| Topic Name: |
I-Banking to VC |
| Message Name: |
Is the CFA worthless for a JD |
| Date Posted: |
07/21/2000 |
| In Reply To: |
The CFA has little or no additional value for VCs. In general, the CFA is highly overhyped and is really only vitally necessary in second/third tier buyside shops (especially commercial bank asset management depts)when you're trying to move from a junior to more senior position.
The CFA emphasizes bizarre and obscure things that have negative relevance to a VC. You'll spend huge amounts of time studying such dubious topics as swaps and straddles, depreciation schedules, how rustbelt industrial firms can play with the taxcode, real estate investing, etc.
While you learn a bit of fundamental analysis on the CFA, the tests much more emphasize playing with complex spreadsheets than being able to analyze industries strategically, identifing sales channel or marketing strategies, building workable management teams, or any real issues that you will confront as a VC. There's either zero or next to zero on the test (I took mine several years ago) on private equity, at least in my time. |
| Message: |
I am a lawyer doing general corp work and I am hoping to move to either an IB or a VC in a few years. I am planning to start on the CFA next summer. Since I have a JD and a bachelors in Bio, I thought the CFA would be good for showing decent quant skills and also for giving me some finance/accounting basics.
What do people think, is it worthwhile or worthless? Also, if it is worhtless, what would you suggest? (and don't say b-school, because I am too old and too much in debt already)
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