I am currently working in commercial banking in one of the biggest banks in Canada. It is an entry level job. In a couple of months, it will be my time to get promoted. The employees will have the option to either moving up within the team, or moving to elsewhere in the bank. My current job is very repetitive and somehow accounting-related since we have to look at financial statements all the time. I have been doing pretty well within the team so far and my boss recongnizes my achievement.
In my next monthly review, my boss will probably ask about my intention and decision. I don’t know what to answer. I will know my CFA resutls by then. I am not quite sure what I want to do. Probably I will try to apply for Equity Research. I mean, what can a CFA passed level 2 (if i pass) do in a bank in Toronto?
If i really decide to move elsewhere and I tell my boss so, she will help me to contact recruiters from HR within the bank. But still, can’t rely on this entirely, still need to apply on my own.
If I want to apply for equity reserach or anything related to investments, what shall I do to prepare myself? I have no experiene in personal investing….shall I join a club? read a book? What we learnt in CFA 2 curriculum can be applied to investment analysis? Like P/E ratios, blalabla…
I just don’t know what I want to do career-wise. Well I have been thinking about becoming a CFO one day (of a small company, not of RBC/TD/Scotia of course). Like i want to be at a position where I can make decisions on the company’s financial situations…forecasting….planning… I guess equity reserach will provide some related experience and background on that?…
If i really aim at equity research, i don’t think I have enough to talk about in an interview… cuz i have nothing to show I am pssionate about it!!! Anything u guys suggest me to do now? Like maybe i should start to invest on my own now…
I would suggest that you talk to someone who works at RBC in equity research (& charterholder) to gather some more information on the role, duties and responsibilities etc that you would be doing if there were an opportunity available for you.
In general you may want to consider trying something different than commercial banking just to acquire some additional experience. I don’t think the CFA is really applicible to a commercial banking role.
^it’s not, but everyone does it anyway because you’re at a disadvantage if you dont’ do it.
zxfmontreal: you dont’ know what you want, no one can help you until you figure out what you want to do. No one is going to sit here and scratch their heads trying to help you. Sit down by yourself for two weekends and think long and hard about what you want in life/career. Talk to people in the positions you think you might be interested in. Chasing after positions for no reason other than the fact that everyone else covets it, is a bad way to go IMO.
If you want to be a CFO in Canada of any company worth a damn, you better seriously consider CA/CPA and grunt time in an accounting role. I know many many CFOs throughout many industries and every single one is a CA or CMA (some also have their Charter). Very few are CMA (generally only in oil and gas). Knowing financing is good, but you have a treasury team to provide expertise there. Remember, you go to jail if your financials or taxes are screwed up, so you better be an accounting and tax guy. You get fired when your bond deal blows up. You spend time in the iron bar hotel when your leading an accounting group that’s cooking the books. Hence why accountants are more commonly CFOs, at least in our country. You don’t need to be an expert on accounting matters, but you better understand everything going on in your statements and how your controls work… Something that ER provides next to nil on. ER to CFO isn’t really a clear path to me, to be honest. With an intermediate step I can see it, but there are easier paths to that step than ER.
Business executives who knowingly perpetuate fraud and corruption go to jail in Canada? That sounds awful. I much prefer the golden parachutes and shareholder funded fines of the American system.
Many people do it because they are told it’s the golden ticket or because they have time to accumulate letters after their name.
I was hanging out with a guy last weekend who works in wealth management for small investors. He built himself a decent book the last 8 years. He asked me if he should register to the program. He has no interest in the markets and loves his job but some young gun at his firm was doing it so he is now considering it.
It’s about the knowledge you derive that sharpen your skillset, not the letters.
I honestly believe if someone is stupid enough to chase letters like the CFA for the sole purpose of a sense of accomplishment, then they aren’t likely to tolerate the effort to get there. You need to be at least passionate about the subjects to make it through. Unless you have book worms with more spare time than a Central African mother.