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Fintech is a bit too wide a term to be able to answer easily. It covers anything from payment processing to high frequency trading. If you want to work in comp
by d--b 6y ago
Fintech is a bit too wide a term to be able to answer easily. It covers anything from payment processing to high frequency trading.
If you want to work in companies that make softwares that help manage corporate finance then maybe a CFA is good, I wouldnt know.
I’ve worked at investment bank’s tech and quant teams and CFA is not useful at all. If anything it may paint you as the IT person who think that an exam will help them break through the tech/business divide and become a trader. In my experience, CFA is generally seen as an antiquated education and people will think you’ve wasted a ton of time working on this.
Now, the way you presented yourself here is neat. You’re showing a great level of independance and a taste for tinkering with both finance and technical stuff. This is well regarded in investment banks. I have no doubt that you’ll be able to find a job there.
My advice to you is that you should leave the CFA level-2 on your resume, and if people ask you, tell them that you did it cause you found it interesting. It’ll make you look like a curious person. But I don’t think that the effort required to pass level 3 is worth it.
Godspeed!
- gunshowmo 6y agoThanks for taking the time to response, this was at least a bit encouraging. For me, IB and quant work are things I'm extremely interested in, but they feel more like a pipe dream given that a lot of financial institutions I've applied to seemed to look heavily at GPAs for the associate roles. Would you have any recommendations at all for how I can work on getting my foot in the door at an IB firm? Cheers.
- phyalow 6y agoI was a trader at a IB for years. Honestly dont bother. Get a good tech job. Banks are terribly bureaucratic, political and now highly regulated. As a result they (mostly) have been in steady state decline since the GFC.
- gunshowmo 6y agoThanks for the reply - I would like to be close to the tech side if I can but it's been tough so far without the initial experience. I'll keep revising and sending out my resume to the tech names as well to hopefully at least get an interview.