Hi there - I have recently completed the CFA program and starting to look for a new career in the capital market industry. I haven’t worked in the industry before, but have a strong financial analysis background along with and MBA and accounting designation. My main concern right now is that I have been working for that past 3 years in the non-for-profit sector and have been spoiled with a 9 - 4:30pm job while doing only about 20 hours of actual work a week. I haven’t taken my laptop home with me since the first week of working here. My question is about which types of jobs are out there in the capital markets that allow you to keep some type of work life balance? Thanks
Generally in finance, more money equals more stress and/or hours, especially for entry-level positions. If you become a rich HF manager, than maybe you can get analysts to do all the work for you. However, most people who become that successful have made tremendous personal sacrifices early in their careers.
jimmylndn Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I have been working for that past 3 years > in the non-for-profit sector and have been spoiled > with a 9 - 4:30pm job while doing only about 20 > hours of actual work a week. I work in the yes-for-profit sector and my workload isn’t that much different. It’s just a matter of how productive/how much value you add during those hours that matter.
At the end of the day, it should only be the results that matter. Unfortunately, a lot of managers are still measuring the wrong currency and looking at “face time”. Jimmylndn – can you email me when you quit your current post and it becomes available? 
I think you will be hard pressed to find those hours in the private sector, particularly in finance. One thing you do not want to do is focus on work/life balance in interviews. You have to do your own investigating on the side (talk to trusted, current and former employees). My hours have actually been pretty good since I left the sell side for the buy side (hint hint).
my advice to you would be to stick with your cush accounting role if you want work/life balance. the only problem is that you will have to justify the 900 hours or so you put into studying for the CFA while you couldve been doing other things like meeting chicks and travelling.
I’m currently at a ratio of .1429 hours in office to hours in total week. You gotta interview the manager/company and weed out those who are obsessed with “face time”. Certainly you can find something that fits your style but being a newbie you have less bargaining power, of course.
It all comes down to the culture of the company. Some firms pride themselves on working their employees to death while others really want to make the Forbes top places to work list. In the end the pay may not even be that much different. Ideally you could talk to someone that you trust at a firm you’re interviewing with and ask about the culture. That’s not always an option of course, so you just have to ask questions during the interview and get a feel for the environment.
thanks for the input guys - as for I_Passed’s comments - the CFA wasn’t a sacrifice to me at all (except for the month of May), when you do only 20 hours a week of actual work means you have 20 hours free per week at work as well- lol.