Im getting my edumakashion too son, the PHD.
So, from what I am hearing, there is no point in doing a Masters of Finance degree (UofT, Schulick, etc.) if one is already pursuing the CFA? Only a PH.d or a financial engineering type of degree would really be worth anything?
Try a technical masters like a mfe, ms in stats, mac or ms in finance. Trust me though, while ms in finance is no mfe, it’s also not “trivial”. My full time program was at least as hard as doing all three cfa levels and I learned a ton of practical skills from modeling through basic quant / risk management tools.
I am sorry but unless you do start working for a hedge fund/mutual fund (and only for certain roles) or in trading, MFE is useless and even worse than MSc Finance. People tend to label you as a quant and don’t consider you seriously for FO jobs. It really depends on your objectives but work experience makes a huge difference. The advantage of doing a masters is that it will buy you some time to look for a better job.
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Big cultural divide here. In Europe, it is very common to enter a masters degree straight out of undergrad and very unusual to take a year out after a few years working to take a full time higher degree. The opposite appears to be true in North America. Seeing as how you are based in Canada I believe, you should probably go with the consensus here that a masters is not worth it. Personally, I did a masters straight out of undergrad and subsequently got a job in a company that explicitly stated a masters degree as a requirement. Citing a masters degree or higher as a prerequisite is common for many front office jobs in Europe.