Stupid Reasons for pursing CFA

Quick Money – Some CFA aspirants believe that clearing CFA L1 would place them in Top I Banks and they will make loads of money. Actually this was the scenario during the great boom of 2007.I hate to tell you there is no Santa Claus, such times are not coming back for the next few years. CFA is a long battle and if you are not ready to persist and give serious effort you better not bother.


Substitute of CAT (Indian MBA) – On the Mumbai Exam center of CFA L1 June 2009 exam, 7000 CFA L1 candidates appeared. Even for CFA L2 and CFA L3 the number is unwarranted. I cannot understand why so many people are appearing for this exam as there are much less number of investment management and other CFA job openings in India. Most of the candidates are not working in finance, have no plans of moving to US/UK, or getting a MBA. Basically they are hoping to replace an Indian MBA with CFA.I am sorry to say that the road ahead is not going to be pretty. You will really have to work your ass off networking, job hunting, even then there is no guarantee .The point that these people don’t understand is that there is huge information asymmetry, traditional bias and under the table reference that goes on in Indian financial institutions.

Information asymmetry - I mean they will not hire someone with solid UG degree, great analytical skills and ‘CFA L2 cleared in 1 year span’ for equity research position. They will rather hire a 3 rd tier MBA graduate because that’s what they have been doing over the years.

Traditional Bias – CFA is a US based certification and is a new happening in India. Thus people having CFA in leadership position are few and far between. Most of these people are CAs and they tend to hire CAs over engineering + CFA.

Under the table Reference – You will understand this if you tried to mail your CV on a company’s website. Actually the email ids are synonym for a trashcan. You will never even get a response. The hiring process is screwed to say the least.



To Impress your girlfriend/boyfriend/parents/peers – You will be surprised to know a serious number of people are pursuing this exam to appear smarter to their friends/relatives.Don’t do it because eiter you won’t have a girlfriend or you won't pass. There was a thread on one private CFA Forum - CFA Level 2 v/s Girlfriend.This is the price that you have to pay. CFA basically constitutes giving up 24 months of your life.