Is Bloomberg Market Concepts (BMC) useful for someone trying to move into financial services operations?

[u/ffefried10]

I’m 25 and currently an Operations Analyst at a small financial/real estate advisory firm in NYC. My bachelor’s is in Graphic Design, but my career has shifted into business operations.

I currently manage 30+ contracts/subcontracts, work on RFP/RFI responses, coordinate projects, and support senior leadership. Long term, I’d like to move into a larger bank, asset manager, PE firm, or similar institution, specifically in internal operations, business management, COO teams, project/program management, or investment operations.

Since I don’t have a finance/business degree, I’ve been looking for ways to build a stronger foundation in financial markets. I came across Bloomberg Market Concepts (BMC) and was wondering how useful it actually is.

For those who have completed BMC or work with Bloomberg professionally:

Does BMC provide a solid introduction to financial markets for someone coming from a non-finance background?

Does the certificate carry any weight when applying to financial services roles, or is the value mostly in what you learn?

Would you recommend BMC for someone targeting financial services operations rather than investment banking, trading, or research?

I’m mainly trying to determine whether it’s worth the time and cost or if there are better ways to build Bloomberg/markets knowledge for this career path.

[u/beauxnasty]

Take the SIE exam from finra. Informative and implies you capable to pass a 7 later if needed.

[u/codydog125]

At 25 I don’t think it hurts you and it’s probably a benefit to you if you just want more exposure to finance in general but it really doesn’t carry any weight on a resume since you can just click through the material without paying attention.

It’s more relevant if you’re going to be using a Bloomberg at any point since it’ll teach you about the different functions on it.

I don’t remember if it’s free or not but if you can do it for free go for it if you really just want to learn about finance more but skip it if you’re just trying to put it on a resume

[u/Jumpy-Tax-5674]

I did it when starting my first job in finance coming from a maths degree - it was helpful but I was given a Bloomberg anywhere so it also helped me use the terminal more effectively.

In terms of CV credit - not really. It’s not comparable to something like the CFA (and rightfully so because the effort required isn’t in the same stratosphere).

[u/MaxRichter_Enjoyer]

Yes, and you should be able to knock it out for free if you have access to BBG at work. If not, the NYPL has Bloomberg you can access for up to two hours (need to make a reservation: https://www.nypl.org/locations/snfl/yoseloff-business).

Here's a bunch of other career stuff that I've posted elsewhere. Some are free, some (Yale) are mucho expensive. They can all help along the path to getting a job.

Excel - YouTube is great for this, on Insta look up Miss Excel and others, lots of good tips there. LinkedIn Learning can also help here.

Training the Street, Wall Street Training, and Wall Street Prep are all excellent for IB training (e.g., financial statment analysis, Excel, LBO models, etc.)

Corporate Finance Instiute - for corp fin shit, great and lots of small micro-credentials

CFA because all the ladies love a guy witht he CFA

Allocator Training Institute - if you want to work at a pension

CMT - if you like astrology but really like finance

CFP - if you love sales

CQF - if you want to get an MFE but got rejected by Baruch / Princeton

CAIA - if you want to learn everything about hedge fudns

Yale - they have a great Masters in Asset Management program

There's sooooo much out there bro. Just start diggin around to what seems interesting to you. And then KEEP fucking digging. Become an expert, to the extent that you can.

ALso: Python and R (both free and lots of good resources to learn). Angle yourself towards the financial aspects and you'll be golden. Good luck.