MBA and CFA

Water Cooler Careers
#1

I have a MBA from a top 10 european school and now thinking of going for CFA. The reason being I want to move into core finance and really cannot afford time and money to do Masters in Finance. CFA gives me the advantage of studying and working full time. Also I do not have much experience in finance (1 year MBA didnt cover finance topics in detail) but would like to make the career change before it gets much late. I know CFA is really tough but I think its worth it. Any thoughts or experiences on this?

Thanks

#2

Just be aware that the CFA is not the golden ticket. Also, if you don’t have 4 years of relevant experience in finance, you will never be awarded the charter.

#3

yes I understand that. And also that with so many charterholders CFA does not get you a golden ticket, nothing does tbh. But I believe you gotta start at some point

#4

What area of finance do you want to get into? Finance is large. CFA is more tailored to asset and asset managmeent and sell side research.

#5

Thanks as I think that is a very valid question. I have a strong interest in Corporate Finance, M&A

#6

isnt there only liek 4-5 top b schools in europe

#7

I believe that what you call “Corporate Finance” is what people in North America call “Investment Banking”, i.e. Debt Capital Markets, Equity Capital Markets, M&A, etc.

Just saying, “Corporate Finance” in North America is often understood as “Controlling”, and other things done in the finance department of a corporation.

With that out of the way, CFA isn’t bad for what you want to do, but it is not perfectly suited. You will have to deal with alot of stuff that is irrelevant for somebody M&A’ing (even on the sell side), with topics like ethics, portfolio management, behavioral finance, execution, GIPS, etc.

However you will cover some stuff like equity valuation, FI, derivatives, FSA, which are all good things to have a broad knowledge of in all financial fields.

All in all, CFA is clearly a plus to have for Investment Banking, but it is a relatively small plus and may not be worth the time and effort because it is geared towards other fields of finance.

Just my 0.02.

#8

Corp Finance is investment banking. bankers don’t care about the CFA charter. it’s great learning, don’t get me wrong, but bankers simply don’t care. or even view you oddly…

and i’m going to have to agree with igor, people usualyl don’t talk about top 10 MBA in Europe, since the quality falls off pretty fast. people usually limit it to top 3 or 5 at most

#9

Thanks Itera, then we can leave out the MBA part and I also agree with the quality comment. However I also think CFA is a great learning. To be honest that is one of the main reason also why I want to do it. Anyways I have now decided to go ahead with it and hopefully it will be a good experience.

#10

LBS or Insead…that’s pretty much it for good European b-schools no, what’s the third? I feel like your MBA would be a better tool to get into investment banking than CFA…given it’s from one of the top 3. CFA may help your knowledge, but unless you apply that somewhere, it’s really not worth much. What do you work in now?

#11

This statement is inaccurate for Europe.

CFA Charter is certainly a plus here in Investment Banking.

But as I said, a little plus that isn’t worth the time & effort.

#12

i work in corp finance but mostly involved with spend analysis so you can say not focused on core finance.

#13

I can go for MSF but in my book not worth the time, money and effort especially with a full time job