I agree. No way FA should count. However, for some reason the CFA’s newest acceptable job title list includes stuff that is even less relevant than FA such as mutual fund sales and investor relations. Seriosuly, I started laughing when I looked at that list. So I’m hoping that if the CFA did get lax I can benefit from it.
The bottom line is that if you are not getting an analyst role straight out of udergrad then you better have a plan for how you are going to break into the field–taling about the buyside here. My advice is if you can get into an operations role with a smaller asset management firm then do that, if you can’t get that gig straight out of school, then you need to start somewhere and fund accounting is as good as any entry level position. Take your one year in FA then parlay that into your next position–which would be at a buyside firm. Work hard, make it be known you want to get into research, network, pass CFA exams, and create your own luck. You would be amazed at how many research analysts start this way–I personal no several, even a few other State Street BOM’s that went through the FA grinder.
I guess shitty work stimulates you to not get too comfortable , work hard, and move on
sickel2 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- >> CFA_Halifax, I know how you feel. Its natural for > an intelligent person to hate zombie FA’ing. I > used my hatred of FA’ing as motivation for the > tests. Now I’m an L3 and my old boss couldn’t even > pass L1. Given I’m sure he makes more $ than me > now, but in 2 years time I’ll pass his chump ass > and never look back. > Trur dat. Almost all of the mgmt here have failed LI. I’m doing L III as well, but I did the first two back-to-cback out of school Dec06/Jun07. Fingers crossed…
equity_research had some great advice. It’s easiest to cross over from operations to CFA acceptable analyst work at a small firm.
I was a fund accountant in my first job after graduation…I didn’t like it and resigned after 6 mos. I would’ve stuck it out longer but it was more the crappy culture of my firm that made me want to quit. All in all I didn’t plan on staying in the job longer than a year…and ABSOLUTELY not longer than 1.5-2. Fund Accounting sucks but if you don’t have any experience or better offers coming out of school then take it. Just plan on getting out after a year like Equity Analyst said.
Anyone know how much does undergrad FA usually started with? Does commercial bank’s personal banker or business banker’s work experience count toward CFA charter?
Entry level FA’s start at a 33 k base in Boston for a 36 hour work week. Depending what group you’re in you should get 40 hours a week on average and get 36k for the year. I think banking roles have come up in the forum before and they don’t count, but I don’t know for sure.
sickel2 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Entry level FA’s start at a 33 k base in Boston > for a 36 hour work week. Depending what group > you’re in you should get 40 hours a week on > average and get 36k for the year. > > I think banking roles have come up in the forum > before and they don’t count, but I don’t know for > sure. Wow. I feel very OVERpaid in that case considering where I live…though I work a bit more than that.
Movado1108 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Anyone know how much does undergrad FA usually > started with? > > Does commercial bank’s personal banker or business > banker’s work experience count toward CFA charter? I was paid 36-38k in Philadelphia… standard 35 hours a week and was eligible for OT. The hours were 9:30-5:30 or 10-6.
I sure hope you guys aren’t including bonus. W/ Bonus and a bit of OT I’m at close to 50K CAD with a year in. I was around 40 last year. Small city
Sounds right, postings I’ve seen fall in that salary range and work hours. I spent less than 6 mos in the BO and it was very rare for me to work over a 8 hour day, and I had a huge block of time in the middle of the day where I generally studied for LI. CFA_Halifax; are you in the BO for a HF? I’ve heard they pay more, ecspecially if you’re working in bermuda; apparently we’ve lost a few to the beaches.
hedge fund admin yes. I have a lot of downtime which is usually spent on AF, reading the WSJ etc.
Boston, 35K + OT starting. While doin fund accounting work I rarely recieved OT. Now that I have moved to being a pricing analyst I am working aruond 45 hours a week. GenY
Fund accountants at my firm do the pricing as well. Your firm must have super extra specialized fund admin positions GenY…
“Fund accountants at my firm do the pricing as well. Your firm must have super extra specialized fund admin positions GenY…” I going to go out on a limb and say that allowing the guy doing the books to also be in charge of pricing is not a good idea!
Although this is the only place where I have worked in operations, it does seem that having a specialized pricing unit is the exception not the rule. I beleive this is done for a few reasons, we have a very high profile mutual fund buisness and our operations group does pricing for outside firms as well. Also, without getting into too much detail we dont just do pricing for mutual funds but for securities as well, bonds, options also lots of illiquid and complex stuff. I like it much better than fund accounting as I get to learn alot of about fringe securities, following markets is part of the job and also I get to interact with alot of brokers, traders, and even PM’s in my first year here. GenY
We require all our fund managers to have an independent pricing unit. If they don’t or cannot prove that it’s independent we won’t go ahead with the investment without an independent pricing unit at a remote administrator.
CFA_Halifax Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I sure hope you guys aren’t including bonus. W/ > Bonus and a bit of OT I’m at close to 50K CAD with > a year in. I was around 40 last year. Small city There was no bonus for me. I was in Mutual Fund accounting… God I hated it.
TPain88 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > CFA_Halifax Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > I sure hope you guys aren’t including bonus. W/ > > Bonus and a bit of OT I’m at close to 50K CAD > with > > a year in. I was around 40 last year. Small > city > > > There was no bonus for me. I was in Mutual Fund > accounting… God I hated it. Yup. It sucks. I am as good a shop as you can get in the business, lots of decent perks for what it it is. Still, you know the saying about perfume and pigs…