What do you guys actually do?

I completed the CFA a few years ago with the hope that I would be working in investment management. Most of the Charterholders I know work in Commercial Banking or unrelated industries.
I work as a data / finance analyst in a corporate role and have had trouble even getting an interview for anything investment management related.

Just wondering if people here have had similar paths, or if most people are actually working as “portfolio managers” like the CFA Institute materials would suggest.

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I’m a regulator. :man_shrugging:

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I sell repe products

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I teach CFA candidates how to pass the exams.

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College professor (finance)

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Life insurance actuary.

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That’s gotta be the life

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Do you want to get into WM or AM?

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Asset management forsure, but I’ve found without prior experience that no one is interested. I’d go as far to say as I had more of a chance coming out of undergrad than after I got my charter.

WM is intriguing, there’s more regulatory issues though, and most employers also want a CFP. It also feels like I’d be starting from the bottom in WM as opposed to continuing my career.

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Markets Quant in Asset Liability Management space. CFA is not particularly useful, as the curriculum does not teach models and I see most of the folks are coming from hard STEM background (phd in maths/physics/eco). But would like to believe as CFA provides some foundation around Valuation of financial products (or finance in general) that might be useful.

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Yeah I echo that statement. I have the triple crown (CFA, FRM, CAIA) and I work in capital markets risk mgmt which leverages a lot on the ALM framework. Again, not so useful because so much it is model/quant driven but I always felt like CFA provides a very high-level overview plus it’s great on your resume.

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