I think if someone would > hire me, I should be able to start working in the > field in 3yrs. So total educational prep time > would be about 3years. > > I thought with my background and finance > education, I should be able to do the intellectual > work that I crave, and be rewarded and make an > impact. > > I am in my early 30’s and graduate gpa was 3.5 and > undergrad was 2.8 > > Like, I said earlier my main concerns are the > employability prospects and the money issues. > > I don’t want to waste any more time if this > aspiration of mine is too “pie in the sky” and not > really achievable or would take forever to > accomplish. I don’t want to be rude, but you are almost guaranteed to struggle with this background. You are too old for entry level and your accomplishments to date are not particularly competitive in any regard for entering finance. Although you are not aiming for the most competitive part of finance, the demand from interested candidates for what you want to do far exceeds the number of jobs available. They’re going to be younger, smarter, and better prepared. I think 3 years is too optimistic as well, since there is no way you can complete the CFA in 3 years while doing the other things on your list simultaneously, and if you score 600 on the GMAT, you won’t get into a competitive program, making it hard to land a decent initial job.
One thing that you do have going for you is your timing. It’s a pretty crap time to be looking for a job right now but by the time you ‘graduate’ in a few years, things should hopefully be better. Being in school right now is preferable to looking for a job in my opinion.
Sorry, bromion is correct. Honestly, the odds are “pie in the sky” as you put it for many reasons. Don’t fall into the misconception passing these exams is an automatic door opener, because it really isn’t. And unfortunately, many many people fall into this trap, and feel somewhat entitled to a job. A possible entryway to this world may be through HR of a financial company.
Dude if you want to be analytical, read a book. But seriously, making the switch to finance would be in my mind not worth it. There are plenty of other industries you could look into that will allow you to be analytical without all the hoop jumping. Figure out what you like and apply your analytics to that.
iteracom Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- >the models and bottles? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4gnLWoh3fM
icme Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > The social work thing is too disappointing > in terms of opportunities and pay. But didn’t you know that going in? People don’t go into social work for the pay.
i bet you don’t pass level 2. problably fail level 1. then you go back to doing whatever you were doing. your ultimate goal involves dealing with compensation yet you want to get on the buyside? makes no sense. you want to work in the energy related industry. have an energy background. the truth is, you have already gone through your career and not pushed yourself to the fullest, now you want to compete on a whole different level. doesn’t seem plausible. with that said, doubters always give the biggest motivation.
icme Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > My background: liberal arts education undergrad > education, and then social work for graduate > school. My work experience has been in soft > skills areas - sales, training, customer service. > > Why, am I looking to switch into finance - my > analytical mind. I recently had some experiences > that made me think I could pursue a career at > this. The social work thing is too disappointing > in terms of opportunities and pay. > > I think I could get prepared for the finace > education in 1- 1.5 yrs I think if someone would > hire me, I should be able to start working in the > field in 3yrs. So total educational prep time > would be about 3years. > > I thought with my background and finance > education, I should be able to do the intellectual > work that I crave, and be rewarded and make an > impact. > > I am in my early 30’s and graduate gpa was 3.5 and > undergrad was 2.8 > > Like, I said earlier my main concerns are the > employability prospects and the money issues. > > I don’t want to waste any more time if this > aspiration of mine is too “pie in the sky” and not > really achievable or would take forever to > accomplish. you don’t need to brush up on your quantitative ability as much as you think. I am a sociology major and I was able to clear the first two levels with out too much trouble. The math is not hard at all, its like grade nine the concepts that underpin the math are what make it difficult and honestly with a liberal arts background you should be able to grasp the concepts fairly easily as well. you’re background is similar to mine, you would probably be very unhappy in a traditional finance role i.e. analyst. crunching numbers on spreasheets all day sucks sh^t, trust me, guys like us are not built for that. you should be more in a sales role where you deal with people on a more frequent basis.
That’s a lot of school. I don’t want to sound foolish, but maybe you should think outside of traditional finance paths. Why don’t you try starting a social work program that involves teaching people about the markets and how they can invest their money. I don’t think that is going to change the pay much (unless this becomes a big NFP), but maybe you’ll like your position more. You have connections in this area, use what you have. I think there are some ways to make money without getting into finance. If you spend as much time as above thinking of non-traditional ways to make money, you’ll come up with a better idea than working for someone else, BET.
You could easily transition into a financial planning role as a sales assistant and then progress from there.
double post
lxwarr30 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I think there are some ways to make money > without getting into finance. If you spend as much > time as above thinking of non-traditional ways to > make money, you’ll come up with a better idea than > working for someone else, BET. I wish someone had given me this advice before I got into finance.
Black Swan Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > lxwarr30 Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > I think there are some ways to make money > > without getting into finance. If you spend as > much > > time as above thinking of non-traditional ways > to > > make money, you’ll come up with a better idea > than > > working for someone else, BET. > > > I wish someone had given me this advice before I > got into finance. ROFL. Well I’ve been developing a screenplay and have an idea for an app I think could be epic. Now I’ve got to really set those in motion. If you know anyone that writes apps. GET AT ME. But yea, I’m still trying to do finance because it’s a safer bet.