The CFA exams are over. Assuming you’re in the minority of people who turn out to have passed when results are made available in a few months’ time, you might be feeling optimistic about your career prospects. That optimism might be misplaced – as we’ve written before, a CFA qualification is a source of long-term prestige, not short-term panache.
However, it is true to say that a fair number of people in banking in finance have some kind of CFA qualification on their CVs (or resumes, if you’re in the U.S.). And it’s equally true to say that some banks harbour more people with CFA qualifications than others and that some finance sectors are particularly laden with CFA acolytes.
We’ve crunched the numbers from our own global CV database and looked where the highest proportion of CFA exam takers are to be found. The results are presented in the two charts below.
Our data suggests that a CFA qualification is by no means mandatory if you want to work in financial services: at all banks and in all sectors, people whose resumes mention ‘CFA’ are in a small minority. And no matter where you look, hardly anyone is a CFA Charterholder (ie. has past all three exams and completed the requisite work experience). Our own data also suggests that the highest proportion of CFA Charterholders are to be found in the asset management industry – but even there only 2.3% of the asset management CVs in our database mention the full qualification.
Nonetheless, a CFA pass will seem to ingratiate you with big name banks. It’s enlightening that CV’s mentioning ‘Goldman Sachs’ are most likely to contain some mention of CFA qualifications – and that CVs mentioning ‘Royal Bank of Scotland’ (or RBS) are least likely to.
Our data seems to suggest that if you’re thinking of embarking on the CFA examinations, levels I or II will suffice. If you’ve passed a CFA exam, you’re best off applying to work in asset management, equities (including research), fixed income, or hedge funds. French banks probably won’t be too impressed by the qualification. Nor will accounting firms and commodities trading companies,
Source: eFinancialCareers*
Source: eFinancialCareers*
*Figures refer to the 90,000+ CVs uploaded globally in the past three months.
Related articles:
CFA offers prestige, but don’t expect a huge pay raise
What’s the minimum score you can get on CFA Level I, and still pass?
If you achieve a CFA Charter, you are statistically very unlikely to become unemployed