CFA versus QFA

I

irishstig

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Hi all,

To provide some background I'm working in a Fund administration company for the last 12 years and in the specific Industry with the last 15 years after I attained a Bachelors degree in Accounting and Finance. In my current role I work in a Team that provides support to Fund Accounting. Since I moved into that role almost 5 years ago the nature of the job and what I do has changed considerably. Now I would be more inclined to call it a techy sort job and very much removed from finance - I really struggle in certain aspects. Moreover even if I was to excel in the role through experience its just not for me - definitely not a type of job that gets me excited in any manner. There is also a lack of support from my Manager which exacerbates my frustration.

I suppose I need to accept there is big change happening in the specific industry though and don't want to side track too much from the questions I have. I have applied for a considerable number of jobs online and have received little or no response for the most part. The usual automated kick back mail and nothing to follow for the very most part and not even an interview yet. Part of the problem may well be that I have pigeonholed myself but at the same time there are many skills on my CV which would be very much transferable to the positions I am applying for. Considering there is an apparent abundance of jobs I am getting a very poor response to my applications - much poorer in fact than when I was applying for jobs as a fresh graduate after leaving college. I get the impression that many employers are either looking for fresh graduates only that they can mould or individuals who are extremely skilled and qualified in a specific area with not too much in the middle.

Either way I really want to get something else and would like to get into investments/ mortgages/ lending/ pensions - probably something that I should have done many moons ago or even after leaving college if I'm honest. Certainly do not see myself where I am forever and would in fact rather get out sooner rather than later.

In hand with the area's of employment I would be interested in I have being considering QFA and also CFA. It seems to be a bit of a minefield to me and getting impartial information on the courses is not proving too easy. At Christmas I was chatting to a guy that works in the same company as me and I moreso know him as he is married to a friend of my sisters. He strongly recommended against the QFA mentioning that its a waste of time which was a bit of a surprise to me. Was chatting to him in a social setting when drinking so didn't want to draw him too much on it on his night out. Was thinking after it may be a waste of time to him in his chosen career path but not necessarily a waste of time to me who would be more leaning towards a career in commercial banking at this stage.

Sorry for the long winded post and any advice on the pros and cons of QFA versus CFA would be much appreciated. Would be particularly interested to hear from people who completed either course and how it assisted them (or didn't) in their careers as they progressed through it. My goal here is to fast track my career in the right direction as quickly as possible and appreciate I will be taking a cut in salary at the outset etc. Any constructive advise and pointers is much appreciated. TIA.
 
QFA is quite basic but it is a requirement for many positions where you deal with consumers or SMEs (the majority of banking relates to consumers/SMEs). Either it's a regulatory requirement or it's "viewed positively" by the regulators which means its mandatory from the firms perspective! Its not hard to get if you read the materials. It's also cheap so if you want to get into commercial or retail banking or even selling investment products to retail customers then it's a good start.

The CFA is a totally different animal. It is one of the hardest qualifications to get. Harder than qualifying as an accountant or actuary as your doing it on the side generally of an already very demanding job. It will take a minimum of 3 years if you have a non junior job and any semblance of a social life. 1000's of hours of study. It is needed for most investment banking, financial consulting, investment management jobs etc. It is of no use to you if you want to deal with vanilla pension, banking or other investment products. There are much easier and more appropriate qualifications you can get for those through the various industry accredited bodies.

It all depends on what you want to do. Do you want a steady, low risk, often quite rewarding 9 to 5 (do the QFA) or do you want to work 80 hours a week 52 weeks a year just to make a bunch of rich guys even richer (do the CFA).
 
irishstig said:
Part of the problem may well be that I have pigeonholed myself but at the same time there are many skills on my CV which would be very much transferable to the positions I am applying for.
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You need to make it easier for people to see that. To get attention, you need to tailor you CV for the jobs you're applying for. I've sat on the other side, and had to create shortlists from 100+ CVs for maybe 10 interviews. I turned to 2nd page in less than half of them.

There are some very good recruitment agents out there that will help you with this aspect, but you need to reach out to them rather than applying for a specific role that you aren't immediately obviously experienced for.

irishstig said:
Was thinking after it may be a waste of time to him in his chosen career path but not necessarily a waste of time to me who would be more leaning towards a career in commercial banking at this stage.
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You'll probably still think it's s waste of time, but it's a minimum competency required for most customer facing roles now.
 
