Hey everyone. New member here. I had planned on taking the CFA Level I exam this December. I know that if I registered and started now, I’d have plenty of time to prepare myself. However, here is my dilemma: I am a college student, and I will be studying abroad in Hong Kong this fall semester. This means that if I register for the December exam, I face two challenges: 1) studying while I’m abroad, and 2) finding the testing site in an unfamiliar area (Hong Kong) The reason I want to take the December exam is for finance recruiting purposes (particularly I-Banking). I am an Accounting major (Finance minor), and I feel like the CFA exam is my best shot at distinguishing myself and letting firms know that I am genuinely interested in Finance (why I chose to major in Accounting over Finance is a long story and isn’t relevant to the question here). With that in mind, would you recommend that I 1) take the December 2008 exam, which means I would sacrifice potential traveling time, or 2) have fun this semester and prepare for the June 2009 exam, which means I would sacrifice having that CFA candidate distinction. One other thing: right now I am taking two Finance classes at my university (summer school), and both professors have told me that what I learn in these two classes will cover a lot of the material that is on the Level I exam. If I wait until June, I might forget a lot of it. Regardless of when I take it, I plan on studying the Schweser materials and supplementing it with the CFAI materials if I encounter something I don’t understand. Thanks!
See if you can sign up for June 09 now, if not, forget about it, trust me, guys in investment banking see alot of things that impress them, and a note that says you signed up for an exam isn’t one of them, it means absolutely nothing to them as it should since realistically you haven’t done anything yet besides click a button that says enroll. Even passing LI really does very little to get you a job if anything at all, so I’d say just enjoy the time abroad, opportunities to go to hong kong are rare, I was there once and it was phenomenal, get the most you can out of that, and use that to impress people interviews.
I TOTALLY agree. This is a no-brainer. Do not waste your experience in Hong Kong by studying for this exam. Just take it next June.
Makes sense. I can go into an interview and talk about all the fun things I did in Asia, or I can talk about how much I know about FSA and ethics. I guess it’s a matter of whether I want an easy-going conversation or a super technical interview. And if the interviewer’s your typical alpha male-type banker, he’ll probably be wondering why the f*ck I wasted my time in college studying for the CFA. Thanks a lot Black Swan and jalmy8. Y’all just made me that much more excited for Hong Kong!
For what it is worth, I’d say that choosing an accounting major was a great decision on your part, especially at the undergraduate level. Of course, it might depend on what you want to do, but any kind of corporate valuation work or financial statement analysis is going to be made a million times easier given your accounting background. Accounting is what is going on behind the scenes! Once you know the accounting, picking up the finance shouldn’t be nearly as difficult as knowing the financing and trying to pick up the accounting.
Dingo!, that was actually a huge reason why I chose to major in Accounting. I feel like it’s easier to pick up finance (which I feel is more intuitive) than it is to pick up accounting (which is feel is more fact/information heavy).