Is Studying Economics a Good Career Choice? & its Scope!

Why Economics?
Many questions may arise when you think of choosing a career option. If you are someone who’s thinking of choosing Economics as an option, are you on the right track? Your motivation could be to become a central banker, you might be eyeing big investment banks or simply interested in studying the macroeconomics of nations.
There is no right or wrong answer.
One needs to be careful because merely an educational degree may not suffice; It can improve your understanding of the world but the working of the economy is quite imperfect and volatile, unlike theory.

In simple terms, Economics is about making informed decisions from available limited resources. The application of this simple concept can be seen everywhere in present complex systems starting from households to the government level which makes it important for individuals to explore this field.

What is it like to study Economics?
Economics, also known as dismal science is a blend of science and art which at times, requires analysis, research, data comprehension, political awareness and is just not limited to theoretical understanding. One needs to put in an amount of effort and it requires experience to understand anything about the economy. It is not hard to identify the multidisciplinary aspect of economics with politics. So, without understanding the political motivation for any economic commentary, it becomes hard to understand what’s happening with the economy. It becomes important to study the political underbelly of the economy before going deep into academia and research.

There are a lot of imperfections ingrained into the system. One question that might cross your mind is, how to plan, to equip yourself with this kind of challenge present? In an ever-changing society, solely dependent on an educational degree in Economics is insufficient to understand the macroeconomic underpinnings of any nation.
For example, an angel investor looks at the economy differently from an academician but that doesn’t make either wrong.
There are a lot of aspects which can’t be pinned down directly to the theory of economics. Therefore, it becomes important to get dirty with numbers to figure out the trends and comprehend the macroeconomic dynamics.

Should you pursue Economics?
After knowing all this, should you pursue Economics? Yes, because if you were not interested in Economics, you wouldn’t have been reading till now. However, if you have been persuaded away from Economics after reading this piece, you probably should rethink because it requires a philosophical bent of mind.

The best place to learn Economics is not in textbooks but in the political discourse of nations, and the study of businesses. Since microeconomics builds the framework for understanding the economy as a whole, it is preferable to study it. To sum up, it is not one explicit thing but an interest in multiple fields which is needed to succeed in the field of Economics. As new technologies are emerging, the contribution of economics to problem-solving and policymaking will increase more than ever.

Passing CFA Level 2 in 9 Years after clearing CFA Level One in 15 Days - Why I took 9 years & 3 attempts for CFA L2

9 Years of Wait!
Clearing an exam in 1st Attempt is always special & worth mentioning.
For me clearing Level 2 of CFA exam took 9 years.
Of Course, I didn't take 9 attempts, It was put on the back burner all this time!



The journey started in 2012 when my interest in finance was at its peak. CFA certification seemed the next best logical step. I registered for the exam & studied bits & pieces from the material till the last few weeks of the December Level 1 (2012) exam. 

I understood that this pace of studying is not going to push me forward to level 2, I took a two weeks leave before the exam, studied like crazy. 
Lo and behold, when the results came in January 2013, it upped by confidence. I calculated that if I can pass level 1 in 15 days, I can very well pass level 2 in 4.5 months and 1 year for level 3 would be a walk in the park!

I missed the passing score for level 2 in 2013(June) by a whisker.
I didn't lose hope, I started preparing for level 2 of 2014(June). Then, life happened. I lost interest in the certification. How foolhardy I was, that I did't defer my Level 2 exams. With no reasonable preparation, I wasted another attempt & closed the CFA chapter of my life for good.

I moved on with life, with different jobs, different phases of life. I got married. I started preparing for Data Science & Finance careers, this led me to Masters in Quantitative Economics at Indian Statistical Institute (ISI, Kolkata).

Thankfully, I became a Data Scientist.
As time rolled on, I registered for CFA level 2 again!
And, I passed CFA Level 2 Exam convincingly!
After 9 years!

This achievement was made possible by the unrelenting support of my wife.

You can watch the video below to understand what didn't work for me. Why I took 3 attempts. Things which could be very useful for you

ISI MSQE Question Paper Analysis - Raw DataSet

I took out around 1 month of time, in bits and pieces to piece together this analysis of MSQE previous year questions. Attaching the google sheets below:
Link to Google Sheets Document(Also attached below)


Kindly, use this with an idea that there are a lot of subjective judgements in this analysis. 
So, use your discretion.

MSQE Preparation Plan

This plan is made for 9 months. That being said you can shrink the plan depending upon your time availability, proportionately.

