Work or CFA?

Anyone else feels their work has suffered or atleast they would have been able to dedicate more to their work if not for the CFA exam? I am doing investment banking and for the life of me can’t find time to do both. Don’t ask me how I got to level III.

Yep.

Definitely. I was warned prior to starting the CFA, to spend the time networking, marketing, and towards the business. It’ll be worth it though at some point. It’s something they can’t take away (unless you really screw up ethically).

I’m actually starting to agree that my time would have been better spent networking, but I’m this far into it, I must finish.

For me, havnt start working, but so depressed cuz now looking so hard for an intern… I havnt finished even one go-throu…neither notes nor curricul Does level 3 really mean something? Im less motivated than taking l2…

Guys, Don’t want to be a cheerleader, but things in the asset management world are looking up. This is the first time I hear people being serious about hiring. Its been like 3 years. Next year I bet it will be gang busters. You’ll want your CFA when the doors start to open back up!

this is hope…preach it on…and keep us all fired up!

Seriously, I have worked 10 years in the industry and I worked 8 years in another industry. While the economy went through a very bad recession (worse than 81, and I remember it), our industry went through a depression. Ask anyone in a position of power what went wrong…poor credit work! Everyone blames the fed, the government, whatever. But if people did their credit work (and some did) they would have seen bad loans made to people who should have never gotten them, Lehman and Bear were insolvent, etc, etc. How do we fix problem? Better credit work, something the real old timers preach (I’m only 40, and I’m talking about 50+). So what do we need? CFAs who know what the hell they are doing. And trust me, the concept of outsourcing the credit work is BS now. People want their analysts living where they are investing. The wave of hiring is coming…I have seen it before.

I totally agree. I feel my colleagues are running ahead of me in the corporate ladder and the learning curve as I end up focusing more on CFA. I am ignored when I start mentioning that I will be taking off for CFA exam and not assigned the projects. Well, hope it will change once I am done with L3 (currently L2 candidate)

sumz, Do you work for an asset manager? Do you work back office? It depends on where you work and what you do? Doing the CFA demonstrates that you want to move up into asset management, whether it be portfolio management or credit/equity analysis. If you are not doing that right now, why would your boss care? Its like bartending to put yourself through Law school. Who at the bar would/should care? Does it make you a better bartender? This includes back office at an asset manager or I-Bank. If your goal is to be a senior guy in the back office, or a senoir portfolio admin at a FoF, then please stop taking the CFA and work up the corporate ladder. If your goal is to manage money, then keep taking the CFA. The choice is yours.

jsjrcomcast Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > sumz, > > Do you work for an asset manager? Do you work > back office? It depends on where you work and > what you do? Doing the CFA demonstrates that you > want to move up into asset management, whether it > be portfolio management or credit/equity analysis. > If you are not doing that right now, why would > your boss care? Its like bartending to put > yourself through Law school. Who at the bar > would/should care? Does it make you a better > bartender? This includes back office at an asset > manager or I-Bank. If your goal is to be a senior > guy in the back office, or a senoir portfolio > admin at a FoF, then please stop taking the CFA > and work up the corporate ladder. If your goal is > to manage money, then keep taking the CFA. The > choice is yours. I have 10+ years in IB derivatives -started in back office and had moved on to middle office-controllers position. Currently laid off. After the exam, will start looking. I’m more interested in managing derivatives portfolio ( may be risk) kind of thing. Any advice fo that? Also thinking of taking FRM/ PRM to get into this role. I would appreciate your input on that as well. Thanks in advance