Real Gs play Counter Strike.
this is a great post. Probably the best I’ve seen on the topic.
exactly
Hell yea
CFA cant break into finance or banks as easily as connections, a good degree, etc
what it does is that it shows that the individual bothers to study for it and from there HOPES to break into finance. given how CFAI pushes itself as a “gold standard” in financial knowledge.
a person with normal degree, does that mean he/she will have to live with it forever? just settle into mediocrity?
its just another weapon in ur arsenal, that said, u still need other skills then just a good weapon. after all, john rambo can shoot down soldiers just with a bow and arrow. u got a M4A1 carbine, but u still need to be able to shoot straight just to land a shot on john rambo
Good degree should gets you good connections because of alumni base, quality firms hire there, and your friends assuming you are social are more likely to help you out. Example: I got my first two professional jobs at UCLA career center. I just graduated UCLA at 2011, and I already helped a friend/classmate find another job from another friend that was hiring.
The CFA tests are more like a standardized test that ignores what school you are from and is dirt cheap, just takes a ridiculous amount of work. But I think it helped me get my job in the industry I wanted to be in because my current employer was looking for a CFA candidate. I started looking for a job right after I finished taking the test to milk the level I CFA candidacy for all its worth and I got interviews in the industry, but I never got an offer until I updated my resume as level II CFA Candidate. On my first interview after updating, I was hired in the and I left the consulting industry. My pay was also higher, equivalent to a promotion on the other industry. So it did exactly what I expected. I just passed level II too so I am going to polish my resume again, considering its that time of the year for a raise. hehe.
Thank you all for your comments. Here is an update:
Last week I invited my former boss who had hired me at one of the big four. He’s now a VP at one of Canada’s largest pension funds. I figured he’d be willing to at least vouch for me in a job I had applied for at the pension fund. Or perhaps tell me he’d let me know when there was an opening in his department. Countless times I hinted I was looking for something. All I got in return was a blank stare of death. There could have been a tornado, and not one strand of hair would have moved. Then it dawned upon me that he likely regretted hiring me in the first place and wouldn’t dare risk the skin on his ass for me at the pension fund. If I could find a graphical representation of how it felt, it must have been like a dozen of simultaneous powerful kicks to my crotch that sent my testicles back up in my body.
Of all the comments, this one was the most helpful. I’ve been looking through this. Thanks.
I don’t have the charter as I haven’t formerly applied to earn the title. Why would I dish out some $400+ just to put the acronym next to my name when my resume clearly shows I passed all three exams? Also, I’m not looking to move out of the country. I would perhaps consider the US, but not anywhere else. Fact is some people are just accustomed to their culture and would not adapt well abroad.
Good idea, thanks.
I only apply to jobs that ask for qualifications I meet on the line. I’m not expecting to get hired at Goldman Sachs.
Like others have speculated, interviews aren’t my stength, and something I need to work on much harder to improve.
Thanks for this insight. However it would be unfair to blame my failures on bad luck. There’s always room for improvement.
I went to McGill. I find it false that “Canada has a lot of opportunity for finance careers.” From what I’ve seen, opportunities are few and far between.
Thanks Numi for this helpful post. One thing I realize I hadn’t been doing is asking myself “how can I help this company and this manager?” For some positions, this question becomes difficult to answer even after doing some research on the company. But as a prospective employee, I suppose it is my duty to look elsewhere for answers. I am discouraged and I feel beaten, but I’m not giving up. I want to get back up on my feet and fight this turd job market.
On Tuesday I will have next interview and I’m quite nervous - I hate interview part I don’t know how to answer on dozen of tricky questions 
…
But still deep inside I hope that CFA in my resume would give me some advantages
Kings -
If you’re talking about OTPP or CPP, sorry dude but by the nature of the business it’s hard to get hired there. Even when they do recruiting, they typically only recruit people at the Master’s level and upwards; they don’t touch undegrads with a 10 foot pole. So chances are your ex boss’s stare of death wasn’t necessarily an indicator that he regretted hiring you. I don’t you or him, so maybe it was. But from the way that you’re describing it, it’s possible that he was just taken aback at your ignorance of his current firm. Also, a thing you may (or may not be) ignoring is that your skill level may not be as great as you think it is. Okay, so you graduated from McGill, got a job doing ____. But what do you actually know how to DO well after all this? And by this I mean what are your actual, tangible skills? Do you know how to program? Do you know how to do research well and distill information into diagrams and graphs? Do you know statistics (i.e. more than the piddly requirements of the CFA program)? Are you great at selling stuff, pitching ideas or building a network of contacts quickly? If you haven’t done so already, take an inventory of what your skills are. Do you have more soft skills or hard skills? Depending on what you’re good at, pick one (or both) categories to work on. Like Numi pointed out above, I think a lot of commerce undergrads (especially the non-accountants) simply assume that their undegrad degree and CFA actually tells employers that they know how to do things, when in reality all they’re really good at (the few who are good) is making PowerPoint presentations. And not for nothing, but if you really think you’re good at investing, start your own firm with your own savings and make money that way. If you’re as good as you think you are, you’ll make money even if you can’t afford a Bloomberg terminal subscription.
good analogy, but I think people shouldn’t take it literally.
I agree that the finance job market is not too great right now, but in all honesty, OP’s credentials are just not that great. Getting jobs that pay you hundreds of thousands of dollars a year is just hard. Most people will fail to get those jobs, no matter what year it is.
Well said.
Amazing how some basic free advice from Ramit has really turned my life around. For the last several weeks, I am actually getting serious attention from some employers. I’ve rehauled my resumes, made my cover letters more effective, direct, and to the point, and my interviewing skills have dramatically improved. This isn’t to say it was easy and effortless… I have over 325 documents in my “career” folder and would spend two days getting ready for interviews. I would put in an average of 5 serious applications per week. I contacted some old colleagues that I thought weren’t very fond of me. And now, I know I’ll have the best job offer of my life in less than a month.
I won’t name that pension fund because against all my expectations, they DID in fact contact me for a phone interview, and then an in-person interview. The department manager even SINCERELY congratulated me for passing all of my CFA exams… I gave myself a mental tap on the back. Even though in the end I wasn’t selected for the third round of interviews, I was told I was an excellent candidate, and encouraged to apply again in the future for another poisition at the pension fund.
Given that you need four years of work experience to get the charter . . . .
People say that like it’s super easy to do. 
I mean, i don’t know you may be very good looking but i don’t think prostitution is an easy occupation, how many millionaire hookers have you met? And out of all hookers and gold-diggers in the world…
Then again, never say never, perhaps you can make it, and i actually do not look poorly on anyone who does that.
Don’t quit yall. Make sure no person can ever call you a quitter.
Finally, after countless months of job searching – I was finally made an offer that was way beyond my expectations by a well respected government entity.
Thank you all for the support. I waited for a very long time, but in the end it all worked out.
Special thanks for those who referred me to Ramit Sethi.
I might also add that in the meantime, I’ve been taking accounting courses to work towards my CPA. I also wrote the GMAT and scored 660, which is good for any top Canadian business school, and some US Ivy league business schools.
congrats!
nice job