where can you go with a CFA?

This may be an unusual question to ask in a CFA forum but bear with me. Im wondering if a CFA is only looked highly upon by banks. The reason is that Im at a crossroads right now. I studied finance in university but then took the past three years off to teach English in Asia. Not quite a common route for a finance student I know but Ive had the time of my life over here. Long story short, its time to get back to reality and Ive been wondering if I should go the MBA route or the CFA route. I am open to working in different corporate environments, not only banking, thats where my question stems from. To be blunt, I have been out of the academic/financial loop for a while now but from what I can gather an MBA isnt going a long way these days. I am a native English speaker and have also learned Japanese so I would like to leverage these skills into a a fulfilling career, just not sure which route to take to get there. Sorry for my rambling but just looking to get some good advice here. Thanks

If you speak good japanese, definitely try leveraging that. As well. As to CFA vs MBA, thats an age old debate that stems back to the biblical times. I believe it is even mentioned several times in the Torah

I wouldn’t recommend the CFA for anyone that isn’t going to work in a fairly specific sector of finance. It is just not worth the work, in my opinion. It’s a huge commitment and the payoff won’t be there for you unless you work in the areas of finance where they really require the designation. I can’t tell you how many charterholders I know that have told me the same thing. Many don’t even pay their annual dues because they don’t feel that it’s even worth it. You would be better off using the time and energy in you put into the CFA in specifically chasing your career goals, getting hired, working your butt off there. If, once you have a job, you see that they encourage you to pursue the charter than by all means do so. An MBA, if you can get into a top program, would be a better route in my opinion. But it needs to be a good program. I’ve also been in Asia for the past 4 years and having a great time - I speculate on land. I’m at a similar crossroad. I may have just completed the program (results pending) but I do not expect that will somehow yield a specific job for me. I will be applying for an MBA program this fall.

Why did you learn finance in college and go teach English for 3 years? It’s going to look like you couldn’t find a job, no one wanted to hire you, and you had no choice. Not trying to be harsh, but you’re going to get this discussion during interviews

A CFA and $2.25 gets you on the subway, and that can take you pretty far.

More seriously, MBA may be an easier way to get to the industry. CFA is good for advancement once you are there. Asian experience can be useful, although it is obviously more helpful if you understand China or Korea than Japan. I’d play the English-in-Japan thing as taking the best opportunity to become more globalized.

First off, Id like to thank you all for taking the time out to answer me. I appreciate your honesty however blunt it may come. I realize a big hurdle I face in explaining the 3 year gap to teach English after graduating. To spare you the boring details, the reason I came was a mix of becoming more “globalized” and also finding myself, which I know wont translate well in interviews. To be honest, how I see it now is it will be difficult for me to return home and look for jobs with no previous experience. I see at least a CFA level 1 as giving me somewhat of an in. What I have taken away from what you guys have said is that it is best to wait and pursue it later if I dont have the burning desire now to work in high finance. Thanks for the advice

If you are SURE you want to do asset management or hedge fund type of work, it couldn’t hurt to start the CFA now, though, since you’ll probably want to do it later anyway. All I’m saying is that don’t expect it to be more than it is. CFA is also great for your own personal knowledge and investing. From a financial perspective, it’s easy to improve your investing with CFA knowledge enough to get a good return on the money cost of doing the program (most of that is through mistakes avoided rather than opportunities discovered). The only reason that one wouldn’t say just do it for the personal knowledge is that it’s also a buttload of work, and probably more than it’s worth if you are not going to do this professionally.

dusmar84 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > To be honest, how I see it now is it will be > difficult for me to return home and look for jobs > with no previous experience. I see at least a CFA > level 1 as giving me somewhat of an in. > Sorry, passing L1 won’t land you a job. It can help you, and yes you can cling to that hope.But don’t bank on it landing you a job at all. There are quite a few people that passed L2 and L3 looking for a job just like you are If your goal is to just refresh your finance knowledge, that’s fine. > What I have taken away from what you guys have > said is that it is best to wait and pursue it > later if I dont have the burning desire now to > work in high finance. > Yes

