I, Puneet Singal cleared my Level 2 Exam (held in June, 2012) after clearing my Level 1 Exam (held in December, 2011). I have been looking for a job in a finance domain since the result came out about 4 weeks back.
I have mailed my Resume and Cover Letter to lot of companies but till now have not got any interview call. Before joining the CFA Program, I was told that every level of CFA has its own value and that Level 2 is held in very high regard i.e. one does not have a big problem in getting a job after clearing Level 2 Exam.
Apart from this I have a PGDBM (Finance) and B.Com. I also have 1 year of professional work experience.
Can someone guide me how to go about jobs?? Is it because of the slowdown that the hiring process is slow or one has to clear Level 3 Exam also in order to get a decent job??
My preferred companies to work are the investment banks. Can someone also throw some light on this??
Hey man, I don’t know what you want to do exactly, but you have to network. I am a charterholder myself and can’t even get equity research associate interviews through online applications, let alone anything in risk management or back office. You gotta network, that’s pretty much the only way to do it. Once in a blue moon I’ll get a call from a recruiter trying to stick me in a compliance role or another consulting gig, but I’m over that already. So what I’ve done is gone to almost every single networking event my local society holds and try to reach out to folks on LinkedIn. For what it’s worth, having the 3 letters does give you some credibility, but don’t expect potential employers to be throwing themselves at you.
I got a job as a retail banker after college (checking accounts + home equity loans = sucks!). Worked really hard for a year, got noticed, and met some brokers. Those brokers got me in front of portfolio managers for information interviews. Applied for a few different jobs in my company’s asset management group. After I applied, the brokers and PMs I met called the hiring managers to put in a good word for me. No level of CFA, no MBA at this point, just an Econ degree with some math background. Five years later, I’m a mid level buy side fixed income analyst and absolutely love my job.
There’s a little bit more to my story but the point I’m trying to make is that you can’t sit back, send out your resume, and expect something to happen. You need to show some initiative because you’re competing against people like me.
First identify what you want to do. You should try to get a related job to that and then try to excel in that and amke a mark. That will prove your credentials and yes, networking is essential comonent in today’s world.