AuthorTopic: CFA career advice for me
Jamaica
@2019-05-19 05:42:07
Good day!

I am a young aspiring CFA candidate. I need some career advice and I believe a post here will help greatly. Hearing from all you who are working in the industry will be highly beneficial.

First, let me tell you a little about myself. I am 24 years old and am currently a candidate for the CFA level 2 exam. My background is from accounting as I am also a current member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) from UK. I started my career with in Internal Audit in a bank. I worked in this role for 1 year but found that internal auditing doesn't interest me.

I then joined a multinational hotel chain, in their corporate finance department. I worked for 3 years here and the majority of my experience was from this role. I learned a great breadth of skills here as I worked from the ground root level up to working directly with the CFO of the group on assignments. Staff turnover in the corporate finance department actually helped me take on newer roles and challenges.

During my job in this role, I started the CFA qualification because I found that finance interests me, not bookkeeping or accounting. I want to be working in a forward looking role, not a backward looking role. I since left the hotel chain and moved to UAE. I am currently employed in a Pharmaceutical group of companies in Dubai, as an Finance & Operations manager. I made this jump for the monetary benefits as well as the exposure to operations.

However, I still feel that I want to work in a role of analyst or in a equity research firm, or any similar role that supports my interest and knowledge in the CFA qualification. It is near impossible for me to find employment in one of these financial services firms in Dubai as I do not possess the required skills and experience. I have tried many times, but to no avail.

Currently, I use my holidays and weekends learning about financial models from numerous online sources, learning FOREX trading from Etoro platform, and anything I can get my hands on to learn about the market or as some call it "the tricks of the trade". Although I have been slightly successfully in upgrading some skills, I find that this finance universe is humongous.

The reason for this post is because I would like career advice as to what I can do at this point of time to strengthen my knowledge and skills so that maybe, at one point in the future, I can fixate on a real career in finance, applying skills and techniques that I have studied in CFA. I am not sitting the level 2 exam this June, but have started going through the material, so that I can ensure I pass next year.

I would like to thank you for taking the time out to guide me. It is highly appreciated.

Looking to hear from the experts. Thank you all.
Zilah
@2019-06-13 13:59:01
You're 24 and you already have 4 years work experience, you finished your degree when you were 20? Are you a genius?

CFA Discussion Topic: CFA career advice for me

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I am using your study notes and I know of at least 5 other friends of mine who used it and passed the exam last Dec. Keep up your great work!
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Barnes