Engineers - considering CFA or Financial Engineering?
 

I know of many engineers who regretted not getting the right career advice when they were in school. (What's "right" is subjective, of course.)

Envious of the high income that an investment banker can fetch, some of these engineers decided to take up courses or certifications that hopefully will give them a chance to enter the lucrative finance sector.

Their options include:

- Getting CFA charter. This can be done through self study, but it takes a fair bit of effort. The catch is that in order to get the charter title, you gotta accumulate a few years of relevant experience. There are people who deliberately became financial consultants (i.e. insurance agents) just to earn the CFA title. The interesting point here is that even working as a financial adviser/consultant counts as relevant.
- Getting a financial engineering degree from NUS or NTU. You need to pay school fees, attend classes, do projects, homework, etc. It can be quite challenging.

BUT, does it help to do all this?

If you're studying just to gain worldly knowledge of finance, then you're fine. I salute you.

But more likely, you're in this game because you want to get a job that pays well, at least reasonably better than your miserable engineer pay. If that's what you want, then chances are you will be disappointed.

Don't believe me? The next time you attend a preview session for such a course, ask questions.

Ask important questions, like "will I get a good job that pays well after I graduate?", "can you show me statistics on the before-and-after salaries of your graduates?" and "how many of your graduates have gone on to be associates with a bulge bracket investment bank?"

You'd be lucky if the presenter advises you not to expect too much. He could've said, "you might need to take a pay cut..."

http://www.salary.sg/2007/engineers-...l-engineering/

836
 

Hi,

Is a person without any working experience and degree able to take the CFA Level 1 exams?

Thanks.

838
 

Collin, yes. In fact, you can take all 3 levels but will only receive the charter status after you have accumulated the relevant experience.

840
 

Oh, I thought that degree or relevant working experience is needed in order to ENROLL for the exams?

841
 

Collin, I interpreted your question as "whether both working experience AND degree are needed". Yes, a degree is needed.
Seems there's also a requirement on "professional conduct". See:
http://www.cfainstitute.org/cfaprog/getstarted/requirements/index.html

1253
 

Hello,
Thanks for the above information.
I am engineer with work experience of 2.5+ yrs into IT industry.Currently i am working into IT department as software programmer into USA based Financial company.Should i take CFA, if yes then what would be carrer path ahead and starting Salary package.
Thanks in advance.

1521
 

Dear all, the world is populated with CFAs and MBAs... getting the right network and staying lucky is so much more important

2049
 

Engineers make more on average than finance majors tho. An engineer just have to be good at what he/she does, a CFA has to be lucky as well(and trust me, a credit crunch is not lucky time). Citi just cut 10% of their investment banking department(and need I say more about bearstern?), so right now u have a crap load of experienced finance ppl out there looking for a job, just be happy as an engineer lol. Plus an investment banker works 80 hr weeks(so in term of hrly wages it isn't anymore than a senior engineer). A lot of companies right now are saying they can't find enough engineers even though the economy isn't so hot right now.

Btw, I thought u need either a degree or some experience to be able to qualify for CFA exam? Cos that's what it says on their website.

2061
 

Jack,

Just to clarify doubts on CFA exams.

One would only need to produce his Degree or 4 years qualified working experience for Level 2 paper. So for Level 1, any dog cat also can go take.

2174
 

I am an engineer havign trained in One Year General Managament Programme from a reputed management Institute. I have about 15-16 yrs workign experience in Manufactuing ,Project Engineering & Planning and at presently looking after the Busines Planning job in a SBU.Presently I am workign as a middle level manager and want to develop myself for taking up senerior busines leadership position in Corporate Strategy .Please give your view whether CFA will be helpful for me .

2199
 

i passed CFA level 1 and want to go back to school for either a MBA or a MS in financial engineering. i wonder if the combination of CFA + MBA is better than the CFA + MS in financial engineering. any advice??

2201
 

I would think that CFA and MS in Financial Engineering would be slightly correlated. Hence, going for MBA would be a better bet. But of course the institution plays a part too.

