here are the ans to all the questions (or most)
1. is the CFA Chartered better than the mba?
ans: you are ban by ethics to exclaim you are better than anyone. A mba student can say they are better than you but you cannot say you are better than them.
a CFA Chartered would earn on average 54% higher than his peers with same amount of experience.
The fact to know is that most employer in Singapore do know the value of the CFA qualifications. Yes the bank professional knows but most of the HR in the bank cannot even differtiate btw CFA, CFP, CPA, FRM, PRM, CAIA. Every time I go for interview in the bank I would get questions like so you must be very good at doing accounts?
2. PRM vs FRM
ans: FRM is more reconzied, the PRM is easily since you can get exemption and can take it many times in a year and it has 4 papers instead of one. Taking 4 small paper is easier than taking 1 big paper.
I did the APRM which is PRM paper 4 and more than half of paper 3. I passed. I also took the FRM in nov, which I cannot even imagine getting over the 50% bench mark.
To be honest unless you find FRM too difficult, and yes it is slightly more dififcult than the CFA level 2 exam, do the FRM. PRM is for those whom want a quick entry to risk management or for those whom do risk but is not that involved.
Anyway FRM needs to have 2 years experiences, PRM need not.
PRM is picking up fast because it is easier and yes some local university including singapore have courses for PRM, and when NUS teach PRM course all of the sudden the credibilty increases.
And why no one teach FRM course in singapore, because it is too damm difficult to teach FRM
3. Must my experience be in banking and finance?
You need to be involved in investments. directly or indirectly. Example you work in a company who make cars and you in charge of their pensions fund. yes.
you work in a finance department of a multinational whom use derivatives, swaps etc to hedge its risk. yes you are, but provided you spend more than 50% of your time doing those. if you are an accountant whom just do hedging as part of your job then it is hard to say
Even many jobs in the banking and finance are non qualified
some examples are
deposit
trade finance
loans. yes loans are non qualified, if you are a credit analysis of a loan you wont get qualified , because a loan is not an investment. only bonds, structured finance counts.
doing anything that does not add value to the investment process, example a data entry clerk, in an equites department.
or yes a financial planner is a qualified job. some people actually become one just to get 4 years of experience. Please note this does not mean that financial planner have superior financial skills, most have close to none.
4. is it worth taking CFA, MBA or MIF
ok MIF is most easy to pass I dont think I need to explain why, and it is second cheapest. The MBA is most expensive and 2nd most difficult to pass. The CFA is cheap, but most difficult to pass.
Most people take at least 2 tries to pass each level in the CFA exam so you may take 5 years to complete the CFA exams. Of cause you still need 4 years of experiecne which can be b4, during or after the exams. Most people can complete MIF and MBA in 3 years, even the most stupid of the student did not take more than 3 years. In CFA exams it is not uncommon to fail more than 3 times.
salary wise
highest is CFA Chartered but you are stuck in banking and finance else where you are worthless.
2nd is MBA, the good is you can go anywhere
3rd is MIF, you are stuck and you are little value, but hey it is easy to pass. Some people I know get MIF, work 4 years and do the CFA exams and wala
5. how reconized are these qualification in singapore
CFA Chartered: Most professional heard of it, or know it, but most HR do not. So the point is if you cant even pass the HR interview how the hell are you going to get to the professional interview stage?
CAIA chartered: Alternative investments is not very popular in singapore, it is in HK. But in less than 3 years time it would change, provided of cause the world does not end. So do now while it is easier, once it get popular it would become more difficult
PRM: still not very reconized yet but would soon be. In singapore my bet is soon it would be on par with FRM or even overtake it, but in international stage PRM would not come close to FRM in at least a decade.
FRM: yes many is right, many do not know what is FRM and these include managing directors in the banks in singapore, in Japan, HK, US, EURO FRM is a well know qualification but not in SIngapore. Most in singapore only know master in risk, master in financial engineering.
And yes FRM qualified job are not easy to find, and you need to gain 2 years of experience within 5 years of passing your final FRM paper. So my advise is get experience first then do the exams.
6. do they increase my chance of getting hired?
I passed the CFA lvl one exam in dec 2007, passed CFA lvl two exam in June 2009, passed CAIA lvl one exam in sept 2009, passed APRM exam in 2009 i forgot the month.
and yes till now I have not found a single full time job in a FI, the best job I got in a FI is a 6.5 per hour job at fixed deposits.
So the thing is get a full time job in a bank first then do qualification and never tell anyone you are doing them.
The reason is simple no one would torrelate having someone beside him whom has the potential to outsmart him/her.
once you complete then smack them at your bosses, if you get the CFA chartered, FRM, PRM, CAIA chartered. You are looking at more than 110% pay raise, which would means you are likely to need to jump ship.
So this is another reason why you should not do those qualifciation b4 you join a bank, because if they know it, they would think, hey if I hire this chap he may leave me after he pass or demand from me some stupid salaries, why dont I let someone else hire him and then I poach him over when he pass the exams.
But dont let all that scare you, I am only one of the very few unlucky singaporean in singapore.
