Work for different firm that has no travel. Not interested in Mon-Thurs travel to the middle of no where.

Got lucky and happened to apply for a job at the right time. Had ugrad and CFA at the time.

MBB recruiting is straight-forward. Straight out of ugrad, straight out of MBA or out of industry where you have expert knowledge. Sure there's always exceptions to the rule, but not many.

Just nailed my CFA L3 exam. Another year of experience before obtaining the charter.

I'm in finance on the credit side.

Does MBB even have an office here...?

Anyway, if any of you finance folks are in downtown, we should grab a drink.

Vancouver is a graveyard for CFA related careers.

I say this from experience.

You will do way better elsewhere, but good luck to you, it's a great designation to have

Just passed my Level 2 CFA because I feel that it's useful to know a little bit about everything. The CFA exam is just that.

I already have a Masters degree and working a career type job. However, I figured that a professional designation wouldn't hurt.

What people need to understand is that the finance field here in Vancouver is extremely competitive. I'm strictly talking about pure finance positions like analyst/associate positions within IBD, ER, AM, or on the corporate side, and not some non-analytical assistant/admin crap.

Whenever a real finance position is posted (typically on CFA Vancouver job board or search the key word "CFA" on indeed), you have people from Calgary, Toronto, and even New York/London applying. These are the people who left Vancouver after undergrad, who gained experiences in major financial markets, and would like to come back.

For every finance position, expect to be competing with at least 100 candidates, with many of them being very qualified for the role. A number of positions posted recently were filled by people from outside Vancouver. Our firm recently hired a guy from GS in London. One of the IB analyst positions posted recently was filled by someone who came back from Toronto.

I believe Toronto has the highest percentage of CFA Charterholders, and Vancouver is not far behind. It's a great designation to have and can greatly help for career advancement, but you can't expect it to be a ticket to a job when you have zero experiences.

No, but there are MBB folks based out of Vancouver that do the Mon-thurs thing.

CFA with no actual experience means nothing. most ppl in vancouver have CFA bc they wrote the exams (i know there is the 4 year experience requirement, but it's not hard to BS your way through that).

ppl come to vancovuer to chill out and settle, they get their experience somewhere where you can get experience (TO, NY, etc), and then give up the BS 12 hr days, move to vnacouver, work 9-6, make way less, but are (or should) already be most well off...

not to scare anyone away from CFA, but all the ppl I know in 'CFA' roles aren't experienced in Vancovuer before getting their current job.

what kinda experience do you need to get the CFA?

interned at PwC (accounting) and signed a management consultant offer at KPMG for the upcoming year. graduated with a BBA.

willing to answer questions regarding my field.

with all due respect, have you even started work yet? going to school does not give you sufficient knowledge to advise anyone

what was KPMG management consulting before it was KPMG (they bought out a company a couple of years ago, i forget it's name).

stop being so lazy.

go google it, or https://www.cfainstitute.org/Pages/index.aspx

People like you are the ones that fail level 1 repeatedly.

They bought out Secor which bought out RPO-MC.

Smart people there. Long assed hours. I bombed an interview when it was RPO-MC and got a job offer for Secor a couple years later when I interviewed again. Turned it down for something else.

At least they didn't rename it to Strategy&....

Was just asking the board a general question, and do you have anything to contribute that can help a RS member out in terms of the types of jobs required?
And are you a CFA? seems like it by your response above

There's a big difference between doing some basic research and asking smart questions that demonstrate your willingness to learn vs being lazy and expected to have things handed to you on a plate.

Let me demonstrate:

Lazy
What kind of job do I need to qualify for my CFA designation?

Not lazy
I've read the requirements and I'm still a little fuzzy. I currently work at ______ doing ________ and I think it's related, though not explicitly. Does anyone have any experiences qualifying this kind of experience or should I start looking for something that will?

Ask yourself: Can I find the answer with google in 5 minutes or less?

If yes - Go google it.
If no - Google it anyways and demonstrate what you've learned and then ask the question.

I'll add that I've also learned this the hard way. Early in my career, I had an informational interview with a VP at an investment firm and was totally unprepared. My dumbass thinking at the time was.. Oh I'll just figure out questions to ask and go from there.

She totally knew I wasn't prepared and reamed me out for it. Did not get job. Did not get access to her contacts.

Woulda been even better if they renamed it to Point Bearing.

Fair.

After graduating last year, I became a management consultant at PwC. I quit a couple months ago and I'm working as an in-house strategy consultant for a leading mining company right now.

KPMG bought out SECOR in 2012. But my job will be based out of the Hong Kong office starting in March.

Which miner?

What kind of work do u do for them?

And why u moving to HK? Is it due to lack of opportunities in Vancouver?

All that with a BBA?

Good idea for a thread, tiger_handheld.

I've been working in public practice since 2008. Started at a very small CGA firm then went to a bigger (but still small) CA firm. I'm now a senior accountant at a mid-sized firm in Surrey.

I got my CA in 2013. It was a long 30 month process but well worth it in the end. If you're going to succeed in this field, you've got to get designated.

BTW, good luck to all the UFE candidates who are writing in two weeks. Your family, friends and colleagues are all cheering for you.

So here is a question for all the accountants on here...

Do you think anyone has considered capitalizing employees? I mean if you think about it aren't they an asset? The gf was talking about human capital and it brought this to my mind. All the places that rely on human brains would use this wouldn't they? It sounds too good to be true, hence my question to you guys lol...

Uh.. no. Just think how would you even begin to do that, and you'll know why it's not possible. It might be possible, but simply makes no sense to do it.

I was wondering for all you experts. How does one gain experience in the accounting field for someone with just an accounting diploma? Many places seem to require some experience. I'm guessing volunteering is the way to go? and How did all you guys get your first experience?

asset is defined as:

1) acquired by a prior transaction
2) future benefit to company
3) control over future benefit

(this is totally over simplified from my UFE days many years ago, but it still rings true today, in an over simplified way)

you most definitely do not have no. 3. An asset is, by definition, to be controlled, one cannot control an employee. an employee can quit tomorrow, free and clear, an asset, while it can break down, it cannot leave, nor does it break down 'by choice'

now, if your employee is working on something, say software code, then yes their time can be capitalized relating to that project as the software code is owned, you control it, and it has future benefit...