2213
 

Hi Collin,
Thanks so much for the advice. what do you think of Baruch College? is it considered a good school to go for a MBA? have you heard of a major named Decision Sciences? what do you think of it? Thanks!!

2216
 

Hi xoxo,

Sorry I have not much clue about the college.

3447
 

Hey i am university graudate with a Bsc in Banking and Finance, and i am thinking about doing a CFA,MBa or a Msc in economics. I really would like to know what is my best bet.

3555
 

I attended a talk by Jim Rogers... he advised to study and buy everything related to commodities as usual !!! And his usual preach on China and Taiwan... After seeing what the Fed and US Treasury are doing, I think he's right to certain extent...

hence my opinion, if I were u, is to do everything related to commodities in China... this crisis will set up a different playing field and

3901
 

Hi Collin
I am an engineer with 5 years experience, and am looking towards a career shift to finance. I have registered for the June 2009 Level 1 exam.

Assuming I clear alll three levels, what do you think are the chances of an engineer breaking into Finance? This will be after 3-4 years, so lets assume the economy is ok by then. Also, do you know of anyone who has successfully traversed this path

thanks

3902
 

Prashanth, I know 2 persons who have cleared all levels. They are analysts now (used to be in IT).

3960
 

Hi all,

I have just passed my Level I Dec 2008. I also from engineering with 10 years experience. Anyone know any career opportunity in Singapore for this background? I read many ads, while they need CFA, they also need many other stuff.

Thanks.

4052
 

Hi

I did my MBA in finance last year and now I wanna pursue CFA. I am currently into developing infa projects and am also involved with project costing and financing of these infra projects...will this work ex be considered eligible for earning the Charter?

I am askin this because I saw a list of job profiles considered to be eligible for the charter on the CFA website however the profile related to my job isn't listed there.

I am not into securities, insurance field as of now

4053
 

sorry...what I meant in the above mail is currently by job involves developing infrastructure projects

4642
 

hey there,
i would like to know wat the major difference is b/w a CFA qualified and an M.S in financial engineering (lets say from Columbia). Who is better paid and to what extent r these 2 courses similar or dissimilar, as the case maybe.
regards

4643
 

cfa is a self-study certification well regarded in asset management industry (at least used to be).
mfe is a degree program that you can do part-time or full-time. it will get you into quantitative finance (or computational finance) roles, which are related to trading in the capital markets, eg you assist traders by churning out useful spreadsheets. very different from asset management. more brain power and less soft skills needed.
just my 2 cents.

Here's my addition to the praises for a quant (quantitative financial analyst): a Wall Street Quant is one of highest paid people in the world. I suspect they should enjoy the privilege of a very good pay in our part of the world too...

Taking a look the requirement & the course, it's a cross breed between economics, accountancy (or something), and computing... very interesting but may be a bit hard to swallow for people like me ;)

Each year in SG alone, there will be around 750 person that able to passed lvl 3 in this year(still need to get work exp before they were being able to award charter holder), but there are only 70+ ppl that graduated from NTU alone, +70 ppl from NTU, + 70 from SMU

So the supply you can see, is 1 MFE = 3.5 CFA

There is another topic shared in this forum, MBA Not So Good After All? My dear uncles, can I invite you to read this book Rich dad Poor Dad and relook at your perspective. Have you played Cashflow 101 Game and learn how to get out of the rat race....

I cleared Level 1 on 2nd attempt.

Failed Twice in Level 2.

This year taking a stress break…. maybe try next year.

Background: Bsc Engineering (NTU)
Joined Army 96-2003
Joined IFA: 2003-present

CFA is seriously tough without studying time of 3-4 hours a week. I took lessons at Cuppage Centre but still fail… cos I missed 60% of it :p

CFA is a very wide designation. You should think about your job scope: does it need CFA?

Having a CFA does not guarantee you a job… Industry experience is needed.

Byong, i think 3-4 hours per week is not enough to pass it, most probably 2 hours per weekday evening is sufficient, i passed it consecutively for 3 levels(doesn't mean that I am clever, it is just a matter of hardworking)

The key of passing the exam is to practise a lot of question until you can close the eye to do the question, but of course understanding the material comes first