EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY - HOW TO LAND A JOB - COMMENTS APPRECIATED :)

[blahijani]

hey peeps,

(A.) are most of you guys underemployed? employed as entry level analysts? career changers? beating around the bush until u pass level one so that you can land a finance job?

(B.) it seems to me that real finance jobs that involve using your analytical skills are far and few between (this might be the case for me since i'm in los angeles - 5th largest finance market in the US).

(C.) on the flip side accounting jobs are everywhere, and it seems to me most employers in the finance industry prefer that you have a CPA over a CFA, am i right or wrong?

(D.) how the hell do you land a job in this industry? especially if you're entry level...

(E.) comments regarding these 4 points would be greatly appreciated....

cheers!

brian



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at Sunday, January 7, 2007 at 05:21AM by blahijani.

 

[kkent]

In regard to C, I agree that the CPA is in greater numerical demand nationwide; however, the median salary for CPAs vs. CFAs is somewhere in the neighborhood of $150,000 less, which is why I switched majors from accounting to finance in college.

Think of it this way--there is more numerical demand for simple college graduates than for people with MBAs, but MBAs will (almost) always make more $.

 

[skumar]

I had a similar question.
Do I get enough credit for passing L1 to land with a finance job?

 

[ymichael12]

As for me....

A) Employed with an RIA Firm but the job does not have as many analytical aspects to it as I would hope. We are not directly managing the assets so a lot of what we do is recommending what trustees should do & relationship management to keep them happy.

B) Looking to move to the LA area sometime next July/August (after I pass L1 (hopefully)). Not sure how that job search is going to go just yet, however I am optimistic.

C) Just what kkent said. That is just a difference of quantity vs quality of jobs.

D) I have been working for about 3 years now. I started in a small firm (allows you to wear many "hats") although not as prestigious as a large firm. Not as much analytical work as I said before, but looking to change that with the CFA. We shall see how moving to LA along with the CFA L1 helps, if any.