Toronto has the highest concentration of CFA holders. And it seems the least amount of opportunity for equity/investmen bankingt/research type jobs.
What job do you hold and what qualifications/experience did you need to get it?
Personally, I am a Jr. FX Trader and I didn’t need any experience or qualifications to get it. (It’s secretly a sales job)
In what sense is it a sales job. What do you do exactly?
It’s called trader, but it’s not that. It’s calling people (businesses) trying to make them your clients, and then having them trade with you, but you don’t actually execute the trade (yeah, I was shocked when I found out I was mislead). Someone else in the office executes the trade
^ Can you sell? I would think that FX Sales would be pretty hard to do.
Nevertheless, I am a CFA level 2 candidate. 22 years old. Graduated from Ry High. Work for an actuarial consulting company as an investment analyst in the investment consulting division.
FX sales is a really hard job, especially if you work for one of the dime-a-dozen boutique firms in Toronto. In terms of “least amount of opportunity for equity/investment banking/research type jobs.” I would disagree. Opportunities are limited everywhere, and Toronto’s influx of educated financial professionals makes it tough to land the available positions.
About me: 23 years old, CFA level 2 candidate, CSC completed, Undergrad in finance. Work as an Inside Wholesaler for a mutual fund company. But regardless of my education/background, the most important factor for me to land this job was NETWORKING! In fact every job I have gotten has been through networking.
I’m going to guess Aon?
Nope, we do the same shit though
Hey middleclass, ya, I do pretty well actually, but I genuinely hate it. The irony is strong. I’m not a salesperson, but I can talk. How did you land your job btw? Who did you meet, or what experience did you have on your resume, cus I’d love to do investment analysis myself.
Thanks man
Hey Kan, ya honestly, everyone has hands down told me networking is the way to go. And from scartch I have built up and met with 20 + people by now to grow some sort of a network, and unfortunately, I have to say they all have said “sure, I’ll help you” but they don’t really. They just kind of forward your resume… which is what I do on my own. I wish my networking was as successful as yours. Btw, a guy I used to work with just became an inside wholesaler for a mutual fund company… are you him? lol jk.
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Don’t knock people willing to forward your resume. Although it helps 10X more if they know you personally and push for you, instead of clicking FWD and saying “this guy reached out to me”
Yeah, just saying that unless you have a personal connection with someone, the only thing networking will do is get your resume forwarded. and ofcourse any help is good help, but in my experience, 6 months of being unemployed and face to face networking only got my resume pushed around and the job I have now wasn’t due to networking.
Will this job count towards the CFA Charterholder?
That’s a good question, I was thinking it myself. Will have to verify soon
How did I land? Through internship which I randomly e-mailed the firm myself. Luck was definetely on my side.
Let me stop you right there, trust me an investment analyst for an actuarial consulting firm is the most boring ass shit. No analyzing stocks, its basically a performance reporting kill your self right now job. But CFA experience. I can relate to your networking experiences.
What uni did you go to?
I went to York University and got a bachelor of arts. Business and society. Didn’t know what I wanted at the time, and business and society was the one I hated the least. Most of my courses were economics and only in year 4 I took a finance course through this extra program and realized I quite like it.
That’s shitty about your job, middleclass, why is that so many job title are so misleading!? This seriously frustrates me:
Financial analysis = accounting
FX trader = sales
Investment analyst = performance reporting
^ that’s not nearly as bad.
A few years ago, I once went to a job listing that said “Asset Management Analyst - helping PM’s manage portfolio, analyzing existing positions” etc
10 min. into the interview, they revealed that it was an operations role.
After that, chillest interview ever.
Man, I can’t believe how much employers have to lie to get you into the office. I had an experience just like that with another employer. The job description sounded pretty good, some sort of analysis work, but then it turned out be a straight up sales job. Like the worst kind of sales job: going to malls and handing out flyers.
In Toronto there is a private equity firm that hires Research anlysts. Catch is being a research analyst means you have to cold call CEO’s and try to make a sale with either corporate financing or a merger and acquisition. Once you make the sale they give all the work to their higher up people to do the financial work. These “Research Analysts” are fresh grads more or less.
You’d have a better shot at making more money being a financial advisor than above
One of the BIGGEST scams are the many “financial advisor” positions. If you go to one, and get a talk, or get shown a presentation about how you can do “extremely well” in an “entrepreneurial environment” helping people “reach their goals” and through all this, they never actually explain what the F*ck you will be doing… run.
What ends up is you are a freaking salesman trying to push life insurance equity bullsh*t packages onto your friends and family. Or cold calling strangers selling the same thing. You are commission based, your base is peanuts (if lucky), and they set a freaking high bar so if once you finish scamming your “closest network”, and as soon as you miss the quota, you are cut.
They lured you in, they milked you for all you got, and threw you on the street.