Is the Canadian Securities Course (CSC) enough to get started in the finance industry in Canada?
"Wikipedia says ""The Canadian Securities Course (CSC) offered by the Canadian Securities Institute (CSI) is the initial course required for becoming licensed to work within the Canadian securities industry (outside Quebec) as a securities dealer or securities agent."" Src: Candian Securities Course EfficientMarket Canada adds "" You require it and further courses for other jobs in the investment industry. Generally some work experience is also required. All of this is governed by various self-regulatory agencies. The material in the course is strong on money making products, and fairly weak on material that would actually protect a consumer from harm. Passing the course is very little indication that you understand what's important about investing, for example, you won't be taught much of anything about the theory of investment, or the markets, or things like the efficient market hypothesis."" Src: EfficientMarket.ca on the CSC So it appears that the CSC is necessary to work as certain types of financial agencies. That being said, I doubt it will be enough to get your foot in the door. This seems more like a prerequisite rather than a true qualification, so you'll be competing with MBAs/Finance students and other people who either have experience or training in the financial industry. I'd recommend you look into the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) certification as that will provide you with a rigorous knowledge of financial theory as well as asset management, which seems more appropriate for what you'd like to do. From there you'll have to network like crazy and leverage your experience to get in at a Canadian financial firm and eventually wealth management. So yes, I suppose a CSC is a good first step but more will certainly be required and I doubt it will be enough to land you a full time position.  Another important factor is age - nobody expects undergrads to have extensive certifications or experience, but it's harder for a 35 year old to enter a new industry, especially finance."
It depends what area of finance, but an ivy league education is not *required*. A good school, probably, but the best thing you can do for yourself is go through the internship program at a bank or financial institution (usually after junior year, but you find the occasional sophomore). There are often many job offers to those that complete it well, and if not, you apply to other firms with your internship as your backing. It would help to know what Gyroisabot asked and know what area and what school you went to. There are a lot of certifications/designations you could look into if you're willing to put in the time to study. CFA, FRM, CFP, etc. Most financial companies will recognize these although some carry more weight than others. I agree. The CFA is nice for students who have the time to take the exam, because it could be a year or two before the start working, so it is a reasonable resume padder (especially if your major is engineer, science, or math and you want to do finance).  If you are trying to do a career change, it is important to know the material, because if you don't, then you can't do the job even if someone gives it to you. But passing the test isn't as important as actually applying to the jobs and networking.  I switched from engineering to finance (buyside equity analyst). Originally I planned to take the CFA exams to help me with my transition. But their new rule required a valid passport, and it takes a while to get one, so I missed the deadline for last December's exam. That turned out to be a good thing because I just started networking, cold calling/emailing, applying to jobs, etc and I got my current job. If I had actually decided to take the CFA, I would have wasted all my time preparing for the exam instead of trying to get the job. Potential employers know if you are good or not after talking to you for 15 minutes. It has nothing to do with being able to memorize a set of formulas, some the last name of some economists and their theories, some oscure accounting differences between GAAP and IFRS, etc. For me it was the fact that I invest my own money and that I am able to explain my own investments very intelligently (aka it needs to be a lot better than what you see on /r/investing).  If you know nothing about finance, studying the CFA material and then taking the exam is a good thing. You are going to be studying the material anyways if you are serious about a career change, so might as well take the exam afterwards and get a resume padder. I did end up taking the level 1 this month because my new employer paid for it. I don't think it adds any value once your foot is already in the door, especially since it takes 5 years of experience to get the charter (after that amount of time, it's all about job experience). What area of finance? Institutional finance (equity research, investment banking) is a non-starter with no experience unless you're Jesus.  And if CFA level 1 material is intimidating, reconsider, as those are the basics of a finance undergraduate degree.   PM me your prospective employer if you like. I'm probably twice your age and have the CFA charter and several other finance qualifications, so I'm not going to be applying there.   I will be able to give better insight as to preparation and your chances. Its really not that hard to get.  Takes a month or two to study to pass it.  Realize though that if you are going to get the series, you are pegging yourself as a sell side roll.  If you are attempting to go buy-side, then you may want to look at different certifications (being a CFA level 1 candidate).  If you have time to burn though, get it, its a good education and a good intro to the world of finance and its not that hard to get.  Hope this helps.  Edit: also realize that if you do get it, and a company sponsors you, if you leave the firm, you have 2 years before the series expires, which means you gotta use it, or lose it.  As I recall, I may be wrong...but I have heard you can 'park' your series at a firm which will pay the FINRA / SEC fees for you.  