Cfa is for entry level job only?

M

maisatomai

New member
Joined
Jun 18, 2026
Messages
0
Reaction score
0
Talked to a professor who said that even passing cfa level 3 only prepare you for entry level job.
If what he said is true, is there other learning which will prepare you more than entry level, other than phd? One finance phd from Princeton was telling me that cfa is a walk in the park for him
 
Nothing beats experience. Hence the 4 year work requirement to obtain the charter.
 
sure it’s for entry level, though if someone has a phd from princeton there is really no reason to take the cfa. that being said although the material is not difficult, it is not a walk in the park for anyone based on the scale of it. you have to be entry level at some point regardless unless you can pull off a MBA from a M7 without work experience.
 
you gotta start at entry level for the most part….
if you’re going to do a PHD to skip entry level, you’re problably not suited well for what is about to come….entry level lasts 1-2 years…..after that life gets better….
 
I’m led to believe the designation means you are overqualified for entry level jobs, which is why I’m considering removing any references to the charter from my resume.
 
bpdulog wrote:
I’m led to believe the designation means you are overqualified for entry level jobs, which is why I’m considering removing any references to the charter from my resume.
Click to expand...
I agree BPdulog. Since I’m back on the job market, I have one version of my resume that does not have my MBA on it, so I can be considered for all the pre-mba positions, or just ‘experienced’ positions.
 
When I graduated with an MA and had zero job experience I also thought it would be a good idea not to include my MA on the resume.
Don’t do it. its a mistake. You will end up with a job well below your expectations. Even if you have weak or no experience, its problably better to include it as it will give your prospective employer a better idea of what you can be capable of.
 
FrankArabia wrote:
Don’t do it. its a mistake. You will end up with a job well below your expectations. Even if you have weak or no experience, its problably better to include it as it will give your prospective employer a better idea of what you can be capable of.
Click to expand...
But my expectations get lower as each month passes. At first, I was only looking at equity research gigs. Then I started including treasury roles. Then I started including back office roles. Then I started including administrative assistant roles. Now I’m starting to include other Big 4 firms in various roles, which is basically where I’m at now. I think having a resume tailored for each role would be best, as someone would scratch their head if they saw a charterholder applying for a secretary job….
 
Maybe you should get someone to look at your resume/cover letter.
 
bpdulog wrote:
FrankArabia wrote:
Don’t do it. its a mistake. You will end up with a job well below your expectations. Even if you have weak or no experience, its problably better to include it as it will give your prospective employer a better idea of what you can be capable of.
Click to expand...
But my expectations get lower as each month passes. At first, I was only looking at equity research gigs. Then I started including treasury roles. Then I started including back office roles. Then I started including administrative assistant roles. Now I’m starting to include other Big 4 firms in various roles, which is basically where I’m at now. I think having a resume tailored for each role would be best, as someone would scratch their head if they saw a charterholder applying for a secretary job….
Click to expand...
you are overqualified for many roles i guess
 
Bpdulog, are you without a job currently?? Have you received your charter? You got that charter on back of which job? you mentioned few of them in your last post but i suspect that its not the back office job that got you the charter.
You are still in a much better situation bro. My predicament is a lot worse. I will narrate it here to make you feel better (wonder who can make me feel better? lol). Got my MBA degree from one of the most prestigious universities in my country. Did 2 internships in 2 different banks; treasury and risk management. Was very excited and excepted the job offer that the first company made to me (I hate leiasure time). This is back in August 2010 (when we were right in the midst of a recession when even with the MBA degree it was difficult to find a good job) and the convo was scheduled for December of the year (got the job before getting my MBA degree). The company was a non financial, loss making monopoly (sounds strange but that is a fact) and idea was to get out of the sink hole as soon as i find another job; which i have still not. Anyway, before i got the MBA degree, i appeared and cleared the first level of a prestigious banking exam. Appeared in CFA level 1 exam cleared it. Now when i did clear the level 1 exam i realized i’ve already spent 2 years in a company, i should not have even joined in the first place (because i wanted a career in financial industry from the day 1 of my MBA days). Started touching old friends of mine and have since sent CV to atleast 20 different banks, brokerages and funds. Everyone tells me that my time in my current job has been a complete write-off and i m still only CFA level 1 cleared and still not good enough to break in (never mind my MBA). When I see people less qualified than myself in places like front office and IB departments i just cant comprehend what and where has everything gone wrong?? It looks like that after spending two years in wilderness, i am back to square 1. :(. Worse still, this job wont even qualify me for the charter. But on the up side, it does make me some decent money and thanks to my penny pinching practices, i am currently sitting on a handsome pile of cash. As it stands, i am willing to give away every last penny of it to get a job in a bank or a brokerage. Infact i am willing to pay out of pocket to get a job.
I hope it makes you feel better. Now better come up with something that cheers me up :)
 
ohai wrote:
Maybe you should get someone to look at your resume/cover letter.
Click to expand...
I’ve already had it reviewed by 3 different outfits, already spent $500 on those services. I even put it up on razume, but apparently it’s so flawless nobody wants to make any comments haha.
 
