from Hacker News

Ask HN: Does a CFA Matter in FinTech?

by gunshowmo on 4/16/21, 1:13 AM with 24 comments

Hi,

For quite a while I've had difficulties deciding what I actually enjoy doing and managing my motivation, so I let myself get into a bad place academically, although I have my degree now (Bio Major, CS Minor), and have roughly 4 years of work experience in a large bank as an analyst.

During that time, I've learnt a lot about programming, mostly in my spare time but also professionally as well. Although I was in analyst roles, I pushed to make my role a bit more developer-like. I created an end-to-end prototype in Python of a software solution we were building as part of the project that I was assigned to. This was then used as a template for the real developers to base their work off of.

In my spare time, I learned how to automate cloud infrastucture deployments using a Packer, Terraform, Docker, Kubernetes, and kOps stack. I've also set up full CRUD apps with a Node REST API backend and React frontend, SQL DBs, etc... I've also currently passed the first 2 levels of the CFA program, and plan to finish the third this year. I think I was uninformed when I made the decision to go for the CFA since I find a lot more joy in programming than pure investment management, but I was hoping it could serve as a foundation for a position in fintech.

The last time I was searching around for jobs, I didn't get many responses at all for developer/engineer roles given my experience only being in analyst roles. so at this point I'm a bit uncertain about my employability going forward. I'm based in Toronto but did apply at various comapnies (large and startups) across Canada & US. What I was hoping to ask is if anyone here would know if finishing off my CFA would even help me get a tech role at a fintech company given my lack of experience as a developer? Is there anything I could work on as a portfolio app/demo to improve my chances there specfically? Even general advice on what steps I should take going forward would be much appreciated. Thanks for your time.

  • by neximo64 on 4/16/21, 1:59 AM

    No it wont really help. In fact I would say it may even be a bit of a hinderance & quite possibly you wouldn't be used in a tech role and rather a different role like biz-dev in a fintech which is also harder to compete in as there are more candidates.

    I would say that getting bad grades is possibly fine the knowledge you have with tech is what you want to nurture directly if thats what you want to be good at. If its your first job its going to be hard anyway but the grades are only judged really at that point then subsequently its on your ability.

    If you are having trouble getting hired go for more niche knowledge for example a specific python skill, or rust async and find an employer who wants that. Its easier to show your skills off & be hired for with specialised rather than broad knowledge all over the place. REST/CRUD, React, etc is very broad and there are tonnes of candidates everywhere, even remotely..

  • by guard0g on 4/17/21, 9:32 PM

    Don’t waste your time or money on a CFA, unless you want a slow buy-side job or aim to become a financial advisor. The curriculum is out-of-date and in some parts wrong. It’s also missing the ‘tech’ in fin-tech. You are better off self-studying quantitative finance or learn about payments (stay away from asset allocation as this eventually leads to a high paying sales job as head of asset allocation).

  • by d--b on 4/16/21, 5:39 AM

    Fintech is a bit too wide a term to be able to answer easily. It covers anything from payment processing to high frequency trading.

    If you want to work in companies that make softwares that help manage corporate finance then maybe a CFA is good, I wouldnt know.

    I’ve worked at investment bank’s tech and quant teams and CFA is not useful at all. If anything it may paint you as the IT person who think that an exam will help them break through the tech/business divide and become a trader. In my experience, CFA is generally seen as an antiquated education and people will think you’ve wasted a ton of time working on this.

    Now, the way you presented yourself here is neat. You’re showing a great level of independance and a taste for tinkering with both finance and technical stuff. This is well regarded in investment banks. I have no doubt that you’ll be able to find a job there.

    My advice to you is that you should leave the CFA level-2 on your resume, and if people ask you, tell them that you did it cause you found it interesting. It’ll make you look like a curious person. But I don’t think that the effort required to pass level 3 is worth it.

    Godspeed!

  • by shubik22 on 4/16/21, 3:19 AM

    I made the transition from finance to tech about 7 years ago. I had passed the first two levels of the CFA before becoming a software engineer. My first job in tech was at a fintech company. While there I studied for and passed level 3.

    My two cents: I’m sure there are some employers and situations where having a CFA will be beneficial. But given how much time and effort it takes to pass each test, I think you’re far better off spending that time learning or working on something that’s directly applicable to your job. This is especially true if you’re trying to transition into tech from a non-technical background.

    Hope that helps! (And happy to answer any specific questions as well.)

  • by digitcatphd on 4/18/21, 11:22 AM

    It’s all about opportunity cost and what your role would be. CFA is generally only applicable to investment management anyone who thinks otherwise is uninformed.

  • by OnlyMateo on 4/16/21, 6:53 AM

    Fintech in general is about some tech-useful services for users as applied to money (in different ways).

    It's not about proper money management and in that case, as I think, you don't need CFA to do (or wotk in) some Fintech services.

    Experience in classical finance will be really useful because you can understand a problem. But again this is not about CFA.