Who got Greenie's back?

[Gordon_Gecko]

F the level 1’ers, 80 per cent of them will never even sniff the L3.

[former_trader]

Agree with Greenman, but there’s no point to shove it in their faces. It’s like telling a fat, ugly girl that you’ll never get a rich, good looking husband.

[krazykanuck]

@former_trader

Agree with Greenman, but there’s no point to shove it in their faces. It’s like telling a fat, ugly girl that you’ll never get a rich, good looking husband.

hahaha. So earlier this month I went out with a slightly chubby girl. Total 4-ish and hooked up with her a couple of times. Could tell she was pleased with herself for thinking she landed this almost-CFA, BSD. So she seemed pretty sad in the texts she sent me after she realized I was never going to see her again. Oh well. At least she already had 2 cats so she has a head start on her way to cat island.

[comp_sci_kid]

@Sweep_the_Leg

@comp\_sci\_kid

I wish CFA exams would be harder

I do too now that I’m done with them. I also wish they’d raise the driving age to 18. Damn kids.

I wish they would be harder initially 8% passing rate doesn’t cut it. It needs to be more 1-2%.

[former_trader]

@Sweep_the_Leg

@comp\_sci\_kid

I wish CFA exams would be harder

I do too now that I’m done with them. I also wish they’d raise the driving age to 18. Damn kids.

CSK is being sarcastic.

[numi]

@krazykanuck

@former_trader

Agree with Greenman, but there’s no point to shove it in their faces. It’s like telling a fat, ugly girl that you’ll never get a rich, good looking husband.

hahaha. So earlier this month I went out with a slightly chubby girl. Total 4-ish and hooked up with her a couple of times. Could tell she was pleased with herself for thinking she landed this almost-CFA, BSD. So she seemed pretty sad in the texts she sent me after she realized I was never going to see her again. Oh well. At least she already had 2 cats so she has a head start on her way to cat island.

Lol… We talking about a fatty with two catties? NEEEEEEEEXT!!!

[system]

@hpracing007

^ I felt the same… i thought, if I have a college degree, I shouldn’t have trouble finding a job. I even had career services tell me, you can be an economist if you get an econ b.s. (huge lie)

The thing was, I didn’t know any finance, had 1 accounting class, 1 business class, an introduction to quantitative skills (compared to what the real ones do), and a rediculous number of science classes. Simply put, with what I knew, I couldn’t make any company much money and that’s why they didn’t reply.

What about entry level trainee roles?

As long as they feel you have decent aptitude they’ll train you themselves

[system]

@geo

It’s hard to cut into the corporate world with hp’s background with tons of accounting and finance commerce undergrads with more quickly transferable skills in the corporate world. I’d believe him.

But he was talking about any job.

Corporate jobs include sales,marketing,admin etc etc

[system]

@Palantir

@isildurrr

You seriously couldn’t get a job in a corporation with a college degree? That too one that has quant in it? Are you trolling?

Same here actually, I ended up taking an unpaid internship many mos after graduation which eventually became the first FT job.

But you’se wanted finance only no?

[DonDraper]

We talk frequently at my office about the costs and benefits of the CFA program. How would your career be different if you spent a similar number of hours on a different skillset? Coding, public speaking, reading books, etc. Who knows? But I think it is important to consider the time commitment (lots) and opportunity costs of other things you could be doing. There are more time efficient ways to get into finance.

I’m glad I finished the CFA program before I had kids, I’m not sure if I would make it through with a young family. Much respect to those who balance a busy life with studying, and best of luck.

I approve Greenie’s message.

[Sweep_the_Leg]

@former_trader

@Sweep_the_Leg

@comp\_sci\_kid

I wish CFA exams would be harder

I do too now that I’m done with them. I also wish they’d raise the driving age to 18. Damn kids.

CSK is being sarcastic.

As was I. Thanks though.

[former_trader]

@DonDraper

We talk frequently at my office about the costs and benefits of the CFA program. How would your career be different if you spent a similar number of hours on a different skillset? Coding, public speaking, reading books, etc. Who knows? But I think it is important to consider the time commitment (lots) and opportunity costs of other things you could be doing. There are more time efficient ways to get into finance.

I’m glad I finished the CFA program before I had kids, I’m not sure if I would make it through with a young family. Much respect to those who balance a busy life with studying, and best of luck.

I approve Greenie’s message.

The problem is that most don’t have the discipline to do something productive with their free time. Since I passed the exams, I spent those “300 hours” a year surfing the net and posting here.

[Robotech]

I gotcha back too Greenie. Good message. Tough love.

[numi]

I got Greenie’s back – metaphorically, not literally (no homo)

To the naysayers out there…“You can’t handle the truth!” – Jack Nicholson as Col. Jessup in “A Few Good Men”

[Greenman72]

The funny thing is–I never meant it to be really tough.

I thought (and most people probably do) that CFA can’t be that much harder than the CPA exam… I also thought that Levels 2 and 3 can’t be much harder than Level 1. These were the notions that I was trying to dispel. I had hoped that by telling people how much worse it got at Levels 2 and 3 that they might stop wasting their time and money.

I expected a little pushback, but not this.

[Greenman72]

Nigga, you ain’t man enough for these buttocks.

Sir-Mix-A-Lot would LOOOOOOOOVE me!!!

