what are the benefits of being a CFA charterholder?

can confirm that CFA charter does squat to even get you interviews.
On the other hand, contrary to people’s opinion’s, it is, in essence, a ‘license’.
WIth your CFA Charter, you can become a registered investment advisor and don’t need the series 7/63.
 
I’m pretty sure you need the Series 7, even with the CFA. CFA covers a lot of the mechanics of securities, but it doesn’t cover US regulations (it’s a global exam).
 
Nick007 wrote:
can confirm that CFA charter does squat to even get you interviews.
On the other hand, contrary to people’s opinion’s, it is, in essence, a ‘license’.
WIth your CFA Charter, you can become a registered investment advisor and don’t need the series 7/63.
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^Wrong!!!
Passing the CFA exam might grant you a Series 65 waiver, but not 7 or 63. (And even that’s dependent on your state.)
Even if you do get a waiver of the Series 65, you’ll probably still have to register with an RIA (again, state-dependent). When I finish the CFA exam, I will still have to register in Texas, even though I’ll be both CFA and CPA. I can’t even give investment advice to my tax clients without registering.
Passing Level 2 of CFA will grant you a Series 86 waiver (whatever that is).
 
PalacioHill wrote:
I know from experience that you get instant credibility from other people in the profession when they see the letters behind your name, especially non CFA charterholders. People often take what you say at face value just because you have the three letters behind your name.
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I disagree. In my experience, the only people who really value the CFA initials are other Charterholders, CFA flunkies, and CFA wannabes. Even people in the industry sometimes have no idea how difficult the test is. I have heard multiple CFO’s say, “I doubt it’s much harder than the CPA exam.”
PalacioHill wrote:
When I see someone use MBA behind their name, I instantly think they went must have come to some local no-name part time program. I have never seen anyone with an ivy-league MBA ever use the letters MBA behind their name.
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I agree with this fully. Every time I see somebody who touts their MBA, it’s from a part-time local program, and the individual works in HR or Marketing or something. It’s like they’re trying to legitimize their existence in the world by having an MBA.
 
I feel like it is almost a pre-req to get into a investment management role, it seems to me that everyone working in this field more less have CFA or are working towards it. I probably meet with atleast one portfolio manager in equity, fixed income, private equity, hedge fund or managed futures a week and have calls with 1-2 of them every week in my current role as investment manager research analyst. I have read 100 bios of PMs and their team. Almost all of them and their analyst have CFA. I am talking firms like PIMCO, DFA, Eaton Vance, Third Point and numerous other $20-$60 million startup funds….
Since you will be pitching to these guys for potential opportunity, having CFA will get you ears. It is really this crowd that matters, everything else is noise in someways. I know it helped me get hired once the partner knew I passed Level 2 exam.
Everyone now and then I ask them how is CFA perceived. Partner at my firm believes it is ticket to investment world. At his previous firm, if you did not work you way to CFA charter you were out of firm.
Bottomline is, unlike the IVY mba from say Harvard, Wharton, Columbia, etc…you are not going to get companies come after you. You have to create value yourself through your hard work, tech, excel, stat, industry experience, knowing people,etc…whatever that you can bring to table.
Unfortunately, the number of net new jobs being created in investment arena are shrinking and that is what makes it hard to make it into this field. The sad reality is, as financial and trading data becomes more and more available, computers, softwares and quants are eating away jobs as more and more assets are being managed by ETFs, some mutifactor fundamental based quant strategies. We do not even listen to any equity people - these includes long short hedgies in equity space. Making money as new manager in equity investing is pretty much DEAD if you do not have a stellar track record. As assets grow the fund permance begins to decline, unlike a google or apple that can grow 1000x in revenue for $100 million startup where you get ton of job growth.
I am making more than 100k but I have put another 50k on table, to switch to investment and now I am having second thoughts and perhaps switch back to tech consulting, where I can land $150k job in next 30 days, if I try hard. Giving myself another 6-8 mths then I am out of investment world.
 
I just kind of laugh inside everytime someone holds their MBA from a non top 20 program in any type of regard. Really, an MBA is a complete rehash of general business undergraduate education. In my opinion, it shouldn’t even exist. There should only be specialised master’s degees like the MSF of MA in Econ etc.
While we’re at it, lets get rid of all liberal arts undergraduate degrees all together. Why do we still have people majoring in English, Spanish, History, Communications, etc? Do they even have liberal arts majors outside of North America? When I studied abroad in Europe it seemed like the only options were, Engineering, IT, Sciences, Math, Economics, Law & Medicine.
 
PalacioHill wrote:
I just kind of laugh inside everytime someone holds their MBA from a non top 20 program in any type of regard. Really, an MBA is a complete rehash of general business undergraduate education.
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Totally agree. i also find the MBA to be a rehash of undergrad finance.
That’s why i say the greatest value of an MBA is the recruiting opportunity you get. it’s a second chance in life where groups of employers come find you. the first chance was undergrad campus recruiting.
 
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