Another CFA Thread
 

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what other letters do u have behind your name already?

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Loooooooots of studying.

Level 1 is a cakewalk, level 2 is where they ween u out.

Good luck

Go for it if you have the time, commitment towards it.

I will definitely help you to advance in your career along with your networking.

As a CFA grad I suggest you really start to consider the why.

I find that a lot of people these days take a lot of educational mumbo-jumbo for the sake of looking smarter on a business card rather than actually being smarter and focusing on what it is they really want to do.

Realistically, if you are planning on staying in Vancouver, the CFA is likely not going to give you the value you could find focusing your efforts elsewhere.

The CFA is a very specific course for a very specific purpose. You may find that a CMA or a CA designation has more value for what you are looking for.

You may find that you have enough education at this point and what you're really missing is some extensive experience.

Im my earlier years, I managed to have a few very high profile jobs without my CFA or MBA. It was the fact that I had the smarts to learn the job and do well at it. My ability to cut through the piles of resumes with the designation warriors had everything to do with networking and personality.

One manager put it this way "I can teach you anything you need to know if you're smart, but there is no way I can teach you to have a personality."

I went on to get both my MBA and CFA with much regret. I felt the MBA was a useless designation that really had true value to those with an undergrad degree in a non-business field (say a chemistry background) and someone that generally lacked common sense business accumen.

Schools are a businss, don't forget that. They are big business and have done a great job of brainwashing most of us into believing it is the answer to all our problems.

While I support education and I also support the CFA program, I see too many people doing it for the wrong reasons. I am one of those people as well.

Make sure you know exactly why you're taking it, otherwise, your efforts are better spent obtaining valuable experience.

Experience is 10 fold over education. The only issue is the famous "how do I get the experience if I don't have the education" argument. Network and learn to have a great personality.

If you don't have that or are not willing to move out of your comfort zone, your best bet is to really think about what kind of roll you'd like to have. Not easy stuff to think about but hey, isn't that the point of all this education in the first place?

fuckkkkk...

pressure is ON. Working fulltime and studying at night/weekends is tough.

keep at it man! it shall be worh it in the end :thumbs:

No it's not. It's a giant waste of time. People take the CFA thinking it'll help them progress their careers, but it's just three more stupid assed letters behind your name that don't do shit. I can think of way better ways to spend all those hours.

And yes I have my CFA.

To those who have their CFA, I keep hearing that having a CFA or CA is an instant double or triple on your pay grade assuming you're doing well in a finance related job. Is that true or just rumors?

Can one of you CFA charter holders tell us that in which case would getting a CFA be beneficial?

Depends what you were doing before. Average starting wage of a CA in Canada is 70k, and it will go up from there, so yes the money is good.

My advice would be to only pursue a CFA or CA if you love finance or accounting, not for the money. Both are brutally hard programs that take several years so you either have to have a passion for the subject matter or a huge amount of patience and dedication. Remember, both are programs that are designed to not only educate but control the number of designations awarded to retain quality of the profession.

CA's average salary is going down due to too many people. I think its 60-64K now at the big4. I've heard that accounting is now the most popular major at business undergrads, beating finance.

agreed about pursuing designation not for the money.

Obviously that's a no.

If you work in equity research or asset management.