Ethics? We talking 'bout ethics?
do CFAI consider corporate finance at big tech company as relevant work exp ? Can someone ans please ?
CFA won’t help you get a job finance or investment management but it will help you a lot if you are already working in this profession for a few years.
I’ll echo what other folks are saying: the designation is unlikely to land you a better job by itself. That said, it IS likely to help you advance in your current role more easily, assuming your current role is in the financial industry. Why? Because it enhances your knowledge and that will naturally find its way into your job performance. Leaders on the desk are often leaders because they are “thought leaders” and it becomes easier to provide that kind of leadership if you’ve enhanced your knowledge of the entire financial industry, which doing the CFA program would help with.
I can only tell you my story and my perspective - coming from Denmark, there is probably a lot that is completely different but here goes.
I have a masters in finance and math, and I finished in 2009. While studying I had a part time job at the trading floor of a mid-size Danish bank. It was fun but the financial crisis of 08-09 killed it (they don’t exist anymore). Having no job and with high unemployment I settled for a middle office job doing IT/risk reporting. This was really good for a few years but I eagered to join the front office. I asked my boss a few times but I could feel, that this particular work place wasn’t looking for new portfolio managers. So what to do - when I applied for jobs I was in the bottom of the pile due to my lacking front office experience. I started the CFA in hopes of things to change - but I still got no interviews for portfolio manager jobs even on level III. So I applied at a valuation team (a bit of a set back salary wise) within infrastructure and stayed there for three years building my resumé. Now with a CFA charter and a valuation background I got interviews, but I still felt behind other candidates and didn’t get the jobs - usually they told me to get experience within other fields too. So I started at a real estate fund in their transaction team (I had no monetary responsibilities still just building models, making presentations and meeting with clients) but learning the ropes of real estate. I was only there for a year before I landed my new role as portfolio manager within alternative investments. My absolute dream role. My new CFO told me that he had high regards for the CFA (which is not that common in Denmark) and that my resumé was outstanding for the job.
TL:DR. The CFA opened some doors - work experience opened others.
Does the CFA help with client interaction in terms of being taken seriously? Just wondering how popular CFA is outside of investment industry
Opened a lot of doors for me. Long story short I went from management consulting to capital markets consulting to private equity now… and if I pass level 3 I’ll get a very nice bump in salary. So aside from career progression, the salary benefit is certainly there - keep your head up and disregard any haters.
When speaking to American clients it really does. They definitely take you more seriously and are always impressed with the charter. I love Americans that way. Haven’t seen an effect here in Europe - especially not in Denmark. Rarely anybody knows about it - so why did I do it - to open the doors where people did know about it (and to broaden my own horizon).
Doing the CAIA now - nobody knows about that one, so that is on me a 100%. But looking forward to those letters behind my name as well! Again learning a lot on the journey.
They will reply >50% needs to be involved investment decision making lol, I tried a few months ago.
Many years ago I started off as a power trader out of college. I decided to start the CFA journey not long after I took the job and in that time a Quant interview came up within the same company. Nobody else in the company was doing the CFA but the director of the group at the time had his charter. He decided to give me a shot even though I was young and inexperienced. I replaced a person who graduated from Wharton. Now many years later I manage equity portfolios for a living.
Don’t listen to the naysayers - take the shots when you can get them. And of course, as others said, don’t be a d!ck and you’ll do well.
Ask not what the CFA institute can do for you, but what you can do for the CFA Institute