I was a back office intern in 2009 with a master in finance from the 3rd tier university.
Now I’m a buy side analyst, working with traders and people from top MBAs in the world.
What changed in between ?
I cleared my CFA level 1 during the internship, which allowed me to then move to a new position as a sales assistant for a firm where all sales were required to be CFA charterholders.
I there learned a lot about a certain type of financial products, and cleared CFA level 2. This allowed me to have stuff to talk about when being interviewed for a buy side analyst position, and to compete with other candidates with top degrees. They paid their MBA 50k a year, I paid my CFA 100 times less.
All the sales positions required a CFA? I’ve never heard of that, and that’s kinda hard to believe. buyside and PM’s required to have a CFA is believable, but sales??
sales in this situation = selling alternative investments to institutional clients. i guess some of these clients appreciate having in front of them salespeople knowing what they’re talking about, instead of just hot chicks with a liberal arts degree. i have no incentive to tell this story if it’s not true. so nothing “hard to believe” here.
You have the tin foil hat example backwards. Tin foil hats are supposed to protect against brainwashing waves, which are used to manipulate popular opinion. Thus, the people who use tin foil hats are those who have opinions that go against the majority. For instance, someone who believes in UFOs would be said to wear a tin foil hat, as most people do not believe in UFOs. So, when we apply this to the economy, since most people seem to believe that “this economy” is doing poorly, the people with tin foil hats are the ones who say that the economy is not doing poorly.
