When considering whether to pursue a credential such as a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation, the next question likely to come to mind after "Will it upgrade my job prospects or compensation?" is, "Will what I learn improve my job performance?" A review of published research "reveals a patchwork of studies that don't uniformly and unequivocally show outperformance by charterholders," writes Christopher Wright in the January-February issue of CFA Magazine, published... Read more

Suffice to say, considering the relatively low pass rate, getting through the rigors of all three exams to become a CFA charterholder is not an easy task. But there are many ways you can shoot yourself in the foot. Aside from not putting in the study time – recommended at around 300 hours per level – there are surprisingly common mistakes or assumptions people taking the exam make, which often... Read more

What'll it be - a graduate degree in finance or a CFA charter? A growing number of universities have set out to provide the tools to acquire both. Around the world, some 41 educational institutions have signed on to a partnership program that the CFA Institute initiated in April 2006. The schools embed in their graduate curricula at least 70 percent of the "body of knowledge" that forms the basis of... Read more

First came asset write-downs. Then came bailouts. Now, the U.S. government is taking a large, voting equity stake in Citigroup. The chain of events pulling significant pillars of the financial industry from shareholder to government control is coming to look increasingly inexorable. But what does nationalizing a bank do to the careers and compensation outlooks of professionals who work there? Constrained upside will drive producers and senior executives to seek... Read more

Their best practitioners earn sums to make an investment banker drool. But they rarely post job openings. How, then, can you get a job at a hedge fund? ClusterStock's latest slide show purports to answer that burning question. It's drawn from an informal survey of "a few young hedge funders, and one older one," by writer Courtney Comstock. Of course, the tried-and-true suggestions are there: Network, always have an elevator pitch... Read more

A study by The Wall Street Journal indicates the days of an Ivy league degree being the key to success everywhere may be over. But not on Wall Street. Ivy Leaguers remain perched atop the pecking order. Jobs in investment banking, for example, are still dominated by those from elite academic institutions. A Harvard MBA or a degree from Wharton remain the best way to gain entry into firms like Goldman... Read more

The MBA degree is retaining its value for changing careers or turbo-charging long-term advancement prospects, notwithstanding the recent hiring hiccup and continued uncertainty over job prospects for the class of 2010. Officials at a number of institutions report demand for summer associates is strong, in marked contrast to this time a year ago. "We're seeing more companies, more (interview) schedules, more offers," says Randy Allen, associate dean of the Johnson School,... Read more

Are fundamental equity analysts doomed to be replaced by machines? That's the implication of a recent Reuters story by Dane Hamilton. The sources quoted are mainly quantitative investment experts from the hedge fund community, but also include Brad Hintz, an influential financial services analyst at AllianceBernstein who was once Lehman Brothers' CFO. "At an increasing number of Wall Street investment banks, hedge funds and elsewhere, computers are churning out investment analyses culled... Read more

You are nearing the end of an interview with a potential employer. It has gone well, in the sense that there were no questions that made you sweat or stutter. At this point, you are suppose to ask the interviewer some questions which bedazzle her with such insightfulness that she will not let you out of the meeting without your signature on an employment offer. But let's for argument's sake assume... Read more

As institutional investors seek a greater number of asset management firms, many are turning to emerging money managers, including more women and minority-owned firms. The growth of these firms will provide more opportunities for a diverse base of investment consultants and asset managers, many pension advisors believe. Speaking at Rainbow Push's Wall Street Project Economic Summit in January, Joseph Haslip, assistant comptroller for the New York City Pension Fund, said smaller start-ups... Read more

Finding a great job in the financial markets can be challenging in the best of times, but when Wall Street firms announce the kind of headcount reductions we’ve been seeing lately the search becomes down right daunting. And according to a survey eFinancialCareers conducted this month with financial professionals, recruiters may not really help job seekers all that much either. The survey found that while nearly four out of five (78%)... Read more

While investment banks hemorrhage jobs, hedge funds continue to hire. But crossing the aisle is no easy task. One William Street Capital Management, a new asset-backed securities hedge fund launched by ex-Lehman securitization chief David Sherr, is one of at least 10 fund startups that plan to raise more than $1 billion each this year, according to Bloomberg. To be sure, the job opportunities within these funds are dwarfed by the more... Read more

The market meltdown combined with high-profile hedge fund swindles are giving personal financial advisers a heavy dose of the pain their clients feel in their portfolios. Cratering asset values directly compress fee income for the large universe of personal wealth managers who charge clients a percentage of the assets they manage. In other cases, clients hit with shrinking net worth are asking advisers to reduce fees. And a tidal wave of... Read more

The expected cost of new regulations being implemented from financial reform was cited at the SIFMA Dodd-Frank impact Analysis conference as one reason banks are reluctant create new jobs. "There's a capital strike going on in corporate America," said Larry Kudlow, economist and host of the CNBC program, "The Kudlow Report." Speaking at the conference, Kudlow went on to say banks are "afraid to take the risk of hiring until... Read more

Wall Street is on its back, but scientists would be wise to take a contrarian approach and investigate careers in finance, says the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In a three-part feature on financial careers in its official publication, Science, the association likens preparing to enter the industry to the old investing maxim, "buy low, sell high." It also predicts demand for quantitative expertise and rigorous analysis will grow... Read more

A long-running U.S. hiring binge by Australia’s Macquarie Group has intensified this month with the addition of senior bankers from Bank of America, Credit Suisse and Barclays Capital. The U.S. contributed just 8 percent of Macquarie’s operating income for the year ended March 31. But that figure is poised to climb due to recent acquisitions and opportunistic hiring in business segments from which the biggest global banks have retreated. "At the... Read more

"Since Obama was elected, we don't have a diversity issue anymore," one HR consultant I know said recently. She was being sarcastic. And, indeed, a number of black professionals continue to face high hurdles as they search for work, even when they have experience with top firms and degrees from top schools. Between January and October 2009 the disparity in joblessness between whites and blacks with college degrees was more severe... Read more