MFE, CFA, job opportunities

[wannabeparigo]

I am a recent MFE graduate (University of Montreal) now working as a credit risk analyst for a Quebec Bank in Montreal, Canada. I am interested in working in New York but am intimidated by the competition and unsure which jobs are perhaps a good match.

I have little experience but am considering doing the level I CFA this year in hopes this will help me for New York. I am not interested in going head-to-head with Harvard PhDs for quant jobs in New York.

1) What kind of jobs should I look for in New York if I want a mix of finance and quantitative? What is a good match for me? I'm not even sure what kind of job listings to check and get confused with all the titles - investment banking, equity research, etc. Is financial engineering too quant? Can risk analysis/management be mixed finance/quantitative? Should I search for MS/MFE?

2) Will a CFA help me? Or would rather FRM/PRMIA actually help me significantly? This topic seems to have very mixed reviews on this forum. Remember, I dont want to be a full 100% quant. Id rather not attempt to compete with ivy league PhDs - there seem to be a lot of them, they get tired of the postdoc stuff. But I get the impression that FRM/PRMIA is nice yet redundant with my MFE and not that well recognised.

 

[AlexandreB]

HEC or UdM?

CFA certification would help, but only passing the level I exam won't, it's just to easy to get. I doubt FRM or PRM would help either.

You say

am intimidated by the competition

,

I am not interested in going head-to-head with Harvard PhDs for quant jobs

,

Id rather not attempt to compete with ivy league PhDs

. Finance in NY is an extremely competitive job markets, you MUST be ready to compete with Ivy leagues science PhD's and/or Ivy leagues MBAs (depending on the job), with a substantial fraction of them having already passed the second or third CFA exam. What do you personally have to offer that other candidates do not have? Why would you, from an unknown french/foreign university, be chosen over someone from a label university?

I dont wanna sound too pessimistic but again the current job market is extremely competitive and you really have to shine just to secure an interview, let alone a job. This is only my 2 cents, all I know is from job searching not working in the industry itself.

 

[GoIllini]

HEC or UdM?

CFA certification would help, but only passing the level I exam won't, it's just to easy to get. I doubt FRM or PRM would help either.

You say , , . Finance in NY is an extremely competitive job markets, you MUST be ready to compete with Ivy leagues science PhD's and/or Ivy leagues MBAs (depending on the job), with a substantial fraction of them having already passed the second or third CFA exam. What do you personally have to offer that other candidates do not have? Why would you, from an unknown french/foreign university, be chosen over someone from a label university?

I dont wanna sound too pessimistic but again the current job market is extremely competitive and you really have to shine just to secure an interview, let alone a job. This is only my 2 cents, all I know is from job searching not working in the industry itself.

I agree with the sentiment about having to compete with the Ivy Leaguers on Wall Street, but my perspective is that they're a lot easier to compete against than engineers at a decent engineering school or even actuarial science majors. Most Physics PhDs who wind up on the Street are there because they couldn't get jobs in academia, and most Ivy League MBAs usually aren't as competent when it comes to quantitative skills (something important in risk management.)

I used to have the same attitude as parigo about all of this. Then I got hired and realized that I was smarter than most of these guys (at least the Analysts). A lot of people downplay their strengths and accomplishments to themselves, but when they wind up being around people with these kinds of backgrounds, they realize that they're just as smart as- or even smarter than- most of these people.

One selling point is that you have some experience in risk management, and Canadian banks have actually appeared pretty strong when it comes to risk management over the past 18 months. If you're willing to be hired in as an analyst (and the banks are willing to hire someone as experienced as you in as one), I'm pretty sure you can give the most competitive candidates on the street a good run.

Every candidate has their strengths and weaknesses. Your strength is your work experience. I'm not sure why someone in a Canadian bank with strong risk management would want to go into a weaker risk management team on Wall Street, but I'm sure a number of the banks will take a long, hard, look at your skills and experience before they pick someone else for an opening.