Been a lurker here, predominantly, for a while now. I finally have a dumb story to share. P.s. I hate the term mansplained because women do this crap too but I felt like it was the appropriate term for this situation.
A little background…I was laid off last month from my job as an accounting analyst and it super sucked and I was bummed as heck because I actually loved my job. However, I was being drastically underpaid and drastically overworked. I am about to graduate from my undergrad (Financial Analysis) in May and so the balancing act was horrible.
This week I was hired for a similar role with even stronger data science duties than my last role, higher pay, and if I work overtime I actually get paid for it. This is huge for me tbh, as I am in the last stretch of my schooling and then starting a Masters in Data Science in October. So this is all good news yeah? Yeah.
However, the job search was horrible, mostly. Because of so many recent tech layoffs, the analytics industry is heavily oversaturated. So I was like…well I have a strong background in just plain ole accounting, no CPA. So I applied to a few accounting roles.
I went into an interview that was conveniently close to my home. The traffic where I live is horrendous, and contrary to most people's preferences, I love having hybrid work because I need to switch into work mode to be supremely productive. A change of environment does that for me. So this seemed like a decent opportunity.
This interview was led by the business owners of a tax accounting firm. Husband and Wife team. Probably in their 60s? Anywho. The wife and I got along pretty swimmingly. Then she went and grabbed her husband. He seemed to like how knowledgeable I am and then he revealed to me that he is adjunct faculty at a local university. Cool, cool.
He asked me what my plans are, long-term. I let him know I'm pursuing data science. He asked about me getting my CPA. I was like noooo if I get anything it'll be my CFA. And then he practically guffawed and proceeded to mansplain to me about how the two do NOT go hand-in-hand and then the interview went downhill because I politely disagreed. While I don't really want a CFA, as my overarching goal is data engineering, it still LOOKS good if you're going into ANY analytical role, especially if dealing with finance.
Anywho I found out this evening that the CFA Exam is pivoting to include Python programming and financial modeling concepts and skills and moving away from its traditional design. And I feel HECKIN vindicated. I mean, really. They sent me a brief rejection email a week later and I was honestly relieved.
I should also add that he cannot scale his business much further because they have bottlenecks in their data pipeline. One of his overarching issues he spoke to me about prior to our little civil disagreement.
TLDR: interviewer mansplained that “data science and CFA are irrelevant” to one another. Was vindicated from CFA announced that they are including data science concept in exams moving forward.