QFA and CFA are like Supermacs and Chapter One.

Most of the QFA is multiple choice and a lot of it is common sense stuff. It’s the basic standard for a bank teller.

The CFA is a hard slog and a prestigious qualification.
 
Totally different qualifications.

If you want to be a financial advisor, you have to do the QFA. It is the standard level. People rubbish it but I found it quite useful and informative. There are lots more qualifications in that area that you can get afterwards. The Certified Financial Planner being another for the future.

A CFA is a whole different world away, working in the asset side of things.

Steven
www.bluewaterfp.ie
 
Gordon Gekko said:
QFA and CFA are like Supermacs and Chapter One.

Most of the QFA is multiple choice and a lot of it is common sense stuff. It’s the basic standard for a bank teller.

The CFA is a hard slog and a prestigious qualification.
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haha, i like that

a few ex colleagues were CFA's back when it was even more niche, it would often be mistakenly referred to as QFA, you could hear their blood boil
 
I did CFA back in the day when it was very US focused and the qualification wasn't as readily recognised this side of the world especially in Ireland. Came in handy in London though. I think that is changing now. I know of at least one university that will prepare their students for the CFA alongside their degree so you are now seeing a lot of people leave university with the exams passed and just needing the experience. As mentioned above, it is a pretty tough qualification to get and you do have to be pretty dedicated to get it. Took me three attempts to get Level 2 as that coincided with me having just met my wife so I was distracted!

It really depends on what you want. I can see you as support to Fund Accounting team so you understand the funds industry. Do you want to stay in that? If so, there are plenty of jobs at the moment. Sounds like your cv might need some work. I would take the advice above about reaching out to a recruitment agency. They might even help you decide what you want. I can see you are also interested in things like lending and pensions etc. If so, you don't need to do the CFA. The QFA is a good basic start and I am sure there are advisors here who can advise you on what else on top of them would be needed.

Don't commit to the CFA until you are 100% sure it is what you want. You won't pass and you will just end up giving up.
 
RedOnion said:
There are some very good recruitment agents out there that will help you with this aspect, but you need to reach out to them rather than applying for a specific role that you aren't immediately obviously experienced for.


You'll probably still think it's s waste of time, but it's a minimum competency required for most customer facing roles now.
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Thanks one and all for the replies which have being most helpful and informative. I think for the general direction I want to depart with my career QFA is certainly the most logical starting stepping stone and the absolute minimum qualification I need to have at least started to study before I can realistically even start applying for jobs. RedOnion would you be able to recommend me any recruitment agencies that would be good at assisting me at getting my CV in order and in particular for client facing banking jobs that I would be gearing it towards? Two people in different recruitment agencies that I asked how it looked said it was a good CV apart from one being hellbent on me getting it down to 2 pages (it is 2 and a half) but he remarked that the content, layout and flow was good. I do feel that it needs work though and possibly does have too much industry specific jargon and even jargon specific to my current company in it.

Sunny to answer your question I really think that I do not want to stay in the Funds administration industry forever. There might be plenty of jobs at the moment but in my part of the country the company that I work in is the only real contender in the market and although I do not have financial commitments here I do have a house bought and elderly parents who are semi dependent on me, not necessarily every day but some days during the week and they are getting no younger etc. I appreciate that I may be looking at it a bit irrationally too giving my experience over the last year or so in particular and lack of support from my Manager - there may well be other jobs in the company that suit me better but at the moment the way I am thinking is that I want to get out of that company.
 
irishstig said:
RedOnion would you be able to recommend me any recruitment agencies
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Unfortunately I'm in a different area, so don't have any experience of the agencies dealing with banking roles. But you need an agent that will meet you face to face and do Mick interview, etc, rather than the ones that just put through volume.

Re CV, remove all the jargon from it. It can put people off.
The other thing I would suggest is try to write your CV keeping in mind the job you want, not the job you have. So draw out all those skills and experiences that you can demonstrate, but are transferable to the role you want. You need to make it obvious to people you can do the job. Don't make them look for it.

And another question: have you had the serious conversations about salary expectation?
 
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