lrb42 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I think mzwerner has misunderstood me. What I > meant was as an engineer lives a particular field > he understands that area much better than a CPA. > For example an IT engineer will be far better to > value a technology company as compared to plan CPA > as he not only understands the financials from > his CFA studies but also understands technology > and how good/bad it could be for growth of an > organization Do you have any experience with this? If you are talking about large cap tech, there is little difference between a CPA and an engineer. The businesses are easy to understand and the valuation is pretty straight forward – not much different than any other large cap stock. If you are talking about small cap tech, there is no difference, because the valuations are based on guesses anyway. Engineering provides no value at all in finance, unless you are in a quant shop. I know a lot of people feel that engineering is the hardest major in college or the most manly major, which somehow makes them feel superior. In reality, engineering has nothing to do with the capital markets. Winning in the market comes down to having a solid grasp of business fundamentals and accounting, and being able to understand what other players are thinking and what decisions they might make. It involves processing a huge amount of *qualitative* material and making sense of it (engineers usually lag in this department, but not always). The quant aspect is a joke – mostly algebra, at best. I tend to agree with Dante here: I would much rather hire a history major than an engineer, but would prefer a CPA to both. Most of the best investors I know were liberal arts majors. Anyway, this thread is stupid. Engineers are not entitled to anything beyond maybe an entry level engineering job (enjoy your inflation-indexed raises). As noted earlier, please get off your high horse.
lrb42, I agree with you for the most part. AN IT engineer with signifigant time in said field with a CFA would be better able to vaule an IT company that I said field, however an IT engineer with a CFA would be on par with a CFA/CPA when analyzing a clothing retailer or an auto company. Nike - For what it’s worth I felt that the CPA fin analysis was on par with the combined fin analysis of Level I and II. Having gone throught the CPA process was very helpfull with those sections I scored >70 for both levels, and passsed both levels on the first attempt. Now for level III where CPA is no help 
It seems that bromion has girlfriend/boyfriend who was an engineer and who ditched him/her
bromion Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > lrb42 Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > I think mzwerner has misunderstood me. What I > > meant was as an engineer lives a particular > field > > he understands that area much better than a > CPA. > > For example an IT engineer will be far better > to > > value a technology company as compared to plan > CPA > > as he not only understands the financials from > > his CFA studies but also understands technology > > and how good/bad it could be for growth of an > > organization > > Do you have any experience with this? If you are > talking about large cap tech, there is little > difference between a CPA and an engineer. The > businesses are easy to understand and the > valuation is pretty straight forward – not much > different than any other large cap stock. If you > are talking about small cap tech, there is no > difference, because the valuations are based on > guesses anyway. > > Engineering provides no value at all in finance, > unless you are in a quant shop. I know a lot of > people feel that engineering is the hardest major > in college or the most manly major, which somehow > makes them feel superior. In reality, engineering > has nothing to do with the capital markets. > Winning in the market comes down to having a solid > grasp of business fundamentals and accounting, and > being able to understand what other players are > thinking and what decisions they might make. It > involves processing a huge amount of *qualitative* > material and making sense of it (engineers usually > lag in this department, but not always). The quant > aspect is a joke – mostly algebra, at best. I > tend to agree with Dante here: I would much rather > hire a history major than an engineer, but would > prefer a CPA to both. Most of the best investors I > know were liberal arts majors. > > Anyway, this thread is stupid. Engineers are not > entitled to anything beyond maybe an entry level > engineering job (enjoy your inflation-indexed > raises). As noted earlier, please get off your > high horse. good post
lrb42 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > It seems that bromion has girlfriend/boyfriend who > was an engineer and who ditched him/her Ha! Have you seen the women in engineering? No thanks. Engineers are just overrated, that’s all. But you seem to have a lot of self confidence… that will help you in life. Good luck.
Well there are lot of them and some of them pretty good looking also. By saying “there are no women in engineering” Bromion is making a raciest comment that women can’t be an engineer. This is not accepted from a highly educated person like you.
It ain’t racist women are not a race. He never said there where no women in engineering just that most of them aren’t hot. You may think that it was a sexist comment. Also when I was in school there where allot more women who where phsycology and communication majors than engin majors. In my opinion they were also allot hotter than the engin majors.
Well it depends on which school you went too and of course your luck. Anyway, let’s close this discussion as we all want to be CFA and great Portfolio Mangers one day.
I just passed level 1 never did any finance before not even an MBA. Anyone who says CFA is harder than engineering must have taken a smoke… Here is where they differ… Engineering: Not a large volume of material but the concepts are difficult to grasp. Also the math is very very complex so it makes it even harder. CFA: larger volume of material. Some concepts can be difficult but large volume of material is what really makes it difficult. Overall: If Engineering had to have a test like the CFA (in terms of volume) it would be incredibly difficult.
ucla_engineer, capitain I’d wait on your comments until level II and III
Bromion, I would love to see you say that in front of james simons… Ahahaah, people thinking that engineers have nothing to offer to finance are as narrow minded as engineers thinking they are superior because they attended a few more calculus classes. Anyone with a bit of common sense knows it comes down to the individual itself more than his choice of degree. Hence the reason why the only requirement to register in the CFA program is a university degree from any field… Come on, Engineers vs CPA, Pirates vs Ninja, Kung fu vs Karate, Chuck Norris vs…Wait, no one rocks as much as chuck. Can we stop with those meaningless posts… J.
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J. Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Bromion, > I would love to see you say that in front of james > simons… > > Ahahaah, people thinking that engineers have > nothing to offer to finance are as narrow minded > as engineers thinking they are superior because > they attended a few more calculus classes. I said aside from people in quant shops (i.e., engineers working in fundamentally based shops offer no advantage). Do you have a reading comprehension problem? Of course Simons has a huge advantage – was he even an engineer though? I thought he had a PhD in math. I agree with your second point. Yes, it comes down the individual. The best investor I know has a history degree. The second best was a journalism major. It doesn’t really matter, and that is my point exactly – engineers do not have an advantage when it comes to working in finance or passing the CFA exams. Thanks for agreeing with me.
I did inadvertently skip over the “quant shop” part of your post. Sorry about that. I’m glad we agree with the “it’s about the individual” part. There seems to be a lot of posters aiming for a career change on these boards. It might explain why we see so many of these posts. In my opinion, they are meaningless. When I did my L1, I saw engineers, financial analysts and econ majors fail. It doesn’t matter what background you come from. CFAI provides you with everything necessary to succeed (except the calculator and the hb#2 pen). It’s all about putting in the time, effort, and the little bit of luck come exam day. J.
It’s not close. Ninja >> Pirate.
> > I agree with your second point. Yes, it comes down > the individual. The best investor I know has a > history degree. The second best was a journalism > major. It doesn’t really matter, and that is my > point exactly – engineers do not have an > advantage when it comes to working in finance or > passing the CFA exams. Thanks for agreeing with > me. No one said engineers had an advantage, if you read the thread it was the exact opposite comment that pissed me off. The title of the thread implies that engineers are somehow handicapped when it comes to passing the CFA exams.