Resume entry

Let me know what you think of my CFA resume entry. I posted my resume on Razume: http://www.razume.com/documents/10481.

Looks impressive, I wish i had that kind of work experience!

I have my CFA Candidate statement right after my name heading in a one sentence section titled “Statement of Qualifications”. “CFA Level 2 Candidate with experience in capital markets pricing securities and performing financial statement evaluation…” Really want to be able to change to that Level 3 Candidate…

Statement of qualifications? I’ve never heard of that…

Why do you have CFA Level I Exam, Passed. Seems pretty obvious since you are a L2 candidate.

The purpose is essentially to show the dates

I thought that you were not supposed to show the dates.

You should say that you’re a “2009 Level 2 Candidate in the CFA Program”

Cubemonkey Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > You should say that you’re a “2009 Level 2 > Candidate in the CFA Program” Agreed, b/c if a Charter Holder saw that they would know it is a violation and think that you may not really know how to state your candidacy on your CV.

I don’t think there is any violation of showing when you took the exams? Anyone sure on this? The violation is in implying that you are better because of it…

I am pretty sure when in the ethics reading that they say “20xx Level II Candidate” I know you are trying to highlight that you passed in Dec 08 and you might have a chance for june 09 but really it does not add value to your resume. if you put “2009 CFA Level II Candidate” then that is more then enough. If you pass all three on the first attempt then you can say “i have passed all three CFA exams on my first attempt”, but you havent.

He can put the dates all he wants. These are statements of fact and not a violation of the Code (just as the statement the he passed is factual). You can certainly use this method, i.e. the factual, to “imply” that you are better than other CFAs by saying you passed all tests on the first try or passed all exams in 18 months etc.

I am just saying that I have NEVER seen this before and have seen alot of resumes of CFA Candidates.

Most CFA rules focus on reference to the charter and the use of CFA as a noun. You can certainly make any factual statement you want about it, and sometimes get away with some exaggeration even (I remember there was a question on one of the practice exams where some dude said something like the CFA is the most respected financial credential “in the world” and I SHIT you not this was deemed to be a correct statement!).

agree to disagree

I agree with Cubemonkey and mpoonan. There’s nothing wrong with referring to past dates on which exams were passed, but I don’t think anyone gives a sh- when you passed your last exam, just inform them of your candidacy on the current level. Anyway, that’s within your discretion. The only date-related violations I know of are stating an expected completion (or “graduation”) date, or implying that newer charterholders are more qualified than older ones due to exam difficulty, new complicated topics, or whatever. Handbook references (edited to show only examples applicable to date/status references) from p.137: The following statements illustrate proper and improper references to the CFA designation: Improper References 1. “CFA, Level II” 2. “CFA, Expected 2005” Proper References 1. “I passed Level I of the CFA examination.” 2. “I am a 2003 Level III CFA candidate.” 3. “I passed all three levels of the CFA Program and will be eligible for the CFA charter upon completion of the required work experience.”

On the resume point, I think you are trying to hard with small stuff like saying that you passed L1 and waiting for results on L2. This is not what will decide whether you are invited for interview, but if you you just say L2 candidate it can be a conversation starter like “…oh so where do stand with CFA…I just took L2 waiting for results, think it went well and was pretty easy…” and so on. This is not my words, but when you put too much detail they don’t want you for interview cuz they know too much about you already. You need to make them curious about things on your resume. You have big names, but even I can tell what the experience entailed. You need to tell what you did without telling what you did so they wanna ask questions about it. My comment also applies to break down of GPA. They can just ask for a transcript if they care much for your grades. (they prolly get it anyways when doing background check) Also, teaching assistant and research assistant is not part of education, that’s experience. Win-98/2000 - who cares Lastly change the past experience to past tense in your prof experience. And most importantly, your resume is very very standard, looks like you didn’t even bother using a resume template (which is a no no in itself), you need to stand out during these times. Didn’t mean to be harsh, just trying to give an opinion.

I appreciate the input, it’s not too harsh. I’m going to think it through and see how I can incorporate some of your points.

I have put up a new draft, let me know your thoughts. Critical input is greatly appreciated: http://www.razume.com/documents/10539

I wrote: 2008 (tab) Chartered Financial Analyst (tab) Candidate Level II I always wondered while reading ethics how to make the candidacy fit in a tabular layout. My CV usually is Date (tab) Institute/Uni/Employer/Program (tab) Title I guess that’s okay since the program is called “Chartered Financial Analyst” and I’m referring to the program and not to my designation.