Career conversations: The importance of independent thinking

CFA® (Program) gives me confidence. CFA® designation gets you credibility, that helps me tremendously when I'm managing my clients’ portfolio. I'm Sreeni Meka. I'm a Financial Advisor at Lakeland Wealth Management, here in Memphis, Tennessee, United States.

I started my education as a mechanical engineer. Then I came to Texas, El Paso to do my masters. I graduated during the late recession period in the early nineties, and I couldn't get a job. So what happened was I found a book, Visual Basic, on the table. I started reading and I learned programming for one week. And I worked for 20 years in the computer field. All the way from a developer to a project manager to system designer.

I've been passionate about investing since I got out of college. I started investing and I did not know anything about finance, all my background was in engineering. I made lots of money in investing in stocks in internet-based. I thought I was a superman when things are going high. I used to double my money in a week. 2000 March, a tsunami came, the dotcom bust. I lost all of it.

Then I realized I know nothing about it. I may be good at engineering and great at developing programs, and all that I learned, but I haven't learned the basic stuff of investing. That's a wake up call for me.  

In 2004, I went to the University of Memphis. That's where I started my MBA. Then I took the final semester, I took a course in portfolio management. And all the tough questions at the end of the chapter, it's like CFA (Program) questions. And I was like, what is CFA (Program)? And then, I went to a local CFA® charter meeting, and they invited me to be their guest to one of their meetings. I got exposed to all the financial industry experts and how they do the business, and I wanted to pursue it.

The difference between a successful manager and a mediocre is how much fundamental analysis you do, how an independent thinker you are. The CFA® Institute prepares you to analyze the facts and get the numbers right. So you don't rely on the media, you don't rely on the TV, you’ve got to do your own research.

And you need to know the fundamentals, what’s the financial ratios? What's the cash flow? How strong the balance sheet is? Is the income consistent? What’s the growth? Who are the competitors? You got to do in-depth analysis when you are investing into individual stocks.

CFA® designation is considered like a highest honor in finance. CFA (Program) gives you credibility and prepares you for the worst because they also cover emotional aspects of the business and understand the client's psychology, how behavioral economics works, that's what makes you a better investor. CFA (Program) prepared me for that.

CFA® profession, I highly recommend. CFA® designation not only gets you one step up compared to the other areas. What you learn in other areas like in business school, CFA (Program) is far, far ahead. If you look into the other well-known investors like Abby Joseph Cohen and Mario Gabelli, all those multibillionaires. Not only they are successful, they also have CFA® designation, so that tells you something.