Improve Your Marketability as a Job Candidate

What can you, as a CFA charterholder and BSAS member, do today to make yourself a more credible job candidate in the future?

Here are some tips from the "CFA Act II: Putting Your Charter Into Play!" panel on October 11, moderated by BSAS President Gayle Buff and featuring presentations by Dennis McLeavey, CFA, Vice President, Curriculum Development, CFA Program Division, CFA Institute and John Minahan, Senior Consultant, New England Pension Consultants.

1. Keep up on the latest topics in investment management

Today you’re increasingly competing with fellow CFA charterholders for professional jobs, so getting your charter isn’t enough to make yourself stand out. "You can distinguish yourself by being familiar with the new topics in the CFA Institute’s curriculum for CFA candidates and continuing education," said McLeavey. New topics are added to the curriculum as the result of the CFA Institute’s extensive surveys of employers and charterholders about what’s required to perform the jobs of investment professionals.

Over the past decade or so, McLeavey has seen increasing emphasis on:

  • Global investing
  • Private wealth management
  • Alpha rather than beta, as illustrated by beta becoming a commodity and by the increasing popularity of hedge funds

2. Develop a professional identity

"Develop a professional identity independent of your job," urged John Minahan. Ensure that your professional colleagues not only know you, but identify you with skills or topics that you feel passionately about. That way people will think of you when opportunities related to your interest comes up. They will think of you as the "go-to" person on that topic. This will help when you are changing jobs. It will also help with your ongoing career development, even when you aren’t looking for a job.

There are numerous ways to develop a professional identity. The easiest is to circulate at professional social and educational events. Helping to produce such events involves a bigger commitment but also probably a bigger payoff. A good first step towards producing programs is to become an associate coordinator for the BSAS CFA Review Program.

3. Leverage the BSAS

The BSAS has many opportunities for people to get involved, including teaching a course, producing a program, providing quality assurance as an associate coordinator, or sitting on one of thirteen program subcommittees. For more information, contact Stephanie Field at sfield@bsas.org.

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Susan B. Weiner, CFA provides strategic communications to help investment-related companies build new business and retain clients. http://members.aol.com/sbweiner/