Does anyone here have a less than 48 mths work experience? I have only 28 months. I applied for membership when I registered for L3 but did not submit sponsorship yet. Should I do it now or wait until I pass L3 and have all the work experience required? CFAI says you can get an affiliate membership with less than 4 yr experience. Does anyone know if it’s worth it to get the affiliate membership ?
I don’t think it’s worth it. You have to pay money for some customary benefits, and you don’t get to use “CFA” in your name. Saying that you passed Level 3 is already the most useful part.
Agree with Walrus. There’s no real benefit to being an affiliate member, the exception being that you’ve completed part of the process of the application. To the extent that you simply want to submit your incremental work experience once you’re eligible for the charter, then it may make things easier for you… That’s about it with respect to benefits though, IMO.
I’m in the same boat. Don’t really care about the dues, my company would pay them. Just too lazy to submit for affiliate membership. I haven’t been able to figure out the benefit of becoming a member either. I just want the letters.
The only reason I would consider any type of fee paying membership that doesn’t allow me to use the 3 letters is in case cfa institute pulls off another cheap shot as happened with the work experience requirement a year or two ago. Before, one had to have 3 yrs of relevant experience. Then it was changed to 4 yrs. As far as I can remember (please correct me if i’m wrong), those that started the program before the change was implemented, and that were a member of some sort, only had to fulfill 3 yrs of experience. However, those that also started before the change was implemented, but weren’t a member of any type, now have to fulfill the 4 yrs. I’m worried that cfa institute may once again stipulate more challenging requirements to keep the prestige illusion somewhat alive (Who knows how long it is before level 4 makes an appearance). Believe me, with all levels passed and ~36 months of experience, I’m pretty p***ed. And all because I wasn’t ready to fork out cfa insitute early enough with $$$.
I am in the same shoes as you. I have submitted my application although have only 28 months w/e. The reason is pretty simple: first, my current supervisor is a nice guy and I feel free to ask him to fill a sponsor form for me; second, one of my former professors is regular member. I hope he can sponsor me before forgetting who I am. I don’t know many regular members after all.
And by the way, my local CFA chapter has not held any event for over half year, giving me no opportunities to know any more members.