“I’m very impressed by the professionalism of the faculty and the layout of the program,” says Gillian Martin, a student in Concordia’s MBA with Complete CFA Integration program.
Looking to advance your career with a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree? You’ll want to take a careful look at Concordia’s MBA with Complete Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Integration.
To help prospective students learn more about the program, the first of three in-person information sessions will be held in Toronto this Thursday, December 3. Two others are slated for Montreal and Toronto in 2016. Registration is required.
If you’re not free to attend in person, be sure to check out the webcast.
Offered in both Canadian cities, the program prepares students to write all three levels of the CFA exams while completing an MBA. Courses are taught in the evenings and on weekends in order to accommodate work schedules.
Here’s how one student found her way into the program.
When Gillian Martin graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce degree in 2013, she didn’t think she’d be going back to school again. Certainly not for a while.
While she had enjoyed her studies, Martin had to focus her energies on getting established in the business world.
Her perspective changed, though, during an internship at Dundee Goodman Wealth Management. Someone told her about the MBA with Complete CFA Integration being offered through the Goodman Institute of Investment Management at John Molson School of Business (JMSB).
“That really sparked my interest,” says Martin, who’s now working as an assistant investment advisor at TD Wealth Private Investment Advice. “It seemed like a great way to continue my studies while pursuing my career full-time in a job that interested me as well.”
Now that she’s finishing up her first semester, Martin is convinced she made the right decision when she enrolled. “I knew it was going to be a challenging amount of work, and it is,” she says. “I’m very impressed by the professionalism of the faculty and the layout of the program.”
The CFA exams are still several months away, but Martin says it’s nice to know she’s already getting ready for them. “I know I wouldn’t have the discipline to have started preparing on my own yet, and I definitely would not have been exposed to the numerous practice tests I’ve already done.”
Being in the program has helped keep her stay accountable and on track with her studies. “All this preparation is also a pretty good confidence booster,” she adds.
The program’s benefits are not just down the line, either. Martin says she’s already applying what she has learned in her job. “Because many of our lecturers are also active in industry, they are able to augment the class material with real life examples from their own work.”
While Martin says she’s benefiting from the business insights of faculty members, she’s also learning a lot from the connections she’s made among the programs’s alumni and her fellow students.
“I’ve been fortunate to work with two mentors whom I met through the program: a third-year student who has been very helpful with classwork and academics, and a New York–based alumnus who has been a great sounding board on career-related matters.”
Looking ahead, Martin will focus on personal investing rather than institutional investing. She believes that the addition of the CFA Charter and the MBA to her credentials will be of great benefit, not just to her, but to her clients as well.
Register for an information session about Concordia’s Master of Business Administration degree with Complete Chartered Financial Analyst Integration in Toronto on December 3, 2015, and February 2, 2016, or in Montreal on January 26, 2016.
Can’t make it in person? Register for the program’s informational webcast.
Find out more about the Goodman Institute of Investment Management’s MBA with Complete CFA Integration Program.