If you're new here, let me fill you in.
Back in 2020, I was at a standstill. I was unemployed and I needed to make a transition, so, I considered finance. However, I quickly realized that I had a mountain of information to climb before I could even be in a position to ask relevant questions to professionals. The problem when you are lost in a forest and you are surrounded on all sides is that you have to pick a direction and just go.
The first direction I chose was “Retail Financial Advising”. I’ll be honest: I did not understand a lot of these words at the time, especially in this particular combination. If you type “How to become a financial advisor” into Google, you’ll get a list of all the requirements and tests you must go through to be certified.
At the time, the checklist looked like this *:
• 4-year college degree
• SIE (You must pass this exam first)
• Series 7
• Series 66
I started with must-haves. Luckily, I had a college degree already, so this was not an issue. Next up was the Securities Industry Essentials exam from FINRA. I ordered a 2-year old used-copy of the study book and I read the whole thing cover to cover. After that, I scheduled my exam and completed the surprisingly extensive background check. I go to take the exam (remotely because we were still in the middle of a global pandemic) and I pass!! This was a great moment in my life. After all the challenges I had experienced, I could finally see myself getting closer to my goals!
During this time, I was reading everything finance-related that I could get my hands on, starting with (but not limited to):
• Security Analysis by Benjamin Graham
• Narrative and Numbers by Aswath Damodaran
• A Non-Random Walk Down Wall Street by Andrew Lo.
With these books and the SIE under my belt, I was ready to apply to financial advisor jobs and seek sponsorship from a Financial Advising firm in order to take the Series 7 and 66.
I started reaching out to five firms a week, personally sending my resume and following up with the hiring managers, as I knew the computers would never accept an application from someone with a poetry degree!!
Almost every firm at the time was telling me no, but in the end, I found a firm that was willing to take a chance on me - if I could commit to a four-year training program. During this time, everyone was still on edge about COVID, and I had to go for an in-person interview before I was accepted into the program. So, I put on my nicest N95 mask, pulled on my second-hand suit jacket and unmatching khakis out of my closet, and made my way to the interview.
The interview went well and I secured my spot in the program. This could have been the happy ending to my career transition, but that very same week, I discovered a financial technology firm based in NYC called BondCliQ that aligned with my interests, specifically corporate bonds. This is around the time I connected with Joel Brown-Christenson, an alumni from my college, and discovered ViableEdu. After I “met” with Joel (via Zoom), he assured me that I was a perfect candidate for the ViableEdu Financial Technology Apprenticeship program, and after the 8-weeks of training, I would be in a good position to apply for a full-time job. And, as it turned out, the lead instructor of ViableEdu was also the CEO of BondCliQ.
I was presented with two options:
1. Take the secured position of a 4-year training program with a guaranteed salary
or
2. Take the risk, and pursue additional education (and go twenty more weeks without a paycheck) with hopes of landing a job in financial technology.
I asked everyone I knew what I should do - family, friends, mentors, and professionals I was continuing to network with. Almost everyone told me the same thing: If you are going to take a risk this is the best time to do it. I was still fairly young, I didn’t have children, and for the most part, my only responsibility was to myself. So I took the leap- and you would not believe what came next!
I’ll end here for this one.
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*With these 4 certificates (Undergraduate degree, SIE, Series 7, Series 66) - you can begin advising people on their personal finances - after these 4 initial certificates - most people choose to specialize, and that’s where you start seeing titles such as Certified Financial Planner (CFP), Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Retirement Income Certified Professional (RICP), and six other professional designations.