Certificates and Degrees

This is not to say that training and education in finance is not standardised. As stated by most of my interview participants, at an early point in the trajectory it is important to become certified through a professional standards association. The most prominent in investment banking is the Certified Financial Analyst (CFA), a certificate awarded through the CFA Institute, a globally operating private training and education firm. Such certificates also exist for other or more specialised areas such as international investment, risk management, accounting, or alternative investment (McKeen-Edwards and Porter 2013: 70f; 94ff).

These programs fulfil three important functions (McKeen-Edwards and Porter 2013: 94):

firstly, through the development and teaching of “best practice” models, they shape work practices and skills and reinforce their harmonisation across national borders. These programs therefore set on a global scale the professional standards of the field. Secondly, through integrating modules on ethics and professional standards, they influence professional conduct and ethical norms. And thirdly, they discursively produce the notion that students and alumni of these programs form a global community. By forming this community, these programs not only accomplish recursively their own institutionalisation, they also become an important part in the professional socialisation process of financial actors.

The acceptance of these certificates further puts those who award them in a powerful position to influence and shape the field of global financial markets. The most noteworthy aspect about these certificates and designations is that they are awarded by privately run institutes based in the financial industry. The board members of the CFA for instance are recruited from big banks and various investment banking firms around the globe. As transnational financial associations (TFA) such organisations play an important part in the governance of the financial field; however as private entities their claims of legitimacy rest entirely on the acceptance of their authority by actors in the field (McKeen-Edwards and Porter

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2013: 70f; 94ff). Unlike the MBA programs, which are run by the university sector and are therefore subject to the standards of national educational systems, these certifying institutions belong entirely to the field of finance. This further highlights the self-governing nature and autonomy of finance from other social fields.

However, degrees awarded by universities also play a role in the trajectories of investment bankers. The classical case is the MBA, preferably with an international component and from a prestigious business school. While applicants for jobs in investment banking usually have attained a university degree prior to their entry to the field, many complete an MBA as a more specialised degree at a later stage of their professional career. Undertaking such studies is often supported by the employer, either monetarily or through the allocation of study leave.

However, as Jan from Frankfurt for instance describes, the connection between the degree and the work environment is not always a direct one, as his stated motivation to undertake an international MBA demonstrates.

[…] On the one hand, I wanted to develop myself and put high demands on myself to become a super stock expert, in trading. And there, such a multifaceted study course like an MBA, which gives you business competences and inter-industry expertise and which teaches you future-oriented entrepreneurial thinking and doing, was good in getting out of my specialisation of trading stocks and to become a generalist and to be prepared for the future. I didn’t want to stay only a stock trader but I wanted to take the next step in my career and whilst I was studying I did get staff management responsibilities awarded to me, and you can’t say that this is just because of the MBA – there are always multiple aspects that play a role….in the end the MBA was one factor amongst many which was helpful in getting the promotion. […] And because it covers so many areas you get a completely different point of view, somehow this out-of-the-box thinking, against how blind you can become from your own everyday business.

For Jan, the primary reason to undertake his studies was to “broaden his horizon”, to become more of a generalist, rather than focusing exclusively on his work as a trader. The program he undertook also included an international component in China. When asked about the professional relevance for him, he said:

Yes that’s quite difficult in this case because professionally I would have to use everything to do with stock trading and I didn’t have that really in my

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studies, and didn’t really have any contacts there. Of course, in Shanghai we visited the stock exchange once but it isn’t the case that I now use that for my professional praxis. But it did give me a lot personally, just a) seeing that once, and b) that whole exchange to get to know the world, so internationally, how the people think, so on a somewhat on a high meta level, that is what I got out of it.

I: So philosophically?

R: Yes, not just philosophically but also how the Chinese attitude is, their consumption behaviour, with which problems they are confronted, the thing with mortgages. This now has nothing to do with stock trading itself but indirectly, yes, because you then can assess that differently, how is the situation of the economy in China or in Australia, who interestingly, have a completely different retirement system and there ten percent of the income gets immediately put into an investment fund and so every month millions and billions get pumped into the capital market and from that I could profit indirectly but not directly if we talk about clients […] So, of course, I think it’s always good to have that in your CV, that you’ve been active overseas, in finance that’s important, there are so many international firms or banks who have their subsidiaries all over the world. Now for [our small German bank] it is of course a lot smaller, a lot more straightforward.

Despite having stated previously that undertaking an MBA is a career choice, and studying while working was taxing and demanded a sacrifice of his private life, the curriculum of the MBA is only indirectly applicable to his work practice. The relevance of the degree and the international exchange included in the curriculum lies rather in the experience of a foreign culture, and that he can demonstrate an international perspective in his CV. His MBA experience can therefore be characterised as an “academic” venture in the negative sense of the word: while being intellectually challenging and inspiring, it lacks direct applicability in the workplace. Despite gaining nothing from his academic endeavour that is directly measurable, the bank he works for supported his studies. As a result, he attributes his recent promotion into a management role partly to undertaking this degree.

This demonstrates that in contrast to the professional certificates, which are the basis of professional standards in finance and indeed provide the students with essential skills for their work practice, university degrees such as an MBA are seen as a form of cultural capital.

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Through undertaking these studies, Jan demonstrated his capacity to learn, the will to broaden his horizon, and an interest in personal development. An MBA therefore is primarily a status marker – a way of exhibiting the will to improve oneself on a personal level. It has little to do with actual work skills.

In contrast to the recruitment phase, which builds upon nationally divergent markers of class, we find here an alignment between Frankfurt and Sydney. This stems firstly from the global standardisation of professional certificates such as the CFA, which are organised through financial institution themselves on a global level. Since their main purpose is international recognition of skills, they set the standards for professional practices and knowledge globally across national jurisdictions. Secondly, university degrees – which are attained in a national context outside of the field of finance – are in both cases primarily signals of status and commitment. An important contributor to the value of this cultural capital is international components, which indicate the students’ interest in broadening their horizon, and their willingness to develop a global perspective.

9.2.2 Training “globality” on the Job: International Work Placements and