Dear Jason ,

I just stumbled upon your post , and would in all seriousness like to thank you for taking the time from your work or personal commitments to put your thoughts out for people aspiring to be research analysts , and putting a proper context around. Arguably, you can say I am late in thanking by nearly 30 months but her better be late than never.

Just like millions of your commentators, I am an aspiring research analyst who is an engineer by profession, and loves to problem solve. Been putting my thoughts on investment ideas since last several years on platforms such as VIC, Seeking Alpha , but the decision is getting more perplexing than I thought in light of the paths one has at their disposable.

Path 1 , certainly a proven path, go back to B-school on a part-time basis while continuing to work on generate and sharing investment ideas on VIC, SA. However, I can't start B-School until Fall 2017 given the work required related to admissions and session schedule. Assuming one gets through, sometime during 2019 seems likely when I am able to switch. Costs nearly $120-$130K
Path 2 - Enroll for CFA , Finish Level I by Dec this year , and work progressively on remaining two levels. A big undertaking - no doubt, but costs too little when compared to a B-School. But the dilemma emanates when one assesses the opportunities available subsequently. A MBA certainly provides a nice platform , leverages b-school brand name to re-launch your career , whereas CFA is more of self-driven endeavor and landing into a job as such is completely dependent on your efforts to network as such.
On surface, risk appears to be low with CFA but returns could be erratic as well , and on other hand, MBA is a bigger financial commitment but rewards seem more probable.

I certainly plan to reach out to local cfa chapters to seek some help but I figured i start the question with you