Dear puys,
I have cleared both FRM-I and II as well as all four exams of PRM, in addition to two levels of CFA. In addition, I have also completed my PGDM from one of the top B-schools of India. For last 1.5 years, I have been working with Credit Risk Management department of one of the private sector banks.
Many students are often under the impression that cracking FRM will help them get a job in finance in general or Risk Management in particular. Let me write from what I have observed at work place and also at B-school.Firstly FRM is definitely useful and relevant for capital compliance kind of jobs that deal with Basel regulations and market risk jobs. These jobs are relatively few in a bank. Moreover FRM is not at all relevant for Credit Risk jobs that are most abundant in risk management department of any bank.In FRM-II, you will learn that Credit Risk is the most important type of risk required to be managed in a bank and that is exactly the reason why Credit Risk Management jobs are most abundant in a risk management department in a bank.All the models that you will learn in FRM-II (Merton model, Credit Risk+ etc) are not used in Indian banks as of now.The credit risk that is required to be managed involves taking a decision whether a company deserves to be given loan in the first place and if it does, how much should be given and what all covenants should be specified. You might feel that you will use internal rating model in order to help the bank to move to "Internal Ratings Based" approach of Basel-II. In all likelihood, your boss will first have a look at the financials of the company and based on the financials will decide the rating that should be given to the company under consideration. The parameters of the internal ratings model are then tweaked in such a way as to get the desired rating. You do not require FRM in order to develop the judgment required for this. But what you need experience and knowledge of accounting, which you will get in a B-school or in CFA exam.
So the point I want to make is that FRM is not all that relevant for jobs in Indian banks. CFA will be much better and relevant than FRM. You would be surprised to know that the Chief Risk Officer of my bank had not even heard of FRM. I am not aware if the models that you will learn in FRM are actually used in Foreign Banks or not. Possibly yes possibly not. I have not worked in any foreign bank so I can't tell for sure. I am equally not sure if FRM is useful for trading and sales kind of jobs in an investment bank that are most abundant in an investment bank. Possibly, FRM is useful for risk management department in investment banks.
Now who are the people who get job offers from investment banks?In my institute, they were IITians with good JEE rank and minimum 7.5/10 CGPA during their undergraduate course or CAs or even B.Com holders.Students from NITs with good academic background can also get into Investment banks. If someone has done Engineering from a state level Engineering college, in the current scenario, Investment Banks will not even look at such profile. So dear puys, the things are very very competitive in India.
If you don't have any background in finance whatsoever, please don't be under the impression that FRM will help you get a job in Finance.What will help you get into finance is either a degree like CA or ICWAI or an MBA from a good B-school. If you already have a work experience in finance domain in an IT company or in an analytics company, such certifications could help. But if you don't have any of these qualifications, at least in current job scenario, FRM will not help you.
Still why do people appear for (and why did I appear for) these exams? The reason is there is a cut-throat competition in B-schools and unless you have something really marquee in your profile, you have to prove that you are different from masses and you are also up to something. You cannot change your past and change your academics (time machine is not invented yet) so what is the way out? Appearing for such exams is one such way. In my batch in the B-school, some 100 odd students had passed at least CFA L1, around 25 had passed CFA L2 and around 5 had passed CFA L3 by the time we faced final interviews in the second year. Had I also passed CFA L1 in second year, I would just have been another 101st student who had already passed CFA L1. (I appeared for CFA L1 and L2 after graduating from B-school). That was the reason I appeared for FRM as not too many others had that on their CVs and with FRM I could distinguish myself from others. Did FRM help me get a job? Perhaps yes. It perhaps caught attention of recruiters that this guy has done something different and that helped them call me for an interview. Sometimes final interviews are really short in B-schools (not always). My interview was one of those "short" interviews and I walked back with an offer in my hand.
To that extent, FRM was useful for me. Perhaps it will be useful for you in a similar fashion. But it is my sincere request to you all: please don't think that FRM alone will help you land in a good job in finance. What will help is your MBA or CA or prior work experience and FRM will be just an additional padding for you.