Career As A Chartered Financial Analyst

For those who are interested in assisting people, businesses, or other organizations in achieving financial success, the finance sector offers a variety of rewarding career paths. A career as a Chartered Financial Analyst is one option that can offer finance professionals a variety of opportunities (CFA). 

These people support businesses and people in making the best investments. This may be a good career choice for you if you are a finance-oriented individual who is interested in expanding your investment knowledge while gaining access to new employment opportunities with higher earning potential. 

We’ll go over what a CFA does, their typical salary, and the range of this profession in this blog. Read on!

What Does A Chartered Financial Analyst Do?

A CFA is a licensed investment professional who 

• advises and manages portfolios for individuals, businesses, and other organizations.
• assists clients in making investment decisions, investing their money, managing their portfolios, and providing financial services.
• They handle relationship management and data science, credit analysis, chief investment officer, trading, accounting and auditing, financial planning, and sales and trading.

Job Roles As A Chartered Financial Analyst

If you want to pursue a career as a Chartered Financial Analyst, here are a few job roles you can consider.

1. Credit Analyst: A credit analyst’s primary responsibility is to evaluate a loan applicant’s creditworthiness. They are employed mainly by commercial and investment banks.
2. Equity Research Associate: The primary responsibility of an equity research associate is to provide information to a company’s business management. The equity research associate’s information is used to make significant investment decisions.
3. Financial Analyst: A financial analyst investigates microeconomic and macroeconomic conditions, as well as company fundamentals, in order to make business, sector, and industry recommendations to the company.
4. Finance Manager: The primary responsibility of financial managers is to ensure the organization’s financial health. They create financial reports, direct investment activities, and create plans and strategies for their companies’ or organizations’ long-term financial goals.
5. Investment banker: Investment bankers are involved in activities such as capital raising, mergers, and acquisitions, experts in the industry of financial services. They are involved in activities such as capital raising, mergers and acquisitions, and so on. An investment banker is a key player in an organization’s growth.
6. Portfolio manager: Portfolio managers are financial experts who help clients make investment decisions. A portfolio manager is a client-based advisor who manages investments for individuals or businesses.
7. Private wealth manager: Individual investors can benefit from the assistance of these professionals in analyzing the difficulties and challenges of financial markets. These people also work with families in handling their portfolios.
8. Research Analyst: A research analyst investigates, examines, and deduces facts, principles, and theories for internal or external financial client use.
9. Risk Analyst/ Risk Manager: Businesses hire risk analysts or risk managers to mitigate the negative effects of risk events such as natural disasters, financial risks, or operational risks.  Risk management professionals apply methods or preventative measures for future threats. 

Career Path As CFA

If you want to pursue a career as a Chartered Financial Analyst, you can consider the following paths.

Path 1:

Complete your 10+2 in the Commerce field as this would help you learn the basics of Accounting and Finance. Pursue a bachelor’s degree in any Business and Finance related course. Appear for the CFA exam in your final year or after graduation. 

Path 2:

Completing your 10+2 in Commerce will help you learn the fundamentals of Accounting and Finance. Earn a bachelor’s degree in any business or finance-related field. If you have four years of work/college experience, you are eligible to take the CFA exam.

Salary In Different Career Stages Of A CFA

To pursue a career as a Chartered Financial Analyst, you need to know what the pay looks like throughout your career. This graph represents what your payments will look like.

Skills Required To Become A CFA

If you want to excel in your career as a Chartered Financial Analyst, these are a few skills you need to ace.

1. Financial analysis and modelling
   CFA charterholders must possess expertise in financial analysis and modelling in order to evaluate and process massive volumes of data. By analyzing previous data, these specialists can forecast future economic trends with the use of their financial analysis skills. 

2. Attention to detail
   This ability can assist CFAs in providing their clients with thorough financial analyses. They employ observation to acquire data, pay attention to their clients, and offer sound suggestions on financial investments or assets.

3. Decision-making
   CFAs assess financial data using logic and analysis, and they look at business trends or investment prospects. These experts act as leaders to assist clients in achieving their strategic objectives. They offer effective advice to businesses and people by utilizing their sound judgment and financial knowledge.

4. Self-discipline
   Professionals can benefit from having self-discipline skills to retain their attention so they can finish the program while working toward their CFA designation. To maintain concentration on their preparation, they create organized study schedules and get rid of distractions. 

5. Communication
   CFA-designated professionals listen to their clients and comprehend their financial goals by using their communication abilities. To clearly communicate their financial analysis to people or organizations, they give presentations. They interact with clients in a professional manner, offering advice and financial recommendations. 

6. Time management
   Professionals can take thorough notes, make study guides, and find time to prepare, by using their time-management abilities. Professionals can continue to use these abilities to handle their varied jobs after getting the CFA certification, such as keeping financial records and keeping an eye on investments.

