What’s the difference between a mechanical engineer and a civil engineer?
Mechanical engineers build weapons.
Civil engineers build targets.
OP you don’t seem to want to take the advice of people here about the CFA vs. MBA. I’m only seeing excuses and defense of your position about the MBA. Sorry if this seems harsh, it’s not meant to be. I also started as a mechanical engineer (BS, MS, PhD but didn’t finish that degree. …abd) I worked as an engineer for several years. Then i got my MBA from a top university and moved into finance where I’ve had a number of roles in various areas. I was able to do that in my engineering company ONLY because of the MBA. They told me that lots of engineers want to move to finance but that it was almost impossible otherwise. And if you think about it, it makes sense. With the MBA they know you have a certain level of skill. Later, once i had experience, i got the CFA and FRM. my comment to you is, you really need to stand out in an already very crowded field of highly experienced applicants who may well have done internships in finance and knew what they wanted from the start. It is not easy to transition from engineering to finance. The knowledge isn’t that transferrable unless you had the right technical background including outstanding dev skills and are trying to be a quant. The PMP?! that’s not at all going to help unless you just want to be a business analyst or project manager. Won’t help you get a high quality job in finance. I don’t think you should expect to be able to take shortcuts and get in the door without doing the hard work everyone else had to do. You don’t have to get an MBA but it will definitely show commitment and can open doors that would otherwise remain closed. But it really has to be a top tier school. No hacksaws. In my last role, many of the MDs were graduates of my school. I heard that the CEO of microsoft is from my cohort (clearly he’s technical but also has a great MBA)and many other successful people came from that school as well. There is a bond between classmates of the same program even when you’ve never met. Failing that, great experience can work. But the traditional path to getting experience in finance at this point in your career, in my opinion, is the MBA. Not the CFA. And if you do ignore my advice based on years of helping others with the same goals and pursue the CFA please don’t be one of those who puts on your resume “passed all three levels first try” does not impress us. Please just don’t. Impress us with your passion, ideas and demonstrated success. You can start with an MBA. Maybe you’ll be lucky and find your own path that doesn’t include a top MBA. As others have said you can do a top financial engineering masters. I also did that. After the MBA. But that leads you to a quant field where you’ll compete against those who also may have PhDs in astrophysics or computer science or math. being successful in finance or likely any field these days requires continued learning. I wish you the best.