Interview with Anthony Vaccaro (MBA/CFA student)

Myself, I had no financial background at all – I had a degree in philosophy and journalism and I got accepted. Obviously that made it a lot harder to pass on the first attempt because I had no idea what any of these concepts meant at all. If somebody has a B-Com, they will obviously be in a much better position.

So what made you go for it, having had such a detached academic background?

I’m a financial journalist – so I cover the mining industry and interview and talk to a lot of analysts on the street. I just got tired of asking the questions and the analysts always being the experts, so I thought there’s no reason why I couldn’t be in their position.

So how did you prepare for it? Did you take any financial or economics courses?

No. I just studied my butt off. I got some math textbooks, because I hadn’t seen any math since high school. I just asked friends to help me with algebra stuff and just got through the rest on my own. I did use the Stalla and Schweser study guides as a main study help. And the rest…I just basically buried myself for six months – didn’t see many of my friends, just went home and studied after work.

That’s nuts, man. I’m cringing just thinking of all that math work. I hated it and I would not have gone back to it, especially since my field isn’t related at all.

Yes … life has many twists and turns. I thought the same thing in my 20’s, and then in my mid 30’s I ended up going back and doing it. I actually find it interesting now and enjoy it, but I didn’t before; it was definitely not my strong suit in high school.

Now that you are becoming the expert, what are you planning on doing with it?

Ideally I’d like to be an analyst – a buy-side analyst. So you are coming up with ideas for hedge or mutual funds on which stock they should be purchasing. I take a global, macro kind of perspective. So I kind of predict where things are going overall in the global economy and where you need to be to stay ahead of the game.

[pullquote]People don’t realize just how much work it is. [/pullquote]But you hadn’t planned on any of that before taking the CFA?

No. I think a general kind of thing guided me. I was interested in global economics, political and social issues. And in the financial world, being as broad as it is – a subset is you can specialize in that aspect, without gravitating towards it. So I didn’t specifically know that, but I generally knew that – it’s what I’d always been interested in.

What kind of edge are you expecting this certificate to give you in terms of financial security, jobs, salary, whatever?

It is a bit early [to tell] because…in Toronto, there are a lot of CFAs. It’s a very hard designation to get and I think in other cities – there is a student in our class from Pakistan who said there are only something like 20 or 30 CFAs in all of Pakistan. In Toronto, it’s a little bit different. There are a lot more. But the most important thing, I think, is it shows potential employers just how hard you are willing to work. People can say “I’m a very hard worker” – if you have your CFA, you do not have to say you are a hard worker – you’ve proven it.