But I believe they outlawed this practice. You really just need to learn about finance, trading and the markets. I know a chemical engineer that did an IB internship. He joined our universities Investments club and just learned everything from there. He never took a single business class One overarching thing to keep in mind is that wherever you go with Finance if you work hard enough and climb the ladder, you can make decent money. I know CIO's, Market Stragesits and even CFO's, Portfolio Managers and CPA's that all live extremely comfortably, and all of them work outside of the IB industry, basically, IB isn't the end-all for making large sums of money. The main reason why it pays so much upfront is that of the hours you have to work if you look at their salary at an hourly rate, it's around 10-12 bucks an hour.   Definitely think about the Double major thing though, or potentially just doing a minor. It would definitely look good on a resume, especially if it's something you also enjoy, but you've gotta keep that GPA high, and getting a 4.0 in CS is quite a challenge, to begin with.  Pretty much any of the Series certifications can help you depending on where you want to go career-wise, obviously for some positions have certain series certifications won't be useful at all. It's also worth looking into the CFA program if you plan on doing Financial Analysis, but you'll need a sponsor for this, just like the Series certifications.  Happy to help man, if you've got any other questions feel free to reach out. I'm in the same boat just trying to figure out what I want to do with my life to make decent money so I can take care of my friends and family, and live life to the fullest. When I did my CSC waaaaay back in the day (when there was 1 4 hour exam and 2 assignments, fuck I'm old) this is what I did.  I took the week after New Years off, and studied exclusively for the CSC.  I did nothing else but study (but I had done a lot of prep before) then I wrote the exam after a week of non-stop study.  To be honest, the exam isn't difficult - at least the finance parts.  The tricky parts are the pure memorization ones, which are almost all compliance/ethics questions (e.g. how long do you have to notify the OSC of a change in address, etc).  Do not ignore these sections as they do test on ethics/compliance a lot. Go check out wallstreetoasis.com. There are a lot of people out there like you and that site has a lot of folks in the industry. It's segregated by arms so you'll also probably be able to get a feel for what kind of finance you might or might not be suited for. Yes.  I passed the CFA Level 1 with three months of studying with only a BS in Economics and a career as a Financial Advisor.  I took a local review course with my local CFA chapter in San Francisco, then sprang for some test question banks and just plowed through them.  Anytime I missed a question, I reread the section on that question, wrote out an index card to drill the concept, drilled the concepts for awhile, and then took the test questions again.  Good luck. Depends on how you supplement the major. I had people taking things like 'marketing' or 'business management' with their finance majors to get good marks, but they didn't get internships like I did because I was willing to take statistics, economics, risk management, accountancy etc... In general you want to have a strong math background, a good understanding of economics, and accountancy. Also if I could go back I would have done computer science at least at first year level to get a feel for coding and modeling.  Edit: I should clarify I don't have a permanent job, I'm just speaking from my experience of holiday internships with investment banks. No way. The CFA is comprehensive, but finance as subject matter isn't very difficult. I am an econ/econometric major in the CFA program with zero finance/accounting background. I started the program without know assets = liabilities + equity. Takes more time, and is a larger commitment, but unless you are working 12 hours a day, if you are diligent, you should have no major issues. "The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) has a page specifically about working with a financial planner or advisor. It's a good starting point if you are thinking about getting a financial professional to help you plan and manage your investments. In the ""Where To Look"" section on that page, FCAC refers to a handful of industry associations. I'll specifically highlight the Financial Planning Standards Council's ""Find a planner"" page, which can help you locate a Certified Financial Planner (CFP). Choose financial advice carefully.  Prefer certified professionals who charge a set fee for service over advisors who work on commission to push investment products.  Commission-based advice is seldom unbiased. MoneySense magazine published a listing last year for where to find a fee-only financial planner, calling it ""The most comprehensive listing of Canadian fee-only financial planners on the web"" — but do note the caveat (near the bottom of the page) that the individuals & firms have not been screened.  Do your own due diligence and check references." In general I would recommend to stay away from any video from a successful trader, at least those that claim to share their secrets. If they were that successful, why would they want company?  What they have most likely discovered is that they can make more money through videos and seminars than they can through trading. While not a video, GetSmarterAboutMoney has a good basic section on Stock markets without being purely Canada centric (as I see from your profile you are in NY). I know that also in our city, there are continuing education courses that often go over the basics like this, if you have a college nearby they might have something. Cheapest of all would be to hit your local library.  The fundamentals don't change that quickly that you need the latest and greatest - those are much more likely to be get-poor-quick schemes. Good Luck "Not really. It's good to supplement a shitty school and bad GPA with, a nice thing to pursue and great at teaching you finance if you're not a finance major.  It will undeniably look good on a resume, however, it will not make or break you, outside of possibly you being in Top 3 internship candidates and you're the only CFA candidate.  It's practically useless for trading, but a friend of mine at a brokerage is getting his so that he can have more ""authority"" with clients, although, he is at a foreign brokerage and the clients tend to need that assurance that the broker knows what they're doing."