The CFA Conundrum – Does CFA with MBA in Finance add value_ - Inside IIM

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Home Academics The CFA Conundrum – Does CFA with MBA in Finance add value?

The CFA Conundrum – Does CFA with MBA inFinance add value?

Posted under Academics on Friday, 11 November 2011 by Meet Kachhy

The CFA Conundrum



So, if you are doing an MBA in Finance from a top B-School, should you really invest in a CFA? I am sure this

question has popped up in many a mind in various forms. Let us try to answer this in as simple a way as it can

be.

Does CFA add value if you are doing MBA Finance?

Yes, and No. Let me explain.

If you pay attention in all your finance classes, and get all your concepts cleared in the major courses

(accounting, financial management, security analysis, derivatives, portfolio management, fixed income, risk), then

there is very little that a CFA can add to you content wise, from the aspect of what the recruiters need you to

know. I know many friends who sailed through B-School with good finance roles/knowledge without ever

touching CFA books. Also, remember that most finance jobs need only a sound knowledge of the basics and a

good thought process.

What it does add is more knowledge of things such as Private Equity, VC, Pension accounting and so on. Arethese areas really useful for placement interviews – not really. It does add to your knowledge though, and if

leveraged the right way, might help you get an edge in your interviews. But most interviews never go to thesedepths, and so the utility from this aspect is limited to zero.

So how is it useful? It is useful from a shortlist perspective as most of us come into B-Schools with zero to very

few finance ‘CV Points’. Here, it helps differentiate your CV as it is a far more powerful point compared toNCFM/winning a stock trading game/etc. Particularly in a country where 90% of the students are engineers with

no prior grounding/experience of finance.

Level 1/2 cleared candidates do get an advantage in summers and the same holds true for Levels 2/3 in finalplacements. It is just a way of showing the seriousness of your ‘fin’ interest to the recruiter. It shows you wereinterested to read 6 additional books and also splurge some serious cash! On the flip side, it also ensures that

you have more to revise before your interviews, since when you claim to have cleared a certain level of the CFAprogram, you better know at least the major portions of that level pretty well. But increasingly, it is becoming a

hygiene factor in many schools, and since the exam calls for more of diligence than brilliance, I expect this ratio toshoot up in the coming days – especially in schools which are not renowned for great finance placements.

As far as the impact/usefulness of the CFA is concerned w.r.t. the variousfinance-domain roles, it is a mixed bag. For roles such as Corporate Finance,Consumer Banking, Corporate Banking and Project Finance, the CFA may not be



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really relevant.

Compared to these, in the fields of Equity Research and Asset Management, aCFA will be a definite plus (both from a profile and a knowledge perspective).Relevance to PE is really a subjective call, since often specific domain knowledgemight also be sought after.Investment Banking is again more a client-interaction role, and while the CFAmight be a good add from a CV perspective, it may not really matter for day today work.

Can you manage the CFA workload along with the course load?

I would think so. If you make the decision in time, and plan out your study, it should not be too difficult. Since

the first opportunity for Level 1 is six months after you join school, your accounting and finance basics arealready in place by then. For Levels 2/3, you can study in your summers. Yes, it might stretch you at times, but

(a) it is far easier to get done with these exams when you are studying than while you are working, (b) if youclear them, you do stand to gain some of the benefits highlighted earlier.

How easy or difficult it is to manage is down to the individual. If you are someone who relies more on hard workthan sheer brilliance, then you might want to start a little early (around Oct for the Dec Level 1, and around

March/April for the June Levels 2/3), and stick to a plan. I say this because revising 6 books for a 3 hour exam(the second exam is essentially a repeat of the first one with different questions) can be quite painful and revision

itself can consume a couple of weeks sometimes. If you are more of brilliant child, then you really don’t needmuch advice!

-Meet Kachhy

The author is an alumnus of XLRI School of Business & Human Resources (Batch of 2011). Currently

working as a financial Analyst at Goldman Sachs Asset Management (Investment Management Division),he has interned with Axis Bank. Prior to his MBA, Meet worked for almost three years with J. Ray

McDermott ME Dubai (an offshore EPC contractor in the O&G business), after completing his BE(Hons.) from BITS Pilani (Dubai) in 2006. He has cleared all the three levels of the CFA program.

Tagged with: XLRI Jamshedpur

Comments (4)



Ankit | November 11th, 2011 at 10:35 am

Great article. But I think CFA helps a lot even in Investment banking. I was in the US for training and a lot of

people in senior positions were asked if CFA helps and the overall gist was that it does.

Most people join as analysts at the start even in front end investment banking roles and its not client facing for

quite sometime. People who have done a CFA/CA definitely have a great head start when analyzing balance

sheets of companies for valuation purposes.

But I do agree that corporate banking has not too much to do with a CFA coz thats what I do and no one in my

team has even appeared for level 1.

Pankil | November 11th, 2011 at 11:50 am

Hi

If you do your cfa, do you need an MBA then?

Ankit | November 11th, 2011 at 12:59 pm

@Pankil – Front end jobs are hard to come even if you are a CFA in India/cleared level II CFA unless you have

a top tier management degree. Over the years, due to lack of enough number of quality finance jobs competitionis fierce. Also, there is an exclusivity mindset which makes people from top tier institutes to only let people from

their own institutes get those jobs. Things should change as more and more jobs become available in India.

Karan | November 14th, 2011 at 9:06 pm

I know people who get absorbed in good banks in certain posts after clearing an L2. But for good progress

along the way, an MBA is probably important.

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