Howdy AF!!
This is a quick one - how much time did your employer give you off work for study leave for each level of the CFA…if any?
No “study leave”… but I took a day or so off for L2 and L3. I did L1 without taking any time off. Saturday morning is a bad time to take an exam if you have a full time job…
I took my own vacation time. I took at least 1 week.
I’ll be off the full week before plus the friday (6 days vacation). I’d initally planned on 2-3 weeks off, but realized thats too much. I’d just get lazy. This should be perfect though, roughly a practice exam every day with time for qbank and review, after a few weeks of revision.
My last firm where I was at when I did L1 had a 10 day a year study allowance. In the 3 weeks before the exam, I took 2 days of in the first week, 3 days off in the 2nd week, and the last week completely off.
Can’t say I really used all that time to study, I can only really do 3-4 hours max a day before my head explodes so I was just relaxing all day long until about 5 and then studied until 8 and then maybe a bit of light Schweser or Ethics reading in bed to put myself to sleep.
My last firm could give me all the time I needed, there was only one condition - never more than 2 weeks of holiday at once. It was not a study leave, just my holiday. I took c. 2,5 weeks, spread over Easter and other spring holidays, luckily we had many that year, so it was great timing.
The current firm… it was also about taking my holiday, never days granted to study… Hm… It was a harsh experience, my ex-boss promised a lot while hiring me: study leave, paying for the exams. In reality, it was all different.
Once it became clear I has to work pretty much 24/7 including weekends, I negotiated 2 weeks off before the exam. I promised him to do whatever it takes to compensate for the time lost and boy I did!
However, in May he added some conditions like making sure I am online, so I could not leave until I had UMTS installed on my work laptop (which was fine, but lasted like forever since has been postponing his authorisation, so I had to run around and do it myself), and pushing me to trade off some important work (basically, give up some, which really made no sense, as nothing was happening for the 2 weeks I was studying, not even scheduling, nothing, the team was pretty much on vacation and the boss as well). Also, he scheduled a serious conversation in a restaurant with me which was about nothing, but allowed him to exercise his power and me to worry. As a dessert he served me details of his bio (boy did I care about those!)
I got my 2 weeks but I left frustrated. Basically, it was a power game and it did manage to spoil my studying mood.
So true.
I work for a firm that doesn’t care if I pursue the CFA, so no they don’t give me any time off. Actually they don’t even give us time off to pursue the certifications they require us to get, just expect us to do it in our “free” time.
I didn’t even really take vaca time to study, I just took off the day before the exam to decompress and relax.
Had to use vacation, but I took 3-5 days prior to the exam. It’s worth it.
Unfortunately most of the companies these days don’t care about helping their employees pursuing their certifications which will be eventually a win win situation…
I am taking 2 weeks from my own vacation time because they refused to give me time to prepare for my CFA, and the reason was: “we didn’t ask you to do the CFA!!”
Like seriously???
chouer, I have no problems with companies that do not care as I am the last person in the world to expect free lunches of any kind. I have explicitly told my firm in a interview that all I want is an opportunitiy to take a few days off, and even if not possible, that would be fine. However, my boss threw all the benefits at me promising to pay for the exams, for travel to any destination, for everything needed. Later on, he denied it all. I have a problem with lying and not keeping promises.
CFA does not guarantee you will be a better employee or you will generate more $$$ for the firm.
My company has documented policies - they give 1 week (5 days) paid study leave for 1st attempt at each level. If you fail, you’re on your own for 2nd attempt. They also reimburse registration/exam fees, textbooks, prep courses, etc. after you pass each level.
There are a lot of downsides too:
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Boss will be just as eager as you are to find out if you passed - stressful situation when results are about to be announced!
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Company encourages (but doesn’t force) employees to take the CFA. But once you decide to pursue CFA and fail any level twice, you’re sort of pressured to leave. Not documented anywhere, but practiced.
If you put in the hours, there’s no reason to fail any exam.