so I’ve been in ER now for ~10 months and cover two sectors, builders and mortgage insurers. contrary to what the other guy said, here is why the CFA curriculum has helped me but a quick blanket statement: these remarks are being made without regard for prior knowledge anyone may have had a. Quant - knowing the ins and outs of regression has made my forecasts better. so the material is relevant b. FSA - HUGELY important as you work with financial models all day. Level II is especially applicable as mortgage insurers have massive investment portfolios and how they classify them (AFS, HTM, HFT) makes a difference when i forecast income statements and look at equity. c. equity and debt - highly topical as knowing faults with different types of valuation models etc allows me to confirm/refute inquiries/pushback from sales guys when they ask about valuation also, there is a certain admiration for the charter here by both the employees and the firm so i totally disagree with every comment made by that other guy.
^ did you have a finance background before you started?
mar350 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > ^ did you have a finance background before you > started? yes. BS finance from GWU
builders Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > so I’ve been in ER now for ~10 months and cover > two sectors, builders and mortgage insurers. > > contrary to what the other guy said, here is why > the CFA curriculum has helped me > > but a quick blanket statement: these remarks are > being made without regard for prior knowledge > anyone may have had > > a. Quant - knowing the ins and outs of regression > has made my forecasts better. so the material is > relevant > > b. FSA - HUGELY important as you work with > financial models all day. Level II is especially > applicable as mortgage insurers have massive > investment portfolios and how they classify them > (AFS, HTM, HFT) makes a difference when i forecast > income statements and look at equity. > > c. equity and debt - highly topical as knowing > faults with different types of valuation models > etc allows me to confirm/refute inquiries/pushback > from sales guys when they ask about valuation > > also, there is a certain admiration for the > charter here by both the employees and the firm > > so i totally disagree with every comment made by > that other guy. this is what im talking about
Nice to see some positive comments. Everyone is negative on the CFA these days because there are too many of us.
Im in ER sell side, Level 3 candidate. Im pretty new, but here is what I have seen: Nearly all the associates are pursuing the CFA, it is heavily encouraged by the heads of research, the more senior research analyts all have it, the associates who get it are promoted at much faster speeds, and clients tend to be willing to talk to you more if you have the letters. You decide if it sounds like it is worth it
Guys. You are taking my comments way too far and or just not getting my point. It was mainly a response to the plethora of comments on this board of people wondering why they are not getting a job even though they had passed L I/II. I thought I’d at least lend them a hand in understanding something that I did not just a few months ago. I don’t disagree at all that it makes you look good, especially in front of clients, my main point was that I found the material unwiedly because of its sheer size. I didn’t mean that in isolation certain parts weren’t useful, but simply it is an inefficient process to understand certain fundamentals useful in ER.
Not everything is about ER.
^ I never said or implied it was.
You never implied it, but the general tone of the forum lately has been ER related. The CFA is applicable to many parts of finance and when you’re sick of ER you’ll be glad you have the credential.
bump
builders Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > bump aint no way this reaches 10 pages Builders, the other thread is on a whole 'nother level.
This sh!t again ?
It wont reach the other because all the arguments have been made already. Repeating it all here is just beating the dead horse.
probably cause no one cares about the sectors builders covers. hey builder? hows that one company ur trying to squeeze for another round? whats ur rec? STRONG BUY?
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CFABLACKBELT Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > It was mainly a > response to the plethora of comments on this board > of people wondering why they are not getting a job > even though they had passed L I/II. I thought > I’d at least lend them a hand in understanding > something that I did not just a few months ago. > So, now you say, your other thread is just to tell people why they are not getting a job, even passing L1/L2. Well, guess what, a bunch of people have already come forth and said they GOT the job because of passing L1/L2. So what now? It’s pretty clear experience trumps everything else, especially in a horrible job market (esp. finance). And here’s the biggest flaw of your argument: You said "I’d look at the CFA or your pristine GPA with very little weight. I’d look at your FO skills, writing skills, problem solving skills etc… " Well, there’s no chance a hiring manager is going to email the 1000 people who applied for the job and say “yes, everyone please send me a writing sample, come in for a problem solving skill test, and do a presentation” They need to narrow down that 1000 people using some objective measure. It could be GPA, school, experience, CFA program status… So, to even make the cut to get a chance to show the “FO Skills” you mentioned, this is where CFA can help. Now obviously, the first cut will probably be relevant job experience, I agree with you there. But CFA can very well be the 2nd or 3rd cut. I went through a 5 month job search last year, around 80% of ER job listings said “CFA Program strongly encouraged” under job requirements. So, I bet you the CFA program was definitely a cut that determined if you even got a chance to interview. All the people whining about not getting the job, it is not because passing L1 and L2 is useless, it’s because they don’t have job experience, have a crap GPA, or went to a no-name school. You need the full package (gpa, school, experience, CFA status) to land a good job in today’s world.