A : in fact, some of seniors here already answered this question sometime ago. but in fact, i did not fully comprehense what they mean by saying "CFA is good to have, but not sufficient to land you a job".
now from my own experience and my understanding, i think that CFA provides a basic financial education to non-business school graduate, or a review for business school graduate. i think that financial industry only value this as a value-add to your profile. i do not think pass CFA Level III would be convincing enough for ppl to hire you, because you are just same as business school graduate! where there are hundreds or thoudands of new graduates are looking for jobs now. so why choose u?
when market is good, like in 06, labor is tight, so they hire whoever u r. now market is bad, how can they consider a new guy simply passing the CFA exams, while there are 100 hundreds retrenched bankers with years of experiences waiting outside the door? so market timing is everything. but now we all miss it, so what to do? perhaps my best guess is to prepare for your graduate school study. top tier MBA is definately first choice if u can go it!
lastly, if you like to read and learn some basic financial knowledge, by all mean go ahead for CFA. but do no place bet on CFA for a financial job!
hope this can help.
(disclamer: i do not mean to undermine the CFA designation or anything related. i am here simply expressing my views on how practically people do, which may be wrong. besides, i am personally CFA level III candidate)
