Especially in this job market if you can stay in school I would do so. I can't imagine a CFA w/o an MBA starting out today. I helped a kid with both MBA from a top school, CFA III and a 1yr. internship from FASB behind him to get a job. I wanted him to go to a hedgefund, thank God he didn't listen to me a year ago. He ended up at one of the top 8 or big 8 whatever they call those accounting firms. His salary was around 100k with a 20-30k kicker. He had to travel alot they told him. He would have gotten more in a major city, but wanted to return to Texas. He had a brilliant background though remember. I would say keep your head down and work and don't count your chickens... Good Luck. ...and figure out where your spellcheck dropdown is. Unless you want to work in Boston, then your phonetics is good at least for there.
best approx. indication of if you could handle CFA program is your SAT score. if you got below, say, 1200, you're in for some tough sledding.
The misspelling is embarrassing, but I can't edit it so sorry. I have never bothered with checking for errors in forum posts because I consider them informal, but it would probably be a good idea to change that way of thinking when I'm asking for advice from people that I assume to be professionals. Anyways, back on topic. I have since received an offer to work for the Anniston Army Depot in a contract negotiation office. This would be a good thing because I have relatively little experience and I think it would be a good opportunity. After talking with some of my teachers and advisors, I have decided it would be best to immediately begin studying for my first CFA exam as soon as I graduate this fall for the test in June (putting me on track to possibly completing the the 3rd exam only after 2 1/2 years), and continue on down that path until I have passed all three. Then, after I am secure financially, inquire about quality MBA programs in the area. I get the feeling that JSUââ¬â¢s MBA isnââ¬â¢t much more then a collection of classes from the different schools of business (i.e. undergrad classes) Iââ¬â¢m unsure if the contract negotiation office work would count for my experience requirement of obtaining a CFA charter. Either way, I would like to look for a more finance oriented job as soon as I graduate, but if the job market is still in the dumps 8 months from now, that might be difficult. Again, I appreciate anyone out there willing to give advice. Thank you.
I actually had read through a thread from that page and one from this page and decided that I had a better chance of getting unbiased answers from this site as opposed to analystforum.com because it has advertising for Stalla and seems to be geared towards just CFA discussion. Not that the info isn't helpful. Thank you. I just wanted to make sure i got some opinions from MBAs, CFAs, and people w/ both.
I am a prop trader who graduated from a 2nd tier private university about a year ago. I, too, thought that an MBA and CFA would be the path that I would probably pursue in the next couple of years. The CFA is probably still a good idea, but compensation is going to be coming down quite a bit. Here is the thing that u have to remember... the people that f*cked the whole world up were CFAs and MBAs. If we get through this fiasco, you are going to want to get your MBA after the B schools have retooled their curriculum. In any case, I am afraid that finance, CFA and MBA are going to have lost a whole hell of a lot of prestige and you simply will not be able to make it rain like the good ole days. Their is just know way that things will be the same for a very, very long time. Ever consider trading? That is what I have my heart set on for now, but it is a tough gig too...
oh and I forgot to edit my post... It should be no instead of know and there instead of their so don't give me a hard time all you english teachers out there....
I understand your point but at the same time, I don't think the business community at large blames the whole crisis on finance guys. Who were the people pushing the ideology that everyone should buy a house as soon as possible? Politicians. Banks didnââ¬â¢t just ignorantly go into this thinking everyone would be okay. Nobody really thought no-proof-of-income mortgages was a good idea. Fannie Mae said they would buy them. Who created such a policy? More importantly, who threatened unwilling banks with a lawsuit? Acorn and other like groups. Its politicians pandering to lower income citizens that the big, bad bank is screwing them, and theyââ¬â¢ll swoop in and save them. Of course its also the people who took these loans fault. No one is so ignorant that they donââ¬â¢t see the problem with taking out a mortgage when they have no realistic means of paying it. Being relatively new around here, I assume that their are other people on this board who could say it better, but the economy isn't in this position simply because of wall street greed and fat cat CEOs.
LOL, neither the MBA nor the CFA will teach you how the world really works. Your average defaulting home borrower has nothing to do with Level III assets on the books of the banks. Nor do they have anything to do with the financial heist going on as we speak. As for your primary question, I will be different from everything else being told to you. Try to learn a real trade skill, the legions of those who make money from producing nothing are being cut down seriously. USA is going to crash, do you really think finance is the place to be when that happens?
I'm with Anaconda on this one, learn a decent trade and work towards managing one of you're own crews. In my experience, the smartest guys in the room are not the JD's, MBA's or CFA's but the guys that see where supply is going to be thin and learn that particular trade, skill, etc. In my opinion this is how big money is made.