1. is the CFA Chartered better than the mba?
ans: you are ban by ethics to exclaim you are better than anyone. A mba student can say they are better than you but you cannot say you are better than them.
a CFA Chartered would earn on average 54% higher than his peers with same amount of experience.
The fact to know is that most employer in Singapore do know the value of the CFA qualifications. Yes the bank professional knows but most of the HR in the bank cannot even differtiate btw CFA, CFP, CPA, FRM, PRM, CAIA. Every time I go for interview in the bank I would get questions like so you must be very good at doing accounts?
2. PRM vs FRM
ans: FRM is more reconzied, the PRM is easily since you can get exemption and can take it many times in a year and it has 4 papers instead of one. Taking 4 small paper is easier than taking 1 big paper.
I did the APRM which is PRM paper 4 and more than half of paper 3. I passed. I also took the FRM in nov, which I cannot even imagine getting over the 50% bench mark.
To be honest unless you find FRM too difficult, and yes it is slightly more dififcult than the CFA level 2 exam, do the FRM. PRM is for those whom want a quick entry to risk management or for those whom do risk but is not that involved.
Anyway FRM needs to have 2 years experiences, PRM need not.
PRM is picking up fast because it is easier and yes some local university including singapore have courses for PRM, and when NUS teach PRM course all of the sudden the credibilty increases.
And why no one teach FRM course in singapore, because it is too damm difficult to teach FRM
3. Must my experience be in banking and finance?
You need to be involved in investments. directly or indirectly. Example you work in a company who make cars and you in charge of their pensions fund. yes.
you work in a finance department of a multinational whom use derivatives, swaps etc to hedge its risk. yes you are, but provided you spend more than 50% of your time doing those. if you are an accountant whom just do hedging as part of your job then it is hard to say
Even many jobs in the banking and finance are non qualified
some examples are
deposit
trade finance
loans. yes loans are non qualified, if you are a credit analysis of a loan you wont get qualified , because a loan is not an investment. only bonds, structured finance counts.
doing anything that does not add value to the investment process, example a data entry clerk, in an equites department.
or yes a financial planner is a qualified job. some people actually become one just to get 4 years of experience. Please note this does not mean that financial planner have superior financial skills, most have close to none.
4. is it worth taking CFA, MBA or MIF
ok MIF is most easy to pass I dont think I need to explain why, and it is second cheapest. The MBA is most expensive and 2nd most difficult to pass. The CFA is cheap, but most difficult to pass.
Most people take at least 2 tries to pass each level in the CFA exam so you may take 5 years to complete the CFA exams. Of cause you still need 4 years of experiecne which can be b4, during or after the exams. Most people can complete MIF and MBA in 3 years, even the most stupid of the student did not take more than 3 years. In CFA exams it is not uncommon to fail more than 3 times.
salary wise
highest is CFA Chartered but you are stuck in banking and finance else where you are worthless.
2nd is MBA, the good is you can go anywhere
3rd is MIF, you are stuck and you are little value, but hey it is easy to pass. Some people I know get MIF, work 4 years and do the CFA exams and wala
5. how reconized are these qualification in singapore
CFA Chartered: Most professional heard of it, or know it, but most HR do not. So the point is if you cant even pass the HR interview how the hell are you going to get to the professional interview stage?
CAIA chartered: Alternative investments is not very popular in singapore, it is in HK. But in less than 3 years time it would change, provided of cause the world does not end. So do now while it is easier, once it get popular it would become more difficult
PRM: still not very reconized yet but would soon be. In singapore my bet is soon it would be on par with FRM or even overtake it, but in international stage PRM would not come close to FRM in at least a decade.
FRM: yes many is right, many do not know what is FRM and these include managing directors in the banks in singapore, in Japan, HK, US, EURO FRM is a well know qualification but not in SIngapore. Most in singapore only know master in risk, master in financial engineering.
And yes FRM qualified job are not easy to find, and you need to gain 2 years of experience within 5 years of passing your final FRM paper. So my advise is get experience first then do the exams.
6. do they increase my chance of getting hired?
I passed the CFA lvl one exam in dec 2007, passed CFA lvl two exam in June 2009, passed CAIA lvl one exam in sept 2009, passed APRM exam in 2009 i forgot the month.
and yes till now I have not found a single full time job in a FI, the best job I got in a FI is a 6.5 per hour job at fixed deposits.
So the thing is get a full time job in a bank first then do qualification and never tell anyone you are doing them.
The reason is simple no one would torrelate having someone beside him whom has the potential to outsmart him/her.
once you complete then smack them at your bosses, if you get the CFA chartered, FRM, PRM, CAIA chartered. You are looking at more than 110% pay raise, which would means you are likely to need to jump ship.
So this is another reason why you should not do those qualifciation b4 you join a bank, because if they know it, they would think, hey if I hire this chap he may leave me after he pass or demand from me some stupid salaries, why dont I let someone else hire him and then I poach him over when he pass the exams.
But dont let all that scare you, I am only one of the very few unlucky singaporean in singapore.
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