I hope you guys are able to give me useful insights for my situation. I am a fresh graduate student with a finance degree. I have been applying for entry-level jobs in numerous investment banks for three months, but unfortunately I am not selected for any of them. Ironically, I recently received an offer from a consultant firm as an administration assistant. I decided to take this offer and finish CFA level 1 to 3 exams in 2 years, and then I will start applying for entry level jobs in investment banks again. Does it sound like a plan? Will the CFA exams help me to get into IB industry??
I would say that the CPA will help you to become and accountant. If you want to be an accountant in an investment bank, or P&L officer type job then CPA can help. unfortunately if you don’t make it to front office IB on your first shot I don’t think CPA will necessarily increase you chances that much.
Getting into IB is not easy straight out of undergrad especially if you’re not from a top 15 school or so. Do you have any other offers or other lines of work you could get into? I ask because I think being an admin assistant will just be a waste of your time. You will just be scheduling meetings, booking rooms, and taking messages for someone…you’re basically a secretary and this won’t count for the required work experience that you need to obtain the CFA charter. I’d say you should look for something else, even in back office that would at least count for the required work experience. Passing the exams and being an admin for 2 years will not help you get into IB at all.
Don’t take the admin assistant position in the hopes of having time to take the CFA exams and then get into investment banking. you will have been a secretary for 2.5 years, and no bank will take you as a junior analyst.
Take a back office job instead. anything in back office will be better.
Man, is this the future of finance undergrads? I’d just drop it all and take up plumbing. That’s only half joking my friend. If all you can fetch is admin work, you’re better off going and learning a skilled trade. Or if you can afford it, go back to school and be an engineer or a computer science guy.
You’ll be better off spending another year trying to get into an IB than taking an admin position and studying for CFA. You never know when you might get lucky.
I have just applied for a back office clerk position in a hk based Japanese securities company. I believe it is better than the admin post in a consulting firm. I am so thankful for your suggestion.
Joe, anythign in back office doesn’t mean back office secretary. to extend that example, we’re not talking about working as like a toilet bowl cleaner in the investment banking dept at Goldman Sachs. we say back office like Controllers or Operations, where you at least have contact with the front office to some sorts. where you actaulyl get to learn about the financial products being traded at the least, or see the P&L, and get some exposure there.
No one’s goign to promote a secretary who takes calls and books flights to work as an analyst in investment banking.
If your goal is to break into IB and be in a front office role do not, I repeat do not take a back office role. It will be next to impossible to rebrand yourself.
You need to start networking in order to break into IB and simply applying to FO roles is not going to land you a pos. at an IB. Also, CFA will not help you break into IB and in fact most bankers do not care about CFA.
Thanks for the input guys. The reason I decided to tackle CFA exams is to make my cv look better and increase the chances of getting an entry level analyst pos. and I don’t think I can go anywhere w/o passing these exams because of the intense competition in hk.