Somebody else posited something very interesting in another thread, and I thought it deserved its own thread.
In order to become a member of CFAI, a person doesn’t need to have a degree. They must either have a degree OR they must be in their last year of their degree OR they must have four years of work experience.
And in order to get the coveted CFA Charter, they have to be a member of CFAI, plus they have to “complete the CFA program”, which I assume means they have to pass the tests.
However, I’m having trouble finding where it says, “You MUST have a bachelor’s degree to be a CFA Charterholder.” Can anyone clarify this?
The caveat is the charter experience. “investment decision process, evaluating investments, teaching CFAI-type material etc.” You need to be in the right role to get the required experience. So it’s very possible that an individual can pass all 3 levels yet be unable to get the right job due to their lack of a degree and thus never be awarded the charter. However, I think it’ll be a very cold-hearted manager that would take some random graduate over a guy that has worked his ass off and possesses the stones to pass the exams alone.
I don’t think it’s that crazy, why should some guy who has studied something completely unrelated such as English, or even worse, Media Studies or some other hacksaw degree, be given the opportunity and a guy who has maybe worked for his fathers invest firm or worked his way up to Middle Office or whatever be denied?
If there was a requirement for specific degrees (Econ, Maths, Sciences etc.) then yeah I can get on board with that, but not when the requirement is simply possession of a degree, any degree. When some aren’t even worth the paper their printed on.
They should make it harder then, if someone who never touched a finance calculator and never heard of tvm can come in and knock out all 3 in 18 mo, don’t hate the player, hate the game!
And a finance degree doesn’t mean someone knows what they are doing either. I know people with one that can’t tell me the diff between capitalizing something and expensing it.
Agreed hpracing. There’s a guy I used to work with a masters in finance who was absolutely clueless and i’ve met a few directors at funds who i’m baffled at how they got to their position.
Although I support people taking the exams without a degree, i only support them if they have the right reason. I don’t think they should just sign up without a clue and doing it because “Investment banker” is their so-called dream job. Might as well just donate their 1000+ bucks straight to CFAI and not bother with registering and turning up to the exam.
If you’re going to do this without a degree you better do your homework, know what you’re letting yourself in for and most of all, self-awareness of your own ability.
^I think some people have no idea what they are getting into when they first sign up and that’s why you see these people from odd backgrounds… While I was in sales, a client of mine told me CFA would get me a finance career and i signed up after maybe 30 mins of browsing CFAI’s website. I thought it be a couple hundred pages max of material.
^ I thought they sent me all the books from all the levels at once too. When I first saw the box though, i thought it was some sort of welcome kit (t-shirt, mug, promotional stuff like that).
i remember they included cards with the level 1 book to send to ppl to tell them you will be busy the next few months. i laughed and threw them away. now thinking back those wouldof been very useful to send to gf, boss, friends
If such a person, that has never opened a finance book in his life and comes from a social science background, can pass all 3 exams, more power to him. That’s impressive.