dusmar84 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > First off, Id like to thank you all for taking the > time out to answer me. I appreciate your honesty > however blunt it may come. > > I realize a big hurdle I face in explaining the 3 > year gap to teach English after graduating. To > spare you the boring details, the reason I came > was a mix of becoming more “globalized” and also > finding myself, which I know wont translate well > in interviews. > Actually, I think the three years teaching English in Asia could be pretty stellar IF you find yourself across the the table with the right interviewer (like me or my boss, we’re not hiring tho). However, I would NEVER utter the phrase “finding myself” in an interview, you’ll sound like a goddam hippie. I would say you saw that the continuing development of the Asian middle class would be shaping world events over the next decades and you took the opportunity while you were young to get a first hand perspective. Mention any language familiarity you have, and find some anecdotes of economic or societal events you witnessed that a typical Westerner would never guess. Sound educated, show a natural sense of curiosity that proves you have an inquisitive mind and took an interest in the countries you were in besides partying. Draw parallels between those anecdotes and current economic events as well as some well thought out predictions. DO NOT BE APOLOGETIC. Find parallels between teaching and the skills you built there and being able to analyze people and communicate well with them as well as circumvent barriers. Show you are adaptable. I have friends that did 2 year cycles with Teach For America in the projects after a good education and were able to talk and network their way through that into a job. If they can do that, you should be able to find a way in with your foreign teaching experience. That being said, the TFA network is strong, so they did have that advantage. Anyhoo, good luck.

Hi dude. Here’s the thing about entry level finance recruiting. Banks don’t want to hire sophisticated, worldly people. They want to hire b*tches. That is, people to mindlessly hack away at an endlessly growing pile of paperwork and unfinished Power Point presentations. The best candidate is the guy whose naivety and rabid enthusiasm renders him oblivious to the fact that his work is almost entirely meaningless. You would be spending the next two years metaphorically licking the tar off of your boss’s Porsche - and doing it with a smile on your face. If I was a potential finance employer, your pursuit of unrelated activities would make me question your suitability to be my b*tch. You would need to put up a blood sacrifice to show your commitment: for example, spend two years and a shitton of money getting an MBA degree.

you can go wherever the fudge u want. CFA doesn’t come with travel restrictions…

dusmar84 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > First off, Id like to thank you all for taking the > time out to answer me. I appreciate your honesty > however blunt it may come. > > I realize a big hurdle I face in explaining the 3 > year gap to teach English after graduating. To > spare you the boring details, the reason I came > was a mix of becoming more “globalized” and also > finding myself, which I know wont translate well > in interviews. > > To be honest, how I see it now is it will be > difficult for me to return home and look for jobs > with no previous experience. I see at least a CFA > level 1 as giving me somewhat of an in. > > What I have taken away from what you guys have > said is that it is best to wait and pursue it > later if I dont have the burning desire now to > work in high finance. > > Thanks for the advice finding yourself my foot, you were blowing backs out in J-land.

ZeroBonus Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > you can go wherever the fudge u want. CFA doesn’t > come with travel restrictions… LOL

cfa demonstrates commitment. also, rather than going through your investment banking and/or investment management career without an iota of a clue, cfa teaches you that iota.

pawn Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > cfa demonstrates commitment. also, rather than > going through your investment banking and/or > investment management career without an iota of a > clue, cfa teaches you that iota. That’s kind of what I’m trying to say with the b*tches thing. Unless you are senior enough that your opinions actually matter, it’s better to just be a dedicated drone. Taking the CFA demonstrates a bit of commitment, but an MBA demonstrates a lot more commitment. Having five internships in college will probably make you an attractive candidate for IB analyst positions. It’s not for your knowledge - no one expects a new graduate to know anything. It’s because you’ve demonstrated great dedication.

iteracom Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > dusmar84 Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > To be honest, how I see it now is it will be > > difficult for me to return home and look for > jobs > > with no previous experience. I see at least a > CFA > > level 1 as giving me somewhat of an in. > > > > Sorry, passing L1 won’t land you a job. It can > help you, and yes you can cling to that hope.But > don’t bank on it landing you a job at all. There > are quite a few people that passed L2 and L3 > looking for a job just like you are > > If your goal is to just refresh your finance > knowledge, that’s fine. > > > > > What I have taken away from what you guys have > > said is that it is best to wait and pursue it > > later if I dont have the burning desire now to > > work in high finance. > > > > Yes Speaking of people looking for work, what happened to your cheating friend, did she find a job, plan on resuming the CFA (sorry can’t remember if she was suspended for a period of time)?

I’m assuming you were in Japan if you can speak it, did you try and find something there in your field? Being fluent in English/Japanese is huge, I’m sure you can find a decent entry level job in finance somewhere. I have a buddy who works for Reuters in Japan (although he has an MBA and just wrote level 2).

spreads Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > Speaking of people looking for work, what happened > to your cheating friend, did she find a job, plan > on resuming the CFA (sorry can’t remember if she > was suspended for a period of time)? She wasn’t a friend, just some girl I met from a mutual friend. I hear she is still looking for a job, but is now taking some classes at a local college. She got suspended, not sure how long, but they didn’t let her take L2 this year.

MBA without any corporate work experience is worthless (in majority of the situations, yours probably falls into this category)… no company will want to pay a high salary (compared to someone with undergrad) for a person who has no real experience under their belt.