I was a sucker and bought 10 of your Goldman DJIA linked structureds. Due in 5 years. So I actually want the market to crash short term (at least till mid September). It was definitely the strippers. The one from Lithuania really got me by the ballz.
I like how you slipped that in.
The author of that article has a very skewed/narrow point of view with a few fair points.
FIrst, you need to consider the target audience. That’s a website catered to people who want to be investment bankers. the author is telling people who want that career route to skip the CFA.
there are a lot of young wanna-be bankers that think “oh. maybe doing the CFA will get me in”. This would be a mistake. In fact, many CFA candidates have the same problem, thinking the CFA is a guaranteed way to get you into even equity research or asset management. It’s not a guarantee, not even close.
the writer’s flaw is when he says “Everything is based on money , rather than grades or paper designations. If you want to make a serious amount of money, you need to generate a serious amount of money and take a percentage of it – via investments, sales, clients, and so on.””
As a young junior investment banker, what the hell makes you think you’re the one “generating a serious amount of money” ?? It’s the same across any front office junior job. You’re a cost, you’re not running the deals, you’re not even sourcing the business.
In fact, as a junior banker, you are even MORE the bitch compared to say equity research, where the responsibility as a junior person is far higher than any junior investment banker. This is where the author starts to reek of either arrogance or sour grapes.
The “if-you-want-a-job. then don’t study the CFA” applies broadly across the finance world in the sense that: because it is a horrendous state in the finance world with lots of layoffs still happening, experience tops everything. It’s a very low chance you’ll land a job JUST BECAUSE you passed L2 or L3 even. Far too many experienced people out there to choose from.
So, the argument that you may as well spend your time trying to meet people that have the ability to hire you and that may hear of job openings before they are even posted, this is actually a reasonable argument.
Ultimately, I feel the CFA L1 is very relevant to ANY field of finance. banking/research/trading/asset management. It’s a great intro to the world of finance and a taste of everything.
L2 starts to get deep, although a lot of the FRA sections for adjustments to financials are actually HIGHLY relevant to bankers (when they create pro-forma financials in a take-out or merger)
L3 is heavily skewed to portfolio management, which obviously is useless for bankers and even for research analysts. In fact, I suspect that the CFA is so highly prized in research just as a stamp-of-approval in ways for show to the buy-side clients.
I don’t really appreciate this extreme focus on networking, interviews, and other stuff that’s not really productive.
I mean, a 1000 hours of networking may improve some kiss as* skills, but is it better than an education?
How about preparation for interviews? Tens of hours memorizing clever ways to answer how would I feel if I were a banana… Come on. Wouldn’t it be better to be contributing to a productive endeavor?
I don’t really know how to change this, but if we could have a lesser focus on who-knows-who, fruit/vegetable interview questions and stuff like that people could get more of an education and long term GDP could be slightly higher.
I hear ya, but on the Street, that’s pretty much how its run. People get hired because they go to the same gym, were frat brothers, or have some other common bond. Going through the CFA program and sharing your experiences is one example of this. This just doesn’t apply to finance, but many other areas as well.
I agree. But you need to realize that if you have to see and work with the same person for say 17 hrs a day, you want someone with a good personality, friendly, social. You’ll see this person more than they see their wife/husband.
This is why you see underqualified people land jobs. Let’s face it though, a lot of entry level jobs are not rocket science anyway. I have friends that became junior investment bankers , and overwhelmingly the comment I hear is “I don’t know why they demand so high credentials, the job is brainless”
You have a better chance to get hired with the designation if the hiring manager also has one. Those that not usually don’t care about it for whatever reason.
The ‘article’ or ‘blog’ you quoted from ‘mergersandacquisitions’ is a piece of low quality www garbage written by a complete band 1 failure douchebag who has a chip on the shoulder because he failed to pass Level II after trying for the second time.It is easy to stick to old patterns and claim that all you need to become a good banker is to claim supremacy in asskissing (pardon, networking). We can only hope that such douchebags are replaced by people with sound academic credentials such as CFA and who knows, maybe the financial world would be a less controversial place.
Why did you get the CFA while bein employed in IB?
He pleads the 5th.
bpdulog/iteracom - I know this is how things work - was just hoping for some utopic dream or whatever expression with the same meaning, but not sounding so corny.
Good personality is a nice trait, and may bring some kind of natural networking, but the “forced” stuff is a pain.You know the drill. Kid gives you good morning or exchange a single sentence to complain about the coffee and then wants to change cards to “develop the relationship” or whatever - this isn’t really good personality. I can’t blame them - it’s the nature of the game, but its still weird.
finance/banking is a very competitve industry and attracts more saddistic and narcassitic people than any other career.
people are always sizing each other up and the attitude is always “I know everything and everyone else is shit”. (at least outside there your own firm). buysiders think sellsiders are idiots, brokers think buysiders are morons, bankers think asset management people are weak. everyone thinks back office is a joke. the whole thing is disgusting.
the thing about the CFA is that regardless of how much money you make/have, what your job title is, the school you went to, the size of your nose, the look on your face… you might have zero people skills but no one can say with a straight face that you arent a competant and qualified investment professional. (if a CFA says a security is a BUY, you can be confident they arent pulling it out of their ass, at the very least they have earned the right to pull it out of their ass 
) if there are any secrets or mysteries to finance, CFA Charterholders know them. the CFA program attempts to level the playing field.
I’m glad there’s a contingent out there that respects the designation. Working for a big 4 accounting firm, it seems like a joke. I think CPAs go up the ladder faster than the relatively few PhDs that work for the firm.
I disagree… Of course, that might just be the narcissism talking.
That is true. Never thought about it like that before. Maybe it’s a way to inflate one’s own ego and importance. I’m sure it’s the same in the medical field between doctors. Aren’t dentists people that failed medical school?
Disagree, but this has been dabated to death.
“What’s the matter, Billy?”
“I’m afraid.”
“Billy, you ain’t afraid of no man!”
“This ain’t a man.”
Anyways, I’m afraid we’re going through perhaps an extended period of time where elite designations will carry no weight, and even be detrimental to one’s career progress or employment. I think that if you are not on the boat already, you will drown for a few years, unless you are a kid fresh out of undergrad.
A fox saw some delicious grapes hanging high on the vine. Although he leaped with all his strength and might, he was not strong enough to reach them. As he went away, the fox remarked, ‘They were probably sour anyway. I don’t need them’