Go to Plan (PDF)


Indian Statistical Institute(ISI) has a stellar Quantitative Masters Program in Economics, popularly known as MSQE.In the above PDF, I have given a rough plan to clear the entrance exam for the same.
I secured AIR-7 in this exam(2018).
Book Suggestions:
Maths : https://amzn.to/3e4WyiA | https://amzn.to/3ab0jlg
Tomato (Test of Mathematics at the 10+2 Level ) : https://amzn.to/3ab0jlg
Statistics : https://amzn.to/31Zd7Jd (I'll be adding more books in future)
Econometrics (Statistics for ISI / DSE) : https://amzn.to/3i5fJK5 | https://amzn.to/2HvS4WE Microeconomics : https://amzn.to/2QpP2Vn
Macroeconomics : https://amzn.to/37w1kTM | https://amzn.to/30Tk7qy

PS : The WhatsApp group is no longer operational.

How to Prepare for any Job Interview

 

I have done my undergrad from IIT, unarguably the best Engineering institute in India. Post that I have done my Masters from Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), the oldest statistical institution in the world. Also, I was All India Rank - 7 in the merit list for ISI's entrance exam.
None of the above has ever helped me in cracking/preparing for interviews.
So, what really helps in interviews? Having appeared for interviews at Bulge Bracket Banks, Google, Big 4 Consulting firms, etc. and also being part of the interview panel, I have some valuable pointers.

I agree, having some form of spike, like undergrad from top institutions, or work experience in McKinsey helps you get yourself into the proverbial door, the interview!


Beyond that, you are on your own mantle.

Let's start with the basics. There are some very common interview questions, which you are always expected to prepare. 
The expectation is that it must come naturally to you. You need to sound genuine and prepared. Not memorise every word as if you are a parrot, rather talk like you honestly knew this could be asked in the interview and you have a reasonable idea about what to speak.
This is the first barrier, not every interviewer is kind enough to ignore your follies at this stage. The interviewer could very well decide not to move ahead with your candidature if they aren't satisfied at this stage. Assuming you somehow, make to the next stage.

The next stage is the main course of the interview. You need to satiate interviewer's hunger in this stage.
You could be asked about your projects, internships, certifications or any technical/soft skill relevant to the job you have applied for. So, prepare a 2-5 minute answer for every bullet point in your CV/Resume.
Always have 2/3 versions of project-walkthroughs. So, that you could choose the one, dependent upon the interview vibe and interviewers' interest.

Now, once you are past the above two stages, you need to answer any spontaneous non-technical question related to your hobbies or personality, like you are serving dessert. Just try to put cherry on top!

In this piece obviously, I have just given you the essence of interview preparation, it doesn't detail any of the steps mentioned above. I might expound on them, sometime later!

Book Recommendation :
Not related to job interviews but my College friend from IIT,  J. Sai Deepak has come up with a book on India (Part 2 of India Trilogy) : You can order it from here - India, Bharat and Pakistan : The Constitutional Journey of Sandwiched Civilisation

JEE Physics Playlist

 I have taught a lot of batches for JEE & NEET Physics including my ~2 year stint at FIITJEE. Here I'm collating few videos publicly available for JEE & NEET preparation. 

Role of Quant or Maths & Ethics in CFA Level 1 exam - Almost One-third

When you spend a lot of your dollars in an exam with ~43% pass rate, you need to grab all the low hanging fruits first. Put in other words, apply the Pareto principle and find the smallest possible subject area with greatest weightage in the exam; which is CFA level 1 in our case.

Let's look at the weightage for all the 10 subjects or topics for CFA level 1:

Topic	Exam Weight
Ethical and Professional Standards	15-20%
Quantitative Methods	8-12%
Economics	8-12%
Financial Reporting and Analysis	13-17%
Corporate finance	8-12%
Equity Investments	10-12%
Fixed Income	10-12%
Derivatives	5-8%
Alternative Investments	5-8%
Portfolio Management	5-8%

It's clear that Ethics is the most important standalone topic. Other topics have dependency amongst themselves and are also heavy conceptually. Also, if you had to pick out the companion to Ethics, it's obvious that 'Quantitative Methods' would be your best bet. As, Quants or Maths is also a standalone topic and easy to cover in less time. Obviously, this won't be true for a lot of people!

If we combine 'Quantitative Methods' & 'Ethical and Professional Standards' we get a weightage of 23-32% or in other words Maths & Ethics covers almost 1/3rd of the CFA level 1 curriculum. 

If I was a Level 1 aspirant, I would first try to get a grip on these topics!