Jehanzaib Zafar wrote:

Bpdulog, are you without a job currently?? Have you received your charter? You got that charter on back of which job? you mentioned few of them in your last post but i suspect that its not the back office job that got you the charter.
You are still in a much better situation bro. My predicament is a lot worse. I will narrate it here to make you feel better (wonder who can make me feel better? lol). Got my MBA degree from one of the most prestigious universities in my country. Did 2 internships in 2 different banks; treasury and risk management. Was very excited and excepted the job offer that the first company made to me (I hate leiasure time). This is back in August 2010 (when we were right in the midst of a recession when even with the MBA degree it was difficult to find a good job) and the convo was scheduled for December of the year (got the job before getting my MBA degree). The company was a non financial, loss making monopoly (sounds strange but that is a fact) and idea was to get out of the sink hole as soon as i find another job; which i have still not. Anyway, before i got the MBA degree, i appeared and cleared the first level of a prestigious banking exam. Appeared in CFA level 1 exam cleared it. Now when i did clear the level 1 exam i realized i’ve already spent 2 years in a company, i should not have even joined in the first place (because i wanted a career in financial industry from the day 1 of my MBA days). Started touching old friends of mine and have since sent CV to atleast 20 different banks, brokerages and funds. Everyone tells me that my time in my current job has been a complete write-off and i m still only CFA level 1 cleared and still not good enough to break in (never mind my MBA). When I see people less qualified than myself in places like front office and IB departments i just cant comprehend what and where has everything gone wrong?? It looks like that after spending two years in wilderness, i am back to square 1. :(. Worse still, this job wont even qualify me for the charter. But on the up side, it does make me some decent money and thanks to my penny pinching practices, i am currently sitting on a handsome pile of cash. As it stands, i am willing to give away every last penny of it to get a job in a bank or a brokerage. Infact i am willing to pay out of pocket to get a job.
I hope it makes you feel better. Now better come up with something that cheers me up :)
Click to expand...
I work at a big 4 on the consulting side, clients are all banks and investment banks but the departments I deal with are mostly ops risk, internal audit or compliance. You can pretty much look at my resume if you click on the link on my signature. I graduated in 2008 when the industry was going down the toilet, so I took the bank examiner gig since that was my only offer. Prior to that, I’ve worked various part time jobs throughout college to make ends meet and I was determined to get out there. After a few years working at the government, a recruiter sourced me and basically threw money (not much except for a nice sign on bonus) my way to swtich over to the private sector. I figured it would make me more marketable working at a big 4 and transition into finance. Big mistake. The only roles being offered are from other big 4 in similar roles or working in the compliance department at an investment bank. On the bright side, maybe this whole 5 year ordeal just means I’m not meant to work in finance, or in the corporate world for that matter. So I’m considering going back to working part time retail, putting in my 6 hour daily shift and enjoying activities outside of work. The pay sucks, but at least I won’t be stuck in a cube vegetating for 12 hours.I recently bought a DJ mixer which has been pretty fun to play with. I’m also reading “A Random Walk Down Wall Street.” Excellent book, I believe there is a lot of truth in there. Consistently outperforming the market has a huge luck component to it unless you’re trading on inside info. My best performing equity investment over the past 3 years has been the S&P 500 index. I believe Ben Graham even mentioned there is limited usefulness in fundamental valuation. Why waste your time? The only way I see it makes sense is if you have some sort of influence on the company (e.g, owning more than 10% of outstanding shares).
I don’t know what you do, but take a look at my resume. I don’t even work in finance and got approved for the charter, so it is possible if you can relate it to the LOS, which is pretty broad in its own right. Personally, I can link my experience to risk management, real estate and the fixed income material.
 
bpdulog, for whatever it’s worth I think you have a very clean resume with great material for your jobs – you basically make yourself a very credible candidate with respect to your level and quality of work experience (i.e. a compelling case to hire you over your peers). You have a few bullets that have 2-3 words over a single line; trim these down so they don’t pour onto the next line. You also have a couple of bullets that are three-lines and two sentences and these can be spliced into two bullets. Overall the content and substance here are strong.
(This may be my biased judgment, but I do not think you need to be posting this on razume! Haven’t you gotten help on this already? :) If it were me I’d take it off before someone else poached my material…)
 
bpdulog wrote:
FrankArabia wrote:
Don’t do it. its a mistake. You will end up with a job well below your expectations. Even if you have weak or no experience, its problably better to include it as it will give your prospective employer a better idea of what you can be capable of.
Click to expand...
I think having a resume tailored for each role would be best, as someone would scratch their head if they saw a charterholder applying for a secretary job….
Click to expand...
+1
 
Bpdulog, It is one hellova resume and my 2 cents are that you should persevere and network extensively. Its only a matter of time you find your dream job.
 
I don’t mean to be prude here, but are we really complaining about a life that has a comfortable combination of the following
  • a good education
  • good job experiences
  • good money at a great firm
  • and a possible dream career when the economy turns around??
Do you know how many people there are that cannot tick any of these boxes no matter how hard they work? Clearly your resume is not the problem bpdulog nor I imagine would the impressions you leave in an interview be an issue. The problem is timing…you are trying to get into a market in which many experienced individuals,like yourself but in a slightly more relevant field, are absorbing the jobs like a mop. You are not competing against graduates, you are competing against a pool of experienced candidates of which there are many since financial markets have been trying to accomodate previous layoffs. It may not be a bad time to go do a masters or MBA at a top US school, trying to ride out the economic problems with the added benefit of being a student again and being elligible for internship positions. Juding from your resume, you are simply too good to start at entry level positions and the chances of competing successfully against experienced candidates for more senior finance roles may be difficult at the moment given that markets are trying to reach their new normal which they won’t find for many years.
Sorry if come across as a bit combative here..I graduated in 2009 with no luck in the jobs department whatsoever and got a bunch of other problems that do not help and which cause my mind to slide and be more and more sluggish…it is just me biting into a sour grape here lol
In any case…don’t give up…I think it really is just timing that stands against you not anything substantive..perhaps really think about a postgraduate degree of some sort!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top