[el_macca17]

@villnius

(Written after the below… I appologise if the below is long winded, I just meant to say “Yes I agree with Greenman”, but I got diarrhea of the mouth and went on a tear)

Agree with Greenman completely. I could not have said it better myself (and am suprised to learn how similar our backgrounds are).

He did not attack anyone, he just told it how it is. Sometimes the commitment it takes to pass is too much for people.

If you expected to pass but failed because you were raised a pretty little snowflake, got your little league trophy as a kid just for participating, and ensured you made an A+ in each class not becasue of work but becasue there were extra-points if you stayed late and helped grade papers… then well you deserved it and got a dose of reality. There are no shortcuts here. Give it a serious effort and try again. But, if you can look yourself in the mirror and know you put in a serious time commitment (not some 300 hours bullshit guideline… I’m talking every waking hour for months up to the exam) and STILL failed. Then sorry bud… this test just may not be for you. That was Greenman’s point. And he didn’t say stop… he just said you might want to seriously reconsider taking on this commitment. There’s no shame in giving up… I’m on the desk of a >1bn hedge fund and the charter doesn’t mean shit here. I started this process right after I got my MBA and I intend to finish it. Not the best of motivators but in my book it adds some resume fodder in the event it blows up here.

I myself also am 33, have an MBA, and have previosuly held the Series 7,66, and 55 (which aren’t that difficult), so I also know a thing or two about test taking. I have also worked in one capacity or another in the field of finance since I was 20. (Trading, Sales, Research, Ops… Big Banks, Broker Dealers, HFs…). I hold knowledge in some areas of finance that makes the CFAI body of knowledge look like 1st grade phonics. On the other hand there are parts of the curriculum that knocked me out like Peter McKneely (Namely FRA. I don’t do any of that stuff and hate accounting. Failed Level II the first time because of it). My point is I can agree that the curriculum as a whole is no joke. If my g/f didn’t love me unconditionally I would not expect her to have stuck around during this process. And myself willing, this will be the last Memorial Day/Easter Sunday/Weekend she spends alone from Jan-June. Time is my most valuable resource and most of it is taken up by work (12+ hrs a day) and commute (3+hrs) a day. Taking into account time to get ready in the morning, making meals and working out for an hour, I get basically 1 hour of study during the week each day and 5-6 hours of sleep if I’m lucky. As such I put in 8-10 hours each saturday and sunday. I think I put in north of 400 hours for those who count that stuff to pass level two… 400 hours TWICE.

The Level I candidates who failed and are complaining don’t get it yet. The CFA institute mails you 6 text books and says good luck. Thats like a college freshman walking into school on Sept 1 and being handed Textbooks in Biology, Calculus, Philosphy, Sociology, Psychology, and History then being told there are no classes, all this material is testable, and the grade is 100% based on the Final in June… see you then.

I’d bet a lot of the same people who failed level I and are complaining are the same people who up till a month or two before the test were still posting questions like “Which 3rd party provider is best?”, “How many hours do I need?”, “Is my study plan enough?”… I admit I probably posted one or two of these questions back in the day until i realized they are all shortcuts and procrastinations that just forego the eventual conclusion that is simply you need to study your balls off to pass… and some people just aren’t cut out for it.

I’d post this in the other thread, but F-that. Why waste my time on people who didn’t pass level I. (That was sarcasm and a joke… maybe)

You sound like a good guy. I hope you make it this June.

I think most level threes that stick around are just tired of seeing the same kinds of people roll through here, asking stupid questions about what calculator to use, what requirements there are, and if pens are okay. These questions can easily be answered without wasting a byte of forum bandwidth. And then we have put up with “how’s my study plan” or “I’m feeling unmotivated because x, y, and z”. The thing it boils down to is this: these kids aren’t doing their due diligence, aren’t doing their research, and aren’t using the search function, and then we get people like Greenman who sees this and can’t see how these guys could possibly learn the material and pass L3. How could such uncreative, unmotivated and anti-go-getters possibly put forth the effort and discipline required? I can forgive this for candidates fresh out of school, the maturity hasn’t caught up yet, but overall, Greenman isn’t wrong.

And if I have to hear about another candidate ‘giving’ an exam, Imma flip my shit. You are not the proctor, you are taking the exam!

[hpracing007]

@Greenman72

The funny thing is–I never meant it to be really tough.

I thought (and most people probably do) that CFA can’t be that much harder than the CPA exam… I also thought that Levels 2 and 3 can’t be much harder than Level 1. These were the notions that I was trying to dispel. I had hoped that by telling people how much worse it got at Levels 2 and 3 that they might stop wasting their time and money.

I expected a little pushback, but not this.

I remember when I signed up for it, I thought it’d be a textbook at most.

When I came home from work one day, i had my hands full and saw the CFA materials box. I was like meh, so I opened my door and tried to slide it in my foot. “the hell is in this box?”

Put my stuff down, went back out, saw the ups label say 12 lbs… I was like, must be some hardcover books and welcome material. Must be packaged up really well.

Then I set all 6 books on my kitchen island and was like, maybe they sent me all 3 levels of books by mistake?

[EnergyFinance]

@mk17

And if I have to hear about another candidate ‘giving’ an exam, Imma flip my shit. You are not the proctor, you are taking the exam!

People saying ‘giving the exam’ is the reason I stopped lerking and started posting…I don’t know why but those posts really ‘roll my oats’

[system]

^ all the brown negros say that.