Spent 2 years doing CFA 1, CAIA 1, FRM and CAIA 2. Finally lost the motivation to complete the CFA. Looking back i feel i have wasted 2 years of my 20s doing something that really doesn’t mean much. With 4 years in Buyside (in HF) and sellside (in Risk), I feel that the things i learnt from my job are head and shoulders above what i learnt studying those exams. Anybody have the same feeling?
tfyim Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Anybody have the same feeling? Yes.
You’re not wrong. But I think there’s value to at least the CFA. I still continue to meet people on the buy side who lack a basic understanding of theory and misuse applied concepts such as VAR regularly despite 20 years of industry experience. They simply don’t care to understand the underlying nuances. It amazes me also the sheer amount of blatant behavioral bias and cognitive errors I witness on a daily basis. While these things are covered in the CFA material, for me the biggest gain was through the resulting discussions regarding the material that occurred on this board. In that way, the CFA was invaluable to me. It’s also a great industry crash course for quants and businessmen entering finance from other disciplines.
i’d say my undergrand wasn’t worth it relative to the CFA. passing the CFA examinations and as Black Swan noted, discussions about CFA material on this board, has been the most efficient learning experience I’ve had in my life, undergrad, high school and elementary school included. i easily could have skipped 80% of any formal education and have come out with the same amount of knowledge and depth of understanding.
I went to a top business school for finance in the US and I agree in terms of pure knowledge of finance, the CFA program is better. But there’s a lot of benefits of business school that the CFA program can’t do.
Is working in finance for 30 years worth it?
tfyim Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Spent 2 years doing CFA 1, CAIA 1, FRM and CAIA > 2. > > Finally lost the motivation to complete the CFA. > > Looking back i feel i have wasted 2 years of my > 20s doing something that really doesn’t mean much. > With 4 years in Buyside (in HF) and sellside (in > Risk), I feel that the things i learnt from my job > are head and shoulders above what i learnt > studying those exams. > > Anybody have the same feeling? Two years for two garbage designations is not worth it. I would have focused and finished the CFA in 18 month instead.
IMO it depends. Studying for the CFA has given me a solid base in finance in ways that my college degree never could even come close to. The CFA also helped me land my research gig. It was by no means a major factor, but def. helped weed me out from the rest of the crowd. Having said that, if you’re already in a research role or equivalent the CFA will probably not help you as much. It can’t hurt, but you have to think in terms of opportunity cost (ie maybe you could have started a side business rather than studying or what not). Now if you were to ask this same question regarding my undergrad degree… I would say that it was the biggest waste of time and money. I could have learned in a month or two anything of value from my undergrad degree and through studying for the CFA. What a complete waste college was…
I actually feel like my undergrad degree in English Lit. was the only worthwhile formal education I have ever received. It has been worth between 10-100x more to me than the CFA. If I had majored in business/finance I would probably rate the CFA higher though.
ohai - it depends on what your bank account reads and what your lifestyle’s been like with family and friends. By the sound of your comments, things may not be so rosy. mo34 - true, 4 years ago when i was young (22) i set out to do all 3 but lost the legs half way through. May have lost my motivation because the job and the money are both alright now. With hindsight, i should have focus solely on the CFA or left these designations alone and do a MBA in a few years time.
tfyim Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Spent 2 years doing CFA 1, CAIA 1, FRM and CAIA > 2. > > Finally lost the motivation to complete the CFA. > > Looking back i feel i have wasted 2 years of my > 20s doing something that really doesn’t mean much. > With 4 years in Buyside (in HF) and sellside (in > Risk), I feel that the things i learnt from my job > are head and shoulders above what i learnt > studying those exams. > > Anybody have the same feeling? tfyim- It really depends on your situation. If you’re in your 20s working in the investment management field, and you’re trying to boost your credentials or break into research, CFA is pretty good to have and is better than CAIA/FRM due to its recognition. If you’re in your 30s working in BO trying to go into research, then it’s pretty worthless since the designation won’t make you stand out at all. If you’re already making very good $$ withouth the CFA, you’re already great at what you do, and your job doesn’t require it, then it’s worthless.
I’d venture to say the value to an individual of having the CFA designation is inversely correlated to the quality of his/her degree. A student coming out of a top 5 undergrad or MBA with internships probably won’t see much incremental value from the CFA, but for those of us not on the east coast who couldn’t afford the $50k/year tuition or intern in NYC it helps solidify the resume where the university prestige is lacking.
This is a pathetic conversation…you’re in your early 20s…and you work in the industry… Stop being so myopic - academics and work related experience are not mutually exclusive: Just finish the G* damn CFA…the other designations are good for info (not specifically for the paper): you should learn these things anyways and writing a test is better than just reading some books…
If you sign up for the exams and pass on the first try, it’ll set you back about $2,500. I’ll be that CFA material has helped me avoid at least one $2,500 mistake over the years. The time commitment is substantial, but I still think it probably is a positive NPV experience, even if I couldn’t point to business I generated because of it (which I can).
tfyim Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Anybody have the same feeling? yes. real world exp > books 
why did you try to do all of them? that seems like the greatest waste of time.