I work a full time job as a clerk at a local insitution and have always wanted to expand my career. I seek income and I want exposure to the capital markets and what not. I'm not fond of the whole trading thing too much, unless it is required as I know 'real' trading isn't necessarily about day in/day out transactions. I'm thinking about either a CFA or a Master's Degree. But I guess I want to hear and see if there are any careers in the fixed income side/ equity side, or if there's a potential for me to do something I enjoy. I don't want to sell funds, or be a financial advisor. I did think about being a portfolio managers, but that's so far away. Right now, I feel like I'd enjoy the operational sides of things. Any advice from 'real' people? Not just retail guys. lolz
Institutional Sales - relationship manager for clients of a bank Risk Management - ensuring that the firm isn't over exposed Research analyst - coming up with trade ideas as well as following various stocks Quant - building models CFA won't help you get a job. Masters from a good school in a relevant field (MBA, Masters in Financial Engineering) will help. Research analyist is the best in my opinion. A good one will always have employment somewhere and you can dial up and down your career based on work life preferences. After that Risk Management is good because while it's a lot of reports, there's a lot of interesting problems to look at.
BS. CFA definitely helps you get a job, but is much harder than MBA. Although MUCH cheaper. MBA helps but you saddle yourself with tons of debt. In my experience, those who cannot get CFA get MBA. Some get both, those are the really driven ones.
Yeah. I've seen friends of mine who couldn't even pass the first test (much easier than the 2nd and 3rd) go on and get an MBA from Columbia. They ended up doing just fine, but aren't research analysts. Half of them are freggin marketers. yech.
I'll never under-estimate a degree or certficiation, but rather I've come to realize that if you can pass the CFA in today's terms, you aren't some BS type of guy. I'm not saying a Master's degree is worthless either, but both require hard work. I'm kind of stuck in cross roads in terms of maintaining a hold in today's world. I'm not into the glitz and glamor that a lot of people make it out to be, because it's not. I want to solidfy and find the next step in my career/job. I'm thinking about a Master's degree though, because of networking outlets, but the CFA seems more technical and applicable. I don't know where my true passion lies, or what I'm really good at. I just have a bachelors in business/finance. To say the least, I forgot a GOOD CHUNK of the stuff I've learned. Yet, I've seen a lot of senior guys still very good w/ their BUSINESS CALCULATORS. lolz I wanna be like that, be in something where my profession is second nature.
Figure out what you want to do and then get the appropriate masters. If you want walk street work be flexible between all the career options. A cfa is okay but no one gets a job because they have it. And getting into Columbia MBA way harder than cfa level 2 (that being the hardest of the three exams). It also will pay better life long dividends.
Depending on your geography, you'll have some different options. For example I lived in an "energy" city and started as a nat- gas scheduler then worked my way to trader. Then I moved to a smaller city where that job unfortunately did not exist so I checked out what was available. I eventually settled on a position in ALM with an insurance co. Like scheduling, this has an operational component, more or less depending on your role. Even though I'm working in the capital markets, its more corp finance than a trader role but ops is the best way to learn any business IMHO. I guess the point is to be creative, lots of different ways to work in cap mkts but probably none of them are as glamorous as most think. My friends hear I'm an analyst but their concept of what I do is so far from reality... entertaining! It's doable, just hope you aren't disappointed when you get there Best of luck
I'm sorry - false. The guy I was referring to couldn't pass level 1 (on two tries!) and got into Columbia MBA. Whats the pass rate for an MBA class out of Columbia? I'm guessing in the 90's? All 3 CFA exams have 40% pass rate. (0.40)^3.....