Hi everyone, I am a chemist working in the pharmaceutical industry, and I sat Level 1 in December 2007. Does anyone out there have a similar background, and if so, how did you get started in the finance industry? Many thanks, nzcfa
“a chemist working in the pharmaceutical industry” ?! I guess it just deosn’t pay to have a meth lab anymore.
It’s not that unusual for a chemist to be in the pharma industry - who do you think invents the drugs that you take if you get ill?
i guess the obvious role who be an analyst for the pharma industry
nzcfa Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > It’s not that unusual for a chemist to be in the > pharma industry - who do you think invents the > drugs that you take if you get ill? I know that. I’m just joking around with you.
I am a Chemical Engineer with an MBA in Finance with 8+ years in pharma/biotech. I am going through the job application process to switch careers. I am signed up for CFA1 for June 2008. I am hopeful as well to lend a job as pharma analyst as “onlygodknowswhy” recommended.
It definitely crossed my mind while studying for Level 1 that I would find the content a hell of a lot easier if I already was in the industry! But have to start somewhere I guess. Is there anyone else with similar background?
I’m a physicist, wrapping up my PhD in experimental condensed matter physics right now. I took the L1 in Dec 2007. I became interested in finance after seeing a quantum field theory class’s lecture notes refer to a comparison of stock price movements to Feynmann path integrals, and then seeing the derivation of Black-Scholes equation in this viewpoint. Prior to this I had no idea financial markets had any basic structure to them, I thought the markets were just basically a giant baseball card trading show. 
That was about 2-3 years ago, and this past summer I ventured to do an internship on Wall St, which was pretty fun, and showed me that I do like the field enough to switch from physics.