7. Technical skills
   To manage financial data successfully, charterholders need to have a broad variety of technical abilities. They have database management abilities and can electronically organize financial data. To access and retrieve data from databases, certain professionals study Structured Query Language (SQL) and learn a computer language like Python. 

8. Integrity
   To be able to offer a transparent and impartial examination of a person or organization’s finances and investments, charterholders must be honest. The CFA test includes a portion devoted to the financial code of ethics to assess candidates’ knowledge of professional standards. 

Is A CFA A Good Option?

If you are someone who is interested in the finance world, pursuing a career as a Chartered Financial Analyst is worth it. CFA opens up career opportunities in almost every asset class, and you will come across CFA(s) in every industry domain. 

Although most CFA candidates want to work as a buy-side equity analyst or in portfolio management, there are numerous other options such as quantitative data analyst, trader, consultant, alternative investments, real estate, fixed income, investment banking, private equity, and so on.

So, clearly, the scope after CFA is vast, and one can specialize in their own area of interest. The scope expands further if one acquires other skill sets required in the industry that the CFA syllabus does not cover.

If you are keen on learning about these topics, want hands-on exposure, and want to know more about how to become a Chartered Financial Analyst, check out the Clever Harvey JuniorMBA-Finance course.

Types Of Industries Hiring CFA

CFAs are employed by various types of businesses. To pursue a career as a Chartered Financial Analyst, you can work at any of the following: –

1. Corporate Finance Divisions
2. Credit Rating/ Analysis
3. Equity Research
4. Investment Banking
5. Portfolio Management Firms
6. Private Equity
7. Wealth Management Firms

 Top Recruiters For CFA In India

1. Aditya Sun Life
2. Bharti Airtel
3. Hindustan Unilever Ltd
4. HSBC
5. ICICI Bank
6. ITC
7. Reliance Industries
8. SBI Bank
9. TATA company

Courses To Upskill As A CFA

CFA Course Details

Course Name	Chartered Financial Analyst
Eligibility	Bachelor’s degree
Course Levels	3 Levels
Duration of Course	2-3  years
Exam Mode	Online
Course Fees	Rs. 50,000- 1,50,000

To complete this two to three-year course, you must pass 10 exams at each level. A charter holder must have 4000 hours or 36 months of professional experience in addition to passing the CFA exams. The required work experience can be completed before or after beginning your CFA exams.

If you are keen on learning about these topics, want hands-on exposure, and want to know more about how to become a Chartered Financial Analyst,  check out Clever Harvey’s JuniorMBA Chief Financial Officer program

Qualifications To Become A CFA

Degrees In India

To pursue a career as a Chartered Financial Analyst, here are a few undergraduate courses that you can consider. 

Undergraduate Courses For CFA In India

1. Bachelor of Accountancy
2. B.Com
3. Bachelor in Business Economics 
4. BBA (Bachelor of Business Administration) Finance
5. Bachelor’s in Finance and Accounting

Postgraduate Courses For CFA In India

Course Name	Duration
MBA Finance	2 years
Masters in Finance	1-2 years
MSc Finance	1 year
M.Com	2 years

Degrees Abroad

A bachelor’s degree is required for eligibility to take the CFA Exam. It is best if you pursue an undergraduate degree in finance, accounting, or business, as these will be useful skills for your career as a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Undergraduate Courses For CFA Abroad

1. Bachelor’s of Business Administration (Accounting)
2. Bachelor’s of Business Administration (Finance)
3. B.Com in Accounting

Postgraduate Courses For CFA Abroad

Course Name	Duration
Master Management in Finance & Accounting	1-2 years
MSc Business with Finance	2 years
Master of Science in Finance	2 years

References

Recruiters List with Salary Package

Company	Package
JP Morgan and Co	3.08 to 20
HSBC	5.24 to 30
Crisil	5.04 to 20
Credit Suisse	10 to 40
Deloitte	14-30 LPA
Aditya Sun Life	13-25 LPA
SBI Bank	6-17 LPA
Reliance Industries	25-45 LPA
Bharti Airtel	12-22 LPA
ICICI Bank	12-27 LPA
Hindustan Unilever Ltd	15-36 LPA
ITC	15-25 LPA

Books To Read

For better exam performance, you should refer to some of the following books while studying for the CFA exams.

• CFA Level 2 Kaplan
• Kaplan Schweser CFA Level 1 Books
• The Official CFA Curriculum
• Wiley 11th Hour Guide
• Wiley CFA Level 1 Books

That’s all you need to know about the career as a Chartered Financial Analyst. We hope this blog helped you and answered all your questions about the career of a CFA, what you need to study, where you can apply for jobs, and what job roles this profession would offer you. Good luck! 

FAQs