Dear all,I am an IT person for 12 years, and I am thinking of taking CFA examinations, I wonder:any benefits for an OCP (Oracle Certified Professional in Database Administration) + CFA?any benefits for data mining & data warehousing & statistical tools + CFA?any benefits for a physics major BC + CFA? (good at designing derivative products?)For a IT person who is good at database administration and data analysis, I heard about the field called "financial engineering" which is analytical in nature but this is all that I know. Can someone give more advice on this? Thanks in advance.

You'll probably need some sort of business degree, but I can tell you from personal experience that at the Reinsurance company where I work, if you had your background and an MBA, you'd be a valuable asset.

QuoteOriginally posted by: BeavisYou'll probably need some sort of business degree, but I can tell you from personal experience that at the Reinsurance company where I work, if you had your background and an MBA, you'd be a valuable asset.What department are you in? Are you in the US, NYC?This holds for the good times (3-5 years ago). Are they still hiring now?

what are advantages to earn a CFA?

QuoteOriginally posted by: CarolynTwhat are advantages to earn a CFA?A lot of people in the markets are getting it so there is the herd instinct effect. For some jobs like portfolio management and research it looks very good on a resume and depending on the group may almost be required. It makes you cover a broad range of material, some of which you may have missed otherwise. It is the cheapest way to get 3 letters after your name on a business card. The disadvantages are that the tests (3 over 3 years) may cover some material that may be of no interest or boring for you. Also, because the CFA concept is more broad knowledge than deep, the quant type material is much less rigorous than most of what you will read here and so is not seen as an advantage for serious quant work. There are other discussions of this on other threads so you might do a search to get additional info.

QuoteOriginally posted by: AQuoteOriginally posted by: BeavisYou'll probably need some sort of business degree, but I can tell you from personal experience that at the Reinsurance company where I work, if you had your background and an MBA, you'd be a valuable asset.What department are you in? Are you in the US, NYC?This holds for the good times (3-5 years ago). Are they still hiring now?NY - WeschesterYeah, we are always hiring

I am an IT and participating CFA program, too. I passed Level I last year and took Level II exam in June. In Taiwan, there are a few companies will take CFA into consideration when you want to find a finance-related job. If you talk to IT or personnel managers of financial institutes, they hardly know about what CFA is. I think CFA is much popular in US and it is a plus for your whatever job.I asked the same question here a few months ago. CFA is very useful if you want to be a fund manager, but not for a quant. If you are an experienced IT person and have the CFA charter, everybody will know you have both IT and finance basic knowledge. I am developing software for financial industry. The knowledge is very helpful when I talk to my clients. They know it is easy to talk something finance with me. If you want to do some software for investment or valuation, it is good to have the CFA charter.