It is a good time to pursue a career in Finance?

This is a question that I get asked on numerous occasions and my answer goes like this -

First I want to add a quote by Warren Buffet as it is very relevant to the question asked

"Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful". Warren Buffet

In the last few years we have seen markets tank, job market getting tough, unemployment rising to the levels not seen in decades. All this may sound scary, but if you have the determination and passion I can tell you with experience that there could not have been a better time to get into this industry. Now this may sound counter intuitive but drawing an analogy with stock markets helps.

Mantra in the stock market has been "Buy low sell high" and you buy low when market tanks and sell high before bubble bursts.So you get in at bad times in order to be a part of the change.

There is nothing called as a secure career and we have history to prove that for us. We have seen Dotcom bubble burst and now we are witnessing worst financial crisis of our times. Every sector/industry goes through Growth as well as decline phases.

What you should pursue is one question you need to answer yourself (Believe me I cannot stress it more, no one can answer it for you better than yourself),

In general career in finance is considered to be high paying on but we also need to understand that it is all a function of demand and supply. If your bank balance goes up at a exponential rate so does the stress in a lot of these careers. So you need to have your utility curves set in order to decide which career you would want to pursue.

Do you think that after an MBA you'll still need a CFA?
Which one will give a better understanding of finance concepts?


It totally depends on what you want to do. For example if you want to be in corporate Finance you might not need a CFA. You can be a investment banker too with just an MBA. Moreover if you have been working in Finance domain then MBA should be sufficient to take you further. CFA is more for in depth knowledge than anything else

Do you think after completing CFA do we still need an MBA to get into Finance.


I definitely think MBA is a much broader degree than a CFA. Best part about an MBA degree is that you will be enrolled in a fulltime program (that is if you plan to do a full-time which I believe you should, part time MBA is like a half baked cookie!). In an MBA you learn through the experience of others,there are no age barriers as you collaborate and compete with broad demographics,you discuss current topics and the economy every day. You are updated with the current trends in all sectors which will help you in a long way. For example you know lot more about the model behind an IPAD launch at the same time you also know why the government is cutting interest rates or why are banks called too big to fail!.I sat next to a senior VP of a firm during the MBA program and I believe that was a great take away for me.These are leadership skills which you can not develop in a CFA certification as it is not a classroom course. People do their MBA and then add further detailed knowledge through a CFA. This question is similar to a question that I am a Sun certified Java professional do I still need a engineering degree to work at Infosys/TCS/Cognizant etc? My thought when I was working with Infosys was that I could have done this job just by learning some programming languages and not wasting my time in Engineering. But what I have learnt is your degree does not give the exact skills for your job but it gives you the mindset to think the way you do. Engineering degree makes you want to think analytically and quantitatively and ask good questions. I know it is a long answer but I hope I was able to answer it.