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Any thoughts on pursuing a CFA license? Not sure though how that works overseas.
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I've never heard of this license before, but I googled and found their website. It seems like the license is useful all around the globe, you can read about one charterholder in Poland and one in Singapore on the website. I also read that you should expect having to put in around 250 hours of studies, maybe more. 250 hours doesn't sound like very much, if I studied 4 hours a day including weekends I would be done in about 9 weeks, which is nothing if this license is as useful as they make it sound on the website.
Apparently there are three exams. I had a look at a sample for the first exam and it looked fairly simple, I even knew the answer to some of the question thanks to the basic micro- and macroeconomics courses I've taken.
Is a CFA license really as useful as they make it sound on their <a href="www.cfainstitute.org" target="_blank">website</a>? If someone here has a CFA license or knows more about it I'd like to hear what you think about it.
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I'm currently studying to take the Level 1 exam in December. The subject matter of the test isn't very hard, but the breadth of the test makes it difficult for many to study. You need to be on top of: Financial Statement Analysis & Accounting, Micro & Macro Economics, Portfolio Management, Corporate Finance, Statistics, Ethics, and Pricing Equity, Fixed Income & Derivatives. It's not too bad if you've already done your undergrad work as a Finance major. Level 2 and 3 cover pretty much the same topics, but go into more detail.
The CFA is a great designation if you want to get into Portfolio Management or Equity Research. Sadly, from what I've been hearing lately, simply passing levels 1 and 2 doesn't carry a lot of weight to many bigger firms. This is especially true with NYC firms. But in the long run, becoming a CFA Charterholder will pay off.
Check out
http://www.analystforum.com/phorums/ for more info about the CFA
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Thanks for the link. How much time do you think one would have to put in without that much prior knowledge to the different topics? Does 250 hours sound too little?
When looking at various rankings I see that Harvard is topping the charts... I guess it's very, very hard to get in there, but after looking at some information about Harvard's students' wages I'm thinking it might be worth a shot. I would have to loan money for every dollar that isn't covered by financial aid though. If I managed to graduated with good grades from there, do you think it would be worth it? How hard is it really to get in?
Oh, I also mailed
D.E. Shaw & Co and asked what chances they think I'd have when competing for a place in their company with a bachelor or master in engineering from one of the biggest Swedish universities. Let's hope they reply. Are there any other major finance/investment companies I could try? I don't know if they even have the time to answer this kind of queries, but I can't think of a better source of information. Perhaps there are forums/sites where I can find more information?
I know so little about this area, and it seems almost impossible to get a grip of it.
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I worked at D.E. Shaw last summer. It's extremely exclusive and they look for the absolute brightest people in math, engineering, sciences, etc. In fact, I don't think I met a single trader or quant that had a finance undergrad. The firm was founded by computer and math scholars, and they have kept it that way. I have a finance background, and it became obvious that it would be hard to impossible to get to the jobs I wanted with my background, so I went elsewhere. It is a very cool place to work, very un-Wall Street (no dress code, multiple employee outings/events).
As a general statement, cold calls to these companies probably won't get you anywhere. It's hard enough to get noticed and get questions answered if you're going through formal recruiting, and doing it without any internal contacts is damn near impossible. My advice would be to do whatever you can to meet people in the industry. If your school invites people in finance to speak, go to every one, try to speak with the speaker afterwards, and get contact information. Go to any and all career fairs and recruiting events. Maintain e-mail or phone contact with these people. It is by far the best way to get into the industry. It's the best way to get questions answered, and when you actually start to apply to jobs, having someone on the inside vouching for you is incredibly helpful when you're trying to get noticed. I'm at a smaller firm right now, and when I got the undergrad resumes from just one school there were close to 200 students for 8 interview slots. No matter how qualified you are, it's easy to slip through the cracks without someone that works for the firm saying "I know that this kid is good, let's give him an interview."